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He turned around. I noticed that he was wearing an apron very similar to that of the little man in the cards and I felt a squeeze in my heart. Taking some water, I offered to help him. No thanks he was used to it, he said. He preferred to wash in the evening so as not to find himself disorderly in the morning and he certainly could not expect his wife to collaborate, she was always so busy, the poor thing. He was almost finished, if I went back to the living room, he said, seeing that I was sipping my glass of water without showing any intention of leaving; his wife always told such interesting things, she would have been sorry if I hadn't been there to listen too.

We then went to visit Mary's parents, two kind old people, with a fragile and somewhat lost air, who could be sensed to be deeply united. I was amazed that, if not in the same house, they did not live at least close to their daughter but Mary explained that the Finca would not have the right atmosphere for them.

When Mary told us that she was coming to greet Pauline, I smiled at the memory of what Papa had written to me: "We had 'consejo de familia*' with Pauline. Pauline feels exceptionally poor because her mother left her a fortune of 500,000 dollars only and, of course, in this dire situation, she needs money from me. Every time she gets half a million or a million dollars she feels poorer."

While my mother and Juan were studying the road maps, I found myself sitting between Mary and Pauline. When they began to argue about Papa, out of discretion I walked away. And only then, from further away, looking at the two women talking, did I realize the strangeness of the situation.

Here you are, gathered in one room, two of his wives and me, I thought.

But what was I to him?

* Spanish for "family council"