Chapter 41

The colonel

As soon as Cipriani had called me to warn me that an American colonel wanted to personally bring me the Hemingways' greetings, I immediately ran to Harry's Bar. 

Papa wrote to me practically every day, all right, but it was different to be able to speak to someone who had just been to the Finca.

Harry's was nearly empty. "He's been waiting for a long time," said Cipriani, accompanying me to the colonel sitting at a table at the back. "I struggled not to get him to call sooner because it was too early. You must be in a great hurry to talk about the Hemingways..."

I'm in a hurry to talk about the Hemingways too, I thought. "Good mornng. I'm Adriana." I smiled. 

The colonel got up. He was a tall man, with rather coarse features, vaguely clouded eyes. "Oh, So this you?!" he said.

Of course it's me, I thought. Strange way of speaking. Well, he's American. I sat down and smiled at him again. The colonel sat down too. He took out a pack of cigarettes and: "Do you smoke?" he said looking at me intently.

What a brazen way to look, I thought. Well, he's a military man. "How is Mary, how is Papa?" I asked and added "No thanks, I don't want to smoke for the moment."