Now that the others are rid of, the Awful Grandmother can unlock the walnut-wood armoire and indulge her favorite son. She brings out of hiding what she has been saving since his last visit. Lopsided stacks of fotonovelas* and comic books. El libro secreto. Lágrimas, risas y amor. La familia Burrón. Father reads these and his ESTO sports newspaper printed with an ink the color of chocolate milk. Father spends whole days indoors in bed, smoking cigarettes and reading. He doesn’t leave the room. The Awful Grandmother brings him his meals on a tray. From outside the door there is nothing but the sound of pages turning and Father laughing like the letter “k.”
* The Grandmother saved him her favorite fotonovelas:
“Wives There Are Plenty, But Mothers—Only One”
“Virgen Santísima, You Killed Her!”
“The So-and-So”
“Women—They’re All Alike!”
“I Killed the Love of My Life”
“Don’t Make Me Commit a Craziness”
“He Doesn’t Give a Damn What You Feel”
“The Story without End”
“The Unhappiest Woman of All”
“I Married a Worker without Culture (But with Me He Became Refined)”
“The Glories of His Love”
“I Was His Queen … Why Did He Change?”
“The Woman with Whom He Had Relations”
“Should I Leave, or What?”
“I Ask God to Guide Me Because I Don’t Know What to Do”