Your sister wrote beautiful letters, Antonio’s mother says, when she was nine or ten your grandfather called me from Chapel Hill and said Estela is going to be a writer, Leonora, she has written us a fantastic letter that reads like an adventure story in which Estela’s stranded at the Miami airport with her mother who doesn’t speak English and her baby brother who drools, because due to a mishap by the travel agency in Bogotá, Antonio’s sister wrote, my Mom was told at the counter in Miami that she had to pay extra to fly back to Bogotá but she didn’t have extra to fly back to Bogotá, grandpa, imagine that, my Mom only had a few dollars in her pocket and no credit cards even though you told her to apply for a credit card for emergencies, so there we were, grandpa, stranded at the Miami airport without money, without food, sharing our sad tale with a Cuban waitress so she would bring us free orange juice and crackers, and at this juncture in the recording Antonio’s mother repeats the words historia jocosa, which Antonio will try not to translate as jocular story, his mother repeating that his sister’s letter was a jocular adventure story as if unconvinced by her dramatization of the jocular aspects of his sister’s letter, and years later your grandfather shared that letter with me, Antonio’s mother says, and I asked him if I could keep it and he said no, Leonora, you’ve already read it, this letter was meant for us, plus whenever I’m upset or worried I read it again and laugh, didn’t my sister study literature in high school, Antonio says, she was fascinated by books, Antonio’s mother says, she would read all the time and write wonderful book summaries, whereas for math she would cry that she didn’t want to learn math do you remember she would read the books that had been assigned to you and she would summarize them for you, no I don’t remember, Antonio says, remember when you won that book contest even though you hadn’t read the book, Antonio’s mother says, The Metamorphosis, Antonio says, your sister was the one who summarized that book for you, Antonio’s mother says, and you didn’t want to win that contest but you did and you had to present it in front of the whole school so you would say to your sister help me, please, no Toñio now you have to read the book, she was such a quick reader and I would say to her Estelita what’s that book about, and she would summarize it for me, but read it Mom, she would say, I don’t have time please summarize it for me, I would say, and she would tell me, but after she graduated from high school she didn’t read anymore, when I grow up I am going to have my own money so that no man will mistreat me, your sister would say, and so after high school she stopped reading and focused on studying finance, numbers, which she was never very good at, studying and working with numbers overextended her, Antonio, but she had this need to feel financially secure so she sacrificed what she was good at, don’t you remember you used to write, I would say to her, no Mom I don’t remember, don’t you remember you used to write to your grandparents, no Mom I don’t remember, that humorous letter like an adventure story you sent to your grandparents, no Mom, that jocular letter that I didn’t find after your grandfather passed away, Antonio’s mother says, although I did find many of the other letters you and your sister sent to your grandparents but not that one — dear grandparents I want to thank you for the pistol, Antonio wrote, I also want to inform my uncle Luis that if I visit this summer I am not going to break his airplanes because I build airplanes too and know how hard it is to assemble them — dear grandparents I’m in second place at school, Antonio’s sister wrote, but if I get twenty over twenty in music and the boy who is in first place gets sixteen over twenty then I will be the best student — my sister stopped reading completely and never wanted to talk about books, Antonio says, because it reminded her of how much she used to enjoy it, Antonio’s mother says, and look how your lives turned out, Antonio, the one who became a writer is you.