Santiago de Nonualco - 1941.
It began when Don Lucio Delcano was nearing his seventieth birthday, and his only consolation had been to roam his lands in an attempt to escape boredom. On the day it first happened, the old man entered one of the sheds by chance and found a girl seated on a stool, milking a cow. Momentarily surprised by her, Don Lucio paused until his eyes adjusted to the shed’s gloom. Then he looked carefully at the girl, and saw that she was beautiful. Her face was oval-shaped, and her eyes were large and luminous, ringed by long black lashes. He figured that she was thirteen, perhaps fourteen. Her small breasts were just beginning to bulge under the thin cotton garment she was wearing, and in his mind the old man pictured her deer-colored nipples. He felt a surge of shame because of his thoughts, even as he bent down to take a closer look at the child.
“¿Cómo te llamas?”
“Luz, Patrón.”
When she whispered her name, he realized that the child was his granddaughter by way of a son he had fathered with an Indian servant. It had happened years before, but he had kept track of the woman and the boy. As he peered into the girl’s dark eyes, Don Lucio remembered that his son had married a woman of African blood. The girl now staring at him was a result of that mating. He recalled also that at the time of the girl’s birth his son had asked for permission to name her in Don Lucio’s honor.
He felt captivated by the child. Desire gripped him. He shut his eyes, hoping his urge would go away, but instead he took her in his arms, and pressed her soft, mahogany-colored skin to his bloated body. Confused by his feeling for the child, the old man forced himself to walk away, unable to control the emotion that was taking hold of him. She was a child, his granddaughter even, but she had fascinated his exhausted imagination and awakened in him feelings he had not experienced in decades. He walked away struggling to forget her, but he thought of the girl all that night. The next day he headed for the shed hoping to find her there again.
He found the girl stooped over a pail of white, steaming fluid, and when she looked up into his eyes, she smiled timidly. Lucio glared at her for a long time, making her shift uncomfortably on the stool. The old man had not intended to do what he did next but he moved very close to her, opened the fly of his trousers, and without speaking, indicated that she should reach in, and touch him.
Luz visibly gulped while her eyes widened with fear. She knew that no one denied the master any of his wishes. She also knew he was her grandfather. Ever since she could remember, people had been telling her so. The girl fearfully lifted her arm, and reached into the black hole. Her hand was stiff and unmoving next to the old man’s testicles, and he beckoned her to take hold of him. Luz shuddered involuntarily as she touched the limp flesh.
The old man’s head wobbled backward on his thick neck, his mouth sagged open, and he sucked in a large gulp of air when he felt Luz’s touch, but he felt his genitals slack and unresponsive. He then told her to caress him, but even though Luz followed his demands, Don Lucio’s body remained inert, and he realized that he had indeed become old. He pulled away from the girl’s hand and walked away filled with anguish.
Thereafter, the old man became obsessed with the child, and his daily habits changed. He knew he had fallen in love with the child, and he defended his emotions, denying the wrongfulness of what he was doing. He dreamed of Luz day and night, blocking out everything, even that she was his granddaughter. He dreamed of going away with her to a place where no one knew that he was rich and powerful. In his dream, he and the girl roamed the green fields skirting the volcanoes, coupling in a hidden cove, and Luz loved him above all things, promising to remain always by his side.
The day came when Don Lucio felt the potency of his dream surge through his body, and he knew that this time he would prove his love to Luz. He approached the girl in the cow shed, where he suddenly picked her up in his arms and carried her to a corner of the shed where he slid down to his knees. He pressed Luz against the wall, and with his eyes shut tightly against the gloom, he remained there for a long while.
His large hands trembled as he lifted her loose dress. Then he inserted his hands between her legs, inching his fingers slowly up her inner thigh and into her vagina. When Don Lucio felt they were both ready, he penetrated her, and Luz, paralyzed by fear, submitted to him. After the old man finished, he asked her if she would let him do the same thing to her when she became a woman. Without knowing why, she responded that yes, she would let him do whatever he wished, anytime he desired it.
Thereafter the girl was careful to hide her meetings with Don Lucio from the servants’ prying eyes. Luz’s secret, however, filled her with anguish. She thought that what she had provoked in her grandfather was shameful, and that it had been all her fault.