AFTER THE FIASCO with Dolores, the other girls no longer look at me as if I were the one who stole Isa’s clothes. And strangely enough, there have been no more robberies in the brothel.
The arrival today of Sofia was like a whiff of oxygen in a cardboard box full of tiny holes. She is around fifty, and looks like a leftover hippy in her long multicoloured skirts, her huge hooped earrings and a velvet hat. Right from the start, we all felt we would get on very well with this new night manager. She’s educated, gentle and there’s something about her that reminds me of my paternal grandmother. Her real passion is caring for animals; she adores them and is forever rescuing whatever four-legged creature she finds abandoned on the street.
I have always believed that animal lovers must be kind-hearted and incapable of doing others harm. In Sofia’s case I’m right. She’s a sweet person, and extraordinarily generous.
Sofia has a little dog which she named Jordi to emphasize its Catalan roots, although these are non-existent. He’s a mongrel she found in a street in Paris, where she spent long periods with a lover, ten years earlier. Now, Jordi means everything to her: she’s even asked Manolo if she can bring him to the apartment sometimes, because she says that if she leaves him on his own, he gets depressed. Our lorry driver said yes, provided the dog did not bark in the middle of the night. I’m beginning to suspect that even Manolo has a heart.
I spent the whole night with Pedro, and when I returned in the morning, I offered to take Jordi out for a walk. As she was handing me the money I’d earned for the night and passing over Jordi, Sofia gave me a piece of advice.
‘Don’t be stupid. As soon as you’ve finished paying off your debts, start saving. Don’t do like the other girls, and spend it all on more clothes. Save as much as you can! And above all, don’t fall in love!’
But when love comes to call and it’s true love, it’s hard to resist. That’s what happened to me in this most unlikely of places, and with the most unexpected person. It was the tenth of October 1999.