1

SIETE MINUTOS
ISMAEL CAMACHO ARANGO
@-@-

Translated and edited by Maria Camacho

SIETE MINUTOS
He had Memories before his birth
Haunting him at all times
The waves of probability
Showing the reality of another land
Lost in whatever could have been

Beginnings

5
The backyard looked dark with its muddy floor and shrubs growing by the wall. As
the sun careered through the sky in its journey towards infinity, Homer played with his
toys by the edge of a puddle, his paper boats sailing amidst the muck left by the rains.
"Hurrah," he said.
Homer danced around the water, when a woman wearing a dressing gown and her hair
tied in a bun appeared by his side, shivering in the breeze blowing through the garden.
"It's time for lunch," she said.
Those words brought Homer back to reality, after arriving from somewhere he
couldn't remember, even though he might have seen the end of time in the garden muck.
"Wash your hands now," his mother said.
He washed himself in the sink as father appeared at the door. Middle aged, plump and
with a round face, Mr. Homer had to fight the devils of the market in a daily basis in
order to bring the food to the table.
"I have a surprise for you," he said.
Mother stopped with a plate in her hands, as father never brought home anything out
of the ordinary, except one day when he had taken a puppy he had found in the street to
the dog shelter in spite of Homer's complaints and his wife's pleas of mercy for the little
thing. A tall man interrupted them, his glasses shining under the electric light.
"Uncle Hugh," mother said. "We didn't expect you today."
He smiled. "I have to work in this country."
"Your job must be exciting," she said.
Mother poured some soup on another bowl, and Uncle Hugh recited his prayers, after
seating at the table.
"We have to trust the almighty," he said.
"How was your journey?" she asked.
"I felt sick all the time."
"You should have taken an alka seltzer," she said.
"Nothing works for me."

6
"New York must be missing you," father said.
Uncle Hugh had to remain in his cabin with the curtains drawn in order to stop his
ordeal, while suffering with sea sickness for most of his journey.
"Welcome to the world," Homer said.
He did not know why he had said that, the remnants of a dream he had of his passage
through reality still in his mind.
"He's funny," Uncle Hugh said. "I remember the day he rescued a dollar bill."
"He put it in his nappy, after flying up a tree" mother said.
Homer knew all the rest. A neighbour hanging the washing at that moment had
dropped her husband's pants in the mud, and he left her for the barmaid next door.
School children sang songs of glory, while Father Ricardo praised the qualities of the
child during his Sunday mass. Uncle Hugh found a black and white photograph in his
bag.
"This is you," he said. "I took this picture with my first camera."
Homer saw a chubby baby with a bit of hair and a toothless smile, Uncle Hugh
managing to snap that moment in time forever, in his small camera.
"I developed it in my studio," he said.
"Those were the times," mother said.
Homer had been born in the midst of a solar eclipse, and as the doctors and nurses
looked at the sun from the hospital roof, an old nurse said those famous words after
helping with the delivery.
"It's a girl," she said.
Mother thought she had a daughter, and father sulked as the nurse found her mistake a
few minutes later.
"He had lots of hair," father interrupted the silence.
Mrs. Homer held a baby in one of the pictures on the table, while Homer stood next to
his parents in another one of the snaps.
"We called him Homer," Father said. "It might bring him good luck."

7
Uncle Hugh smiled. "He's Homer Homer then."
"That's the idea."
Uncle Hugh put a cent under the light of the lamp mother had bought in the market.
"This is for you," he said. "It will bring you good luck."
"He's a good boy," mother said.
Homer admired the coin as the adults spoke about nothing in particular, the brown
marks on the wall turning into monsters amidst the buildings of New York in Homer's
imagination.
"Mum," he said.
"You can have more soup," she said.
Homer shook his head. "I want to play outside."
"He's full of beans," Uncle Hugh said.
Homer had to get some fresh air before his life finished of boredom.
"He'll get filthy," mother said.
"Have fun," his uncle said.
He had chased film stars in their limousines in a place called Broadway, where
Marilyn Monroe showed her pants to the public, in one of those films his father had taken
him on Saturday nights.
Homer went outside, another universe welcoming him to the world of his imagination,
and a child stood by the tree in the eternity of the world.
"Who are you?" Homer asked.
The stranger wiped his nose, leaving muddy streaks across his face but Homer wanted
to be alone in the garden.
"Go away," he said.
The child picked his nose with dirty fingers, putting lots of microbes in his face.
"I'll call my mum," Homer said.
The child had to be deaf, like his mother said when Homer didn't listen to her on busy
mornings, the noises of the market intruding in his world of ghosts by the tree.

8
"You must remember," the boy interrupted his thoughts.
"Remember what?" Homer asked.
The boy reminded him of the times they had seen each other in another world, even
though Homer did not remember any of it.
"We played in the darkness," the boy said.
Homer did not like dark places, but the boy kept on talking of things happening in
another place he had never seen.
"You're a liar," Homer said.
The boy kicked a stone. "I'm not."
They fought in the dirt, disturbing a few birds looking for worms, before Homer
barked.
"I'm a dog," he said.
"You are not."
The child also barked, interrupting the peace of the place.
"You must do like this," Homer said.
He cupped his hands round his mouth, barking louder than the dog next door as his
mother appeared at the door.
"That dog is noisy," she said. "I'll complain to the owner."
Mother shut the door, leaving Homer alone with the stranger from another dimension,
where they must have met before time began, like those stories his mother read to him
sometimes.
"You must be invisible," he said.
The child smiled. "That is one of my tricks."
"What is the other one?" Homer asked.
"The stars are mine."
"That's not true," Homer said.
The flow of time increased around them, merging into another dimension no one
would have comprehended, and the stars appeared above their heads.

9
"Two and two are seven," the boy said.
Homer frowned. "No, it isn't."
"I say whatever I want."
"It's your mouth."
Shadows spread around the tree of life, his mother had called it that name for some
reason Homer didn't know.
"You have to remember," the child said.
"I've heard that before," Homer said.
The boy shook his head. "Think of the shadows."
Homer stumbled on a few papers his mother must have dropped by the door and the
child grew fainter.
"Don't go," he said.
His friend disappeared in the darkness of the backyard, as Homer's tried to
comprehend whatever had happened to his world.
"It must be magic," he said.
The noise of a cricket calling its females in the garden stopped his thoughts of some
other dimensions existing beyond reality.
"Where are you?" Homer asked.
The garden remained silent, the light coming from the kitchen window illuminating
his path back to the house, where his parents had to be talking to Uncle Hugh about his
adventures in New York.
Homer crashed against a table her mother kept by the wall, the papers he had in his
hand falling to the floor, before he steadied himself with his hands.
"Ugg," he said.
He washed his hands and cleaned his clothes, in the tap his father had installed in the
garden, the waves of probability bringing him back to the dimensions of time.
"What are you doing?" his mother interrupted his reverie.

10
The light coming from the kitchen blinded him for a few seconds, the feeling of being
lost in the universe haunting his senses.
"I fell down," Homer said.
Mother helped him clean his clothes, muttering something about little boys crashing
against the world.
"I saw a boy," he said.
"No one is here," she said.
"He imagines things," father said.
He recounted the times Homer had spoken of invisible people inhabiting the house,
when he could not see anything out of the ordinary.
"He has a good imagination," his uncle said.
Homer washed his hands, thinking of the child he must have met somewhere else,
whilst Uncle Hugh told them about his life in the USA.
"Mum," Homer interrupted.
"You must be tired," she said.
Homer wanted to tell her of the vision he had seen in that land before his birth, as his
mother made him drink the hot chocolate waiting on the table.
"It was day," Homer said.
She nodded. "It's night now."
"It went so quickly," Homer said. "One minute I had lunch and then the stars were
out."
"That happens sometimes," Uncle Hugh said.
Homer sipped his drink, listening to the explanations of time doing funny things in
the realms of the extraordinary, when he wanted to go to bed amidst the inconsequential.
"Don't have bad dreams," Uncle Hugh said.
Homer rushed upstairs after wishing them goodnight. Once in his room, he put the
coin and the papers he had found on the floor in his wardrobe, as the marks on the wall
underwent some kind of transformation but he had to remember something...

11

Maria
Jose's last words didn't make any sense as Homer studied the papers he had found in
the floor, remembering his uncle's visit within the fractal path through reality. A pretty
girl interrupted his thoughts by the tree, reality crumbling like a pack of cards all around
him and then she smiled.
"You're real," he said.

12
The girl's laughter frightened the shadows, waiting to do something nasty to the
eternity around them.
"I'm Miguel's daughter," she said.
Homer thought of the man helping in his shop, as the dog from the house next door
interrupted the visions of her body through the skirt she wore.
"I don't like dogs," she said.
They ran back into a kitchen full of saucepans, the tricycle Uncle Hugh had given him
on his first day on earth resting amidst the rubbish.
"I have to tidy this mess," he said.
She shrugged. "You will be busy."
Homer made a pile with the papers on the floor, until they had enough room to sit
down in the chairs full of things.
"My parents came here in a big ship," he said.
She frowned. "They had to be rich."
"It had many floors, and windows," he said.
Homer's parents had bought the shop after borrowing money from his uncle, even
though they had a few debts in their lives.
"Dad showed me the seagulls chasing the ship," he said.
"Seagulls?"
"They catch flying fish."
He showed her a few pictures of that trip to another land, when he wanted to see more
of her body.
"The seagulls must be beautiful," she said.
"They flew about the boat," Homer said.
She ate a few biscuits she found on the table, the breadcrumbs falling in the infinity of
her breasts as he explained about the waves crashing against the sides of the boat.
"I was seasick all the time," he said.
"Poor you," she said.

13
Homer offered her some more biscuits, plus a bit of wine he had saved for special
occasions in the disorder of his world.
"Let's toast to life," he said.
She found a few crushed leaves without any smell, after rummaging in her back.
"Put them in your mouth," she said.
Homer chewed a few of them, the light of the sun coming through the window looking
brighter than anything else he had seen.
"Father buys them in the central cordillera," she interrupted.
He asked her more about the leaves bringing happiness to his existence in a day he
might never forget.
"Your life will end with the sun," she said. "I see it in your hands."
Her mother had taught her to read palms on quiet evenings, her teats trembling like
jelly, as her brothers and sisters went to sleep on the muddy floor of their home. He
showed her the papers Jose had left on the floor.
"My invisible friend left them," Homer said.
"What about school?" she asked.
"My parents wanted me at home."
The girl studied the pages he had given her, as her mother had taught her to read and
write, amidst some other things useful in her life.
"It looks like Egyptian language," she said.
It had to be a magical if she thought so.
"You can call me Maria," she said.
"Maria," he said. "Will you help me to translate the papers?"
"I'm busy at the moment."
She lived in a small room with three beds and a cooker in the corner, where her father
slept on the sofa and some of her brothers on the floor.
"I have seen rats in the latrine," she said.
"A latrine?"

14
"It's a hole in the backyard."
He had never heard of such a thing. They had to move over piles of rubbish on the
floor in order to go to the latrine by the shed, the crucifix in her chest moving like a lost
angel between her breasts interrupted his concentration.
"Would you sleep with me tonight?" he asked.
"I'd have to marry you first."
She wouldn't accept the offer of his bed, even though she had to sleep with her family
in a cramped room full of rats.
"I'll buy you a house when I'm a millionaire," he said.
"You'll forget me."
"I won't," he said.
"It says in your hands."
Homer wondered whatever she had seen in his hands, her thighs inviting him to sin
amidst the boxes on the floor.
"These papers are important," he said.
"You think so."
"Come with me," he led her to a corner of the room without much furniture, tightening
the grip on her hands.
"What do you want?" she asked.
"You."
"That's not available."
He kissed her, his hands feeling under her blouse, inciting him to do bad things
between the boxes of merchandise he had bought for the shop.
"Stop it," she said.
He kissed her teats, her body feeling soft like a dream in the dimensions of time.
"I'll call my father," she said.
Those words brought him back to reality, before the Gods punished him for his deeds
in the path through existence.

15
"Don't do that" Homer said.
"You must be a good boy then."
"I promise."
Homer opened the album he had on the table, some of the pictures of that journey
across the ocean appearing amidst the pages, eaten by the insects.
"That is me," he showed her a child in short trousers.
"You were cute," she said.
He told her more of that journey at the beginning of time, while feeling that urgency
to have her body.
"I miss my parents," Homer said.
He had arrived at the world years ago, his uncle's appearance from the shores of time
interrupting his first impressions of life in the garden muck.
"They shouldn't have died," he said.
We bury you in the name of the father, of the son and the holy spirit, Father Ricardo
had said, before sending the coffins into the bowels of the earth, the sound of thunder
interrupting that journey back in time.
"It might rain," she said.
Homer sighed. "I don't trust Father Ricardo."
"Why?"
"He's tricky."
Maria wanted to know more of his objections to the priest, when he showed her the
pictures of that city called New York, full of buildings reaching for the sky.
"How can they go up all those floors?" she asked.
"They have metal boxes inside the buildings," he said. "They are called lifts."
She looked at him, eyes full of wonder, as the sound of thunder echoed through the
infinity of time.
"The Devil wants us," she said.
"It's only lighting," he said.

16
Homer mentioned the things his mother had done for the children of the slums, letting
him play by himself in the backyard.
"She wanted to help the world," she said.
She had left him alone in her mission of saving humankind, but he had the business
his parents had built over the years.
"I'll call my shop, El Baratillo," he said. "Everything will be cheaper than anywhere
else."
"Your mother was a good woman," she said.
"I know," he said.
"My uncle takes pictures of Marilyn Monroe," he said. "She's the best actress in the
world."
Homer told her all about his uncle's job, in that other country he wanted to visit
somewhere in time.
"You are supposed to tidy the shop," she said.
He nodded. "I know."
Homer wanted to tell her more about his life in the present reality.
"I'm really from another universe," he said.
"Tell me more about New York," she said.
He showed her some more of the pictures his uncle had taken in that city, where men
drove the latest cars and women posed in the most beautiful clothes in the town.
"My uncle has visited us a few times," he said.
"I must have seen his films," she said.
He wanted to deflower her amidst the garden muck, after kissing her breasts and the
rest of her body.
"I have to go," she said.
"Don't you want to hear about New York?" he asked.
"I'm busy," she said.

17
Homer had to do some more work in his shop, painting the walls and repairing the
windows the way his parents used to have them.
"You must help me," he said.
"You have to behave," she said.

The visitor
The death of Homer's parents sent him to the depths of despair, but he had to conquer
the world, like they wanted him to do since the beginning of time, he thought while
taking some of the merchandise to the counter.
He had lost them when he needed their advice in most of the things he had to do in his
life, like falling in love with his employee's daughter, the most difficult thing amidst all
the other problems he faced every day. His mother had gone first, followed by his
father's heart attack in the middle of the night some time later, interrupting his dreams of
conquering the world in his life time.
"I'm Homer the great," he said to no one in particular.

18
He was a pioneer, taking the name of his family to new heights of importance in a
world preoccupied by money and other things of no importance to his soul, while tiding
the boxes of coca Miguel had left by the counter. An Indian with high cheek bones, a
black skirt and his hair in a pony tail came in the shop.
"Can I help you?" Homer asked.
The Indian fiddled with a bag in his hands, the look of innocence in his face betraying
his intentions, the noise of the traffic going on outside the window interrupting the
silence.
"What do you want?" Homer asked.
The Indian held the bag to his chest, like some gift he had brought to the shop from
the confines of his universe.
"Tell me what you want," he said.
The Indian fumbled with the contents of the bag, bringing the meaning of eternity
closer to Homer's world, when a small head with its eyes shut, lips sewn together and
surrounded by black hair, appeared out of the bag.
Homer looked at it with distrust. "What is it?"
"Mmm," the Indian touched the bags of coca piling at his feet.
He seemed to like the stuff Homer got from the mountains he had seen in the distance.
"You must like coca," he said.
"Mmm," the Indian said.
The head looked like the man in front of him, Homer thought, while examining the
present the Indian had put on the table, bringing to his mind the legends of the Indians
doing strange things in the jungle they inhabited.
"He had to be your brother," Homer said.
The Indian made a few noises, sniffing the coca leaves he had found in one of the
bags.
"They smell like heaven," Homer said.
"Ummm," the Indian said.

19
"I want more heads then."
Homer had discovered something he had never imagined. Balboa must have felt like
that on setting eyes on the Pacific Ocean or Columbus when he shouted "Land" for the
first time.
"Would you like a cup of tea?" he asked.
The Indian didn't seem to understand, coca leaves being his favourite thing at that time
of the morning.
"No heads," Homer pointed at the bags. "No coca."
He found a map of the country amidst some papers in the wardrobe, the capital and
big cities of the cordillera appearing next to a jungle painted in green.
"This is Florencia," he said. "Where do you live?"
The Indian looked at the map, listening to the stories of piranhas and giant snakes
eating men alive in a land no one had conquered yet.
"This is the Guaviare River," Homer said.
"River," the Indian said.
He pointed at a place in the jungle, amongst the trees and other things, hard to imagine
in the city Homer had spent most of his life.
"That must be your home," he said.
He jumped around the boxes littering the floor, pretending to ride one of those beasts
of the apocalypse he had read in Father Ricardo's bible.
"Do you go there by horse?" Homer asked.
"I want to know where you live," he said.
The Indian sniffed the coca leaves inside the boxes, while Homer showed him the
picture of a puma hoping to catch his dinner from behind the trees.
"This is the jungle," Homer said.
"Jungle," the Indian said.
Homer nodded. "You understand me."

20
The Indian looked at him, dark eyes scrutinizing his soul, as Homer talked of the
treasures he might find in a land he had never seen.
"We'll be partners," he said.
The Indian sipped his tea, showing no understanding of whatever Homer wanted to
tell him.
"I'll give you lots of coca bags," he said. "If you bring me more heads."
The Indian closed his mochila, ignoring Homer's words while muttering something
inconsequential.
"Wait a minute," Homer said.
"Mmm," the Indian said.
He cradled the box in his arms before opening the door to the outside world, as Homer
rushed after him.
"I'll be waiting for you," he said.
The Indian hurried down the street, unaware of the conflict of emotions he had
awakened in Homer's mind, when he had to tend to his shop and the head waited for him
amidst the disorder of the table.
Homer saw him disappearing down the street, his poncho visible between the clothes
of the shop in the corner.
"How are you Mr. Homer?" someone greeted him
"Still alive," Homer said.
"That is good," the man said.
Homer went back to his shop, hoping the Indian might bring a few more heads to send
to his uncle in New York.
"There is a monster on the table," Maria interrupted the silence.
The girl tried to kill the head with her mop, uttering prayers to God living in heaven.
"An Indian gave it to me," Homer said.
"He must hate you," she said.
"I don't think so."

21
She put the mop by the door, her dark eyes studying the head the Indian had brought
from the forest.
"Would you like to come with me to the jungle?" he asked her.
The girl dropped the saucepan she had been washing, the noise awakening the dog
guarding the patio next door.
"I will ask father," she said.
Homer shuddered with desire, thinking of all the things they could do amidst the trees
growing everywhere.
"The Indian lives by the Guaviare River," he said.
"He told you that?"
Homer hoped to awaken her imagination, by telling her of the places they could see at
the end of their journey.
"The jungle is dangerous," she said.
"I want to kiss you," he said.
He could taste the perfume she must have bought at a sale somewhere, reaching for
her lips amidst some of the hair falling on her face.
"I love and respect you," he said.
"Thank you," she said.
Homer showed her the bed at the end of the room, hoping that she had some
compassion for his soul.
"But I won't sleep with you," she said.
She had to change her mind, when he made his fortune with the heads in the jungle.
"I'd do anything for you," he said.
She shook her head. "Liar."
They had to make love by the time the world, finished in a myriad of colours, but she
crashed with a few things while running away from him.
"I won't bite you," he said.
"You must throw away the head," she said.

22
"It's harmless," Homer said.
Maria shook her head," I don't like it."
Homer put the head inside the wardrobe, trying to regain the girl's trust, telling her of
all the things they might with the money the thing had to bring them.
"I did not see the Indian," she said.
"He must be invisible," Homer said. "Like your thoughts."

Jaramillo
Homer imagined the money he would make with the heads, as a noise interrupted his
dreams of finding the heads the Indian had hidden in the jungle.
"Who is there?" he asked.
At first the red bricks looked grubby but then a little boy with dirty clothes and
picking his nose moved along the path, stopping by the tree in the middle of the yard a
few moments later.
"I must be dreaming," Homer said.
The boy looked at him for some time, as the wall behind him became visible through
his clothes, nausea rising in Homer's throat for the things he could not comprehend.
"Where is your mother?" the boy interrupted the silence.
Homer understood the stranger's identity like other things in his life, the reality of the
moment bringing him back to the world.
"She's gone," he said.
"I'm sorry," the boy said.

23
The bottles he had left by the kitchen window and the cloth Maria used to wipe the
surfaces lay amidst some of things around him.
"Time doesn't exist," the child said.
"What do you mean?" Homer asked.
"You'll realize it one day."
Homer barked, the nature of time and space dissolving into other realities in the time
continuum of the universe he inhabited.
"The future is all around you," the child said.
Homer shrugged. "I don't understand."
"Two and two are seven."
The sounds of the garden interrupted the boy's words, but as Homer touched his nose,
the child did the same thing.
"Shut your eyes," he said.
Homer closed his eyes, the noises of eternity filling his soul, before footsteps
interrupted his daydreaming of reality.
"He wanted to see you," Maria's voice echoed besides him.
A man with curly hair, bushy eyebrows and an aquiline nose stood by her side, trying
not to touch the dirty things around him.
"I hope I haven't disturbed you," he said. "I am Jaramillo and I know your Uncle
Hugh."
"He's in New York," Homer said.
The man shrugged. "I met him there."
Jaramillo put the pictures of a shrunken head, after looking in his bag for a few
moments.
"A shop wants more heads," he said.
Homer thought of the money he might make with the heads, while looking at the
pictures on the table.
"The Indian lives by the Guaviare River," he said.

24
"Your heads might be there," Jaramillo said.
"I hope so."
Jaramillo wrote everything Homer told him in his notebook, leaving greasy stains in
the paper.
"I want to take civilization to the jungle," Homer said.
Jaramillo nodded. "Well done."
Homer showed him a few things about the jungle, and how the Indian needed coca
leaves in order to survive his journeys in search of civilisation.
"Are you sure the Indian exists?" Jaramillo asked.
"He gave me the head," Homer said.
"You could have bought it somewhere."
"I'm not a liar," Homer said.
Jaramillo had to find more things for the country to read in one of those boring
Sunday mornings.
"Do you know the tribe's name?" he asked.
"No," Homer said.
"You just got the head then," Jaramillo said.
He touched some of the mess around him, letti0ng his pen fall between the coca bags
Miguel had put amidst the cobwebs and other things adorning the floor.
"I must have a tarantula somewhere," Jaramillo said.
"I don't have any tarantulas," Homer said.
"The Indian must have left you one."
Homer cleaned around him, listening to Jaramillo's stories of the things the Indians
might do to civilized human beings.
"I want more heads," Jaramillo interrupted his narrative.
Homer showed him the pictures of the galaxies and some other things he kept amidst
his things, in order to prove to himself the complexities of the universe.
"I taught myself to read and write," he said.

25
"That's good," Jaramillo said.
They discussed the role of dreams in predicting events of the future, everything ending
in the catastrophe Maria had seen in his hand.
"She's as pretty girl," Jaramillo said.
Homer nodded. "She is."
Jaramillo cleaned his clothes with the brush he had found on the table, listening to
Homer's tales of the tragedy he had foreseen in his dreams out of time.
"You are by my side," he said.
"I don't believe it," Jaramillo said.
"It happened."
"It must have been a dream."
A sun shone in a reddish sky in one of the pictures Homer had inside his desk,
foretelling the events in some other universe, lost to their perception.
"It's very interesting," Jaramillo said. "But I want the heads."
Homer told him the events of that future he must have inhabited before coming to the
backyard on a day he could not forget.
"The sun explodes, sending us back in time to some other universe alongside ours."
"There is nothing to prove all of this happened," Jaramillo said.
"We were there," Homer said.
He showed him a graphic of the events sending them outside the rules of physics, in
spite of whatever reality told them.
"You wished me good luck in the future," Homer said.
"In your dreams."
Jaramillo went back to the picture of the head he had left in the counter, explaining the
intricacies of the process the Indians used in order to shrink the heads of their enemies.
"I have to find them," Homer said.
"In this universe," Jaramillo said.
"We have been together in another place," Homer said.

26
"You must have had too many coca leaves."
"They don't cause me to have dreams," Homer put a few of them in his mouth.
"They are crunchy," Jaramillo said.
Homer offered a few of them to the journalist, when Maria could brew in the best tea
she could make.
"She was in the future you saw," Jaramillo sai.
Homer nodded. "In another universe."
Jaramillo made his way between the bags of things Homer had in the floor, fed up
with his insistence of other universes outside their senses.
"Call me if the Indian comes back," he said.
"I'll do that," Homer said.

27

The trip
The Indian resembled one of those statues of San Agustin with his plaits, olive skin
and high cheek bones, whilst waiting amidst the coca boxes Miguel had brought to the
shop that morning.
"He's from the jungle," Homer told a woman looking at the merchandise.
"Don't worry, Mr. Homer," she said.
He showed her a dress with golden buttons around the waist, as the Indian waited in
the shadows.
"It is from Paris," Homer said. "I have my contacts there."
The woman looked at her reflection in the mirror by the counter, holding the dress
against her body: anything from Paris had to look nice on her.
"It's beautiful," she said.
Homer found some more clothes in different colours and sizes, their buttons shining
under the light of the lamp.
"This blouse might suit you," he said.
She turned it around, inspecting the front and back, her eyebrows rising in admiration,
but frowned on looking at the price.
"I'll give you eighty pesos," she said.
He shrugged. "I'd be losing money."

28
"Eighty pesos," she said.
"One hundred is my last offer."
"You will lose a customer, Mr. Homer."
Everything seemed to stop, as the sound of her shoes along the middle of the shop,
reminding him of the promise of looking after the shop he had made to his parents some
time ago.
"You can have it for ninety pesos," Homer said.
"Eighty pesos."
He shrugged. "Ninety."
A satisfied customer brings more business, Homer thought, as she handed him the
crisp notes she had withdrawn from the bank that morning, with the water mark and the
signature of the vice-president of the country.
"You'll look like a princess," he said.
"Thank you, Mr. Homer."
"And it's a good price."
Homer hoped she would buy something else to go with the blouse, whilst writing a
receipt amidst the merchandise in the counter.
"I'll have nice clothes next week," he said.
"Fine, Mr. Homer."
The noise of the clock he had put on the wall disturbed his thoughts of making love to
her in the kitchen, when Maria loved him and the Indian waited in the shadows. Homer
put one of the coca boxes by the man's feet, muttering about the heads he had to give
him.
"Ummm," the Indian said.
"I want the heads now," Homer said.
The man's face did not betray his emotions, looking at the boxes of coca Homer
opened by his side.
"I want the heads," he said.

29
The Indian sniffed the leaves of coca, before Homer put the lid back.
"I don't like him," the woman said.
Homer shrugged. "He's harmless."
"I don't know."
She did not seem to like the weird people coming in the shop, spreading their illnesses
and other things.
"He's taking me to the jungle," Homer said.
"Mr. Homer.."
"I'll be OK."
Homer looked for the mosquito lotion he had somewhere in the shop, hoping that
Miguel would not damage anything in his absence.
"I thought the journalist might go with you," his employee said.
He cleaned around the Indian, moving a few of the boxes of coca in his way, oblivious
to Homer's feelings or of the world around him.
"Take the gun," Miguel said.
He pointed to the pistol Homer's father had kept in the wardrobe, while telling him of
the hoards of zombies inhabiting the jungle.
"He is not dangerous," Homer said.
The Indian moved along the aisle, crashing with some of the boxes by the door, as the
girl looked at the merchandise Homer kept on the table.
"Wait for me," Homer said.
"Ummm," the Indian said.
"He can't talk," the girl said.
"Wait for me," Homer said.
The Indian sat on the boxes, looking at him with a vacant expression, like the actors of
the silent films Homer had gone to see in the cinemas on Sundays.
"He must be thirsty," Miguel said.

30
He offered the man a cup of coffee he had just prepared in the cooker at the back of
the shop.
"Ummm," the Indian said.
"You must learn to speak our language," Miguel said.
The Indian sipped his drink, listening to all the things Homer wanted to do in his way
to get the heads.
"You can't leave your shop," Miguel said.
Homer shrugged. "I taught you how to do the accounts."
Miguel had a notebook full of numbers and other things, useful to keeping track of the
things they sold in the shop.
"I don't trust him," Miguel said.
The Indian mixed some of the coca leaves with his coffee, absorbed in his own
thoughts of his trip back to the jungle.
"It might be a trap," Miguel said.
Homer got ready to go, listening to his employee's tales of the piranhas inhabiting the
rivers of the jungle, ready to eat anyone falling in the water.
"I'll be careful," Homer said.
"He's gone," the girl said.
Homer saw the place where the Indian had been sitting, as Miguel rushed to the door.
"He's fast," he said.
The Indian had gone away, taking with him the dreams Homer had of selling a few
more heads in New York.
"I'll get him," he said.
He crashed with a few boxes in his way to the door, hurting his knee and scratching
his face.
"I told you about the voodoo," Miguel said.

31

Homer loves the sea

Homer tried to understand the road through time, after the Indian had forgotten his
promise of bringing more heads to the shop, after taking one of the boxes of coca back to
the jungle.
"I knew he was up to no good," Miguel said.
Homer nodded. "I could be in his village right now."
He opened one of the books his father had bought long ago, with pictures of the
Indians having their rituals in the jungle, whilst swimming amidst the piranhas and other
things.
"I'll have to tell my uncle," Homer said.
He looked at the map he had packed in the bag he intended to take to the forest,
dreaming of the things he could have done in his journey through the jungle.
"I wonder where he lives," Homer said.
"Who?"
"The Indian."
Homer drew a line with his finger from Villavicencio to the capital of the republic,
trying to imagine the terrain he might have seen in the bus journey to the jungle.
"I like the sunsets in the plains," he said.
"You've never been there."
"But I imagine them."

32
Homer had to earn his money and looked for the phone underneath the things he kept
in the shop.
"I have to phone the library," he said.
"Tell them you want to save the world," Miguel said.
Homer had been in that journey at the beginning of time, when nothing else had
existed but his dreams of some other place in reality, far away from his senses.
"I could buy a few boats and trucks," he said.
He wrote the figures he needed to employ the young people in the city, in his search
for the sea.
"They cost a fortune," Miguel said.
"I'll buy them with the money from the library," Homer said.
He made the calculations of the pesos he needed for changing the world, like his
parents had done in their search for a better life aeons ago.
"You plan to buy trucks," Miguel said.
Homer nodded. "And boats."
"You should have followed the Indian," Miguel said.
"I can't fix the past," Homer said.
Miguel found the black phone under the pile of papers in the kitchen, avoiding the
boxes of merchandise on the floor.
"I wouldn't know what to say," Homer said.
"Tell you want to help the economy."
Homer disentangled the cable connecting it to the socket amidst the thousands of
things he had everywhere.
"This is the operator," a voice said.
"I want to talk to the library," Homer said.
He heard another voice a few moments later.
"This is the library," someone said. "But we are about to close."
"I want to help the economy," Homer said.

33
"We are closing now," the voice said.
"I am Mr. Homer," he said. "I want to finish with the unemployment in the region."
The line went silent and Homer thought the woman had hung up.
"I thought you died in the jungle," her voice interrupted the silence.
"I never die," he said.
The woman laughed, her voice cascading down the line like the way his life went to
eternity.
"You can come tomorrow afternoon," she said.
"Thank you," Homer said.
He had to convince the people of the city to part with their money in order to help him
to buy his boats for the benefit of humankind.
"I guess everything is all right," Miguel said.
"It is," Homer said. "I have to prepare my speech."
"Tell them about your journey," Miguel said.
He muttered a few things, moving some of the boxes obstructing the corridor.
"I loved the flying fish," Homer said.
"And the boats," Miguel said.
Homer looked for the typewriter, and dislodging a few things his employee kept
around the place.
"It will be fine this time," he said.
Miguel shook his head. "I don't know."
The line of time took them to some places they had not envisaged in their wonderings
throughout reality, when he had to prepare his speech to the most important people in the
city.
"We have to work for our money," Miguel said.
"I'm working hard," Homer pointed at his notebook.
He got ready the typewriter he had inherited from his father, before he passed away at
the beginning of time.

34
"We are waves and particles," Homer said.
"That must be science fiction."
The atoms never touched each other, not even for a second, while being in many
places at one, according to the books he had head some time ago.
"Time is relative," he said.
"That is what you think," Miguel said.
"It's the truth," Homer said.
He looked for a chart of the stars his father kept amidst some other stuff in the
wardrobe, throwing a few things onto the floor, because the light of most of the stars in
the sky had taken hundreds, thousands or millions of years to come to their eyes.
"T he earth is six thousand years old, according to the bible," Miguel said.
"I read real books," Homer said.
Miguel shrugged. "I don't know Mr. Homer."
. Homer dusted the typewriter, taking care to disentangle the ribbon he had bought some
time ago.
"This thing is difficult," he said.
"I can do it, Mr. Homer," Miguel said.
He sat down at the table, turning the typewriter towards him.
"My mother taught me how to type," he said.
He wrote a few sentences of what Homer had to say in the meeting at the library,
sending the bar back at the end of the line.
"It's lucky I am here," Miguel said.
He had learned the things in the universe he inhabited since arriving at the world on
the day of his birth.

35

The library
Homer went through the park, full of children celebrating life, in spite of the
harshness endured by everyone in the country.
"I love the sea," he said to no one in particular.
He imagined the public waiting for his lecture in the library, the sounds of the world
interrupting his thoughts of getting enough money to buy his boats.
"Two and two are seven," he said.
That sentence brought some comfort in his life, while moving amongst the people
playing football in the library and admiring the senoritas sitting by the fountain.
"Two and two are seven," he said to no one in particular.
The pigeons frolicking by the fountain interrupted his thoughts of the folk waiting for
his lecture somewhere in the old building in front of him.
"Central library," Homer read.
A girl filed her nails behind a desk, a single light bulb illuminating the scene, amidst
the rows of books everywhere.
"I am Mr. Homer," he said. "I am giving a lecture here today."
She looked at her notebook, before turning to look at him with light green eyes.
"They are waiting for you," she said.
"You are pretty," he said.
He tasted her lipstick, touching the fine pants her mama must have bought her for
Christmas.
"I'll give you money," he said.
He dropped a few pesos on the table, forgetting all about the people waiting for him
somewhere in the building.
"I am a virgin," she said.

36
"They all say that," he said.
He kissed her neck, tasting the cream she used to protect her skin against the world,
but he had to stop wasting his time in nothingness, as she talked of the child she might
have conceived in a moment of madness.
"I have not done anything," he said.
"You kissed me," she said.
Homer looked for some more money in his pockets, hoping to stop all that nonsense
of babies.
"They must be waiting," he said.
She led him up to the last door in the corridor, where the audience had to be.
"We'll talk about the baby later," she said.
"You are mad," he said.
She pushed him inside the room, where the dim light revealed a sea of faces waiting
for his wishes to save the world.
"I'm Homer," he said.
"We know," a woman with a microphone said.
"I want to talk about the sea," he said. "This, country used to have its coasts filled
with treasures."
"I will give employment to the local people if you help me to buy boats. I love the
sea."
"Mr. Homer," the woman said. "Why do we have to buy the boats?
"It's to help the economy," he said. "I'll pay you back."
Homer added the pesos he needed for his business enterprise in the blackboard in front
of him.
"I'll employ young people," he said. "They won't waste time loitering in the streets."
"It's a good idea," the woman said and they all applauded.
They had to support the young entrepreneur leading the country to the future instead
of lying like everyone had done for some time.

37
"We must help our businessman," she said.
He had to thank the spirits of the sea guiding his parents in their quest to find a place
for his childhood, while explaining what he wanted to do to save the country.
"My parents wanted to better our lives," he said.
"Hurrah to Homer," they said.
They toasted to the hero with a bottle of champagne someone must have bought in the
market that morning.
"We want to help the economy," they said.
Homer drank aguardiente mixed with the champagne, as the public promised to help
him to buy his boats.
"I'll need lots of pesos," he said.
The girl moved between the seats, collecting the money in a basket, her teats bouncing
every time she moved through the crowd.
"I was borne during a solar eclipse," Homer said.
"Hurrah to Homer," they said.
"I had to play with the stones in the road," he said.
"Didn't you have any toys?" someone asked.
"My uncle brought them from New York."
Homer's eyes filled with tears, on remembering those times his uncle had visited them
during his childhood.
"We have collected a few million pesos," the girl interrupted his thoughts.
"I'll buy my boats tomorrow," Homer said.
A roar of thunder interrupted his words, the sound reverberating around them, as the
receptionist appeared at the end of the room.
"He raped me," she said.
"She must be drunk," Homer said.
He told the public of all the things he might do with the money they had given him,
while the receptionist waited by the door.

38
"We believe you," they said.
The people of the city helped him to have his boats, even if the receptionist wanted his
baby and the sky roared above them.
"I'll get my boats now," he said.
The girl nodded. "It's better than the heads."
Homer waited for the people to leave, the screams of the receptionist bringing him
back to his present line of time.
"I haven't touched her," he said.
The public thought she was part of the act and applauded Homer's genius for
entertaining them, before improving the economy.
"I'll call my baby Homer," she said.
Homer accompanied her to the door, amongst the sound of thunder punishing the
world.
"It's Armageddon," she said.
"It might be if you don't leave," Homer said.

The ships

39
The papers spoke of the foreign businessman sleeping between a sack of potatoes and
one of plantains, in the back of a truck he had bought with some of the money from the
library.
"Two and two are seven," Homer said.
Jose had taught him that sentence, when he wished to change the world in that other
reality, the spirits of his parents encouraging him across the chasm of time.
"We have arrived, Mr. Homer," a voice interrupted his thoughts.
On opening his eyes, he saw the driver standing over him, the smell of the sea greeting
his senses after his siesta in the back of the truck.
"I'm thirsty," Homer said.
"Have some aguardiente," the driver said.
He found a bottle of the liquor somewhere in his bag, whilst telling him of the money
he had to find by the weekend or his family might starve to death.
"My children need food for their packed lunches," he said.
Homer sipped his drink, listening to how his children had been hungry many times,
and he could not afford to buy his cigarettes sometimes.
"The pielroja cigarettes are expensive," the driver said.
It had to be terrible to be deprived of cigarettes, when his children were hungry and
the world did not care about his suffering.
"Amen," Homer said.
"It is not funny," the driver said.
Homer shook his head. "You have suffered too much in your life"
He jumped off the truck, scattering a few pebbles under his shoes and nearly hitting
his head against the tools the drivers had for repairing the engines.
A few of the men turned to look at him, their dirty faces devoid of any emotions for
the stranger doing funny things.
"It's Mr. Homer," the driver said. "He wants to create jobs for everyone."

40
The men wiped their faces, expecting the visitor to perform some kind of miracle with
their lives, under the minimum wage the country had to offer for their work.
"You can't trust the sun," Homer said. "But you'll believe the sea."
"I like a man with a sense of humour," the driver said.
Homer opened the bottle of aguardiente, the smell of alcohol filling his senses, while
the driver talked of things irrelevant at that moment.
"I'm calling my boats Athena, Esparta and The Thermopiles," Homer said.
"Nice names," the driver said.
Homer thought of finding jobs for the youngsters living in the poverty of the slums, as
he had promised to do in the library.
"I know someone who can help you," the driver said.
Homer saw a short man by the boxes of merchandise they kept in the garage.
"This is Cesar," the driver said.
Homer greeted him, taking care of the things on the floor.
"Homer is interested in boats," the driver said.
He poured some more aguardiente in a few cups by their side, talking of all the things
he had in his life.
"Nice to meet you," Cesar said. "I have a few ships in the port."
Homer saw the city outside the window, while Cesar told him of the vessels floating in
the water he had to have somewhere.
"I get merchandise every week," he said.
He brought perfumes from Tokyo in the spring, smelling like the flowers in the
gardens depicted in the Japanese pictures Homer had seen.
"Your customers will love them," Cesar said.
He sprayed some perfume around him, the scent mixing with the smells from the
garage.
"I'll give you fifty pesos per each one," Homer said.
Cesar shrugged. "Done."

41
He spoke of his life in the reality around him, spending his pesos in the things he
brought to the country.
"I was born in an island called Salvacion," Cesar said. "The president of the country
plays football instead of going to church on Sunday mornings."
"Hurrah to Salvacion," he said.
Beautiful women had chased him in his trips across the ocean, in exchange for some
of the dollars he earned in his adventures.
"The president of Salvacion is a good man," Cesar said.
"That is nice," Homer said.
"He supports the football team."
Cesar showed him a few pictures of the president with some of the football players,
working hard to win the games in the region.
"I would like to meet him," Homer said.
"You might do one day."
Homer signed the paper Cesar offered him, for his merchandise delivered to the shop
every week.
"How do I trust you?" Homer asked.
"They have known me for some time," Cesar pointed to the drivers getting ready to go
back to the city.
Homer had to trust the man promising to get the best things for his shop, when the
Indian had stolen some boxes of coca not too long ago.
"Take my watch," Cesar said. "I will have it back when I deliver the merchandise."
Homer accepted the golden watch Cesar must have bought in his journeys through the
Caribbean.
"This is a picture of my boats," Cesar showed him a black and white photo.
"They are by the peer," Cesar said.
Homer found the glasses he kept in his bag in order to see Cesar's ships somewhere in
the port.

42
"You can have them one day," he said.
Homer sipped his aguardiente, listening to some of the adventures Cesar had in his
journeys to get his merchandise, when it was time to go back to the city.
"Mr. Homer," Cesar said. "Would you mind if a dog travelled in the back of the
truck?"
"Fine," Homer said.
"You must feed him," Cesar said.
He gave Homer a warm packet, smelling of chicken and other things.
"He eats at this time of the day," he said.
Homer nodded. "That's fine."
"Thank you, Mr. Homer."
Homer got in the back of the truck, as the dog wagged its tail.
"I'll bring you the perfumes tomorrow," Cesar said.
He showed Homer some of the merchandise he would bring to his shop in the next
few days.
"I have the best clothes from Paris," he said.
He pointed to the skirts with shining things women loved to wear in the French capital
and in some other famous places in the world.
"I have to go," the driver said.
"This is my phone number," Cesar gave him a paper with a few numbers in it.
"We'll be in touch," Homer said.
"Have a good journey," Cesar said.
"I will," Homer said.

Homer loves himself

As the truck moved amidst the traffic, the dog sniffed the parcel in Homer's hands,
wagging his tale.

43
"Stop it," Homer said.
The animal caught a bit of meat he threw in the air, spreading saliva all over the place,
while Homer's stomach rumbled for the lack of food and the truck took them away to
other lands.
"We must talk about this," Homer said.
He had not eaten anything since leaving the market, as his stomach growled at the lack
of food.
"I am hungry," Homer said.
The dog could not understand the problems Homer had in the way to become a
millionaire.
"It's my dinner," he said.
"Grr," the dog said.
Homer shrugged. "I often talk to myself."
He ate the spare ribs and the rice, some of the sauce ending in the shirt Maria had
washed not long ago.
"Aufff," the dog said.
"Shut up," Homer said.
His senses collapsed the roads of reality taking him towards the future, while thinking
of Maria's body with her curves in the right place.
"That girl will kill me one day," Homer said.
"Grr," the dog said.
"You must like your bitches too," Homer said.
Homer masturbated, the sounds of the world fading away, as the sperm ran through
the boxes the driver had piled by his side. Why didn't he marry himself? He thought
about it for a few moments, the sound of the dog interrupting his reality in the paths of
time.
"I will marry myself," he said.

44
Homer's Industries answered in an unexpected way after a long declaration of love to
himself, the best person in the universe, the truth becoming clearer in the path he
followed through time.
I miss you, Homer told the ghost of his mother, the air rushing by his side interrupting
his dreams of the things he had to do before the end of time.
He had to plan his marriage to himself in front of Father Ricardo and some of the
friends he had found in his new adventures through life, the trip to the port taking him
towards some unknown future of the world.
"Auff," the dog interrupted.
"I love myself," Homer said.
"Grrr," the dog said.
"It's not for you to disapprove."
The act of observation created his reality, as the dog sniffed his hands, dirty from the
lunch, the sperm, and other things Homer must have touched during his journey in the
dimensions of time.
"I need an aguardiente," he said.
"Grr," the dog said.
Homer shrugged. "You must be hungry."
He jotted down everything he needed for the party in a paper he had found in the
crates, hoping Father Ricardo's holy water would erase his sins before Jaramillo recorded
the moment for posterity.
"I do accept myself as my wife," Homer said.
The dog listened to Homer's madness, when he wanted to eat.
"It's like this," Homer said. "I want to marry myself in this path of life."
He drew the tree in the backyard, through the lands lost in fantasy and the path of
existence, like one of those pictures he had seen in the books his father had.
"My father who art in heaven," Homer said.
"Hollowed be thy name."

45
Then he dozed, amidst the forests covering the land in the road he had followed from
the moment he opened his eyes to this life, because once upon a time he had come from
the sky.
The memory of that first day on earth interrupted the dream of the ants making holes
in the mud in the backyard of his home and the fact that he had come from somewhere
else.
Homer felt isolated in the world of his dreams, following the path of his fantasy.
"Time is relative," he said.
It seemed an odd thing in the middle of nowhere, the feeling of something not being
right followed the shapes from the depths of time, as the years went past the truck.
"My tired has a puncture," the driver interrupted his dreams.
The dog barked, accusing Homer of mortifying his existence, when he could have
eaten his lunch in the back of the vehicle.
The driver shrugged. "He's grumpy."
He had to work, in order to help his family through the recession but Homer had a
wedding to arrange in his present time.
"Cesar brings merchandise from Japan," he said.
"I know," the driver said.
He showed Homer a small bottle, decorated with a few figures from somewhere else
in the world.
"She'll thank me tonight," the driver said.
Homer imagined the fat man making love to his wife in the slums, when something
strange had happened to him in his journey to get the boats.
He felt like that man waking up years later in the future.
"Rip Van Winkle," Homer said.
"What?" the driver asked.
Homer explained about the man travelling on time, after going to sleep during the
night.

46
"There is the speed of light," Homer said.
The driver looked around him, expecting the light reflected from the world to be
waves in the tendrils of time.
"I must change the tyre," he said.
Homer helped him to put the spare one, hoping to get back home soon, listening to the
driver's tales of things not being the way you imagined. Homer went back in the truck,
falling asleep for an eternity of going through the roads of the world.
"Wake up," someone said.
He found himself at the edge of the road, the truck having disappeared into some other
universe.
"I must have gone to sleep," he said.
"You were here for some time," she said.
"I don't understand," he said.
Homer noticed his greasy hair and the beard he must have grown in a few hours he
had slept in the truck.
"I must go home," he said.
He stood up, feeling pain in his legs and most of his body, trying to think what had
happened in his way back from the port.
"The town centre is that way," she said.
Homer followed the directions she gave him in order to arrive at his shop, the traffic
roaring past him brought him memories of the time he had spent in the limbo of another
reality.

The future
Homer crossed the road, avoiding the cars taking the passengers to other parts of the
city, and thinking of the money the people in the library had awarded him for his speech
about the sea.

47
He could have fallen down from the truck, after going to sleep amidst the boxes of
merchandise the driver took to the city.
"Be careful," someone said.
Homer must have been walking for some time, because his feet hurt, in spite of not
having his shoes.
"I am lost," he said.
He moved towards the place where his shop had to be, wondering what had happened
to the driver of the truck and the dog, after he had loved himself in the back of the
vehicle.
He might have gone in one of those rockets he had seen in the magazines he
purchased sometimes, or the universe had conspired to take him away from the truck
during his journey.
A man showed a few bottles of aguardiente. "It's the best in town," he said.
"No, thanks," Homer said.
That aguardiente he had aboard the truck had sent him to another land he tried tocomprehend at that moment in time, when he had promised to love himself in the back of
the truck.
The facade of the shop appeared in front of him, like the ghost of a time he could not
forget, as Miguel appeared at the door, accompanied by his daughters.
"We thought you had died," he said.
The shop looked a bit different, the windows showing some merchandise he had not
purchased or he had gone mad.
"You should have phoned us," Miguel said.
Homer tried to think what could have happened in the short period he had been away,
even though his employee said he had been away for some time.
"You are alive," Maria said.
"I know," he said.

48
She caressed his hair, making a few things in his body stand up towards the sky, in
spite of the love he had promised to himself in the truck.
"I'm getting married," Homer said.
Maria paused scrutinising his body, ready to take in whatever thing he wanted to tell
her.
"And who is the lucky girl?" she asked.
"I'm getting married to myself," Homer said.
The room felt quiet, the noise of a fly interrupting reality at that moment in time, when
he waited for her reaction to his news.
"You must be mad," she said.
Homer had to convince them of his marriage to himself, the best thing he could have
done in his life in whatever universe he happened to be.
"You were away for a few months," Miguel said.
"That is a lie," Homer said.
He had the ticket the driver had given him to travel back to the city, after doing some
business with Cesar.
"It has the date," Homer showed it to Miguel.
His employee studied the pinkish paper Homer had in his pocket, ignoring his dirty
clothes, greasy hair and beard.
"You've gone for some time," he said.
He pointed at the calendar in the wall someone must have altered in order to annoy
Homer to death, for something he had not done,
"I was lost," he said.
Miguel shrugged. "You get lost in a city you know well."
Homer had to have amnesia, an illness he had read in the medical magazines his father
had purchased sometimes.
"I don't know what happened," he said.
"Nobody wakes up in the future," Miguel said.

49
Homer understood a bit of the nature of time, thanks to the books he had read in his
childhood, whenever he felt lonely amidst the adults going about their business.
"I went to sleep in the truck and then I appeared by the road," he said.
"You need a doctor," Miguel said.
"He's had too much aguardiente," Maria said.
Miguel had a list of doctors in the area in the notebook he held in his hand, ready to
help Homer finish with the illness he must have caught in the port.
"Someone must have messed with your mind," Maria said.
"Who?" Homer asked.
She went on to explain how the spirit of the jungle could enter his brain, taking him to
another time and space.
"The road to the port goes past the jungle," she said.
The bad spirits of the earth had to be responsible for the illness he had contracted in
his journey to the port.
"You must have planned everything," she said.
Niguel found a note book with the transactions in the shop, in order to prove that he
had been working hard in the shop.
"I have met Cesar," Miguel said.
He had to be the man from Salvacion, promising to bring him cheap merchandise
from the Caribbean and the other lands he visited during his travels.
"We are waves of probability," Homer said.
"He's gone mad." Maria said.
Homer drew a graphic of his life with its branches in the continuum of reality, in one
of those equations he had seen long ago.
"Uncle Homer has a beard," Amelia said.
He had not noticed Maria's little sister, playing with her dolls by the bed, where he had
slept since his parents had passed away.
"You should marry Maria," she said. "She's pretty."

50
"I love myself," Homer said.
"It must be in one of those waves he mentioned," Miguel said.
"Waves of probability," Amelia said.
"That won't feed my family," Miguel said.
The whole thing had to have some explanation in the laws of physics he had read in
the books Maria must have hidden somewhere in the shop, when he had drank the
aguardiente Cesar had offered him in the garage.
"I went to sleep in the back of the truck," Homer said.
"What happened then?" Maria asked.
"I don't remember," Homer said.
A cloud had descended in his life, after he had made love to himself amidst the boxes
of merchandise.
"I can see faces by my side," Homer said.
"You do know something," Miguel said.
Cesar had taken advantage of him, when he had to find the jobs for the people of the
city.
"The Indian must have tricked you," Miguel said.
"That is nonsense," Homer said.
He had to find that story of a man waking up in the future, after going to sleep by the
roadside.
"Rip Van Winkle," Homer said.
"I don't understand," Miguel said.
"He woke up in the future after going to sleep by the roadside," Homer said.
He told his employee the story of the man travelling to the future, after encountering
strange people in the mountain.
"It must have been an incantation," Maria said.
Homer looked for the book he had in the wardrobe his father had kept some of his
papers, throwing a few things to the floor in his hurry to find the story he wanted.

51
"You must rest now," Maria said.
She brought his clothes from some other wardrobe, muttering about Homer's uncaring
attitude towards her family.
"I ate the dog's dinner," he said.
"That is horrible," she said.
He had his encounter with the man selling the cheapest merchandise from around the
world.
"He's from Salvacion," Homer said.
"He's been bringing the merchandise to the shop," she said.
Maria pointed at the clothes waiting to be sold to Homer's customers for a few pesos
and the perfumes had to be in the boxes by his bed.
"He's from Salvacion," Homer said.
"He has told me," Maria said.
She told him of the football games Cesar had attended with the president of the
country in the realms of time.
"Tell me more about Rip Van Winkle," she said.
"He woke up in the future," Homer said.
"Just like you," she said.
Homer had met the drivers in the garage and the man from Salvacion selling him his
perfumes, before going to sleep for a hundred days.
"I woke up by the library," he said.
"You like the library," she said. "It gives you money."
He kissed her, his hands wondering in parts of her body he had never seen, while
explaining his adventure in some other land he did not comprehend.
"Cesar must know," he said.
"He's clever," she said.
Homer pushed her towards the bed, crashing with a few of the boxes in his way to the
place of his dreams.

52
"I love you," he said.
"I'm not cheap," she said.
He helped her to her feet, excusing himself for his behaviour by the bed he wanted to
share with her.
"I'll phone Jaramillo tomorrow," he said. "And the police."
Maria straightened her dress, while he talked of the things he had done in the port,
before getting lost in time.
"You must tell us the truth," she said.
Homer looked at his reflection in a mirror she gave him, taking in his beard and long
greasy hair.
She left him alone with the thoughts of that other universe, where he had promised to
marry himself, in spite of losing some time in his life.

The equations of reality

Homer dreamed of chasing the Indian through the jungle, the sound of a cockerel
interrupting his fantasies, as Miguel's voice echoed amidst the darkness of reality.
"We are glad to have you back," he said.
It was the light of another day, away from the nightmare Homer had left somewhere in
his journey to the city.
"I've had a strange dream," he said.

53
Homer sat up in his bed, trying to understand whatever had taken place in his way to
buy the boats with the money from the library.
"I've lost my life," he said.
Miguel paused cleaning around the kitchen, some of the things he held in his hands
falling to the floor
"That is nonsense," he said.
"We are particles and waves," Homer said.
He wrote down some of the figures he had seen in the books, hidden somewhere in the
strings of nothingness.
"The universe divides all the time," he said.
Miguel shrugged. "And I keep a unicorn in the kitchen."
The mythological creature had to be amidst the furniture, according to his employee's
words.
"Liar," Homer said.
He looked for the books his father kept in the wardrobe, sending a few things to the
floor in his hurry to find the mysteries of the universe.
"They must have drugged you in the port," Miguel said.
Homer looked in the books he had in the shelf, wondering what type of drugs could
keep him asleep for the last few months of his life.
"I will contact the police," he said.
The story of the man lost in time might be more profitable than the heads the Indian
had in the jungle, or the merchandise Cesar brought him from the port.
"I had an aguardiente," he said.
Homer released a cloud moths living in the books he had found in the wardrobe,
amongst a few things he had forgotten he kept somewhere in the house, like the equations
of reality in a world lost in time.
"I dozed in the back of the truck," he said.

54
He recounted his adventure from the moment the driver told him to feed the dog, the
waves of time being responsible for whatever had happened in his journey to the city.
"It's the truth," Homer said.
He drew a line representing his journey to the unknown, how he had learned to do in
his childhood notes, like the books his father got for him.
"I want the phone," Homer said, sending a some more things to the floor.
"It's here," Miguel found it somewhere.
Homer dialled the number Cesar had given him in a paper, hoping to hear some
explanation to whatever had happened in the truck.
"Mr. Homer," Cesar said at the end of the line. "We thought you had died."
The police had been looking for him all over the port, arresting the people conspiring
to kidnap him.
"You disappeared," Cesar said. "As I promised you the best clothes from France."
Homer heard of the trips he had made in order to bring the merchandise to the shop,
when Homer had disappeared from the world.
"You had to know where I was," Homer said.
The communication was cut, leaving Homer with the dilemma of what could have
happened.
"Time dilation," he read in one of the books he found in the wardrobe.
A man called Einstein had explained the rules for making time go slower than usual so
long as you went at the fastest speed in the universe.
"I must have gone at the speed of light," Homer said.
Miguel looked at Homer over a few boxes of merchandise.
"You've gone mad," he said.
He put a few boxes on the floor, muttering to himself about how to cure madness in
some people.
"There has to be some explanation for my disappearance," Homer said.

55
He remembered the dog crying for his food, the wind rushing by his face, and the
dreams of being in another land he had never seen.
"You have to contact the police," Miguel said.
"I'll do it later," Homer said.
He could talk about his problems to one of the policemen patrolling the streets, or he
could try a hypnotists charging lots of money in order to solve his problems.
"A hypnotist might send me back to the past," Homer said.
"That would be a miracle," Miguel said.
Homer explained about hypnosis, the art of regressing people to any time in their lives
they wanted to investigate, the answer to his problems.
"We are waves of probability," Homer said. "
He thought of the paths of time around them, in one of many roads they had followed
from their birth in the continuum, the laws of probability governing their world lost in
time.
"You've gone mad," Miguel said.
"I woke up in the future," Homer said.
Miguel paused buttering some of the bread he had brought in a tray, listening to
Homer's story of the future.
"You must remember yesterday," he said.
"It was a dream," Homer said.
"You are confused."
Homer had lost some time inside the truck, altering the perception of reality he had
known since the day he had opened his eyes to the eclipse of the sun.
"I must travelled in time," he said.
No one had ever travelled in time in the history of the world, unless he had gone out
of his mind, like some people he had seen in the streets.
"Cesar has brought his merchandise," Miguel said.

56
That was good news and Homer sent some more of his blankets to the floor, scaring
the flies looking for something to eat amidst his things.
"I thank you," Homer said.
"Tell that to Cesar," Miguel said.
Homer nodded. "And the person sending me to hell."
He moved amidst the boxes and other things that had arrived that morning, thinking of
his dilemma of a world lost in time.
"I know of the equations of probability," he said.
He showed his employee some of the diagrams he had found in the books, like the
drawings he had found in the floor in the beginning of time.
"I know about the waves," Homer said.
They were made of the strings inhabiting the atoms making his body and everything
else around him.
"Hurrah to time," he said.
Miguel shrugged. "I don't understand."
Homer opened a book with the equations of matter being particles under someone's
observation.
"You and your books," Miguel said.
He left Homer alone with his thoughts of whatever might have happened during his
journey to the city, as a girl with long black hair came in the shop.
"Can I help you?" Homer asked.
"I'm just looking," she said.
The light of the sun showed her curves through the dress, bringing him memories of
the world he had lost.
"These clothes might suit you," he said.
He showed her a few things he had brought from the port, hoping to interact with her
sometime in the future.
"They are nice," she said.

57
Her hands caressed the things Cesar found in his journeys around the world, showing
some parts of her body he could only dream about.
"The soldiers killed my husband," she interrupted his reverie.
"That is terrible," he said.
He admired her legs under the black skirt she must have bought in a charity shop,
selling everything cheaper than anywhere else.
"I'm sorry," he said.
This woman had suffered at the hands of the government, doing bad things to the poor
people of the slums.
"The tights are a present," he said.
She shrugged. "I don't want them."
Women behaved unpredictably in Homer's life, when he wanted to love them for an
eternity.
"Mr. Homer," she said. "I have a family to feed."
She headed for the door, her hips swaying to the rhythm of imaginary music as
Homer's soul despaired for her body.
"I must go back to my children," she said.
She opened the door with delicate hands, made rough by scrubbing her children's
clothes.
"I'll give you money," he said.
She gave Homer some time to study her body in more detail, the light of the sun
letting him see a some other things hiding under her clothes.
"You must help my people," she said.
"I wouldn't know what to do."
"You do," she said. "You have the money."
He put his hand in his pocket, where his wallet had to be at that moment in time.
"Wait a minute," he said.

58
He crashed with Miguel, while trying to stop her from leaving the shop and the boxes
of coca he had in his hands fell to the floor.
"She is a widow," Homer said.
"That must be the Indian spell," Miguel said.
"I have to find her," Homer said.
"Find who?"
"The widow."
"First you are lost in time." Miguel said. "And now you chase a widow."
Homer looked for the bicycle he kept in the backyard, hoping to find the woman he
had lost.
"Tell me if the Indian comes back," he said.
Miguel shrugged. "He never will."

Homer builds houses

Homer cycled through the poor parts of the city, wondering about the woman he had
met in the shop, perhaps living in one of the huts held together with metal wires. He
slowed down, before disturbing a few dogs by the gutter.
"Can I help you?" a voice asked.
At first he saw no one, but then a little boy dressed in rags looked at Homer with dark
eyes, while taking a deep breath from a bag he held in his hands. They must have met in
the city centre or in the market, where Homer used to get a few things for the shop.
"This is good stuff," the boy said.
"Is it?" Homer asked.

59
"You can try it, mister" the boy said.
The child had to be ten or eleven years old, difficult to tell with all the mud covering
his face.
"Look mister," he said. "I want some money."
Homer found a few pesos he had earned that morning, between the remains of a
chewing gum he had.
"Do you know of any builders around here?" he asked.
The boy gestured at a few gamines playing with a ball, as a dog chased them around
the rubbish littering everything around them.
"It's behind those trees, mister" he said.
The children talked at the same time, annoying him with their games or things he did
not care about.
"Leave me alone," he said.
The first boy imitated his accent and his friends laughed.
"Go away," Homer said.
He tripped on something, the children's laughter interrupting his thoughts of revenge
for a world treating him so badly.
"I'll give you lots of money," he said.
His bicycle had to be waiting for him behind the bushes, unless someone had stolen it
in that place of hell.
"We want your first coin," they said.
"I don't know what you mean," Homer said.
The children gathered around him, their laughter bringing back the thoughts of hell in
his world.
"This will be their floor," they said. "We'll get cheap materials from the streets."
"That's stealing," Homer said.
"Nobody cares about poor people."
"I do," Homer said.

60
"You must have your reasons."
Homer listened to their plans for sheltering the widows from the dangers of the slums,
although they would not have any electricity, water, sewers or other amenities of the
modern world.
"What about the toilets?" he asked.
"Poor people don't care," they said.
Homer had to get back to his shop in the heart of the market, before something very
bad happened to his life.
"I want some widows," he said.
"We'll provide you with the houses and the widows," they said.
Homer imagined the houses sheltering the widows against the elements of the world,
while he touched their bodies, made by a God he did not comprehend.
"We'll build them in seven days," they said.
"That's good," Homer said.
"You must trust us."
Homer gave them a few more coins he found in his pockets, listening to their promises
for helping the poor women.
"We'll build nice huts," they said.
"I want houses," Homer said.
"Fine," they said.
They spoke at the same time of the things they would give the widows Homer loved
with his heart, even before he had made love to anyone of them.
"Once upon a time a man loved a woman and they lived in the paradise," he said.
"Then the serpent lured her to sin."
"We know that story," they said.
"And it is a lie," Homer said. "The serpent represents our fears for the world."
"You want to help the women," they said.
"I love them," Homer said.

61
It had been a good day for helping the world, when his bicycle waited in the dirt and
the children kept on talking about the houses they had to build in a few days.
"You don't know anything," Homer said.
He saw a hut amidst the mud of the street and some skinny dogs looking for scraps of
food in the dirt around them.
"Builders galore," Homer read.
A man appeared out of the darkness, holding a bag in his hands.
"You come to the right place," he said.
Homer steadied himself in between the bits of rubbish strewn in the floor, trying to
make sense of whatever had happened to him.
"Look mister," the man said. "Tell me what you want."
"He wants houses," one of the children said.
"I am a builder," the man said. "Houses are my business."
Homer slipped in the mud surrounding them.
"The huts won't have any water, electricity, or toilets," the man said.
"I know," Homer said. "The children told me that."
"What children?"
"The gamines."
"They are not engineers," the man said.
Homer read a paper with the latest news of the guerrilla war the country had been
fighting for some time, reality collapsing his world at that moment in time.
"We are made of particles and waves," he said.
"You must be mad," the man said.
Time and space had to be created by their thoughts and actions, collapsing the waves
of reality in a world in multiplicity.
"We build houses," the man said. "And not waves."
He showed Homer a picture of how the huts might look in a few days of work, if the
rains did not take everything away.

62
"They must be made of bricks," Homer said.
The man shook his head. "That is expensive."
Homer had come here to protect her against the world, as they wrote in a notebook
they had.
"I want widows," he said.
"We'll look for them," they said.
They had to start to work within the next seven days, before the council officials made
any problems with their stupid laws.
"And you create reality," they said.

Homer attends a party

The inhabitants of the slums admired the young entrepreneur and as Journalists heard
of the widow's helper, Homer became more famous than Saint Francis of Assize. The
papers spoke of the five chalets destined to redeem the widows of the violence.
"We admire you," the journalists said. "First you marry yourself and now you help the
widows."
"I have my talents," Homer said.
He talked to the women and smiled at the children in front of the huts, as the
photographers snapped the moment for posterity.
"Homer's like a father to us," the women said with tears in their eyes.
"Thank you," Homer said.
One of them hugged him for some time, the essence of baby powder and cologne
entering his body while a child wriggled in her arms.
"I could be in the gutter," she said.

63
"Hurrah to Homer," they said.
She made him frantic with desire, before getting ready to talk to the press in the slums,
smelling of bad things at that time of the morning.
"Hurrah to Homer," they said.
The journalists gathered around him, asking about the huts he had built for the widows
in just a few days.
"I wanted to help the families," Homer said.
They wrote the story he told them of his love for the women living a life of hell in the
street, where her children had to eat from the rubbish they found around them.
"They had to go to bed hungry," Homer said.
"It's the truth," the woman with the child in her arms said.
The huts with no toilets or electricity seemed like heaven for these folks used to sleep
in the street corners, while defecating in the plots of land between the houses of the rich
people.
"We used to sleep in the sewers," the woman said.
The press went quiet, listening to her suffering on the dark nights spent in the
darkness, running away from the police threatening their lives.
"That is incredible," the journalists said.
Homer showed them a few of the pictures of the families living in the street, as the
press recorded the moment for posterity.
"I visited them in the sewers," he said.
The journalists heard some more of Homer's adventures, while looking for the
families he wanted to help.
"Then I wanted to build the houses," he said.
He showed them the plans he had made in order to protect the women and their
families from the dangers they faced in a world full of haters.
"I found the builders to build them in seven days," Homer said. "Then I went to get
the women."

64
"They were in the sewers," one of the journalists said.
Homer nodded. "They hid from the police."
He had a few pictures of the women cowering in the pipes full of excrement, trying to
protect the children the militaries wanted to kill.
"That is terrible," the journalists said.
Homer took them around the houses the builders had built in seven days, pausing to
greet some of the families gathered by the doors.
"What about the rubble?" the journalists asked.
"The workmen will take it away," Homer said.
"We hope so."
A car frightened some of the pigs frolicking in the dirt, sending them towards the
crowds of people and the apostle of the poor.
"It must be the bishop," Jaramillo said.
A short man dressed in a black gown and with a crucifix dangling from his belt left the
vehicle, other priests following him down the path to the huts.
"I want to see Homer," the bishop said.
After a short silence, Homer stepped forwards, taking care of his clothes.
"I'm pleased to meet you, Excellency," he said.
He didn't know whether to kiss the expensive rings the man had in his fingers, or to
kneel in front of him.
"We have helped the families, Excellency" he said.
"That's good," the bishop said.
"They are building some more houses over there," Homer gestured at an empty space,
where a few shadows hid behind a wall.
"They didn't have anywhere to go," he said.
"I see," the bishop said.
His Excellency reached the woman and her children hiding in the mud, the cameras
recording the moment for posterity.

65
"We were afraid," she said.
"God loves you," the bishop said.
He blessed her in the name of the father, the son and the Holy Spirit, promising to take
her away from the poverty she must have experience for most of her life.
"My children love you, Excellency," she said.
The bishop touched her erect teats with trembling fingers, hoping to have some
satisfaction from God's children, even if hell might be waiting for his actions at the end
of the road.
"Will I go straight to heaven, Excellency?" she asked.
The bishop nodded. "You'll sit next to Saint Peter up there."
"Amen," she said.
The bishop's holy water absolved her sins, bringing Jesus Christ into her life, as the
country followed the events in the first radio station in the city.
"Homer is our benefactor," she said.
"He's a saint," the bishop said.
He offered her his ring, covered in people's saliva and other things not good for her
health.
"I'll see you in the church tomorrow," he said.
"Thank you Excellency," she said.
Homer admired the bishop, a man of integrity battling to save humankind from hell,
while helping the people of the slums.
"God wants you in the kingdom of heaven," the bishop said.
The woman knelt in the floor, waiting for the bishop to do something for her soul
suffering in iniquity.
"Jesus Christ loved his people," the bishop said. "He performed miracles to help them
to enter the kingdom of God."
"Amen," a few people said.

66
The woman hugged her children, as his Excellency caressed some things he dreamed
of desecrating.
"I have written this letter to be read for a few weeks in the churches of the city," he
said.
"Dear children," he said.
"Our flock has been invaded by the wolves the scriptures talk about, atheists and
sinners leading my herd through the wrong path, whilst filling our churches with orphans
and widows.
"You have to remember the Egyptian children, punished by God for a crime they had
not done in the annals of time, but He hasn't abandoned us yet.
"A foreigner called Homer is asking for your solidarity in order to help the widows
and orphans of the violence in our lives.
"You must send money to the Episcopal palace at the end of the road.
"We will have God's blessing for every million pesos you give to Homer's mission on
earth, while helping the widows in their time of need.
His Highness, Pomponio, bishop of the city."
The letter had a good effect. Homer received many times the money he had spent in
the houses, even if the priests took a percentage of the earnings, his face becoming
synonymous with pain and endurance, as the citizens filled millions of petitions asking
for social solidarity. The governor with all his cabinet marched to the Widow's Houses,
failing to notice the absence of toilets, water or electricity.

67

Amelia's wishes
Homer

had

to

attend

party

at

the

widow's

housing,

a chance for getting more money for his charity even if he had to endure people talking
nonsense for hours.
"You are clever," he said to himself.
He did his exercises, touching his toes a hundred times, good for his health like they
said in the radio he had bought in the market, while conquering the evils harassing him in
his line of time.
"One, two, three," Homer said.
He had gained a few kilos after in his journey to find the boats in the port, while
looking at the diary he had of his adventure through time.
"I must have forgotten everything," he said.
He looked for something about time dilation in the books his father kept in the house,
the ones he used to read during the evenings.
"What is time?" Homer asked himself.
He thought of the other universes he must have created in his wonderings through the
continuum, while helping the widows living in the sewers in that path of reality.
I love myself too much, Homer thought, wondering if he got rich in that reality he
shared with Miguel's family.
One dot is one dimension, he drew a dot in a paper he had found amidst the garbage.

68
I join that dot to another one and is the second dimension, Homer made a line
between the dots in the paper the way he had seen in a book. He must have been having
a nice time amidst the boxes of merchandise, when wandering in the realms of time in his
way back from the port.
Miguel and his daughter Amelia, interrupted his musings of other places in the
continuum he might have seen in his travels in time.
"Good morning," they said.
"You are early," Homer said.
"What are you doing?" Amelia asked.
She was Miguel's youngest daughter, the one helping her mother most days of the
week, as Maria cleaned the shop.
"That is a funny writing," she said.
She studied Homer's drawings, her dark eyes trying to understand the message he
wanted to impart to humankind.
"I am thinking of width," he said.
He drew a cube, the way he had learned in the classes Father Ricardo held in his
church every Saturday.
"It has many dimensions," he said.
Homer then drew a teserac, that's what his father had called the two cubes linked
together by lines of another dimension.
"That is silly," she said. "No one wants that."
He explained about the things hidden from their senses, when he had to get ready for
the world and the breakfast waited on the table by his bed.
"You are famous," Amelia said.
The child showed him the newspaper her father must have purchased in the way to the
shop, full of pictures of Homer and the widows, as she read aloud some of the sums of
money people had promised to Homer to help the families living in poverty.
"You are rich, Uncle Homer," she said.

69
"That's the widow's money," Miguel said.
Homer ate his breakfast, reading the papers and wandering about his speech to the
nation.
"She wants to join the army," Miguel interrupted his thoughts.
Homer had been thinking of the widows and his words didn't make any sense. The
child could become a lawyer or an accountant instead of being a soldier.
"I'll pay for your university," he said. "The army is for men."
He discussed her education as Miguel checked the boxes of coca stored by the wall,
ready to be sold to the customers.
"The army is the best university," Amelia said.
She marched around the shop, chanting and saluting them military style.
"One, two, one two," she said.
"It must be her age," Miguel said.
"I hope so," Homer said.
He practiced his speech in front of the mirror, hoping the rich people in the city gave
him money for his labour of love.
"I am the apostle of the oppressed," he said.
Amelia would remember his words one day, when the world collapsed around her in
an explosion of colours.
"I like it, Uncle Homer," she said.
"Thank you."
"Is that all?" Miguel asked.
Homer thought those first words had been the best, while looking at the child
marching around the room, like the soldiers she might have seen somewhere around the
city.
"One, two, one, two," she said.
The sun shone through the curtains Homer had found in the market in a day lost in his
thoughts, thinking him of the people waiting for his words in the library.

70
"Two and two are seven," he said.
"You don't know anything," she said. "Two and two are four."
Homer explained how things did not make sense sometimes, like losing time in his
journey to the port.
"You got lost," she said.
"It must have taken the wrong path through time," he said.
Homer drew some more lines in the picture he had made of the road he followed in
reality amidst many others leading him to the future.
"Think of your party," Miguel said.
"Can I come?" Amelia asked.
"It's for adults."
"Not fair," she said.
Homer had to practice the speech about his journey to another land long ago.
"Ladies and gentleman," he said. "I want to save the world."
"Bravo," Amelia said.
"Thanks," he said.
"Look for the shadows, Uncle Homer," she said.
"What shadows?"
She gave him a description of the creatures coming to get him in the middle of the
night in order to take him to the hell surrounding them.
"It's already happened," he said.
"Fractal path," she said. "Lead him to the best future in time."
Amelia opened the old bible Father Ricardo had brought to the shop, while reciting a
few prayers to Jesus in heaven.
"You would not pray to the devil,"! he said.
"He's bad, Uncle Homer," she said.
"How do you know?" he asked her.
"I have seen his tail," she said.

71
"It must have been a rat," he said.
Amelia started to read the first page of genesis, her voice getting lo-st in the rumble of
the cars going on to somewhere outside the shop, when he had to prepare his speech in
the library.
"Think of the tesserac," she interrupted his thoughts.
"It belongs to another dimension," he said.
"That is what you keep on saying," she said. "You must trust in God."
She seemed to have forgotten her wished to become a soldier one day in the future
they had chosen, amongst the other paths of the universe.

72

The banquet
"We were waiting for you," a young woman said in the town hall.
Homer followed her to the podium, interrupting a fat man's speech about the best way
to help the poor people of the city.
"Ladies and gentlemen," the governor said. "We have the apostle of the poor."
"Hurrah to Homer," people said.
He waited for the applause to die down, while looking at an old bible, full of miracles
he had to replicate once more.
"Our father who art in heaven," he said. "Hallowed be thy name."
"Thy kingdom will come," the governor said.
"Give us our daily bread," people said.
Homer felt lost amidst the noises of the world, the shadows of the library welcoming
him to a land of hope, before everything went black and he found himself in the jungle.
"Mister Homer," someone said.
A girl held a handkerchief full of cologne to his nose.
"You fainted," she said.
"It must have been the excitement," he said.
The girl brought him an aspirin, after helping him to sit down at one of the tables,
when the widows had to be saved from the fires of hell.
"You must relax," she said.
"Come to bed with me," he said.
"Never."
"I won't get better."
"Suit yourself."

73
She left him with the guests, and a few of the seoritas helping to save the sheep in
Jesus' name, by serving some food to the important people in the city.
"This is for you, Mr. Homer," a girl said.
She offered him a plate of hot soup, posing with the bowl in her hands for the
photographers to keep that moment for posterity.
"Would you like to say something to the nation?" the radio presenter asked.
"I want to send my regards to my mum and dad and grandma, listening to the
proceedings in the slums," she said.
"I'll help them to get good jobs," Homer said.
"Thanks," she said.
The beauty queen of Colombia, the queen of the potato, the yucca, the corn, the
banana, and the peas, brought them some more boiling water and cold bread for the value
of thousands of pesos, as God might absolve their sins in this life in preparation for the
next one.
"Are you feeling better?" one of the beauty queens asked.
"I want to kiss you," Homer said.
She offered him her lips, the noise of the party fading away, when he wanted to touch
her breasts and other things.
"Enjoy your lunch, Mr. Homer," she said.
She had long black hair, held together by a few ribbons women used to decorate
themselves.
"You must sit here," Homer showed her an empty seat next to his.
"I love you," he said.
"Having fun?" someone asked.
Jaramillo appeared by his side, interrupting some of the people enjoying the festivities
in order to raise money for the widows.
"I have heard you were lost in time," the journalist said.
Homer nodded. "I lost a few months of my life."

74
He held the girl's hand, while talking to his friend, hoping to be invited to her
bedroom that night.
"Nobody loses time," Jaramillo said.
The girl disentangled herself from his hands, muttering something about helping in the
festivities, as Homer tried to explain his adventure inside the truck to his friend.
"I went to sleep in the truck," he said. "And woke up by the road."
"Aguardiente is bad for your health," Jaramillo said.
"I was not drunk," Homer said.
The orchestra played salsa and some of the men started to dance with the girls,
interrupting the conversation.
"I have to attend a beauty pageant tonight," Jaramillo said.
Homer nodded. "You'll win."
"Bastard," Jaramillo said.
He listened to Homer's narrative of whatever had happened inside the truck, including
the part of the waves of matter creating some other universes.
"That is a brilliant excuse," Jaramillo said.
"I don't know what happened," Homer said.
"You were lost in time."
"That is the truth."
"We want to take more pictures of you," one of the journalists said.
Homer posed with the girls, forgetting the problems he had faced in the way back
from the port.
"Come to my shop tonight," Homer told them.
He gave them his address, before taking a few spoonfuls of the liquid in the bowls,
made in name of the widows he wanted to help.
"Disgusting," he said.
"It will make you rich," Jaramillo said.

75
Homer finished with the soup, hoping no one offered him another one in the most
important day of his life.
"You are beautiful," he said to one of the beauty queens serving the food.
He made her sit by his side, spilling some of the soup she had in the tray.
"Careful," she said.
"Think of your future," he said. "I'll make you rich."
The girl put the tray on the nearest table, listening to what he had to say about the
money she could have in her life.
"It's my turn now," the coffee queen said, her breasts trembling under her gown.
"Are you a virgin?" Homer asked.
He kissed her, savouring her tongue and most of her mouth, as she let him touch her
breasts.
"Once upon a time I came to this country," he said to the queen of the rice puddings.
"I like foreigners," she said.
"My parents had to work all hours in order to feed me," he said.
The girl sat on his lap, listening to that trip he had undertaken at an early age, while
the seagulls flew in the sky.
"I've came to this world with a purpose," he said.
"You have to save the widows," she said.
He explored her body, telling her all about the times he played by himself around the
tree in the backyard.
"This is my fractal path through life," he said.
"I don't understand," she said.
He explained how his life divided every time he thought of something, while tasting
the cheap toothpaste she must have bought in the market.
"He wants to take you to bed," Jaramillo said.
The girl let him feel her teats, his dreams of being the richest man in the world
vanishing from his mind at that moment in time.

76
"Do you want some more soup?" Another girl asked.
The queen of the rice pudding pushed her away, and the tray with the soaps nearly fell
to the floor.
"Don't interrupt us," she said.
"You want his money," the other girl said.
She stuck her fingers in the air, in defiance, as Homer touched more of the rice
pudding queen's body, hidden in her garments.
"I was born under a dark sun," Homer said.
"We know that," they said.
The photographers took a few more pictures of Homer touching beauty queens, while
telling the nation how much he loved the widows.
"We have collected a million pesos," a voice interrupted the proceedings.
"Hurrah to Homer," everyone said.
People in the restaurant sobbed, the radio audiences cried, and the newspaper readers
would cry the next day, while some of the widows who liked the bishop went to live in
the huts built with the money. Homer had never made so much cash in a few moments of
ecstasy and glory.
He took the microphone amidst the applause of the public, celebrating his luck.
"Dear people," he said. "We have gathered here today to celebrate our triumph against
the poverty in the city."
"Hurrah to Homer," they said.
"What will you do with the money?" Jaramillo asked.
"I'll build more houses," Homer said.
Homer described how the women would have the comforts of the world, before the
sun exploded in a day lost in the future.
"Amen," they said.
The party went on, when the beauty queens brought him more hot water with things
floating on it and Homer got to touch their bodies.

77

Tragedy
Jealousy reigned in heavens and as they heard of Homer's good work, bad angels
opened the gates of rain over the city, where a few widows and orphans drowned, the
newspapers calling it a calamity of nature. God takes away innocent lives, the headlines
said, exalting the women's bravery on confronting the elements in their homes. The
wooden coffins would be lowered into the ground later that day without any ceremony.
Homer had been sleeping, when someone knocked at the door early in the morning.
Miguel must have forgotten his keys, he thought while turning over in his bed.
"It's me," a voice said through the keyhole.
"Go away," Homer said. "Whoever you are."
"It rained last night," the voice said.
"I don't care," Homer said.
"The river burst its banks," the person said.
"I'm not a plumber."
"The widows died."
Homer opened the door to the outside world, as the journalist came in the shop,
looking like an angel of death after killing innocent children with his sword.
"It's the truth," Jaramillo said.
He put a few newspapers on the table, sending a cup of coffee to the floor.
"I am sorry," he said.
Homer wiped the table and the floor, listening to the events of the night, whilst trying
to keep his composure in view of the terrible things happening to his world.
"Look at the papers," Jaramillo said.
Homer read the tales of doom amidst the coffee stains in the page, next to the picture
of a woman trying to save her children in the mud.
"It must have been terrible," he said.

78
Jaramillo read the names of the victims and of the people becoming destitute during
the night.
"The rest of the families are in the church at the moment," he said.
"How much do they want?" Homer asked.
"Money won't buy their lives."
Homer sat at the table, imagining all kinds of things happening to his life after the
tragedy in a night he might never forget.
"I must go away," he said.
"Where will you go?" Jaramillo asked.
"Cesar can help me."
Homer looked for the phone under the papers and other things he must have left
around the table, sending a few more things to the floor.
"Can you drive me to the builders?" Homer asked.
"I thought you wanted to go," Jaramillo said.
Homer sat down in the middle of the things he had found in the mess around him.
"I'll build new homes," he said.
He went on to talk of his project for helping the women God had forgotten, when
punishing the city for the sins of the world.
"You have to talk to the people," Jaramillo said.
"I will."
"When?"
Homer hoped he had not lost another month in the limbo he must have visited, whilst
travelling in the back of the truck.
"Six months must have gone past," he said.
"They have not."
"Are sure?" Homer asked.
Jaramillo showed him a calendar he must have found amidst the rubbish in the floor,
mumbling something about time.

79
"Someone wants to see you," he said.
"They want my blood now" Homer said.
A woman appeared at the door, interrupting his thoughts of the police arresting him for
the women's death..
"I'm Alicia," she said.
"It's early," he said.
Alicia sat in one of the chairs around the table, showing some of her legs, while she
talked.
"The rains killed the widows," she said.
"I know," he said.
"Would you like a cup of tea?" he asked.
Alicia showed a bit of her legs and other parts of her body he would like to explore, if
God let him enjoy the world once more.
"This tragedy is killing me," she said.
"It wasn't my fault," he said.
She found some books in her bag, explaining the role of the weather in the fate of
human beings at the mercy of the elements.
"This is the strangest path I've had," Homer said.
Alicia stopped her monologue, looking at him with dark eyes.
"Homer thinks we are particles and waves," Jaramillo said.
"What about God?" she asked.
She opened a bible she had in her bag, a few of the papers with prayers falling at her
feet.
"We must pray for the souls of the deceased," she said.
"I thought you had to tell me something."
"I do," she said. "Jesus loves you."
He savoured her tongue, sent by God to erase his sins in his pain, while thinking of the
women he had learned to love.

80
Jaramillo made his way to the door, taking care of his clothes.
"Think of the widows," he said.
"He's a saint," she said.
Homer shrugged. "Thank you."
No one would blame him for the families, living in the huts without any toilets, as he
felt the softness of her chest, lost in the tendrils of time.
"It must have been God's will," she said.
They argued over what he had done in order to encourage the rains, when he wanted
to make lover to her.
"Look at this pages," he said.
He showed her the papers he kept in a wardrobe since the day his invisible friend had
come into his life aeons ago.
"This is weird," she said.
"My friend wrote them," he said.
They didn't have a beginning or an end, like Father Ricardo's sermons on Sunday
mornings, where the speed of light took him to other dimensions and the hell he despised
so much.
"Jaramillo must have told you to come," he said.
"I don't know him," she said.
It must have been a coincidence or the path of time had gone through the right place
that time.
"I have lost a few months of my life," he said.
"I don't understand."
He told her of waking up in the future, after going to sleep in a truck, the strangest
thing happening in his life since his appearance in the world.
"You must have taken drugs," she said.
"Nonsense," he said. "I never take that."

81
The skirt she wore felt soft under his touch, like the wings of an angel or the clothes of
Santa Theresa during her divine inspirations.
"I want to rebuild the slums," he said.
She nodded. "They're in tatters."
They stopped by the bags of coca Miguel must have left there the night before, his
hands reaching into the recesses of her body while thinking of the tragedy the devil had
sent to the world.
"You must appeal to the public," she said.
"Where?"
"In the library."
"I wouldn't know what to say," he said.
"We have gathered here today to remember those brothers and sisters losing their lives
in a calamity of nature," she said. "They will go straight to heaven, because the meek
and the poor are welcome in his kingdom."
Homer caressed her breasts softer than anything he had known during his time on the
earth.
"Mr. Homer," she said. "We are not alone."
He smiled. "God watches over us."
He entered her, interrupting a line of ants taking their food to the colony they had by
the pond, as she prayed to God living in heaven or it must have been his imagination,
fuelled by the coca leaves he loved so much.
"Ahhhh," he said.
"You've raped me," she said.
They rested on the floor beside the tree, a few birds watching them from the wall
Homer had built to stop the neighbours from harassing him during the night.
"You will bring the end of the world," she said.
"I hope so," he said.

82
She arranged her clothes and her thoughts, before anyone saw them sinning in the
backyard.
"I came to offer you my support," she said.
"Thank you," he said.
"You must forget this ever happened," she said.
He nodded his head. "I will do that."

The widow's business

Homer promised to build more huts for the women punished by the rains. It had been
a tough ride from the moment he had built the huts for the benefit of the poor people in

83
the slums, the rains finishing with the dreams he had of taking them out of the squalor
consuming their lives.
The widow's business benefited his finances. The women had to sign a few
documents but most of them couldn't read, so he had to wait, while they scribbled their
names under a few pages of legal language they couldn't understand. On that particular
day, Homer waited for them to sign the documents leaving him free of the taxes
punishing his life from the moment he had inherited his parent's shop.
"Would you like to eat with us?" one of the women asked.
Homer had to show the nation what a kind man he was, even though he could get an
infection from the dirt.
"It would be an honour," he said.
"We love you," she said.
He followed her inside her hut, admiring her legs under a black skirt she must have
bought in one of the charity shops Father Ricardo ran on Sundays.
"Would you like a cup of coffee?" she asked.
"Thank you," he said.
She disappeared amidst the horrors around him, while the children played with the
garbage they found in the streets.
"I can show you my rabbit," one of them said.
"Do you have a rabbit?" Homer asked.
The child nodded. "We rescued him from the sewer."
A rodent looked at him from the child's hands, as he put the papers on the table and the
woman appeared with two cups on a tray.
"You must have a cup of coffee first," she said.
Homer took one of the cups she offered him, hoping the hot water had killed the
germs.
"Thank you," he said.

84
He didn't want to catch cholera, dysentery or something else lurking in her home,
flooded by the rains, while listening to her narrative of that terrible night.
"We are lucky to be alive," she said.
Homer put the cup on the table, thinking of the woman and her family running away
from the water God must have sent on the world.
"My eldest daughter woke me up," she said.
The rodent ran between his legs, spreading rabies or some other decease in a second of
madness, while he touched her breasts.
"Mr. Homer," she said.
"I'll give you money," he said.
The woman thought about it for a few moments, before taking him to a room without
any windows at the back of the hut, as boxes of rubbish blocked all the available space
around them.
"I have found another one," a little boy interrupted, a rodent looking at him from his
hands.
"Antonio has been living with us for some time," the woman said.
"Who?"
"The rat."
Homer studied the shadows around him, expecting to see more things behind the
boxes.
"Can I do something for you?" she asked.
Homer spent the next few minutes feeling inside her bra, before slipping his hands to
her pants. She opened his trousers with trembling fingers.
"It's a monster," she said.
"You are welcome."
She sucked the thing for a few moments of bliss, the world losing its meaning in the
best orgasm he ever had, before giving her a few pesos in order to show his appreciation
for her service to humanity.

85
"I thank you," she said.
He didn't know why she thanked him, and after wiping his hands with a towel she
gave him, he took some papers out of his bag.
"I want you to sign these forms," he said.
"I can't read Mr. Homer."
"It's to improve your lives."
"You are a saint."
She signed them with trembling hands, ready to give him some more pleasure, if the
children did not interrupt them.
"Mum," a child said. "The baby got stuck in the toilet."
"I didn't know you had a toilet," Homer said.
She shrugged. "We call it the latrine."
She told him a long story of her husband being killed, after running away from his
enemies in the city.
"He never got a chance," she said.
"I'm sorry," he said.
He was taken to the mountains by someone selling coca leaves, when he wanted to get
the money to feed his family.
"Are you my dad?" the child asked.
"He's not," the woman said.
She cooked some agua de panela in order to fortify their lives against the hunger
killing them.
"This is like a war zone most of the time," she said.
Homer hoped the children did not spoil his clothes with the dirty toys they had in the
mud consuming them.
"Thank you, for signing the papers," he said.
"It's a pleasure," she said.

86
He left as the children played with their rats in the backyard, provided by the almighty
on the day of creation. The papers the women signed left him out of reach of the income
tax, helping him to bring goods free of tax into the country inside big boxes with a cross
on them: This food is for the poor of Colombia. Look after it!
Sacks full of wheat arrived sometimes but they usually contained merchandise. Sport
cars were smuggled with frozen food,' written on them and any food in the boxes would
be sold at high prices to Homer's customers. He brought Swiss watches, Scotch whisky,
French Wines, and tinned food from all over the world, televisions, videos, pants, bras
and other things to sell in his shop.
Homer's business became a world bazaar, a Mercedes Benz, the best wine and fine
French pants were next to the boxes of coca from the mountains, while the custom
officials got whisky, cigarettes and sometimes cheques for Christmas. What a remarkable
man!
Cesar's old boats had been replaced by three new and powerful ships: Odysseus, Ajax,
Diogenes and Cyclops. They traded in goods. Homer slept better during the nights,
counting and recounting the day's earnings in his dreams, and getting ready for
conquering the world.

Lola
The public got to know the man helping the widows he had saved from the gutter, as
he talked in the radio of his love for the people living at the mercy of society.
"I think of the widows all the time," Homer said.

87
People showered him with money every time he cried in the studio, his face becoming
synonymous with charity as the papers cashed on his fame. In that particular day he had
gone to the market, looking for a few things he needed in his shop, amidst the noise and
pollution of the city.
"How are the widows?" someone asked.
Homer saw a small man, dressed in tattered clothes, pretending to be busy amongst
the people looking for something in the market.
"They're fine," Homer said.
"Everybody knows the rains killed them," the man said.
"That's not true," Homer said. "God decided to save a few of them."
Homer did not believe in a creator punishing them for things they could not
comprehend, while not proving his existence to the beings inhabiting the planet he had
apparently made in a few days but he had to satisfy the people around him.
"It's a pity they drowned," the man said.
He kicked a stone the devil must have put in his way in order to show Homer how
much he hated the rains sending the women and their families to hell.
"I have built an few more huts," Homer said.
"I know," the man said. "I saw it in the papers."
A young girl moved amidst the stalls, letting Homer admire her curves through her
dress, like the rest of the men in the street had to be doing at that moment in time.
"She's beautiful," he said.
She ignored the men whistling and telling her how beautiful she was.
"I love her," Homer said.
That sentence brought comfort to his soul, as she disappeared down the road, like a
ghost from another age tempting him with her charms.
"She's called Lola and works in a shop," the man told him.
"How do you know?" Homer asked.
"Everyone loves Lola," the man said.

88
She had to work hard in order to get the money to pay her debts, when Homer loved
her more than the universe.
"She has a sergeant," the man said. "He commands an army of bullies."
Homer imagined loving her in another world, in spite of the sergeant chasing him to
the end of eternity.
"I will lead you to her," the man said.
Homer had to pay a small price in order to get the sexiest girl in town, as Father
Ricardo went past them.
"Mass is starting in a few minutes," the priest said.
"I have to do something else," Homer said.
The priest stopped for a moment, as Homer explained about the girl he had just seen
in the street.
"She's called Lola," he said.
"Lola?" the priest asked.
"She lives with her mother," Homer said.
"I know," The priest said.
Homer had lost the man leading him to Lola, amidst the rest of the world at that time
of the morning.
"You must stop thinking of women," the priest said.
He explain the word of God, sent to them by Jesus Christ, his only son, even though
they were the same person.
"It's confusing," Homer said.
The priest blessed him in the name of the father, the son and the holy spirit, because
Homer had to repent of his sins, before meeting God in heaven or the devil in hell.
"You must come to confession," Father Ricardo said.
"I will do that," Homer said.
"He sent his only son to die for our sins."
"I know," Homer said.

89
"Why don't you live by his commands then?"
"I'm helping the widows," Homer said.
"You are making money out of them," Father Ricardo said.
He reminded Homer of the things Jesus had done in order to make sure his soul went
to heaven after his death somewhere in time.
"We'll end up somewhere," Homer said.
They had arrived at the church, as a few birds looked for something to eat by the
fountain.
"I have to find her," Homer said.
"Who?"
"Lola."
"You must love Jesus Christ."
Father Ricardo told him of God giving them his commandments so that they could
have life eternal by defeating death.
"I am more interested in life," Homer said.
"We must talk about that one day," Father Ricardo said.
Homer looked for the man who had told him about Lola, amidst the people doing their
shopping at that time of the morning.
"Come to mass now," Father Ricardo interrupted his reverie.
"I want to see Lola," Homer said.
The priest led him down the street at the back of the church, talking of the love the
creator had bestowed upon his soul.
"You know her," Homer said.
Father Ricardo nodded. "She comes to confession sometimes."
Homer imagined Lola telling her sins to the man seating behind the confessionary
window, the secrets of her life being disclosed to a stranger she did not know.
"God wants you to love him," the priest said.

90
Homer looked for the loose change he might have forgotten in his pockets, after
buying the paper and some other things in the shops, as Father Ricardo talked of his
imaginary friend giving him advice on how to live his life.
"I want Lola," he said.
"Lola, Lola," the priest said. "Can't you think of anything else?"
"She's beautiful."
The priest shrugged. "Beauty is superficial."
"She might be intelligent," Homer said.
They moved down the road, amidst the taxi drivers waiting for anyone to hire them
and the people doing their shopping along the road.
"She works there." The priest said.
Homer saw the small shop, with a few mannequins in the windows, waiting for the
customers to buy its merchandise.
Lola served the customers looking for a bargain in the rows of clothes hanging by the
windows, while a woman counted the money.
"You must wait for her to finish," Father Ricardo said.
Homer did not like Father Ricardo giving him orders of how to live his life, when the
church had bestowed the inquisition on the world.

Lola's home
Homer waited for the girl in the corner, instead of counting his money in El Baratillo,
or looking after his ships in the port, when someone could rob his money or his trucks.
Then she appeared like a princess in her journey to somewhere in time, avoiding the
trucks and other vehicles bringing their merchandise to the city.
"You look like a million pesos," Homer said.

91
He didn't feel well, perhaps because he had masturbated the night before or the
thought of a million pesos, but any woman would fall in love with his money.
"Can I walk you home?" he asked.
He had to be strong in front of the most beautiful girl in town, because it was love at
first sight, like they said in the soap operas he heard in the radio Miguel had found in the
dump.
"My picture is in the papers," he said.
She stopped by the corner, giving Homer time to catch up with her, before making her
way through the traffic.
"I travel to the port in my trucks," he said.
"Mmm," she said.
She led him amidst the pigeons looking for breadcrumbs by the park benches, when
he wanted to talk about his feelings.
"I like you," he said.
She ignored him, before tripping on a stone and falling into Homer's arms, ready to
rescue her from iniquity.
"Thanks," she said.
"You can talk," Homer said.
They sat down in one of the benches, while she checked her knees and other parts of
her body affected by the fall.
"My mother's very strict," she said. "She's had a tough life."
He shrugged. "I imagine."
She showed him a picture of a man dressed in military clothes, looking regal in spite
of the spots in the paper.
"My father died when I was a baby," she said.
"It must have been difficult."
Homer wondered why she kept it in her bag, while telling her the story if his life,
since the moment he had opened his eyes to the darkness of the sun.

92
"It was a solar eclipse," he said.
"What is that?"
"The sun hides behind the moon," he said.
She reflected in his words, while telling him about her life in the slums since she had
opened her eyes to the poverty accosting her life.
"I was poor," he said.
He had to tell her of the times he had played by himself, his invisible friend
accompanying him during the darkness of his life.
"My mother knows all about you," she said.
The future had already happened amidst the things he had to accomplish in his life,
because the past, the present and the future shared the same dimension of time.
"I have seen your picture in the papers," she said.
Homer smiled. "I like helping poor people."
They moved along the street, as other men looked at her curves, and Homer thought
he had to be the luckiest person at that moment.
"This is my home," she pointed at a house with big windows.
Homer hoped she would invite him for a cup of coffee in whatever dimension they
happened to be, as a short woman appeared at the door.
"Mother," Lola said. "This is the apostle of the widows."
"I'm glad to meet you," the woman said.
Homer uttered a greeting, the smell of the roses by the porch overpowering everything
else around him.
"You must be tired," the woman said.
She led them into the sitting room, where a newspaper on a table showed the latest
news of the day.
"I'll make you some coffee," the woman said.
"Thanks mother," Lola said. "There are some biscuits in the tin."

93
The woman made her way along the corridor, as Lola led him into a small sitting
room.
"Your mother is nice," Homer said.
Lola nodded. "She's my best friend."
Homer explored her body under the pants her mother must have given her for her
birthday, as she talked of the slums, the worst thing happening to her.
"I love you," he said.
Lola shrugged. "We have just met."
Homer kissed her neck, following her chest down to her breasts, the best thing he had
at that time of the day.
"What's that?" she interrupted his urges to rape her.
"I must have caught them in the widows' houses," Homer said.
He thought she made a fuss out of nothing, when his business in the slums had left
him with money and lice.
"I'll get some poison tomorrow," he said.
"You must do it today," she said.
He nodded. "OK."
Lola prepared the bath, while her mother put a few glasses on the table, showing him
some of her breasts.
"My daughter wants to marry a rich man," she said.
"Mother," Lola said.
"We need the money," the woman said.
She told him all about their life before Lola's father had died of a heart attack. It must
have been an exciting time because she felt his body with trembling hands.
"Mother thinks our destiny is written somewhere," Lola said.
Homer shrugged. "I don't understand."
The woman showed him some papers she kept in a drawer, with diagrams of the life
line travelling through the universe.

94
"I knew you would come here today," she said.
She asked Homer to take one of the cards she had placed on the table, in order to find
out of the darkness surrounding his soul.
"I was born during a solar eclipse," he said.
She smiled. "That explains everything."
The electricity went off while Lola's mother shuffled the cards on the table.
"Did we pay the bill?" Lola asked.
"I never forget," the woman said.
The light of a candle illuminated the room, flickering around them like the ghosts the
woman wanted to scare from his soul.
"A child keeps you company in the darkness," she said.
"What happened before the darkness?" he asked.
The woman shrugged. "This is one of your life cycles."
Homer touched Lola's thighs, as the woman spoke of the universe and everything else
existing in all the dimensions of time.
"You must finish with the danger," she said.
"Stop it, mother," Lola said.
"It's Armageddon," the woman said.
The light came back, interrupting her visions of the future, the room with its cheap
curtains enlightening their lives.
"I must kill your lice now," Lola said.
"You have to rub this in his head," her mother said.
She showed her how to kill Homer's lice, touching a few parts of his body he had not
shown her yet.
"You'll never forget this night," she said.
"What do you mean?"
The woman showed him the cards telling her of things to come to all of them within
the curtains of time.

95
"I must sort out his life," Lola said.
"You want to be alone with him," the woman said.
She took away the cards, mumbling about the way her daughter repaid all the things
she had done for her, like the day she had been born.
"Bye mum," Lola said.
She took Homer to the shower, the yellowish tiles showing the wetness growing in the
recesses of the room.
"We are alone," she said.
Homer let her brush his hair, before pouring some of the lotion she must have bought
from the chemist some other time.
"I must kill the critters," she said.
He made love to her on the rug they used to protect their feet from the monsters
lurking on the floor.
"Ahhh," Lola said.
"Thank you," Homer said.
They rested by the boxes someone had brought to the toilet, a few books littering the
floor amidst the chaos of the room.
"The lice must be dead," he said.
Lola combed his hair with a comb she found in a wardrobe, telling him of the bad
things lice had brought to humankind.
"I'll make you rich," he said.
"That's a promise," she said.
"The future and the present exist at the same time," she said.
"I don't know what you mean," he said.
"You'll see."
That is what her mother had said, after reading the cards she had put on the table,
trying to get him to herself in those moments the light had gone away.
"I'll give you everything you want," he said.

96
She shrugged. "That won't change the predictions."

Homer is in love
Homer had never done so many things on the same day, a beautiful woman changing
the way he saw the world, as he bought some soap and had a bath, but he wanted Lola to
rub his back.
It's easy to fall in love but you don't know how it will end, when he forgot to bark
outside his neighbour's house, and sat next to the driver on his journey to the port, after
sleeping in a hotel that charged a few hundred pesos per night. Lola's charms had taken
him away from the sadness of his past in the backyard, the streets with the shops and
houses following each other up to the park, where the statue of Simon Bolivar guarded
the tramps sleeping by the fountain in a new era in his life.
"You can leave me here," Homer said.

97
The driver stopped by one of the shops selling all kinds of things to the customers.
"Hi, Mr. Homer," someone said. "How are the widows?"
He muttered something, while hurrying towards the shop at the end of the street.
"Huevones," Homer said.
Lola appeared amidst the crowd, like a queen in the space continuum of her existence.
"This is for you," he gave her a piece of coconut.
"Thanks," she said.
Homer read the disappointment in her face: a coconut wasn't the best thing from her
rich boyfriend, when he had all the money his business with the widows had brought
him.
"I want to talk to you," he said.
They stopped by the monument to Simon Bolivar, defying time with his stance against
the Spaniards in another path through life.
"I'm allergic to coconuts," she said.
Homer kicked a stone by the fountain, the noise disturbing the birds looking for some
worms amidst the benches.
"I'm sorry," he said.
She let him kiss her by the fountain, the ants and other things getting wet in the water
raining on them from above.
"I love you," he said.
"You married yourself," she said. "I've heard the rumours."
Homer kissed her, the park fading away from his thoughts, when he had to tell her
about the different dimensions of reality.
"It's the end of time," he said.
A group of people with their placards interrupted his thoughts of life and death in the
universe, before she ran back to her mother, waiting somewhere in time.
"Hurrah to the general," they said.

98
Lola moved amongst the general's supporters chanting for a better world, as the
pigeons chased each other across the fountain and the crowd wanted the general more
than anything on earth.
"We have to talk," she said.
He moved by the fountain, disturbing another couple having sex in one of the benches,
but he had to tell her so many things.
"Let's run away," he said.
"It will never happen," she said.
"How do you know?"
"I just do."
Lola stood under the drops of water making a rainbow at her feet, not caring about his
feelings or anything else in the world, as a band started to play at the other end of the
park.
"Let's go to my shop," he said.
Homer thought of the reasons she couldn't be with him, while the band played a
cumbia and some of the tramps danced with each other, when the paths of reality divided
all the time.
"Everything is an illusion," he said.
"Prove it," she said.
He led her away from the people chanting about the president doing bad things to the
nation, whist telling her of the hard life he had with his parents in another country.
"Hurrah to the revolution," the protesters said.
"I thought you wanted to talk," he said.
"I...," she said.
"Go on," he said.
"I don't know how to say it."
"Try me."

99
She said something, her voice drowned by the protesters' songs of a better world and
other things they wanted to change in the country.
"Father Ricardo is waiting for me," she said.
Lola clutched her bag, in case the protesters tried to rob her money, muttering a few
things amidst the noise.
"I'll see you tomorrow then," he said.
She shook her head. "I have this weird feeling."
Homer did not understand her premonitions, the sky looking dark and menacing for
the man conquering the world.
"Am I going to die?" he asked.
"It isn't that," she said.
"Tell me then."
"I can't explain."
He held her hands, when she had an appointment with Jesus Christ in the church and
he wanted to give her everything in the world.
"You like father Ricardo," he said.
Her laughter disturbed his thoughts of life and death, and other problems of his mind.
"Something will happen tonight," she said.
"Tell me what," he said.
He led her to a quieter place, away from the protesters songs against the government,
when she had so many things bothering her mind.
"I want to be with you forever," he said.
Lola cried, her tears going down her face and finishing in her cleavage.
The rebel's music sounded far and away, as a cricket sang its symphonies to his love
somewhere in its own reality.
"Do you need any money?" he asked.
She shook her head. "It isn't that."

100
Homer tasted her lips, caressing her breasts and other parts of her body, before
hugging her to his chest.
"I don't want to lose you," he said.
The noise of the band playing a cumbia interrupted his thoughts of doing something
else to her, whenever he had to time to do so.
"I need to see Father Ricardo," she said.
"You can see him tomorrow," he said.
Lola pretended she did not have anything to hide, while reapplying her make up and
brushing her hair.
"You love Father Ricardo," he said.
"Don't be silly," she said.
That now had to be replayed a zillion times all over the continuum of time, creating a
number of universes with different conclusions in all of its branches.
"I thought you wanted to tell me something," he said.
Lola stopped powdering her nose, listening to his confessions of love, in spite of
loving his money more than anything else.
"I'll meet you here tomorrow," she said.
Tomorrow must have happened in the place he inhabited outside of the place they
called their world, as she got ready to go.
"I'll give you money," he said.
That had not been the first time he tried to buy her love, the only thing she did not sell
to anyone in the universe.
"I have something to tell you," she said.
"You have been telling me that for some time."
Lola moved towards the street, going past the protesters waiting with their placards for
something to happen.
"I'll tell you tomorrow," she said.
"Tell me now," he said.

101
She left him alone with his thoughts of reality forking away, when he wanted to keep
her by his side for a few more minutes, the noise of the protesters fighting with the police
brought him back to reality.

Disgrace
Lola moved past the people doing their shopping in the market, Jesus Christ punishing
her for all the times she had ignored his teachings in search of the best things within her
path.
The men drinking aguardiente by the church followed her progress across the square
and towards God's house, where she had to confess her sins to the almighty hiding
between the pews. On entering the church, she looked for the confessionary amidst the
shadows, interrupted by the light of the candles burning by the Virgin Mary. As she knelt
down, she made a hole in one of the tights her mother had given her for her birthday.
"Oh no," she said.
"What is it?" a voice asked.

102
"I have sinned, father," she said.
Father Ricardo expected to hear a few more things the girl might have done in her life,
whilst wishing to go back to the refectory.
"You must pray," he said.
Putting her hands together, she uttered a prayer before the Lord took pity of a sinner
like her but she had something else bothering her mind.
"Has Homer had sex with the widows?" she asked.
Father Ricardo had to tell the truth whatever the consequences.
"He was sick," he said. "And the women helped him."
Lola punched the wooden decorations on the confessionary, leaving an ugly mark in
one of the pews by the Virgin's image after stamping on the wood.
"Father Ricardo will have to pay for it," an old lady said.
"Shut up," Lola said.
"Don't desecrate God's house," the woman said.
Lola had something else in her life. Her period had not come that month, the blood
refusing to stain her pants in spite of jumping from a sofa and eating hot potatoes with
mustard.
"I think I'm pregnant," she said.
Father Ricardo jumped at the sound of her voice. The girl had done it this time.
"What are you going to do?" he asked.
Lola wanted a termination, even though Father Ricardo had to exorcise the bad spirits
inside her.
"Don't tell Homer," she said.
"I don't understand," Father Ricardo said.
"I had sex with Homer, while Fray Serapio waited under the bed and the Sergeant in
the battalion loved me."
Father Ricardo was quiet for a moment, a fly disturbed the moment of truth, when the
girl had told him so many bad things.

103
"Fray Serapio practices coitus interruptus," she said.
Father Ricardo did not know what to say about the sexual life of a member of the
clergy in the moment of truth.
"You'll have to pray," he said.
Lola cried for her sins, as Father Ricardo looked at her legs and recited the rosary.
"I have to abort this baby," she muttered to herself.
Lola thought of the child in her entrails hurting Homer's plans of conquering the
world.
"Jesus Christ," she said. "I'll be a nun if you help me."
Thunder disturbed her prayers, the weather punishing her for having bad thoughts
about Jesus Christ, dying for her sins.
"Two and two are seven," she said.
Lola vomited, covering the pew with a mixture of beans and rice, the dress her mother
had given her for her birthday looking dirty with the remains of her lunch.
"What are you going to do?" Father Ricardo asked.
"I don't know," she said.
Lola had to trust the Lord, like everyone had told her since her birth in the slums.
"Homer will marry you," Father Ricardo said.
"That's nonsense," she said.
"Repeat after me," Father Ricardo said. "I won't get rid of this child."
Lola wanted to go home, but the priest asked her to keep the thing implanted in her
womb making her ill.
"I'll take you home," he said.
"Thanks," she said. "I'll manage."
She stood up, avoiding the vomit in the pew, and her stomach hurt her more than
anything else.
"I must bless you," Father Ricardo interrupted her thoughts.

104
He prayed to the invisible guy in the sky, helping them through the bad times coming
to the planet.
"God hates abortions," he said.
Lola cried for the baby she had in her womb, when she had to support her mother in
the recession.
"God will provide for it," Father Ricardo said.
"I don't know how he will," she said.
Lola dried up her tears with the handkerchief Homer had given her a few days ago,
Father Ricardo's words of wisdom leaving her sad in the worst day of her life.
"I'll see Homer tomorrow," she said.
He shrugged. "It might not come."
"How do you know?"
"I just do."
Lola had to go back home, the noise of thunder interrupting her thoughts of life and
death in the world.
"It has to be Armageddon," he said.

105

Lola's pain
Lola's mother danced to the music of an old radio, cleaning the house and thinking of
all the things Homer could get them with his money.
"Mira como baila el esqueleto," she sang.
The woman admired the record player her daughter's boyfriend had given them in the
last few days, while dusting the pictures in the mantelpiece, as Lola came in the room.
"Mother," she said. "I want to die."
The woman jumped, her heart skipping a few beats to the rythm of Carlos' Gardel's
voice.
"Something has happened." she said.
Lola clutched her tummy, before sitting in a chair by the door.
"I don't feel well," she said.
"It must be that food you buy in the market," her mother said. "I've read they cook
cats and dogs."
"You must not believe everything you read," Lola said.

106
She found a picture of Homer in the recesses of her bag, muttering a few things about
her boyfriend.
"He likes the widows," Lola said.
"He helps them," her mother said.
"That is his excuse."
Lola broke some of the presents Homer had given her, the coconut ending inside the
rubbish bin by the door.
"You have done this before," the woman said. "Can you remember the sergeant, the
policeman and the young lawyer?"
Lola shook her head.
"Mother," she said. "Homer is evil."
She cried for the love she had lost, her tears staining the dress she wore to go to her
job.
"He's the answer to our problems," the mother said.
Lola dissolved in a flood of tears for the things her lover had done to her, before
rushing to vomit in the toilet.
"The witch doctor will get rid of it," the woman said.
Lola's remains of her mascara remained under her eyes, as she wiped her face with
some Kleenex she had found in her bag, hoping to find a solution to her problems.
"Homer might marry you," the woman said.
"He's married to himself," Lola said.
She climbed up a ladder they had to get to the ceiling when the rains opened holes in
the roofing on bad days.
"You'll kill yourself," the woman said.
Lola thought of her words, her life being more important than Homer's lies.
"I've finished with him," Lola said.
She dried her tears, thinking of the child conceived in a moment of madness, even
though Homer might help them to buy the world with his money.

107
"The sergeant will beat him up tomorrow," Lola said.
The woman shook her head. "That's a mistake."
She put the cards on the table, telling her daughter how they might see the future,
before making the most important decision in her life.
The woman shuffled the cards, before putting them back on the table.
"You need a father for your baby," she said.
"The sergeant will do," Lola said.
Lola's mother put some more cards on the table, as her daughter rushed to vomit in the
toilet they had in the backyard.
"Homer's the richest man in town," the mother said.
"I don't care," Lola said.
"We need his money."
Lola shrugged. "Stop it, mum."
"It's the truth."
Homer had to be the best asset in their lives, according to whatever the mother saw in
the cards she had on the table.
"Let's pray," the woman said.
She lit a few candles by a picture of the last supper, Jesus Christ and his apostles
sitting around a table at the end of time.
"Let the rain purify his soul," the mother said.
They chanted to the spirits of the world, coming to life after the sins of humankind.
"I see something tonight," the woman said.
The two of them looked at the crystal ball on the table, the reflection of their faces
staring back at them.
"We'll surprise Homer in the morning," the mother said.
"It's confusing," Lola said.
"The paths of time are baffling."
"Mother," Lola said. "Will he go into another reality?"

108
The woman put the cards on the table, looking for the universes created by
consciousness throughout their existence.
"Homer is in a limbo at the moment," she said.
"I don't understand."
"It's like the waves hitting a shore," the woman said.
Lola nodded. "They go into different places."
"That's right."
It started to rain, the noise of the water on the roof interrupting their conversation of
the realms of time.
The woman looked at the cards. "Everything that can happen will happen."

109

A hero's farewell
It rained that night. Thunder rumbled through the heavens, the tree of life shaking in
the backyard, as a bolt of lightning interrupted Homer's dreams of chasing beautiful girls
in the jungle.
"I have to see you," someone said.
At first he thought he had to be dreaming at that time, when the objects in his room
looked like monsters from another dimensions.
"It's raining," the voice said.
Homer tried to ignore the person in his dreams, bringing him the bad news of the
death of the innocents.
"Go away," he said.
"The widows and their children drowned in the slums," the voice said.
Homer opened his eyes to the darkness around him, the memories of the last dream he
had not long ago, threatening to stay in his mind.
"You must let me in," the voice said.
Homer made his way to the front door, swearing to himself every time he bumped into
the furniture and other things in the darkness.
"It has to be important," he said to the shadows standing by the door.

110
"Look at the papers," someone looking like Miguel put the front page of El Pais by
his face.
The widow's faces appeared amidst scenes of death in the most terrible night in the
world, as Miguel's youngest daughter wiped her nose.
"You have to go to school," Homer said.
"It's too early," the child said.
She showed him some of the pictures adorning the front page of the paper, while the
journalists gave a full account of whatever had happened during the night.
"They said," Miguel said. "What will you do?"
Homer sat down by his bed, trying to understand the news the papers brought to the
country that morning.
"I'll pack now," he said.
"You must face the reporters," Miguel said.
Homer threw a few things on the bed, looking for the suitcase his mother kept in the
old wardrobe his father had bought a long time ago, the shirts Maria had ironed the other
day falling in a heap to the floor.
"What will I tell everyone?" Miguel asked.
"I've disappeared," Homer said.
He looked for the coca bags amongst his books and other things he needed to take in
his journey to the dimensions of time.
"Don't forget your papers," Amelia said.
She held the pages his invisible friend had left on a day like any other in Homer's
journey through reality.
"Don't go, Uncle Homer," Amelia said.
She wiped her tears with a handkerchief she had found amongst a few things Homer
had found in the wardrobe.
"I'll look after you forever," he said.

111
The noises of the world intruded into his path in time, as he found the bit of coconut
Lola had rejected in another reality.
"I can't face the press," he said, throwing some of his clothes in the suitcase.
.

"We have to discuss this," Miguel said. "You have the shop."
"You can keep it."
Miguel stopped organizing Homer's belongings, the look on his face saying much

more than his words.

"The shop is yours," Homer said.
He had the letter his father had given him before his death, giving him the right to own
the shop he had started on his arrival at the country.
"That you, Mr. Homer," he said.
"Look after it," Homer said.
He put a few more things inside the suitcase, listening to his employee's word of
gratitude for the man taking him out of his poverty.
"Where are you going?" Mighel asked.
"New York," Homer said.
"I want to come, Uncle Homer," Amelia said.
Homer gave her his books collections, where Donald Duck kept on fighting with his
rich uncle and his nephews.
"Take these tablets during the trip," Miguel gave him an envelope. "They are good for
your sickness."
"Thanks," Homer said.
He thought of the times Miguel's family had comforted him after the death of his
parents in his present reality.
"Look after my shop," Homer said.
Miguel nodded. "Thank you."
Homer found a few papers of legal language, giving him the right to own the place his
parents had built during the years.

112
"You must sign here," he showed him the last page.
Miguel read the conditions of the shop, while Homer finished packing his bags.
"We'll be in touch," Homer said.
He put some of the pictures of that trip he had undertaken with his parents at the
beginning of time, between his shirts and other things he had in the suitcase.
"You didn't marry Maria," Amelia said.
"I must go," he said.
"Look for the shadows," she said.
He left her his money box, his first coin falling to the floor, before Amelia rescued it
by the door.
"Can I have it?" she asked.
"You'll inherit it one day," Homer said.
He took his bags across the room, while the birds sang in the tree in another day in his
life.
"You must hurry," Miguel said.
Homer found a receipt with the sums of money his mother had left to the slums, the
telephone ringing disturbed his memories of the past.
Homer put a few more things in his suitcase, thinking of the women he had found
during his business in the slums.
"We must discuss this," Miguel said.
"I'm leaving," Homer said.
"It won't make it better," Miguel said.
Homer got the things he had dropped on the floor, his employee's voice interrupting
his packing.
"God created you," Miguel said.
"My parents did that kind of thing," Homer said.
He didn't know what he had to do with a God, the shirts Maria had given him, falling
to the floor.

113
"My daughter loves you," Miguel said.
"I'll see her in New York," Homer said. "Amidst the tall buildings."
Homer made his way with his suitcase to the backyard, his clothes becoming
entangled in the thorns and a few other things he had never bothered to tidy in that part
of his property.
"You should use the front door," Amelia said.
"The journalists might be waiting there," Homer said.
"Be careful," Miguel said.
"Run, Uncle Homer," Amelia said.

114

The voyage
Homer had an uneventful journey in the back of one of his trucks, wondering if the
police would discover him in the port, as the sun shone on another day of his life.
"Good morning," he said to one of the sailors.
The man pushed a few boxes across the ship, muttering a few things about people
interrupting his work.
"This is private property," he said.
"I want Cesar," Homer said.
The sailor straitened the boxes, before bringing some more stuff inside the ship, trying
not to soil his clothes with the muddy floor.
"The boss will see you in a minute," he said.
"I am the boss," Homer said.
Cesar appeared, looking tired from the time he must have spent amidst the crates and
other things crowding the small office in the ship.
"Mr. Homer," he said.
"I'm travelling to New York," Homer said.
Cesar looked at a notebook he had on the table, reading a few notes he must have
jotted early on about his work for the day.
"I had some other plans," he said.
He frowned on looking at the newspapers Homer showed him, about the death of the
widows in the middle of the night.
"I want to go to New York," Homer said.

115
Cesar nodded his head, listening to the speed the ship had to have while crossing the
Caribbean in its route to the other country.
"I had some other plans," he said.
"I'll pay you good money."
Cesar took him to the other side of the room, full of boxes of merchandise to be
delivered to his clients.
"I have the latest telegraphy," he said.
"That's good," Homer said.
He waited for Cesar to prepare the equipment in order to send a message to his uncle
in New York, the excitement of the trip making him feel funny or it must have been the
coca he had ingested earlier.
"Tell my uncle I am coming to visit him," Homer said.
Cesar transferred the information to a few clicks in the telegraph line, he must have
learned to operate in the ship.
"That is all," Homer said.
He waited for Cesar to send the message to his uncle, while thinking of the women
trying to save their children from the water getting into their homes in the middle of the
night.
"You are afraid," Cesar interrupted his thoughts.
The noise of the sailors getting ready to depart, interrupted Homer's thoughts of life
and death in the slums, as Cesar gave a few orders to the men working hard to earn some
money for their families.
"I don't like boats," Homer said.
"It's a long journey," Cesar said.
Homer saw the map on the table, a blue line through the Caribbean Sea tracing their
journey to that big country in the north.
"I can take you to your cabin," Cesar said.

116
He took Homer up to the end of a long corridor, interrupted from time to time by
windows overlooking the sea.
"This is your cabin," Cesar opened one of the doors.
"It's small," Homer said.
Cesar shrugged. "The press won't find you here."
Homer lay down in the bed, listening to his achievements in the world, thanks to the
boats and other things he had.
"It's fifty thousand dollars," Cesar said.
"What is it?"
"This boat," Cesar said.
"You must lock my door," Homer interrupted his narrative.
"Why?"
"It will confuse the press."
"They are not here," Cesar said.
Homer checked the corners of the room, hoping to catch whoever had followed him to
the boat.
"We must go now," he said.
"Mr. Homer..."
"I'll buy your boat," Homer said.
Cesar mumbled a few things about the long voyage across the ocean at that time of the
morning.
"We need supplies of frozen food to keep in the freezers," Cesar said.
"We'll get them in the Caribbean," Homer said.
Cesar did a few sums in a paper he had found in the desk, jotting down everything
they would have to get in their way to New York.
"I need more money then," he said.
"Fine," Homer said.

117
He looked in the bag he had brought in his journey, finding the wallet Maria had given
him for his birthday an eternity ago, sending some of the things he had brought onto the
floor.
"Hitler is our enemy," Cesar said.
Homer counted the money he had withdrawn from his safe that morning, putting the
$50 at one side and the $100 at the other side, taking care with a few of the coins he had
put in there.
"We'll need wine," Cesar said.
"That is not important."
"But it is."
Homer looked at the newspaper Cesar put by his side with a catalogue of the best
whisky they could get in the Caribbean Sea.
"It has nothing to do with the wines, Mr. Homer."
"We make up our own reality."
"There is a God, Mr. Homer," Cesar said. "But we are talking business here."
"I need more than that."
"Nation will rise against nation," Cesar said.
"You are crazy," Homer said.
Cesar told him of the women he had conquered in the Caribbean Sea, while writing of
all the other things they would need in their journey.
"I loved Maria," He said. "She was the best girl in my bed."
He went on to tell him of the times he had made love to the most beautiful girl in the
Caribbean, whenever he had to go to her island.
"She had big breasts," Cesar said.
"That is nice."
"And she did some other things."
Cesar paused the conversation in order to make sure he had everything he needed in
the paper.

118
"Don't let the reporters in," Homer said.
"Don't worry. Mr. Homer."
Cesar had to leave him alone with his nightmares of the widows chasing him up to the
end of time but he seemed to be more interested in the supply of wines to the ship.
"I have sleeping tablets," he said.
He opened a bottle he found in one of the drawers by the door, taking care not to
throw anything else to the floor.
"You must take two of them," he said.
Homer wanted to leave his problems in world, far from the path he had taken since the
widows had died in the rains, while Cesar spoke of some more women he had had in the
world.
"I need some water," Homer said. "For my tablets."
"You can take them with my vodka," Cesar said.
"I want water."
"Vodka will be all right." Cesar said.

119

Homer dreams of girls

Homer must have gone to sleep, the noises of the sea bringing solace to his soul, after
the death of the innocents in another land.
"I'm hope," someone said.
A girl stood by his bed. She had long black hair and a beautiful body, like nothing he
had seen for some time.
"Cesar must have sent you," he said.
"I am lost in time," she said.
He shrugged. "You are mad."
Homer examined the girl with dark eyes, living in his mind or in some other
dimension in the universe around him.
"I want to know you," she said.
He looked for the dressing gown Cesar must have left in the chair, when she kept on
talking about the life she had somewhere else in the world.
"I used to have a shop." she said.
"Me too," he said.
She started to take off her blouse, pausing to unbutton her cuffs, while telling him
more of the story of his life.
"I have been very poor," she said.
Homer found the clothes he had left by the bed, listening to the things she had to do in
order to help her parents to feed her family.
"I am a virgin," she said.
Homer looked at her breasts, with the dark nipples, the colour of her soul, trying to
pay attention to her suffering at the hands of the world.
"My mother told me to love you," she said.

120
She showed him the picture of a woman with long hair and a sad face, living in one of
the Caribbean Islands he had to visit.
"You want money," he said.
She nodded. "That would be nice."
Homer kissed her breasts, tasting the flavour of her skin with his tongue, the way he
had done with some of his women in the past.
"The holy spirit protects me," she said.
"He won't protect you from me," he said.
He climbed on her, reaching the climax at the same time as the world dissolved in the
colours of pleasure in that dream he seemed to be having in the ship.
"We have sinned," she said.
She made the sign of the cross, asking Jesus Christ to forgive her sins, while looking
for her clothes in the bed.
"I must go," she said.
She started to get dress, looking for her pants amidst the disorder of the bed.
"You can't go," he said.
"Why?"
He took away her clothes, hoping she stayed by his side for the rest of the journey to
somewhere else in the universe, but she found her bra amidst some other things.
"I'll wait for the new moon," she said.
"I don't understand."
"Look at the calendar."
Homer looked at the calendar he had by the bed, sending a few things to the floor in
the process.
"It will be in two weeks," he said.
"I'll see you then."
She opened a bag she had in her hand, showing him a flat glowing thing like a book
immersed in fire.

121
"This is from your future," she said.
She showed him the thing like a book with a leather covering stuck to the glass,
where he could see a few images.
"It has music," she said.
Homer saw an orchestra performing a Beethoven sonata in the thing she held in her
hands, making him wonder whether he could be dreaming the whole episode of the girl in
the room.
"You have lost your mind," he said.
She had to tell him the secrets of a world he did not know, trying to get ready to depart
to the land she had come from.
"I am from your future," she said.
"How interesting," he said. "I like your toy."
"This is me transmitting from the ship," she said. "To anyone capable of getting my
call."
Homer touched the thing she had in her hands, trying to guess what it could be made
of.
"It's heavy," he said.
"I know."
She let its radiance illuminate the room, the marvels of a world to come interrupting
the shadows around them.
"I don't feel well," he said.
"It's the waves," she said. "They make you sick."
She put a few tablets on the table, after looking in her bag for a few moments.
"Take one every six hours," she said.
"This is crazy," he said.
"I want to help you."
He read the instructions in the box, the nature of time disintegrating into a myriad of
things in reality.

122
"Take the tablets," the girl said.
She brought him a glass of water, the best thing she could give him at that moment.
"Please stay," he said.
"Why should I?"
Homer hovered in that place between sleep and reality, wishing to get rid of his illness
for the rest of his journey.
"I think you don't even exist," Homer said.
She opened the artefact she had shown him earlier, and the sound of music drifted
through the air.
"I must go back to my world," she said.
Homer dozed listening to the melody, his sea sickness blending with the shadows of
his mind, the faces of the widows chasing him in the universes full of despair.
"I'm the doctor," someone interrupted his dreams.
Homer adjusted his eyes to the light coming through the window, as someone stood at
the end of the bed.
"You are a man," Homer said.
The doctor paused examining him, his glasses going down his nose.
"I hope so," he said.
"But she was here," Homer said.
The doctor listened to his heart with his stethoscope, pausing to check his pulse for a
few moments.
"You have an extreme case of sea sickness," he said.
"She was here," Homer aid.
He sat up in the bed, even though the tablets made him feel tired and the world
seemed to revolve around him.
"Go back to sleep," the doctor said.
He put his instruments in his bag, making sure he did not leave anything behind, as
Homer went under the blankets and the world grew dark.

123

New York

124
The ship stopped moving and people went down towards the officials behind a few
desks, as Homer pushed his belongings amidst the passengers trying to get to the end of
their journey.
"Your uncle must be waiting," Cesar interrupted his reverie.
Homer nodded. "I sent him a telegram."
He had the passport with the visa he had obtained in the USA consulate, his black and
white picture looking back at him from the top of the page adorned with a few stamps
and signatures.
"Look after my ship," Homer said.
Cesar nodded. "Don't worry."
Homer got ready to see the officials at the end of the corridor, hoping they had not
heard of the widows' death in another land.
"Don't tell the reporters I am here," he said.
Cesar stopped pushing the suitcase, to listen to the instructions Homer gave him of his
visit to the country.
"Nobody knows who you are," he said.
Homer saw the few officials talking to the people in the queue, ignoring him for the
moment.
"I want you to give this to Maria," he gave him a small packet.
"Maria ?" Cesar asked.
"She's Miguel's daughter."
It had to be a small token for everything she had done for him, somewhere in time, as
Cesar put the letter in his bag, taking care not to fold it.
"You shouldn't have left them," he said.
The rains had killed the widows, sending him into another path of in his existence.
"Tell her I am sorry," he said. "She'll understand."
Cesar went up the stairs, leaving Homer alone with his thoughts of that place he had
left a few days ago.

125
"Bye," he said.
Homer approached the man holding a notebook by the row of desks at the end of the
room, ready to start with his life story.
"What's your purpose of your trip to the USA?" the man asked him in Spanish.
Homer had the letter his uncle had sent him, and a bank statement with the money he
had made during the years.
"I am a businessman," he said.
"That's nice," the officer said. "But what is the purpose of your journey."
"I want to work here and improve my English," Homer said.
The officer wrote a few things in the notebook he had in his desk, pausing to drink
some water from a cup he had by his side.
"I have money," Homer said.
He tried to find his papers in the bag he had packed with Miguel's help.
"You seem like a nice person," the officer said.
"I am," Homer said.
"Have a nice time then," the man said.
Homer made his way along the corridor, hoping to recognise his uncle's face amongst
the people waiting by the entrance, as a middle aged man with a moustache hugged him
to his heart.
"Uncle Hugh," Homer said. "I thought you were taller,"
"I must have shrunk during the years," his uncle said.
Homer remembered his uncle had interrupting his games amidst the mud at the back
of the shop, when visiting him a long time ago.
"How was your trip?" Uncle Hugh asked.
"I was sick all the time," Homer said.
"Ships are terrible."
"I know."

126
The sea of people pushed them towards a world Homer had to discover in his path
towards his dreams of getting to be the richest man on earth.
"We'll sit there," Uncle Hugh led him to a table in one of the cafeterias.
The waitress showed them her legs under the skirt she must have bought second hand
somewhere in the city, while getting the menu from one of the other tables.
"Bring us two coffees," Uncle Hugh said.
She wrote down everything in a notebook, as Homer thought of making love to her
somewhere else in the city.
"Do you keep my cent?" Uncle Hugh interrupted his thoughts.
Homer kept the coin his uncle had given him amidst the loose change and other things
stuck to the fabric of his trousers.
"It brings me good luck," he said.
The memory of his invisible friend playing around the tree of life haunted his thoughts
of a childhood lost in time, while listening to his uncle's tales of his life in the city.
"Father brought you home," Homer said. "The day you gave me the coin."
The waitress poured some champagne in their glasses, amidst his thoughts of
possessing her at some time in his life.
"To the end of the war," Uncle Hugh said.
Homer nodded. "To us."
The stars appeared outside the window in whatever paths of time they happened to be
at that moment of their lives.
"I miss Miguel and his family," Homer said.
"I understand."
Homer had said goodbye to the family keeping him company after the death of his
parents, but he had to live in the present reality.
"Your mother used to cook a nice chicken," Uncle Hugh said.
Homer nodded. "I know."

127
"You came to visit us, when the ants invaded our home and my invisible friend danced
around the tree of life," he said.
"You should have come here after your mother's death."
"I spent the money in the funeral," Homer said.
"I thought so," Uncle Hugh said.
Dark clouds gathered in the sky, warning them of the worst storm facing humanity in
their journey through time.
"You can help the war effort with your ships," Uncle Hugh said.
Homer sipped his drink, thinking of making some more money at the start of a new
life in the city.
"The war will make me rich," he said.
The girl seemed unaware of Homer's feelings for her body, while serving the
customers claiming for her attention.
"The war is dangerous," Uncle Hugh said.
"But a good business."
Homer sipped the champagne his uncle had bought for him, thinking of his life
beyond the shores of time.
"The president of the country will help you to take arms to Europe," Uncle Hugh said.
Homer listened to the plans his uncle had concocted not long ago of his ships taking
the armament to the president of their country.
"I am a wanted man," Homer said.
"Nobody knows about the widows."
Uncle Hugh showed him the paper he had purchased earlier in the day, full of pictures
of the war in Europe, the most important thing of the day.

Another day

128
Homer sat up in his bed, listening to the sounds of the city, the memory of his uncle
bringing him presents from New York, filling his mind at that moment in time.
Marylyn Monroe, he read in one of the pictures in the wall, her smile awakening the
memories of some other times, when he used draw the hypercube his father had taught
him to do.
"It's a cube inside another cube," he said to himself.
"Good morning," Uncle Hugh interrupted his reverie. "Do you often talk to yourself?"
Homer jumped at the sound of his voice, the paper he had in his hand falling to the
floor.
"You are drawing cubes," his uncle said.
"I wonder how time goes on in the other dimensions," Homer said.
The voice of the radio presenter interrupted his thoughts of some other worlds existing
all around him.
"There are many children left in London," the presenter said. "I have seen them inside
the Piccadilly Tube Station."
He went on to explain how everybody had to run to the shelters at the sound of the
alarm, otherwise they might be killed by the bombs.
"It's a nice thing," Homer said.
He examined the big radio with the shiny knobs, occupying a special place in uncle
Hugh's sitting room.
"One of my colleagues got it for me," his uncle said..
Churchill's voice interrupted his words, talking to the brave men and women helping
the citizens of London to remain calm during the hard times they had experienced.
The narrative was interrupted by the static coming from space, Churchill's voice
giving an account of the damage the German bombs had done to the city.
"We have to defeat Hitler," Uncle Hugh said.
He found one of his books detailing the things they could do to fight Hitler's invasion
of Europe, as the static from the short wave transmission went on i n the background.

129
"You must take arms to our president," he said.
Homer listened in amazement to the things his uncle wanted him to do for the love of
that country he could not remember.
"I don't have any arms," he said.
"The president will give them to you."
Homer's ships had to go across the Atlantic, in spite the submarines trying to capsize
them in their way to Europe.
"You will be a hero," his uncle said.
The USA public had to give him lots of money for his actions against the enemies of
humanity.
"God will help you," his uncle said.
"He does not exist," Homer said.
Homer paused in his explanation of reality to look for the book he had brought from
his home, with the parallel realities around them.
"My father gave it to me," he said.
"It's old," his uncle said.
Homer nodded. "Nobody knows who wrote it."
Uncle Hugh looked at some of its pages, looking at the pictures of stars and other
things in it.
"I did not know you liked astronomy," Uncle Hugh said.
"Those are groups of galaxies," Homer pointed to the stars adorning one of its pages,
telling him about the universe in the midst of time.
"You are clever," his uncle said.
Homer could not explain the things happening in his life, when the fourth dimension
had to be around them.
"I was lost in my journey to the city," Homer said.
"I am not crazy," he said. "Miguel and his family thought I had died."

130
Uncle Hugh prepared some breakfast, listening to Homer's story of his journey back to
the city.
"We are waves of probability," he said. "We create reality as we go along."
"I am not made of waves," Uncle Hugh said.
Homer drew the equations he had learned in the market, whenever his parents had
been busy to pay attention to him.
"We are made of provability," he said.
"And bullshit," his uncle said.
Homer hoped to convince his uncle of his journey to the future, after he had gone to
the port, writing some of the equations he had learned.
"We'll go to see Maria," Uncle Hugh said. "She lives on the eighth floor."
"And it's cold," Homer said.
He imagined the view of the city from the balcony, while enjoying the food and
seducing Maria.
"It's your parents," he showed Homer the black and white picture of a young couple
holding hands.
She had her plaited hair down to her shoulders and he had to be wearing his best
clothes, as a child in short trousers stood by their side.
"I introduced them to each other," Uncle Hugh said.
His uncle had done that before leaving for another country across the ocean, full of the
hopes for the future.
"Time went quicker when you visited us," Homer said.
"It must have been relativity," his uncle said.
Homer drew the equations of time he had seen in the books his father had brought to
their house, proving that the now he experienced could be different from some other
moments in the continuum.
"Your mother made nice chicken soup," his uncle interrupted his reverie.
"We experience time in a different way," Homer said.

131
He drew two rockets moving relative to each other in one of the notebooks he had
found on the desk.
"Alcohol can make you see strange things," his uncle said.
"It has nothing to do with alcohol."
One of the pages fell to the floor, with the drawings and writings Homer had done in
order to teach his uncle relativity.
"Maria is waiting for us," Uncle Hugh said. "You can wear this coat."
He gave Homer a thick coat he had not worn for some time, telling him all about the
New York winters, when the wind froze the people in the street.
Homer drew a few more things that had to do with the perception of time in their
existence, like his invisible friend had told him aeons ago.
"I found these pages on the floor," he showed to his uncle the papers he had found at
the beginning of time.
"We must throw them away," his uncle said. "I don't want any garbage here."
Homer put the pages he had brought in his journey to New York back in his suitcase,
hoping his uncle would change his mind about a few things.

Visiting Maria
Homer admired the buildings he had seen in the pictures his uncle had taken in his
visits to his parents' house an eternity ago, while avoiding people going somewhere else
in the world.
"That's the Empire State building," Uncle Hugh interrupted his thoughts.

132
Homer paused to look at the tallest building in the city, getting into someone's path in
the street.
"Careful," a woman said.
"Sorry," Homer said in that language he had to learn.
"We'll take the metro," his uncle said.
He led him along the street, and a few of the landmarks he had to see every day in his
way to his job.
"The metro?" Homer asked.
Uncle Hugh explained the network of tunnels connecting different parts of the city,
making it easy for people to go to wherever they wanted to go.
"The government encourages us to take the metro," he said.
It had to make things a bit easier for the commuters going to their jobs at the other
side of the biggest city in the country.
"We have a wax museum and an aquarium," Uncle Hugh said.
"You also have dollars," Homer said.
He imagined the president of the country helping him with his latest scheme for
helping the planet, while following his uncle down an escalator.
"You wanted to escape the press," he said.
"They'll never find me here," Homer said.
They bought the tickets for their journey from the clerks, sitting behind their desks at
the end of a corridor, leading to another tunnel, where the trains had to be.
"That Indian tricked you," Uncle Hugh said.
Homer had been looking at the posters in the walls, depicting the bu3est coffee people
had to get, in spite of the war going on in Europe.
"I must have followed him to the jungle in some other universe," Homer said.
They went along another corridor, taking them to the trains in their journeys to some
other realities existing alongside theirs.
"And another dimension," Uncle Hugh said.

133
They were at a point, where the tunnels divided, leading to different parts of the time
continuum.
"You are right," Homer said.
They went down the long corridor, inhabited by Satan and some of his Devils,
according to the drawings in the walls.
"It must be hell," Homer said.
"It's called graffiti." his uncle said.
They arrived at the platform with more writing on the walls, and a few posters urging
them to buy the best soaps in the city.
"God will protect you," Uncle Hugh said.
Homer imagined a bearded man looking at everything amidst the clouds, as his uncle
talked of his devotion to the thing no one had ever seen.
"I experience him every day of my life," Uncle Hugh said.
A policeman stood amongst the people crowding the platform, keeping the peace
amongst the people trying to get on with their journeys to another part of the city.
"Someone from the future must know who wins," Homer said.
"That must be true," Uncle Hugh said.
A train sneaked towards them from the depths of the tunnel, like a snake coming to
whatever reality they happen to inhabit.
"Unemployment and poverty are the enemies of humankind," his uncle interrupted his
reverie.
"I know," Homer said.
They boarded the train taking them to another station lost in the midst of time, where
copies of themselves had to be living some other lives.
"God leads us to the truth," Uncle Hugh said.
"I don't want to hear that."
"You like your dimensions."

134
Homer thought of the implications of other realities existing alongside their world,
while moving alongside his uncle.
"The river of time takes somewhere else all the time," he said.
"We are going to Maria's house now," his uncle said.
They must have taken one of the paths through reality, all of the roads leading them to
the same place in the continuum.

Maria
"She lives there," Uncle Hugh pointed to the block of flats in front of them.
"It's impressive," Homer said.
"You'll get used to this city," his uncle said.
They moved along the path, where a few children played with their toys and flowers
enlivened the place at that time of the morning.

135
"We have someone looking after the gardens and keeping everything tidy," his uncle
said.
Homer imagined the window cleaners climbing up the side of the building, trying not
to fall down the floors, but his uncle kept on talking of the marvels he could find in the
city.
"This is the elevator," he showed him the metal cage inside the building.
"It usually works," he said.
Homer looked at himself in the mirror at the back of the elevator, trying to look his
best for the people waiting for him in the flat.
"We are going to the seventh floor," Uncle Hugh pressed one of the bottoms.
The thing went up the building, stopping at the last floor by the grace of whatever God
happened to control it.
"She lives at the end of the corridor," his uncle said.
He led Homer along a balcony with a few plants adorning his passage to a brown door
at the other side of the corridor.
"You will meet our country men and women," he said. "Battling to save our country."
A woman with black hair and a round face opened the door, letting some of the warm
air mix with the freezing wind.
"I was waiting for you," she said.
Uncle Hugh got lipstick on his cheeks, while getting lost in her bosom.
"This is Homer," he said.
"I've heard lots about you," she said.
She hugged him to her heart, before disentangling herself from his arms.
"Oh my god," she said. "You like women."
Uncle Hugh nodded. "He does."
She led them to a room, where some people sat at a large table amidst cups of coffee
and other things.
"This is Homer," she said.

136
They greeted him from the depths of space, some of the women hugging him to their
bosoms.
"Homer has something to tell us," Maria said.
They waited for his words, their faces looking pale in the light of the bulb hanging
from the ceiling.
"I want to liberate my country and punish the intruders," Homer said.
They felt silent; the sound of a fly interrupting their concentration, when some of them
wanted to have their lunch.
"He has ships," Maria said.
"What can he do with them?" a skinny man asked.
Maria explained how Homer's ships would take ammunition to their country in order
to fight Hitler's troops.
"You're a hero," they said.
The skinny man told them how he had dug a tunnel in his cell with his dinner spoon,
while digging in the mush Maria had placed in front of him.
"It must have been terrible," Homer said.
"I have the pictures," the man said.
A few thin people gathered outside the camp in a picture he had in his hand. "I didn't
have a childhood, Homer thought amidst the noise, even though it didn't have anything to
do with reality.
"This is me," the man interrupted his reverie.
Homer saw the men, waiting for the Nazis to finish with their lives at any time.
"I dug the tunnel with my own hands," the man said.
He made a mess on the table after digging in his rice, as Homer imagined the guards
ignoring his broken spoons and the dirt on the floor.
"Homer will avenge us," Maria said.
"Long live to Homer," everyone said.

137
They dropped lots of money in a basket Maria took around the room, the flames of
freedom burning in the house Homer had just found in New York.
"This is to help the war effort," she said.
Homer kissed her, tasting the spices she had for lunch and other things in her life.
"You are nice," he said.
His hands wandered through her body, as they discussed the freedom of their country
from the Nazi bastards.
"You'll have your money," Maria interrupted.
"I know," he said.
"Stop feeling my legs then."
He accepted the money they had collected in the name of freedom, after wiping his
hands with a serviette Maria gave him.
"I promise to put my boats at your service," he said.
"Hurrah to Homer," they said.
They toasted to the hero as New York welcomed him in style and snow blanketed the
buildings. I am rich, Homer thought, feeling her legs under the tablecloth.
"I'll give you some money," he said.
"You are mad," she said.
"And I feel sick."
"It must be the change of climate."
Maria brought him an aspirin, keeping her body out of his reach, and telling him of
her life in the city.
"We meet here every week," she said.
"It must be interesting."
Homer missed that country he had left after the death of the widows, while watching
the snow falling outside the window.
"I'll sleep here tonight," he said.
"You'll have to share the sofa with your uncle," she said.

138
"That's not fair," he said.
He had to tell her more about his life, sitting in the blankets she had placed in the sofa,
ready to keep him warm that night.
"I flew up a tree in my childhood," he said.
Maria shrugged. "That's interesting.
They toasted to the end of the war, with the wine Homer had brought from South
America.
"Hurray to Homer," they said.
Homer's boats would conquer the land Hitler had taken from them, like he wanted to
do since the beginning of time.

139

Homer gets ready

Homer had to help the war in Europe, the USA government giving him arms to
liberate his country from Hitler's hands.
"Two and two are seven," he said to himself.
He got the documents he needed for his business, the pictures of the widows from
falling at his feet in disarray, like a pack of cards the devil wanted him to see.
"Not again," he said.
He put them back in his suitcase, hoping the rains had not killed all of the women, as
Maria's dark eyes searched for his soul in one of the pictures.
"I love you," he said.
They had spent lazy afternoons exploring their affection, in the basement his father
had built in the last years of his life.
"I miss you," he said.
He had to get in contact with the family in charge of his business in that other country
across the ocean, he thought, while looking for the phone his uncle kept somewhere in
the flat.
"I want to phone Colombia," Homer told the telephonist.
He waited for some time, ;listening to some other sounds, lost in the static of the line
and then Miguel's voice interrupted his thoughts.
"Mr. Homer," he said. "It's nice to hear you."
"I never forget my friends," Homer said.
"The reporters know you are in New York," Miguel said.
He spent a few moments reading whatever lies the newspapers fed the people he had
left not long ago, as Amelia sent him kisses through the receiver.

140
"Come back to us," she said.
Her voice disappeared in the ocean it had to cross in its way to New York, as Uncle
Hugh appeared by his side with a few cups of coffee.
"I have phoned Miguel," Homer said.
His uncle put the tray on the table, making sure he did not spill any of the coffee on
Homer's papers.
"You must miss them," Uncle Hugh said.
Homer sipped his coffee, thinking of the people he had left in that other country he
hoped to see one day.
"I have something for you," Uncle Hugh said.
He sent a few of them to the floor, before finding an envelope amidst the other things
on the wardrobe.
"Silly me," he said.
He took a paper out of it, taking care not to throw anything else on the floor.
"It's a check," he said.
Homer's eyes widened on reading the amount of money Maria's friends offered him
for his services to their country.
"Thank you," he said.
"You must thank Maria," Uncle Hugh said.
"I'll do it later."
Uncle Hugh opened a diary he had by the encyclopaedias, with the instructions of the
things they had to do in order to liberate their country from the Nazi yolk.
"You must travel to Europe," he said.
"It's far," Homer said.
He had to take a ship full of arms to the president of his country, somewhere else in
the world.
"I'll get a few tanks," Homer said.
"And ammunition," his uncle said.

141
German submarines apparently liked to bomb the ships making their way to Europe,
the noise of thunder interrupting their conversation.
"There are an infinite number of copied of us across time," Homer said.
Uncle Hugh shrugged. "Prove it."
"It's in the mathematical formulas."
He looked for those papers hiding amidst the clothes in his suitcase, the universe
splitting into many others every moment of their lives.
"We are matter and waves," Homer said.
"Drink your coffee," Uncle Hugh said.
He drew what he thought could be the matter in the universe, after the exp[losion his
father's books talked about.
"I don't understand," Uncle Hugh said.
"We are waves of uncertainty," Homer said. "According to the equations of science."
"It's fascinating," his uncle said.
"Many things will happen in the way to Europe," Homer said.
"You will be in the good path of time," his uncle said.
"I hope so."
Homer got his papers together, with the pictures of Maria in that place across the
ocean, flying away from him at the velocity of light.
"Would you like another pandebono?" Uncle Hugh interrupted the silence
"They are nice," Homer said.
"The Latino shop has the best pandebonos," his uncle said.
Homer looked at the pictures of the bombs Hitler must have dropped in London in one
of the papers his uncle had brought.
"It's happening in our timeline," he said.
It had to be the timeline the world had followed since the widows had died in some
other place of his existence.
"We are particles and waves," Homer said.

142
"Whatever you say."
His uncle wiped his mouth with the serviette by his side, trying to understand the truth
of the universe around them.
"One thing is certain," Uncle Hugh said. "I have learned a lot since you came to this
country."
Homer ate another pandebono, thinking in the future awaiting him at that moment of
his life.
"You must get ready to fight the war," his uncle said.
He gave a detailed account of everything Homer had to do in order to send his arms
and other things to Europe.
"I might get killed," Homer said.
"You must get your ships ready," his uncle said.
Homer poured more coffee in his cup trying to solve the problems his uncle had
envisioned for his life.
"I have no arms to take to Europe," he said.
"The government will give you that," his uncle said.
Homer ate another pandebono, thinking of the problems his uncle had found for him
in that reality.
"This is our time line," he said.

143

The journey
Odysseus- the first ship to leave the port- was surrounded by absolute secrecy, as
Homer looked after the sailors bringing the armament to the boats: machine guns, bombs
that looked like corn on the hob and munitions disguised as chocolates.

Canons

pretending to be canoes and tanks camouflaged as ambulances joined the rest of the
things to punish Hitler's men in Europe, as the crowd followed his actions from the dock.
"Hurrah to Homer," they said.
He waved to his admirers, thinking of the dollars he might get for getting lost in the
Mediterranean Sea.
"Thank you," Homer said.
He went on the stage they had erected by the ship, in order to talk to the crowd about
his adventure to save his people from the yoke of Nazism.
"Dear people," Homer said.
"I'll be travelling to the Mediterranean Sea in order to help our country.
It's not going to be easy, but I am willing to sacrifice my life for the good of
humankind."
The crowd cheered his words, waving their handkerchiefs for them to understand their
love for the hero offering himself to the world.
"I will be thinking of you all the time," Homer said. "The Nazi submarines won't be
able to stop our love for the freedom of the oppressed."
He drank a glass of champagne someone offered him, posing for the photographers to
take his pictures in the most important project of his life.
"To our health," he said.
"Hurrah to Homer." the crowd said.
Uncle Hugh appeared by his side, dressed in his best clothes and clutching something
in his hands.
"Give this letter to our president," he gave him an envelope.

144
Homer looked at the letter, written in his uncle's fine handwriting, for the president of
the country he had left a long time ago.
"I want to know," his uncle said. "Why do you have to disguise the arms."
Homer put he letter back in the envelope, trying to explain the tricks he had too use in
order to do his job.
"It's to fool the public," he said.
"You have not fooled me," his uncle said.
He proceeded to recite a few bible passages, useful for Homer's journey, if a book
could guide someone to the other side of the ocean.
"You must trust the almighty," his uncle said. "He died in a cross for you."
"That is nonsense," Homer said.
His uncle showed him an image of the virgin Mary, stretching her arms towards the
heavens, where her son had to be somewhere in the sky.
"Keep her by your side," he said.
Homer hoped the old bible might disintegrate in his journey to the other side of the
Atlantic Ocean.
"Hail Mary who art in heaven," Uncle Hugh said.
"I have no time for that," Homer said.
Uncle Hugh crossed himself, muttering of the devils helping his nephew live in hell
forever.
"I want to bless you," he said.
Homer bowed his head, as the old man invoked the power of the trinity, the best way
to get him across the ocean.
"Amen," Homer said.
"I know you don't believe," Uncle Hugh said. "But God loves you."
A girl holding a bunch of flowers came towards them, her mini skirt going up her legs
with every step she took along the platform.
"Hi, Mr. Homer," she said. "I have something for you."

145
She got closer to him, some of the petals of her flowers she carried getting lost in the
breeze around them.
"I wish you a good journey," she said. "In the name of my country."
"Thanks," he said.
She offered him the flowers, letting him see inside her bra and the photographers took
some more pictures for the world to see in the newspapers the next day.
"Come with me," he said.
"I can't," she said.
Homer gave Cesar the flowers, as the band started the play the national anthem, and
the waves of probability took him towards the future.
"The boat is waiting for me," he said.
Uncle Hugh gave him a few more things to take in his journey, because he had to
come back alive from his adventure.
"I'm not going to die," Homer said.
His uncle read him another prayer, God almighty had to be listening to his words or
perhaps he did not exist in the universe.
"I didn't forget your sea sickness," a voice said.
Cesar appeared by his side holding a glass of water and an alka seltzer, his sailor suit
seemed a bit dirty in the light of the sun.
"Thanks," Homer said.
The noise of the cannons interrupted the moment, and the city bid farewell to the hero
dying for the world.
"I'll see you soon," Homer said.
He followed Cesar along the ramp and up to the inside of the ship, where the band
greeted him with the national anthem.
"We are pleased to meet you," everyone said.
"I'll take you to your room," Cesar said.

146
They went past the sailors checking the boxes of ammunition in the continuum of
time.
"It's like this," Cesar said. "I am part of your dream."
"Time is going faster now," Homer said.
Cesar nodded. "I know."

Salvacion

147
"I want my tablets," Homer said.
Cesar brought him some of the tablets he had left on the table, telling Homer all about
the reception awaiting them at the end of their journey.
"We were supposed to go to |Europe," Homer said.
"You wanted the Caribbean," Cesar said.
Homer could not understand how they could have finished in another place, when he
had to take his arms to the president of his country.
"Look out of the window," Cesar said.
Homer sat up in his bed, noticing the white walls surrounding him in his journey in
the regions of time.
"I see the sea," he said.
"There is more than the sea," Cesar said.
Homer noticed an island with palm trees, a few vessels making their way towards
their boat completed the view.
"I must be in heaven," he said.
"That is a good description of this land," Cesar said.
A group of people had appeared in the beach, their colourful clothes contrasting with
the sand, like one of those pictures Homer had seen in the postcards in his shop.
"Are they pirates?" Homer asked.
Cesar put some cards upside down on the table, before dropping the cigarette ash in an
ashtray in the table.
"We don't have pirates in Salvacion," he said. "Welcome to my country, Mr. Homer."
"I hope they buy my tanks," Homer said.
"They will."
Homer did not know how time had gone so fast, when he had been talking to the girl
in another period of his existence.
"I have travelled in time," he said.
"You have these weird ideas," Cesar said.

148
Homer speculated about his journey through the sea, while looking at the people
having fun in the beach.
"I gave you sleeping tablets," Cesar said.
That explained why Homer had been somewhere else for most of the journey,
travelling between the dreams he had of other lands in the midst of time.
"She sat by the bed," Homer said.
Cesar paused making ready the clothes Homer had to take to the island.
"Nobody was here," he said.
"That is a lie," Homer said. "And you know that."
He got off the bed, putting some of the bedclothes on the floor and hurting his foot
with the end of the bed.
"I don't know why you want to fool me," he said.
Homer sat back in the bed, wishing to be back in the market at the other side of the
sea.
"I keep on losing time," he said.
"Use this thing," Cesar handed him the watch Homer had bought aeons ago.
The subject of time had been with Homer for most of his life, when reality went
different ways for every person alive.
"People from Salvacion like to have fun," Cesar said.
He pointed at the president amidst the pretty girls they could see from the window.
"Make sure he buys the tanks," Homer said.
"I will," Cesar said.
He jotted down all the weapons they had to take down to the beach, in order to liberate
the country from the horrors of the world.
"You have a few submarines," Cesar said.
Homer wanted to get to that beach full of palm trees, and pretty women waiting to
have fun with him.
"I saw a girl here," he said.

149
He looked under the bed and some of the furniture, expecting to find her hiding
somewhere in the boat.
"She must have been a stowaway," Cesar said.
"Sleeping in my cabin," Homer said.
Cesar had not seen anyone strange the entire journey, while the girl had been talking
to Homer.
"You have two hundred guns," Cesar said.
He pointed at the details of the merchandise the president had to buy, whenever they
got to the beach.
"They are the best ones," Homer said.
Cesar organised the number of things to be shown to the president, willing to defend
his country from the other Caribbean nations.
A girl came in the room, interrupting the mathematical equations of the number of
arms the president would have to buy in order to defeat the rest of the Caribbean nations.
"I am Rose," she said.
"Nice to meet you," Homer said.
Rose proceeded to tell them of the small boat waiting to take them to the beach.
"I can't swim," Homer said.
"You won't have to," the girl said.
Cesar helped Homer to make ready the documents he needed for the sail of the arms,
as the girl waited.
Rosa pushed her hair back, showing Homer how pretty she could be with her tanned
skin and honey coloured eyes.
"Let's go," she said.
Homer followed her up to the railings, where a ramp waited for them to go down to a
small boat.
She pushed him in the water, ruining the clothes he had chosen to impress the
president.

150
"Help me," Homer said.
"It's shallow, she said.
She led him amidst the fish swimming by their feet, telling him all about the president
waiting to buy his arms.
"He's a nice man," she said.
They arrived at the beach, as a man in uniform waited by a hut, the band started to
play and the girls danced around them.
"I'm glad to meet you, Excellency," Homer said.
The president smiled. "I have seen your picture in the papers."
They moved towards a table full of things, while soldiers with machine guns made
sure no one interrupted the negotiations
"I want to see your merchandise," the president said.
"My arms are good," Homer said.
The tanks rolled down the ramp someone had brought to the boat, when Homer had
nearly drowned in the girl's arms.
"The bastards," he said.
The president told one of his subjects to check the merchandise, as the music of the
band enlivened the moment.
"Everything is cheap," Homer said.
"God bless Mr. Roosevelt," the president said.
"Your neighbours must be taught a lesson," Homer said.
The president puffed his cigar, while the soldiers unloaded the cargo, and the girls
danced with each other.
"Atengoras," the president called.
A small man wearing a sailor suit and a blue hat appeared by his side.
"Can you bring me my check book?" the president asked.
Atenagoras disappeared through one of the doors, and some more tanks drove along
the beach.

151
"We lost a few islands last year," the president said.
"You mustn't worry this time, Excellency," Homer said.
"I thought so."
Atenagoras brought a cheque book and a few glasses of wine in a tray, balancing
everything with some grace, as the girls danced to the salsa music the band kept on
playing.
"It is twenty thousand dollars Excellency," Homer said.
The president hesitated before writing down such a large sum of money.
"Salvacion will be fine now," Homer said.
The president smiled. "The best country in the world."
"Hurrah to the president," everyone said.
The seoritas toasted to the armaments the president had bought, and a pretty girl with
big teats blushed every time Homer winked at her.
"You are nice," he said. "Would you like to dance?"
Homer practiced the dance steps Maria had taught him in the shop, the music turning
him on.
"I love you," he said.
She smiled. "You are funny."
His hands searched for her cunt amidst her silky pants, bought with the money the
president paid for her services.
"I have a wife," he said.
"Is she in new York?"
"The president is pleased with the armaments," Atenagoras interrupted them.
"That's good," Homer said.
"You said you loved me," she said.
She kicked him in the groin, before Atengoras took her away to her mother.
"Women," he said.
"They never leave me alone," Homer said.

152
"It must be your green eyes."
Homer joined the president and his entourage, who kept on drinking aguardiente by
the beach.
"It is a brutal conflict," the president said.
He wiped his tears with the napkin someone brought him, while drinking another
aguardiente with gin.
"You must destroy your enemies, Excellency," Homer said.
The president nodded. "I'll do that."
The ship sailed through the Caribbean Sea with a few tanks, armaments and
Atenagoras, who wanted to help the planet.
"The world needs me," he said.

I'll finish with Salvacion

They arrived at a bigger and more powerful South American country, where another
president had to sign a cheque for a few thousand dollars, as Atenagoras poured some
champagne into their glasses.
"To my country," the president said.
Homer raised his glass. "I hope you attack Salvacion."
It had had bombed the cities, killing their citizens and spreading fear amidst the
population of the island at the smallest provocation.
"They must be eliminated," the president said.
"I agree," Homer said.

153
He had the best ammunition in the world, helping the president to defend his country
against his enemies.
"I need more planes, canons and bombs," he said.
"Hurrah to your island," Homer said.
"Let's drink to that," the president said.
Atenagoras brought them a bottle of aguardiente in order to celebrate the transaction,
as Homer studied one of the girls by his side.
"She's called Julia," the president said.
"I like her," Homer said.
"You must mix business with pleasure."
The girl looked at him with dark eyes, interrupting his thoughts of sex under the palm
trees in one of the paths through time.
"Death to Salvacion," he said.
"You are right," the president said.
Cesar opened the bottle of aguardiente, as the president swore to finish with the peace
of the region with the help of Homer's arms, his words getting lost with the sound of his
people having fun.
"To our health," he said.
Homer raised his glass, hoping a few more Caribbean presidents would buy his arms
in order to defeat their neighbours, and the girl smiled at him from the recesses of time.
"We won the football cup last year," the president interrupted.
"That is good," Homer said.
They had won every single football game for the last few years, thanks to the
president's army ensuring the country never lost
"We bomb them now and again," he said.
"Who?"
"Our neighbours."

154
The president showed Homer some pictures of the damage he had done to the islands
around the sea.
"We have a party every time we win a football game," he said.
Homer looked at the album of pictures, wondering about the girl standing by his side.
"My cannons will kill them," Homer said.
The president found his wallet amidst a few other things in his pocket, telling them of
the battles he had to win that year.
"No one will defeat you now," Homer said.
"Let's drink to that," the president said.
They finished with most of the alcohol, as Homer touched the girl's breasts whenever
the president went to sleep on the table.
"Once upon a time I used to work in a shop by a market," he told her.
"I like markets," she said.
"I'm sorry to interrupt you," Atengoras said.
Homer wondered what the little man wanted to tell him, when he hoped to take the
girl to his cabin in the boat.
"You can tell me later," he said.
"One of your boats has sunk," Atenagoras said.
Homer touched the girl's face, annoyed at the sailor's made up stories of horrors
somewhere in the sea.
"I love you," the girl said.
"Send a message to New York," Home said. "Tell them I was in another boat."
"You are the captain, sir."
"I missed the ship then."
"You were supposed to be there," Atenagoras said.
The press expected Homer to have perished in the boat, while trying to liberate his
country from the hands of fascism..
"They are bastards," he said.

155
"I have contacts in one of the islands," Atengoras said. "They'll help you with your
plans."
"Jesus Christ came back to life three days later," Homer said.
"And that is what you have to do," Atenagoras said.
He helped Homer to write down the details of his plan to get lost in one of the
Caribbeasn islands, full of beautiful women.
"I can't keep on running away from my troubles," he said.
Atenagoras told him of the friends he had in an island paradise not far from them at
that moment in time.
"They'll look after you," he said.
It was a question of getting lost from the world, before appearing again in triumph,
like Jesus had done some time in the past.
"I have an idea," Homer said.
He had to do to convince the world he had been in the ship taking the arms to that
country the beginning of his life.
The president said something in his sleep, pushing a glass of aguadiente onto the floor,
before opening his eyes.
"Where am I?" he asked.[
"Mr. Homer has sold you some cannons," Atenagoras said.
"And I want submarines," the president said.
"You will have them, Mr. President," Homer said.
The president muttered a few more things about Salvacion making his life a hell on
earth, when he had done nothing wrong.
"You killed their football team," Atenagoras said.
"They took away our best player," the president said.
He dozed with his head on the table, as his men tried to help him to his feet.
"We are taking you to bed," they said.
"I want my tanks," the president said.

156
"We put them away," someone said.
They helped the president to go back to one of the houses by the beach, where the rest
of his entourage had to be resting.
"Don't forget my arms," he said.
Homer had to face the future, before the world found out he had not died aboard the
ship.
.

Cesar appeared by his side with a bag and a few other things.
"Everything has been arranged," he said.
"I am ready to disappear," Homer said.
He followed him to the shore, where a boat waited amidst the waves crashing against

the sand.

Homer's lost
Homer saw an island interrupting the tranquillity of the sea, like a pearl in the middle
of the ocean, when he wanted to go back to the place they had just left.
"I am not sure about this," he said.
The boatman stopped the motor, letting the current take them closer to the beach
adorning the shore.
"We can go back," he said.
Homer thought of the consequences of his actions, each step he took taking him closer
to being a millionaire.
"Nicaragua is that way," the boatman pointed somewhere in the distance.
"It must be farm," Homer said.
"They have airplanes now," the boatman said.

157
Homer inspected the place Cesar had chosen for him to get lost from the world,
crashing with a few stones the devil put in his way.
"Will you be all right?" the boatman asked.
Homer nodded. "I need a hotel."
"You'll find one by the shore."
"Thank you."
The boatman gave him directions to the nearest hotel, where the gringos spent their
summer holidays away from the pains of civilisation.
"They will leave you alone," he said.
He gave him sunglasses in order to avoid recognition in the island, full of girls and a
few other things to help him pass his days.
"I have to get lost," Homer said.
"Whatever you say," the boat man said.
Homer gave him a few dollars he had in his pocket, before making his way through
the crabs moving through the beach.
"Hi," someone said.
A girl moved in the reality where Homer happened to be at that moment of his life,
while balancing a basket on her head like a ballerina giving an important performance.
"I'm Hope," she said.
"Nice to meet you," he said.
They moved along the beach, as she told him all about her family living somewhere
else in the island.
"We can't afford anything," she said.
Homer had a few coins in his pocket, plus the check book he had brought in his
journey out of his world.
"I can give you a few dollars," he said.
She accepted the shiny coins with the face of George Washington and the words, in
God we trust, printed on them.

158
"Thank you, mister," she said.
"I want a hotel," he said.
She pointed towards a point in the horizon, where a few hotels had to be or she wanted
to confuse him.
"You can stay in my home," she said.
"Does it have a toilet?" Homer asked.
A man appeared by their side, his trousers a bit muddy from whatever he had to do to
earn the money his family needed for living in the island.
"This is the Intermediary," she said.
"It's a funny name," Homer said.
The intermediary shrugged. "We are fighting a war."
They led him along the road to a hut with a tin roof and a few dogs frolicking in the
mud, where a few children played with a ball between a small garden and the path
leading to the hut.
"We live here," she said.
She seemed to be proud of living in a tiny place with one bed and rugs on the floor for
some of the people to sleep.
"And there is toilet," the Intermediary pointed to a small hut by its side.
Homer had to lower his head to go into the dark interior, trying not to step in a few
shadows scurrying by his feet.
"It's the crabs," she said.
"I hope they don't bite," he said.
The girl got a few tins of food, a bottle of aguardiente and a thermostat with some
coffee for him to drink in his time in the island.
"I have seen your picture," she said.
She showed him the front page of a newspaper, his name appearing in big letters, next
to a few of his pictures in the next page.
"I'm alive," he said.

159
She nodded. "I know."
They discussed the merits of not being dead, as he massaged her body.
"Ahhh," she said.
"I know all about you," the intermediary interrupted the proceedings.
"What?"
"You're getting lost, before coming back to life," the intermediary said.
"I am not sure I understand," Homer said.
"Cesar contacted me," the Intermediary said. "He is my fried."
He explained all the steps they would take to ensure his survival, in order to get lots of
money for his adventure.
"Cesar arranged everything," the intermediary said.
He showed Homer a few pictures of them in some of the Caribbean islands they must
have visited around Salvacion.
"I have just met you," Homer said.
"Mr. Homer," the Intermediary said. "Cesar sent us a telegram yesterday."
He had the instructions of the things he had to do for Homer to disappear from the
world for a few minutes.
"You'll be like Jesus," the Intermediary said.
"A vampire," Homer said.
The Intermediary shook his head. "You'll be resurrected by us."
He had to disappear from the universe, before reappearing again from the depths of
the sea and in front of the journalists taking their pictures for the world to see.
"I don't want to be alone in the sea," Homer said.
"You won't be," the Intermediary said. "We'll be waiting for the press nearby."
The girl brought him some coconut water to drink, while the Intermediary told him
everything they had to do to convince the press.
"It will only be for a few minutes," he said.

160
Homer listened to the plans the Intermediary had in order to get lost in a sea full of
sharks, not knowing whether to trust the people he had just met.
"The sharks will eat me," he said.
"That is nonsense," the Intermediary said.
Homer ate the beans and the plantain she offered him, imagining the terrible things he
had to do in order to earn his money.
"How can I trust you?" he asked.
The intermediary explained all the steps they would take in order to insure Homer's
rescuers got to him soon.
"I don't like being alone in the sea," Homer said.
"It will be for a few minutes."
"Everything will be fine," the Intermediary said. "You will see.

Homer's lost
They sailed amidst the waves, the sky clouding over the sea, as the voices of the
people in the boat mixed with the roar of the motor, sending waves of nausea up Homer's
body.
"I feel nervous," he said.
"We'll be near you all the time," the Intermediary said.
The boat went up and down with the waves, the pace of time moving towards that
moment when Homer would get lost in the sea.
"They think I died," he said.
"It's only temporary," The Intermediary said.
Hitler's army brought death and confusion to most of Europe, when Homer had died
for his people in his way to liberate a country.
"You must wear your inflatable at all times," the Intermediary said.

161
He showed Homer how to tie it round his waist, the cries of the seagulls interrupting
his concerns of dying to get his money.
"Don't jump in the sea," the intermediary said. "A shark might get you."
Homer listened to the dangers of the sea, trying to swallow him for lying to the world
about his death.
"You can change your mind," the Intermediary said.
Homer had to get lost in the sea, if he wanted the world to love him for giving his life
in the name of freedom.
"Pretend you have just found me," he said.
"We need the press to record the moment for posterity," the Intermediary said.
The sun burned their skins, as the Intermediary got ready to leave Homer somewhere
in the Caribbean Sea.
"You have to take it easy," he said.
He gave him the instructions to deal with the big waves coming his wave, as the sky
darkened over them.
"Don't go," Homer said.
"He drank an aguardiente and took a few of the pills the Intermediary offered him to
take away the fear of the sea, while praying to whatever God controlled the weather in
the middle of the ocean.
"Everything will be fine," the Intermediary said.
"Come back in one hour," Homer said.
He accepted another aguardiente with a few coca leaves the intermediary must have
found in his pocket.
"Don't forget to tell the press" Homer said.
"I won't."
The intermediary said farewell to the hero the world might not forget for some time,
while opening a tin of sardines and a bottle of coca- cola.
"I thought I was doomed," Homer said.

162
He imagined the ovation of the reporters for his bravery, as the aguardiente sent him to
heaven in a few moments of ecstasy.
"To be or not to be," Homer quoted some verses he had learned. "That must be the
question."
"You shouldn't have lied," the Intermediary said.
"I needed the money," Homer said.
The Intermediary showed him a paper with the names of the sailors aboard the ship in
its way to Europe.
"It sank," Homer said.
"Have some more drugs," the Intermediary said.
Homer ingested the pills the Intermediary must have bought in the black market, after
losing his mind to the spirits of the sea around him.
"The pink ones are better," the Intermediary said.
Homer gulped them down with some aguardiente, hoping to forget his problems in the
middle of his despair.
"We are leaving you," the Intermediary said.
"Wait," Homer said.
The Intermediary said something else, his voice getting lost amongst the sound of the
waves.
"I am alone," Homer said.
Then he remembered a poem his father used to recite on boring days, to get away
from the problems in his life.
I love the love of the sailor
Kissing his girl before goodbye
Leaving her a promise
He'll never achieve
And waking up with death
At the bottom of the sea

163
He had to show his charisma over the dangers he encountered, the aguardiente giving
him a headache amidst the excitement of his journey, and the verses echoed in the depths
of his despair.
My eyes won't like your eyes
In my sorrow
Wherever I go I'll take your memory
And you'll feel my ache
Homer remembered his mother's words in that other world long ago. You'll go far, she
said, teaching her son about the country they had chosen to spend their lives in misery.
"I am thirsty," he said.
Those words had no meaning in a place full of salty water, his destiny looking greyer
than the sea surrounding his vessel.
"I'll believe in God if I don't die," he said.
The sound of the waves crashing against the boat echoed in the dimensions of time,
reality and fantasy getting together, as the colour of the sea changed into the darkness of
the night.
"I am drunk," he said.
"It's your father who lives in heaven," a voice said. "Heavens and earth will end but
my words will go on."
An angel brought him an amphora full of coca cola, the best drink in the world, the sea
becoming a skating ring, where Jesus Christ danced with Maria Magdalene and the
Virgin with Saint Joseph, while the moon and stars shone overhead. They are coming for
you, his mother told him across the abyss of time.
Homer tried to light the flares with wet matches, but they refused to go up in that path
of reality he had carved with his actions.
"It must be Armageddon," he said.
He got some of the water out of the boat with a bucket he found under the seat, the
waves taking him up and down for eternity.

164
I don't want to die, he said in his dreams.
The tree of life appeared by his side, the wind whistling for eternity in a moment of
madness.
"There are no trees in the sea," he said.
Homer saw his backyard amidst the waves, Maria showing him her teats tanned by the
sun, through the pinafore dress he had given her for her birthday in another era.
"Drink this," she offered him a glass of sea water, rich in nutrients and salt.
"You won't die," she said.
"Liar," he said.
The girl lied for some reason he couldn't understand, or he had gone mad.
"Help me," he said.
A boat appeared from beyond time, but it had to be another dream punishing his soul
for being in the sea, the memories of that other life keeping him awake amidst the
insanity of death.

165

Rescue
As a man appeared by his side, Homer told the hallucination to go back to the
darkness overpowering his senses, while listening to the waves pounding against the
sides of his boat.
"I'm the intermediary," a voice said.
Homer opened his eyes, expecting to see the devil trying to take him to hell for not
dying with his men, when the face of the Intermediary greeted his life, after nearly dying
in the sea.
"Go away," Homer said.
He kicked and punched the shadows sending him back to that place called limbo, and
a torch shining on his eyes made the ghosts disappear into the land of his dreams.
"Are you Homer?" someone asked.
A beautiful woman wearing a mini skirt seemed to be talking to him, or it could be his
imagination or the drugs the Intermediary had given him.
"Mmmm," he said.
She showed him her well formed legs, tanned by the sun she must have had
somewhere in the world, while talking of the mission she had in her life.
"I'm a journalist," she said.

166
Homer must have died and this had to be the heaven Father Ricardo used to speak in
the Sunday school an eternity ago.
"You are my hero," she interrupted his thoughts.
"Mmm," Homer said.
She brushed his hair back with her hands, offering words of comfort in an effort to
make him feel better of whatever decease he had to be suffering.
"You must be an angel from God," he said.
She laughed, the sound of her voice bringing back the memories he had of the things
he had to do in his world.
"My men died," he said.
"Poor you," she said.
Something must have happened after the Intermediary had left him in the sea, or the
beautiful creature writing in her notebook would not be asking him questions.
"I have to do my report," she said.
She erased some mistake she must have made in the story she had to write of Homer's
rescue from the sea, the rings in her hands adding to the noise of the motors.
"I am not dead," he said.
She paused with the pen in her hand, like the fairies he had seen in the story books his
father used to buy in the market.
"You are alive," she said.
Homer had to impress the girl he had just met, with the letter F hanging in a pendant
between her breasts, like a lost angel he had to save.
"My name is Fifi," she interrupted his thoughts.
He had never met a Fifi in his life, the name fitting the woman he had found in the
sea.
"The boats were on fire," he said.
She sighed. "My God."

167
She picked up a few papers from the floor, letting him see the parts of her anatomy he
wanted to touch, before the universe disintegrated in a million pieces.
"I love you," he muttered.
"We have just met."
The rays of the sun fought with each other to reach her heart, in the bed the
Intermediary must have prepared for his recovery.
"You are my hero," she said.
Homer nearly fell off the bed, trying to sit up.
"You must be careful," she said.
She turned the pages with fine hands. her pendant getting lost amidst the hills of her
bosom, as the intermediary appeared with few things in his arms.
"You must take your medicine," he said.
He poured something in a spoon he had found in a table, telling him of the reporters
waiting for him somewhere in time.
"You must get better," he said.
Homer tasted the bitter liquid the Intermediary offered him, making the world go
away for a few minutes, amidst the fears of getting lost once more.
"Light is attracted by the gravity," he said.
She stopped writing, her dark eyes looking at him with a mixture of wonder and owe
for the things he seemed to utter.
"Lights is composed of particles and waves," he said.
She stopped writing, thinking he had lost his mind, after his friends had died in the
tragedy.
"How do you know?" she asked.
"I want to show you something," he said.
Homer looked for the papers he had brought in his trip, sending a few things to the
floor in his hurry to find them.
"A man called Einstein is my inspiration," he said.

168
Fifi picked up the papers from the floor, showing him some more of her anatomy,
hidden under her dress.
"Don't lose your theory," she said.
She waved her hands, made of atoms, telling him of the things men of science could
do with their imaginations.
"Light is simply light," she said. "There is nothing else to it."
She switched off the lamp buy Homer's bed, leaving the cabin in darkness for a few
moments, before switching it on again.
"This is my theory of light," she said.
"It has been travelling from the stars for a long time," he said.
"They'll fall during Armageddon," she said.
"Nonsense," he said. "The stars cannot fall."
He kissed her neck, forgetting his theories of light, his lips going down to her breasts
and other parts of her body.
"Mr. Homer," she said. "You are supposed to be sick"
He lay back in his bed, feeling sorry for his behaviour in front of the lady he had just
met, the memory of the time he had been in the sea, coming to his mind.
"I was lost," he said.
The universe had to be a few copies of himself in its journey through the present
reality.
"You are here now," she said.
He shrugged. "I'll never forget you."
"I have to write my notes," she said.
Homer thought of the light journeying through space to come to his eyes, the way his
invisible friend had told him aeons ago.
"You have just been rescued from the sea," she said.

169
Homer made a few noises, trying to show her how ill he felt, when the world had been
grieving for his tragedy in the middle of the sea, his mind thinking of the money he might
make this time.
"You must have thought of your theory of light in the sea," she said.
"I was too busy fighting the sharks," he said. "And the angel appeared in the sky."
"You saw an angel?"
"He brought me an amphora."
Fifi seemed perplexed with his revelations of heavenly creatures interfering with his
adventure in the sea.

The press
Homer received a medal from the United States congress in a sober ceremony
attended by the heads of many countries, three hundred thousand soldiers, nine hundred
thousand students and a lot of veterans of the world wars. Stalin declared him leader of
the Soviet Union, General De Gaulle kissed him repeatedly in the cheeks, while bigger
ships sailed under his flag.
He had purchased a few tankers, like the ones he had seen in the films Father Ricardo
had shown in the church on Sundays, a few cruisers and ships with several floors for the
tourists wanting to travel the world.
Homer sent arms to the countries fighting to liberate themselves from the yoke of
capitalism or communism, so long as he could sell them his tanks.
"I want to help the world,"

They could make the story of his life into the best film of all times, retelling the things
he had done since his birth under the shadow of the sun.
The noise of the traffic going on outside the window, brought him back to reality, the
one taking him to the future, minute by minute of his life.

170
"Everything is made up of strings," he read in an physics book he had purchased not
long ago.
Homer had to finish his theory of light, with the help of the papers his invisible friend
had left on the floor at the beginning of time, made up of protons and electrons like
everything else in the universe.
"This must be the way the photons travel through space," he drew a line between two
other lines in the paper.
Light had to be made of tiny energetic particles, travelling through a medium full of
things, attracting the light particles away from their path, as Homer traced a straight line
in a paper, trying to be careful not to knock the half empty cup of coffee he had by his
side.
The light coming from the stars had to fight with these inconveniences all the way to
the telescope of the person doing the observation.
"We must get ready," a voice said.
Fifi appeared by his side, the outline of her breasts visible through the material of her
blouse, in that dream Homer seemed to be having.
"We have an interview with the press," she said.
Homer looked in her dark eyes, trying to guess what she thought at that moment in
time.
"I'm writing my theory of light," he said.
He showed her the notes he had taken, hoping to compare them to the pages he had
brought in his journey to conquering the world.
"It's going to rain," she said.
Homer thought in completing his theory before they went to the meetings she had
arranged with the journalists, while she looked at her reflection in the big mirror by the
bed.
"I want the truth," she said.

171
She went on putting her lipstick and making sure she looked presentable to the
journalists of the world, waiting for them somewhere.
"This is one of our roads through reality," he said.
She picked up her things from the floor, making sure her papers did not have any dirty
things on them.
"You make me mad," she said.
"We'll go around the world," he said.
"How will we do it?"
He showed her the picture of a boat he had found in a magazine, amidst some other
things he had to buy some day.
"In one of our paths through reality," he said.
He did not want to spend the rest of his life running away from the things he had done.
"We must have lived before," he said. "Everything keeps on coming back."
"I don't understand," she said.
"I appeared in the garden," he said. "A long time ago."
His hands went down her neck and down to her breasts, while describing what had
happened during his journey back from the death.
"We'll be together somewhere else," he said.
"It must be in heaven," she said.
"I don't care where I'll go," he said.
He described the limbo, where he must have gone, after the end of the world.
"Armageddon is no good," she said.
"You have to remember," he said.
"I wish I could."
Homer examined the pages he had found in the floor long ago, helping him to find his
way to the end of time.
"This is my theory of light," he said.

172
He gave her as paper with the equations of the particles travelling through space from
the beginning of the universe.
"Einstein got the Nobel prize for the theory of light," he said.
"Why are you doing it again then?"
"This is a different thing," he said.
He drew the graphics of his theory, making the pathways the photons had to follow in
their journeys from the far way galaxies they could see in a clear sky.
"I love you," he said.
"In this universe," she said.
He nodded. "I n this life."
Fifi finished getting re4ady for that appointment they had with the journalists
somewhere in time, as he wrote a few more things of his theory of matter being particles
and waves, according to the equations in a book he had found in the library.
"This is what I think," he said.
Homer wrote in a blackboard Fifi had found somewhere amongst her things, the best
way she had of showing her love to the man trying to conquer the world.
"This is the equation of time," he said.
"It is a particle and a wave, just like anything else in the world.
"You confuse me," she said.
He had to prove those formulas full of squiggles he had written in the paper, even if it
meant being late for their appointment.
"We don't know where the particle is," he said.
"That is interesting," she said. "But you must get ready."

173

The general
EXT. LUXURIOUS YATCH- NIGHT
We see the top part of a yacht. The seats, the floor and the walls are luxurious while
moving in synchronisation with the waves, a reason to believe we're in high seas and it's
night time. On the top of a mast, a seagull opens her left eye. That's the one she shows
to the public.
SEAGULL
I forgot to take that tablet of Sinogan. I couldn't sleep last night.
She puts her head under her wings as a young woman appears at the door, with platinum
blond hair, electric blue eyelashes, and sensual lips. Measures: 94-39-90

174
She moves along the deck, wearing a long gown the colour of dry wine, while bits of
bronze skin peep out of her dress and her forty plus bra is in danger of exploding.
FIFI
Alone between the sky and sea!
She sighs, defying the stability of her bra.
FIFI
The night and the sea are the sailor's love.
The seagull opens her eyes.
SEAGUL
I can't sleep if she says stupid things.
Fifi looks at the seagull.
FIFI
Poor bird, are you cold?
SEAGULL
The night is a bit fresh. Do you have a sinogan?

FIFI
What is it?
SEAGULL
It's a sleeping tablet.
FIFI
I sleep with my husband but sometimes I use a friend to have more fun.
She turns to look as a middle-aged man, wearing a captain's uniform with a white shirt,
trousers and shoes, comes in the scene.
FIFI
Homer, my darling.
She kisses him.
HOMER

175
What is my blond angel doing here alone?
FIFI
I asked this little bird who was the greatest sailor in the world, my captain.
HOMER
I'd like to be the greatest pirate of them all, but I can't hide you anywhere in the
Caribbean.
FIFI
We must hide ourselves from my husband, the general.
HOMER
Generals are nice.
FIFI
My captain won't remember me tomorrow.
SEAGULL
I'll have a nice time.
HOMER
I will follow you everywhere, like a good dog.
FIFI
I do believe you're a dog.
HOMER
I feel like a schoolboy in love.
SEAGULL
I see that soap opera.
FIFI
This is our last night. We'll be far from each other by tomorrow.
HOMER
We should be on our own if the general doesn't disturb us.
FIFI
The general sleeps as deeply as a trench. Nothing wakes him up.

176
HOMER
He's an antitank ditch.
SEAGULL
He made the Maginot line.
Cardinal Anastasio appears, wearing a red skirt with golden buttons, a triple crown with a
diamond cross, and socks and shoes similar to the skirt. Measurements: 94-344-480
He coughs, as his deep and authoritative voice comes out of his rounded stomach.
CARDINAL
I'm sorry for the interruption. I was talking to my God as usual.
Fifi and Homer kneel down on the floor.
FIFI AND HOMER (In unison)
Your highness..
The cardinal blesses them, while praying in Latin.
CARDINAL
Stand up now my children. God will be with you forever.
They straighten their clothes, after standing up.
HOMER
Your highness, I want to thank you for visiting my ship.
CARDINAL
You're the modest one.
FIFI
It's an honour to have a prince of the church in this important journey. It's like
travelling with God himself.
CARDINAL
We, the shepherds have to be with our sheep. By the way, hasn't Aurita come yet?
FIFI
The admiral was seasick today.
HOMER

177
Let's have a glass of wine while we wait.
CARDINAL
God bless you.
SEAGULL
The lady in red must be pregnant.
Homer gives orders to a nearby sailor.
HOMER
My activities need the protection of the Almighty.
FIFI
You are the father of freedom. They must erect statues in your honour.
HOMER
Stop saying foolish things.
CARDINAL
Don't be so modest. We know about your adventure in the middle of the Atlantic.
HOMER
I did what anyone else would have done.
FIFI
I wrote between the sea and the sky in your honour. It's hard not to notice
a great man.
SEAGULL
The smallest ship that man knows is the Queen Elizabeth II.
CUT TO
EXT. LUXURIOUS YATCH- NIGHT
The sailors bring a few bottles, glasses and jars with flowers and put them on a table.
CARDINAL
I wonder what's happened to Aurita.
FIFI
Love is beautiful.

178
HOMER
It's the substance of life.
The cardinal sighs.
CARDINAL
I'm in love.
FIFI
It's a blessing for Aurita to be in God's heart. You must have been a good looking
man.

CARDINAL
I've loved God and my fellow human beings all my life.
HOMER
God protects his apostles.
CARDINAL
I have served eternity forever.
CUT TO
EXT YATCH-EVENING
Homer pours wine in the glasses as the guests come to the table.
HOMER
I toast for a saint apostle and the most beautiful woman in the world.
CARDINAL AND FIFI (In unison)
Thank you.
They all drink.
SEAGULL
I'm glad I didn't take that sinogan.
CUT TO
EXT. LUXURIOUS YATCH- NIGHT

179
A beautiful girl appears, wearing a long black dress with an opening along her hips, styles
her black hair like Cleopatra before she met Mark Anthony while her eyes are black, her
teeth white and her lips pink. She looks like Aphrodite with a pair of well shaped arms
and teats.
Measurements: 8-31- 82
CARDINAL
An angel has arrived.
Aurita kisses him.
HOMER
That's love.
FIFI
What about us?
Fifi and Homer kiss each other.
CUT TO
EXT. LUXURIOUS YATCH- NIGHT
The girls sit on the men's laps.
SEAGULL
What are these people doing?
The cardinal offers Aurita a glass of wine.
CARDINAL
Have a drink, my darling.
She drinks almost all of it.
AURITA
I must leave some for my saint.
CARDINAL
You don't want to be a vampire.
The cardinal caresses the embroidery in Aurita's pants.
CARDINAL

180
I've given them to you, haven't I?
AURITA
I'm wearing them in your honour.
CARDINAL
You must take them off later.
SEAGULL
The woman wearing the red skirt wants to eat the other one.
The admiral appears with medals in his lapel as the women step away from their men.
HOMER
We waited for you, Admiral. How are you?
The admiral goes past the women and kneels in front of the cardinal.
ADMIRAL
Good evening, your highness.
The cardinal blesses him.
CARDINAL
God has taken pity on your soul.
The Admiral stands up, greets Homer, hugs Fifi and kisses Aurita.
AURITA
How is my sea wolf?
ADMIRAL
I'm a bit seasick.
Homer gives him a large glass of wine.
HOMER
You'll feel better after taking this medicine.
FIFI
I wonder what has happened to the general.
The admiral sips his wine.
ADMIRAL

181
He is looking for his sun.
CARDINAL
He must be a general of four suns.
SEAGULL
One sun is enough for me.
AURITA
Admirals should be of four moons.
HOMER
It's a good idea.
FIFI
And romantic..
SEAGULL
Having four moons must be a good thing.
Homer has a word with the sailors and music drifts around the ship, while the Admiral
finishes his drink.
ADMIRAL
This wine is like a woman's milk.
CARDINAL
When God left us his blood he never thought of women.
AURITA
I believe he really talks to God.
A general with four suns in his uniform appears in the scene. Everyone stands up.
HOMER
Hurrah to our future president!
EVERYBODY
Hurrah to the president!
GENERAL
I thank the cardinal in this adventure, to the great Homer giving us arms for our

182
freedom and to our women.
Homer fills up the glasses of wine.
HOMER
We must celebrate our general's victory.
GENERAL
Thank you.
CARDINAL
I toast for the general's sword and for our religion.
GENERAL
I ask for the protection of God and the army.
ADMIRAL
My army recognises you as the new head of state.
GENERAL
Thank you.
AURITA
Tonight is the start of a new country. Hurray to the general!
EVERYBODY
Hurray!
FIFI
I'll be with you whatever happens.

Aurita wipes a runaway tear, affected by Fifi's declaration of love.

SEAGULL
Where do they keep the suns?
Homer replenishes the empty glasses with some more wine.
CARDINAL
We must stop the president with a military coup tomorrow.
GENERAL

183
Homer's arms are first class, a bit expensive but good for our cause.
HOMER
The price is not high if you consider a few details.
GENERAL
I appreciate Homer's attitude and I assure you we'll win. Our group is regular and the
army backs us.
ADMIRAL
We back our general.
CARDINAL
We back him spiritually. The church has better arms than canons but we have a few
tanks.
GENERAL
We have powerful arms, organisation and God's blessings
CARDINAL
I haven't changed my Cadillac and cars for the last two years.
FIFI
Two years?
HOMER
Two years?
CARDINAL
I only have a chalet by the beach, after helping those idiots with their coup.
AURITA
Imbeciles!
GENERAL
Your highness will be treated very well by my government.
EVERYBODY
Hurrah to our new president. Hurrah!
FIFI

184
Religion has gone down the drain. We have communist bishops, married priests,
naked nuns, crazy Franciscans, bad Jesuits, bigamist Dominicans, destitute saints,
canonised footballers, archangels who have been warned, cherubs working for the
Metro Goldwin Mayer, virgins with no reference, Adam and Eve without an apple and
Jesus Christ trying to pass a driving test.
CARDINAL
That's why we need a new government to lead the country but the general mustn't
forget my needs.
GENERAL
You'll have your chalet.
CARDINAL
I'll give you my blessings.
GENERAL
Thank you, your highness.
CARDINAL
I'm all yours, Excellency.
AURITA
He'll have his new Cadillac.
GENERAL
Yes.
SEAGULL
I am hungry.
ADMIRAL
We need a strong government for our people, the country and the church.
CARDINAL
You speak of sanctity and virtue.
GENERAL
We'll fix it with our canons.

185
ADMIRAL
We can't forget the tanks, ships and submarines.
HOMER
I have good submarines for you.
GENERAL
Thank you. We'll parade them around the cities.
ADMIRAL
We'll use them in the manoeuvres.
HOMER
My submarines must be protected against humidity.
ADMIRAL
That's good. Sea water finishes with everything.
GENERAL
A parade with no submarines is like a party without a drink.
AURITA
Or without music.
SEAGULL
And food.
HOMER
We must have music.
FIFI
I want hot music.
Homer exits through the door, as the sailors return with more bottles, clean the table and
change the floral decoration.
EXT. LUXURIOUS SHIP- NIGHT
Modern music floats around the ship. The cardinal and Aurita dance, Homer dances with
Fifi, whilst the general and the admiral dance with each other.
Homer helps him to the nearest chair, after he trips and falls to the floor.

186
CARDINAL
I can't cope with this music. We used to dance minuet and bolero some time ago.
He touches his head.
CARDINAL
Where is my crown?
FIFI
I've found it.
She hands him a golden crown. The cardinal crosses himself and puts it back on his
head.
As the music drifts about the place, the cardinal dances with Aurita, Homer and Fifi hide
in a corner, while the men drink and talk about their plans.
CUT TO
EXT. CORNER IN LUXURIOUS YACHT- NIGHT
HOMER
You'll be a queen tomorrow.
FIFI
And you'll be my prince.
HOMER
That must be the general.
FIFI
He's my prince consort.
Homer kisses her, before caressing her breasts.
HOMER
You've made me the happiest man in the world.
FIFI
Make love to me.
Homer holds her close.
HOMER

187
We must get rid of your husband first.
He puts his hand up her pants.
FIFI
The revolution might kill him.
CUT TO
EXT. LUXURIOUS YACHT- NIGHT

CARDINAL
Homer knows about strategies. Look where he has taken Fifi.
AURITA
Let's follow their example.
His highness limps with Aurita to another corner, where they kiss each other.
CUT TO
EXT. LUXURIOUS YATCH- NIGHT
Homer and Fifi dance at the tune of a bolero.
EXT. LUXURIOUS YATCH- NIGHT
GENERAL
The destroyer will be ready tomorrow then
ADMIRAL
Those people won't survive.
GENERAL
We must have an airplane ready to send the president away. I'm feeling
generous.
ADMIRAL
You are always generous.
GENERAL
I don't want too much blood in our coup.
ADMIRAL

188
That's good.
GENERAL
You must be the war minister.
ADMIRAL
I'm overwhelmed with your generosity.
GENERAL
We have to sign Homer's cheques.
ADMIRAL
He'll take care of that.
GENERAL
What a man!
ADMIRAL
He's a shrewd businessman.
GENERAL
Let's drink another one.
They drink more wine.
ADMIRAL
Our women are saints
GENERAL
They'll be the first lady and the minister's wife. We have to give them beautiful
decorations.
ADMIRAL
We need titles and honours.
GENERAL
Leave that to me.
ADMIRAL
A few more medals wouldn't be bad for us.
They drink more wine.

189
CUT TO
EXT. LUXURIOUS YATCH- NIGHT
The boleros have stopped and everybody is back at the table.
ADMIRAL
Your Highness dances well.
CARDINAL
I'm bothering your beautiful wife. She's nice.
AURITA
It's an honour to be with your highness.
ADMIRAL
It's for both of us.
CARDINAL
You're kind.
The sailors bring more food and wine.
HOMER
I'm happy, dancing with the first lady.
FIFI
Your yacht is important.
GENERAL
Queens and kings have been here.
HOMER
I've never had anyone like you.
CARDINAL
The pope has been here on holydays.
ADMIRAL
The Aga Khan was here.
AURITA
And Miss Universe.

190
CARDINAL
And the Dalai Lama.
HOMER
I have fulfilled my aspirations tonight.
GENERAL
Thank you. I'll never forget it.
They drink to Homer's honour, as more bottles of wine arrive, and the music of a
ranchera drifts about the deck.
CUT TO
EXT. DANCE FLOOR IN YACHT- NIGHT
The couples dance. The general shoots his revolver while the admiral does that with his
pocket machine gun and the cardinal passes wind.
SEAGULL
They make too much noise. I can't sleep.
Aurita and the cardinal talk as Fifi and Homer whisper to each other. The militaries go
back to the table while the others dance.
CUT TO
EXT. LUXURIOUS YACHT- NIGHT
GENERAL
We have enough wine to calm our nerves.
ADMIRAL
This is a very important moment in our lives.
GENERAL
We need a new government
ADMIRAL
It will give us happiness for the rest of our days.
GENERAL
Homer is wonderful.

191

ADMIRAL
We should have at least eighty generals and as many admirals.
GENERAL
There are three generals for each soldier at the moment. It would be ideal to
have an army of only generals.
ADMIRAL
And admirals.
GENERAL
Of course.
The sailors bring some more bottles of wine as the ranchera comes to an end.
HOMER
My distinguished guests, you must sign my cheques now.
ADMIRAL
I have a short speech bought from the national factory.
GENERAL
I've got one from the same place.
The sailors bring a table covered with a green cloth. It is full of papers, pens, typewriters
and calculators. A man without much hair bows in front of the people and sits at the
table. They all gather around the table, except for the general, who looks at his medals
while standing up.
GENERAL
Good evening your highness, ladies and gentlemen.
We have gathered here today in the middle of the sea and under the light of a thousand
constellations
He waves his spade and cuts the tail of the seagull as he eats tuna from the plates.

GENERAL

192
to save my country from the chains. I'm prepared to offer my life for my
people.
They applaud.
GENERAL
We need faith and dignity, greatness and altruism to give our people peace, justice
and bread.
They applaud again. The seagull sips some wine from a glass and also applauds.
GENERAL
We come back like the Spartans with the emblems...
They cry, applaud and drink wine.
GENERAL
Dawn will find us in the trenches defending our country, who taught us love from
the cradle, with our mother's tears and the efforts of a dying father. God, Christ
and freedom! Here is a saying of my government: for the country and to the
country.
They applaud. The general searches for his glass to refresh his mouth but the seagull has
finished with the wine.
GENERAL
I invite you to follow my comrades. If I go back, kill me. If I die, look for
revenge.
They all hug the general. Fifi and the seagull kiss him in the mouth while the cardinal
straightens his crown and gets ready to speak.
CARDENAL
In this night of faith and hope, I represent the catholic people of my country, who
will follow our leaders beyond death, if necessary.
They applaud.
CARDINAL
On the twenty seventh of October of the year 1312, the emperor Constantine found

193
the troops of his rival Magencio twelve kilometres away from Rome. After calling
the Christian God, he saw a luminous cross in the sunset with the following words:
With this sign you'll win. He was promoted as Jesus Christ, God of the armies.
They applaud.
CARDINAL
That's why at this solemn moment of our lives, we turn our eyes towards God, and
find his words: with the saint cross, we'll have victory.
Everyone goes mad.
CARDINAL
I must give you the papal blessing with a plenary indulgence.
They all kneel on the floor, including the seagull. The cardinal prays in Latin while
pouring holy water around him. The seagull doesn't like it and goes back to the food.
They congratulate his highness.
HOMER
General, supreme boss, protector and father of our country: I had never seen such a
unanimous opinion about our government. I have the honour of showing the
receipts, your signatures proving the courage of your hearts.

The general goes to the table, reads a few lines of the document and signs it. The admiral
also signs without reading the paper. The cardinal ads postdate: don't forget the ten per
cent, before signing it.
HOMER
I want to offer the pens we have used in the ceremony to our ladies.

He gives one to Fifi, another one to Aurita and the third one to the seagull.
The admiral drinks some wine, clears his throat and gets ready to talk.
ADMIRAL
General, supreme boss, admiral, protector and father of our country, the cardinal,

194
ladies and gentlemen: I want to say a few words in this day, when we decide the
future of a free country. Since the birth of our nation, a few ethnic races have
come to America. It opened its entrails to the Iberian race, pregnant with God, and
to the black torrent of Africa. All of this was mixed in the new land and new
hearts.

They applaud.
ADMIRAL
In between the paths of the virgin jungle..
CARDINAL
This is not a good moment to talk about virgins.
ADMIRAL
Our ancestors grew in the highest Andean mountain, the tree of a victorious Christ
against the moors in Lepanto in their perpetual fight against a hostile medium.
They applaud.
ADMIRAL
This blood made plants grow next to the cross. It turned into the chastity of our
women, charity in the toughness of our men, and sanctity with the beats of the sword.
The eternal reflex of the sea changed into a pyramid of light in between paths of hope
and the dawns full of awe. The weeping of children sent a choir to the wind, forming
the first notes of the symphony of America.

CUT TO
EXT. LUXURIOUS YACHT- NIGHT
The seagull eats the fish swimming in the aquarium.
Homer shoos him away.

HOMER

195
Stop it.

CUT TO

EXT. LUXURIOUS YACHT- NIGHT

ADMIRAL

Atahualpa and Gaspar joining their titanic forces over mountains full of
snow, as written in the last page of the Inca culture

CUT TO

CARDINAL
I think the admiral wants to tell us the history of America.
AURITA
I'm a fan of the America football team. He doesn't have to discuss the games,
citing the classic ones would be enough.

CARDINAL
The last classic finished 2-2.
AURITA
We should dance.
The cardinal disappears through the door.
CUT TO
EXT. LUXURIOUS YACHT -NIGHT
The music of a ranchera drifts through the ship.
MUSIC

196
The day I die, it will be by four gunshots
ADMIRAL
When the warrior talent of Pizarro met the idolatrous Indians, celestial fire took
the last Inca in front of his first cause. He

MUSIC
He didn't have time to go on his horse
The cardinal gestures to Aurita.
CARDINAL
My love, can we escape while the admiral remembers our country?
They leave the scene.
ADMIRAL
Loyalty to the institutions is one of the duties of a patriot.
The general decides to dance with the seagull after drinking some more wine.
CUT TO
EXT- LUXURIOUS YACHT- NIGHT
Homer sits close to Fifi.
HOMER
His highness stole Aurita.
FIFI
It's natural. Her husband's mind is in Cusco now.
CUT TO
ADMIRAL
.And then the Incas, suffered in rivers of blood
The general looks at the seagull.
GENERAL
What's your opinion of the miniskirt?
CUT TO

197
ADMIRAL
From the Orinoco, the water is full of remains
MUSIC
I'm drinking like a madman
CUT TO
Homer and Fifi sit holding hands.
HOMER
Our general of four suns hasn't had much sun.
FIFI
We must give him the sleeping drug.
CUT TO
EXT. LUXURIOUS YACHT- NIGHT
The general dances with the seagull.
GENERAL
Do you like the music?

SEAGULL
I prefer rock.
CUT TU
ADMIRAL
And then freedom grew like a tropical plant. One of those creepers climbing
forever towards the light, without looking at its own whiteness, because it counts
its energies
MUSIC
If they tell you, they saw me very drunk
EXT. LUXURIOUS SHIP- NIGHT
The music has stopped and everybody has come back to the table. Homer pours a few
drops of sinogan in the general's cup.

198
SEAGULL
They told me nothing was good for sleeping.
ADMIRAL
The centaurs of freedom broke their arrows on the armours of the sons of El
Cid
They all drink and eat.
CUT TO
GENERAL
Our admiral is still talking. I'll give him a glass of wine.
After pouring wine in a glass, he gets near the admiral.
ADMIRAL
The great achievements of the Iberian race, which couldn't fight against its own
children in whom
He sips wine from the glass the general has offered him.

ADMIRAL
The seeds of his genius proliferate
CUT TO
HOMER
The admiral is a master of rhetoric without any doubts.
GENERAL
I'll ask him for a copy to edit in the official paper. I think it's very interesting.
HOMER
Do you want another glass of wine, general?
CUT TO
Homer pours a bag of powder in the wine. The general drinks the wine with the strong
mixture of medicines.
EVERYBODY

199
Hurrah to the admiral!
ADMIRAL
And then the fecund rivers, where the dark women gave birth to heroes, multiplying
themselves just as his children
CUT TO
EXT. LUXURIOUS YACHT - NIGHT
HOMER
I've given him the whole solution. We'll have the rest of the night to ourselves.
FIFI
When will the admiral end?
CUT TO
The cardinal and Aurita come back to the table rearranging their clothes. They ask for
glasses of wine.
ADMIRAL
And then the flag of freedom displayed its colours
AURITA
My husband must be finishing.
The seagull flies away, crashing against some of the mastiffs as the general goes to sleep
on the table after drinking his wine. He snores with the peculiar sound of heroes in threir
way to victory.
CUT TO
ADMIRAL
That is why we must shout once more: Freedom! Freedom! Freedom! I've
spoken.
They applaud while the admiral drinks his wine.
CARDINAL
We must go to sleep, my sons. I have to say mass early tomorrow.
ADMIRAL

200
We understand.
Homer calls the sailors.
HOMER
Take the general to his cabin and help him to undress.

Human Bombs
EXT. SHIP- NIGHT
A few sailors look into the night with binoculars as a middle aged man wearing a short
shirt stands with a glass in his hand.
Sipping his drink, he looks out into the sea.
INTERMEDIARY
Are you sure this is the place?
FIRST SAILOR
The pilot swears it is.
INTERMEDIARY

201
It's strange. These people arrive on time.
SECOND SAILOR
They must have been found.
INTERMEDIARY
Don't be a pessimist.
SECOND SAILOR
Everything is possible, my captain.
INTERMEDIARY
I'm only an intermediary, remember?
ALL THE SAILORS
Yes sir.
INTERMEDIARY
Are you all armed?
ALL THE SAILORS
Yes sir.
INTERMEDIARY
Have you checked the security installations?
ALL THE SAILORS
Yes sir.
INTERMEDIARY
Tell the man in charge of the radar.
He moves across ship. Then he sits and drinks from his glass.
SOMEONE (VO)
A boat is coming.
The intermediary takes a microphone.
INTERMEDIARY
A boat is coming. Prepare the reception.

202
He lights up his pipe, the sailors move around the ship as a boat approaches amidst the
darkness.
The intermediary walks across the ship to greet the newcomers.
CUT TO
EXT. SHIP- NIGHT
The boat docks, as men and women go up the ladder, get into the ship and stand in front
of the intermediary.
NEWCOMERS (All together)
National Liberation Army.
They disperse around the ship, and a bearded man, who seems to be in charge, waits by
the intermediary.
CUT TO
More people arrive at the boat.
NEWCOMERS (All together)
National Liberation Army.
The bearded man takes off his hat, does a military salute while spitting on the floor.
BEARDED MAN
X- Bombs automatic battalion is ready for its secret mission of economic character.
INTERMEDIARY
Thank you.
BEARDED MAN
Attention!
The people assume a formal position.
BEARDED MAN
Rest.
They all relax.
INTERMEDIARY
You're in the presence of someone who agrees with your ideas. Hurrah to

203
freedom.
EVERYBODY
Hurrah!
They sit on the floor as intermediary offers the bearded man a cigar.
INTERMEDIARY
You'll receive the arms tomorrow night, we are idealists like you.
BEARDED MAN
We have everything ready. The bosses authorise me to give you 28,000 dollars.
INTERMEDIARY (Calling aloud)
Atenagoras. Atenagoras.
CUT TO
EXT. SHIP- EVENING
A small bald man with a wallet under his left arm takes off his glasses, before saluting the
intermediary.
ATENAGORAS
Do you want something Mr. Intermediary?
INTERMEDIARY
Show me the revolutionary men's papers.
Atenagoras sits next to the intermediary and the bearded man, who looks through the
papers in his wallet after putting his glasses on.
INTERMEDIARY
I want to show my admiration and solidarity.
The bearded man stands up.
BEARDED MAN
We're on a mission here. We don't accept anything.
INTERMEDIARY
This is a disinterested help, Mr. Revolutionary.
BEARDED MAN

204
Mr. Intermediary, tell me how much we owe you. We are not beggars.
INTERMEDIARY
You must forgive me. I only have the best intentions in the world.
BEARDED MAN
Thank you.
Atenagoras takes off his glasses.
ATENAGORAS
Tonight you must give us the sum of 28,000
He puts his glasses on again and looks at the paper, following the writing with his finger.
ATENAGORAS
And 835 dollars.
BEARDED MAN
You're mistaken. I only have to give $28,300 dollars.
INTERMEDIARY
Let's not fight for such a stupid thing.
He looks at Atenagoras.
INTERMEDIARY
Write a receipt for whatever money he says.
The bearded man opens his shirt and takes out a roll of dollars.
BEARDED MAN
Thank you. Here is your money.
INTERMEDIARY
Count the money, my dear Atenagoras.
The bald employee stars to count the money.
INTERMEDIARY
Idealism is something beautiful. Someone thinks of his glorious work, after having so
much money in his pocket.
BEARDED MAN

205
We're revolutionaries.
INTERMEDIARY
They're people.
BEARDED MAN
No one is a person here.
INTERMEDIARY
What do you mean?
BEARDED MAN
We're bombs.
INTERMEDIARY
I understand less than before.
BEARDED MAN
It's the laatest tactic discovered by the heroes in Vietnam. Our battalion is made up of
walking bombs, they explode in the most convenient places.
INTERMEDIARY
It's a novelty. I had not thought of that idea.
BEARDED MAN
We fight for our life. We're the soldiers of the revolution.
INTERMEDIARY
Sorry but I'm nervous. Can I drink an aguardiente?
BEARDED MAN
Of course you can.
INTERMEDIARY
You should do the same thing. It calms the nerves.
BEARDED MAN
Alcohol is only for rich people.
INTERMEDIARY
I'm a progressive rich.

206
BEARDED MAN
Mr. Intermediary, you can drink as much as you want to. It's not your fault. You are
controlled by your powerful masters.
INTERMEDIARY
My spirit is weak.
As he claps his hands, a sailor appears. The intermediary mutters something to the man.
BEARDED MAN
Our leaders' plans will liberate us from the oppressors.
INTERMEDIARY
I had never imagined so much strength.
BEARDED MAN
The fight is just starting. Don't forget it.
Someone from the NLA itches his leg.
INTERMEDIARY
My God! You can blow yourself up, young man.
BEARDED MAN
Don't worry Mr. Intermediary. Drink an aguardiente.
A sailor comes in with a few bottles, glasses and soda, before the intermediary pours a
drink for himself and Atengoras counts his money.

The intermediary drinks his

aguardiente in a gulp.
INTERMEDIARY
I belong to the hated rich. We can't cope with so much idealism.
BEARDED MAN
Atenagoras is counting your idealism.
INTERMEDIARY
We are the slaves, the others are the masters.
BEARDED MAN
It's the exploitation of man by man.

207
Atenagoras stops counting the dollars.
ATENAGORAS
You mean that man exploits himself.
BEARDED MAN
Isn't it funny?
ATENAGORAS
I don't believe in that.
INTERMEDIARY
You count your dollars.
BEARDED MAN
Don't you want a demonstration?
INTERMEDIARY
No, I don't.
BEARDED MAN
We could try our system in the sea.
INTERMEDIARY
I can't swim but I'll give you your money back, Mr. Revolutionary.
BEARDED MAN
Be calm, Mr. Intermediary. We wouldn't waste our ammunitions in this boat.
INTERMEDIARY
I always knew you were noble.
He drinks three aguardientes, as Atengoras stops counting the money.
ATENAGORAS
Everything seems to be OK.
He writes in a paper and signs it. The intermediary also signs it.
INTERMEDIARY
Tomorrow you'll have your arms in the place we agreed, according to our promises.
BEARDED MAN

208
You must keep your word.
Atenagoras gestures to the NLA members.
ATENAGORAS
What happened to the test of the bombs?
BEARDED MAN
I'm thinking about it.
INTERMEDIARY
But Mr. Revolutionary, this is not a warship.
BEARDED MAN
I want to try something.
INTERMEDIARY
I beg you, sir.
BEARDED MAN
Nothing will happen to your ship.
ATENAGORAS
Let them test their weapons, Mr. Intermediary.
The bearded man mutters something.
BEARDED MAN
These are military manoeuvres, nothing will happen to you.
INTERMEDIARY
Do you want to lose one bomb?
BEARDED MAN
You're a rich terrorist and I want to show you a submarine fight. We must live for the
revolution.

He moves towards the human bombs.

BEARDED MAN
I want a bomb with small charge for a submarine. Number eight, what charge do you

209
have?
A man stands up.
NUMBER EIGHT
I have four kilograms, my lieutenant.
BEARDED MAN
And number six?
One of the men sitting at the table raises his hand.
NUMBER SIX
I'm three and a half with incorporated ammunition.
BEARDED MAN
I need a small bomb without ammunition. Stand up.
Number six stands up. He's a skinny man, who looks like a child
NUMBER SIX
I'm three kilos without the ammunition, my lieutenant.
The bearded man looks at the intermediary.
BEARDED MAN
You must sail as fast as possible. Can you understand me?
INTERMEDIARY
Why?
BEARDED MAN
The explosion might send us to the bottom of the sea.
INTERMEDIARY
What explosion?
The bearded man gestures towards the young man.
BEARDED MAN
That explosion.
INTERMEDIARY
I see a man.

210
BEARDED MAN
Make this ship go fast or I'll explode it in your face, stupid rich man.
As the intermediary says a few things to the sailors, the motor groans, the wind blows
over the bombs and the intermediary wipes his brow.
BEARDED MAN
What's the speed?
INTERMEDIARY
Fifteen knots.
BEARDED MAN
Is that all?
ATENAGORAS
We'll go at fifty kilometres per hour in ten minutes.
BEARDED MAN
Is this a joke?
INTERMEDIARY
We have to go into the open sea first.
BEARDED MAN
When will it be?
ATENAGORAS
It should be in half an hour.
The bearded man looks at the young man.
BEARDED MAN
You can rest for now.
The young man sits down.
BEARDED MAN
I need a life jacket.
ATENAGORAS
We have several kinds of life jackets.

211
BEARDED MAN
Can I see them?
The intermediary sips his drink and calls a sailor.
INTERMEDIARY
Bring the life jackets.
ATENAGORAS
How will the manoeuvre be, my lieutenant?
BEARDED MAN
After floating in the sea, the bomb will explode when the ship nears it.
ATENAGORAS
I thought you wanted manoeuvres under the sea.
BEARDED MAN
This is what it is.
ATENAGORAS
Submarines go under the sea.
BEARDED MAN
He'll be in the surface, anything wrong with it?
ATENAGORAS
I don't know.
BEARDED MAN
I'll explain it with a graphic.
CUT TO
EXT SHIP- NIGHT
The bearded man writes something on a notebook.
A few sailors arrive with the life jackets and wait for the bearded man to finish with his
plans while the intermediary and Atenagoras drink aguardiente. The din of the motors
indicates they're moving fast.
ATENAGORAS

212
Excuse me lieutenant but the life jackets have arrived.
The bearded man examines one by one of the different kinds of life jackets. Then he
offers a life jacket to the young man.
BEARDED MAN
Attention.
The young man stands up and puts the life jacket on.
BEARDED MAN
The life jacket is very good. Can I have the reference?
A sailor gives something to the bearded man, who writes it in his notebook.
INTERMEDIARY
Why don't we give the man a glass of aguardiente? He might feel less nervous.
BEARDED MAN
Do you think he's a nun?
ATENAGORAS
The sea is cold at this time.
BEARDED MAN
He'll get wet for four minutes.
The bearded man gestures to the young man with the bomb.
BEARDED MAN
You jump after I count up to three but wait for my signal before igniting the bomb.
Do you understand?
NUMBER SIX
Yes, lieutenant.
BEARDED MAN
Can you repeat what I've just said?
NUMBER SIX
At the count of three, I go to the railings and then I jump into the sea. I wait for
your signal before igniting the bomb.

213
BEARDED MAN
Get ready.
Number six moves to the railings.
ATENAGORAS
Can you do the same thing without a bomb, lieutenant?
BEARDED MAN
How else could I do it?
ATENAGORAS
You can throw the life jacket into the sea.
BEARDED MAN
If you keep on interfering, I'll send you instead.
INTERMEDIARY
Excuse me, lieutenant but the life jacket costs money. I'm responsible for it.
BEARDED MAN
How much is it?
INTERMEDIARY
Two dollars.
The bearded man searches in his pockets. He throws two dollars on the table.
BEARDED MAN
Is the ship going fast?
SAILOR
Yes, lieutenant.
The bearded man gestures at bomb number six.
BEARDED MAN
Get ready.
Everyone is quiet as the motor groans.
The bearded man looks at his watch.
BEARDED MAN

214
One, two and three!
Number six jumps into the water, as four minutes pass, the bearded man holds the signal
gun and everyone look at the sea.
CUT TO
EXT. SHIP- NIGHT
The bearded man shoots his gun at the sky but they only hear the roaring motor, a pink
light spreading about the boat illuminates the scene.
BEARDED MAN
The bastard must have gone to sleep!
ATENAGORAS
He must have drowned.
BEARDED MAN
Was the life jacket faulty?
INTERMEDIARY
I can assure you, it's as good as new.
BEARDED MAN
Let's find him.
The intermediary gives orders to the sailors and the boat slows down.
BEARDED MAN
Let's go back.
INTERMEDIARY
He could blow up near us.
BEARDED MAN
You'll have to swim then.
Everybody looks at the sea and Atenagoras pour aguardiente in their glasses.
CUT TO
EXT. SHIP- NIGHT
A voice is heard in the microphone.

215
VOICE
We're close to the place.
They see something floating in the sea, under the light of a battery operated torch.
NUMBER SIX
I'm here, my lieutenant. The bomb didn't explode.
A sailor brings the microphone to the bearded man.
BEARDED MAN
Number six, can you hear me?
NUMBER SIX
Yes, lieutenant.
BEARDED MAN
We're going to destroy you.
NUMBER SIX
Yes, lieutenant.
The bearded man shoots his gun several times.
BEARDED MAN
Can you hear me, number six?
NUMBER SIX
Yes, sir. I've been wounded in my legs and chest.
BEARDED MAN
We'll use another method.
He looks at the people in the ship.
BEARDED MAN
We'll be dead, if the body is found by the reactionaries. I need a low charge. Two
kilograms should be enough.
SAILOR
We don't have one.

216
A girl stands up, while her companions take ammunition from her brassiere, and after
counting a few things, they put the rest back in the bra.
SAILOR
She's ready, my lieutenant.
BEARDED MAN
You must revise her equipment.
She helps them to check the wires connected to herself, until her young and attractive
body appears naked under the light of the torch.
The bearded man looks at the sea.
BEARDED MAN
Number six, can you hear me?
NUMBER SIX
Yes, lieutenant.
BEARDED MAN
How are you?
NUMBER SIX
I'm hoping to blow up soon.
BEARDED MAN
Don't worry. Number ten is coming to you in a few minutes.
NUMBER SIX
Thank you, lieutenant.
ATENAGORAS
Why don't we pick him up?
BEARDED MAN
This isn't your business.
ATENAGORAS
I'll take him to a hospital.
BEARDED MAN

217
If you keep on interfering, you'll end up in hospital.
INTERMEDIARY
Will anything happen to the ship?
BEARDED MAN
No.
INTERMEDIARY
I just wanted to know.
He goes back to the table with Atenagoras. The bearded man gestures at the girl, who is
dressed now.
BEARDED MAN
Attention.
She stands in front of him.
BEARDED MAN
You must swim to number six hug him to your chest and ignite the bomb. Do you
understand?
NUMBER TEN
Yes, lieutenant.
The bearded man takes a few dollars out of his pocket and hands them to the
intermediary.
BEARDED MAN
I want a life jacket.
INTERMEDIARY
"Yes, sir.
A sailor brings another life jacket. The girl puts the life jacket over her curves and moves
towards the railings.
BEARDED MAN
Are you ready?
NUMBER TEN

218
Yes lieutenant.
BEARDED MAN
One, two and three.
She jumps into the sea, the motors of the ship roar for some time, as an explosion
illuminates the sky with a pinkish light.
BEARDED MAN
Mr. Intermediary, let's go back to the base.
INTERMEDIARY
Yes, sir.

219

Chucho
EXT. LUXURIOUS SHIP- NIGHT
A sailor moves with a tray full of drinks. At first sight he looks strange with his long
arms, hairs sprouting from under his clothes and walking bow legged, but as he moves
across the ship and disappears in the shadows, we notice his hairy face, like that of an ape
with a sailor's hat on his head.
An old man with many decorations on his lapel, walks across the ship, the waves roaring
in the background give us a taste of the scene.
He has a big stomach and a wide forehead flanked by a pair of glasses, while holding
four books under his right arm and three under the other one, before sitting on them in the
floor.
CUT TO
EXT. LUXURIOUS SHIP- NIGHT
Another old gentleman appears. Thin, bold, he is wearing a suit full of decorations, while
carrying a suitcase. He looks at the man sitting on the books.
FAT PROFESSOR
Hi.
THIN PROFESSOR
Why are you sitting on the books?
FAT PROFESSOR
Who?
THIN PROFESSOR
You.
The fat man looks at his feet and nods.
FAT PROFESSOR
Thank you.
He sits on a chair and the thin man sits down on another one as a sailor appears.

220
THIN PROFESSOR
Can you bring me a table, please?
The sailor disappears through the door.
A middle-aged woman wearing a long dress and with a child in her arms appears. The
child wears a small suit with decorations.
WOMAN
Good evening, wise men.
The men kiss her hand and smile at the child.
The hairy puts a small table in front of the thin professor as Homer appears through the
door, coughing and wearing a suit with decorations. The sailor leaves the scene.
HOMER
I beg your pardon, wise men, for interrupting your thoughts.
They all stand up.
FAT PROFESSOR
I've never seen a ship as luxurious as this one in my life.
THIN PROFESSOR
It is amazing, dear Homer. That's the truth.
HOMER
Don't exaggerate, please.
THIN PROFESSOR
Our words are mathematical formulae.

Homer caresses the child.

HOMER
How is the infant today?
WOMAN
He's all right. The diarrhoea has stopped.
HOMER

221
I have in this ship three of the best scientists in the world.
FAT PROFESSOR
You wished to show us something else more important than the pleasure we get in this
ship
HOMER
It's something different. I never imagined I'd have the famous professor Irwin in my
ship.
EVERYBODY
It's hard to believe.
HOMER
Professor Irwin found the formula of eternal youth, made a mistake and went back to
being a baby.
WOMAN
I have to feed him now.
On opening her dress, she guides the child to the pink blossoms of her teats.
HOMER
He has to tell us where he left the formula.
FAT PROFESSOR
We couldn't find the formula in Professor Irwin's laboratory, even though I drank the
contents of a bottle with a yellow liquid.
Everybody laughs.
THIN PROFESSOR
Did he tell you about his experiments?
FAT PROFESSOR
We were in constant communication since he started his experiments.
HOMER
Tell us more.
FAT PROFESSOR

222
He needed to sort out a few more details before his formula was ready.
HOMER
He thought he had found the fountain of youth.
The woman puts the child against her shoulders, knocking his back gently.
WOMAN
I never imagined I would be feeding a baby at my age.
HOMER
It's your husband. You're lucky.
WOMAN
He eats a lot.
She puts the baby on her other breast.
WOMAN
He wanted to keep his investigations a secret, because of all the products in the shops
that are supposed to make you look younger.
THIN PROFESSOR
I should be in my mother's womb by now.
FAT PROFESSOR
You're an orphan.
THIN PROFESSOR
I wouldn't mind any other womb then.
They laugh.
HOMER
We must drink to that.
As he claps his hands, the hairy sailor appears.
THIN PROFESSOR
I want a Coca cola
FAT PROFESSOR
I want Coca cola.

223
WOMAN
I want Coca cola.
HOMER
Why don't you drink a whisky?
FAT PROFESSOR
It's bad for my liver.
THIN PROFESSOR
It kills my pancreas.
WOMAN
I can't drink alcohol while feeding the baby.
HOMER
What about a soft wine?
THIN PROFESSOR
My transverse colon will burst.
FAT PROFESSOR
My kidneys will be affected.
WOMAN
I'll burst if I don't drink one.
The hairy sailor bows and disappears through the door.
HOMER
Tell us the story, my dear lady.
WOMAN
That night he drank the contents of a milky liquid inside a bottle, before going to bed.
Darling, he said, I have just taken the formula of youth.
Don't be daft, I said.
I heard a child crying in the early hours of the morning. I called Irwin but no one
answered and my maternal instincts told me the baby I had found was special. He had
the same birthmarks in that body I knew so well.

224
FAT PROFESSOR
What did you do with the bottle?
WOMAN
What bottle?
FAT PROFESSOR
I thought he left it on the bedside table.
WOMAN
I forgot about the bottle, while looking after the infant.
FAT PROFESSOR
You'll be a millionaire if you find it.
The hairy sailor comes in with a bottle of whisky and soda for Homer and everything else
they have ordered. He bows and leaves.
The child cries as the woman covers her breasts and wipes her dress with a tissue she
finds on the table.
WOMAN
I'm ever so sorry! He usually does these things after dinner.
She moves away with the child in her arms, leaving a wet trail wherever she steps.
HOMER
The professor worked for many years to get his goal. He can't even talk now.
FAT PROFESSOR
He's breastfed during a discussion with his colleagues, before dirtying his nappy.
HOMER
Professor Irwin would have made a fortune if he had sold his formula, instead of
drinking it.

THIN PROFESSOR
We'll have to wait for the child to tell us.
FAT PROFESSOR

225
Will he remember anything?
HOMER
He'll collect balls and chewing gum.
FAT PROFESSOR
What a waste of time.
HOMER
Think of all the money he could have made.
CUT TO
EXT. LUXURIOUS YACHT- EVENING
A sailor appears with a message in a tray. Homer gives instructions to the sailors, after
reading it.
HOMER
A helicopter is bringing Professor Greer, his wife and Fifi.
THIN PROFESSOR
I like Fifi. Is she bringing the general?
HOMER
He's busy with a coup at the moment.
THIN PROFESSOR
That man likes his revolutions.
FAT PROFESSOR
And Fifi loves him.
THIN PROFESSOR
Has Professor Greer married?
HOMER
He was single the last time I saw him, scientists are boring.
FAT PROFESSOR
Women want everything.
THIN PROFESSOR

226
. You're right. Science has been my love up to now.
HOMER
I'm a frustrated scientist.
THIN PROFESSOR
I have to study the angels by the sea side.
He takes an electronic microscope out of his bag and a small box with beautiful
decorations.
THIN PROFESOR
You must kneel down on the floor and pray before I start my research with the needle
that touched baby Jesus' nappies.
They all kneel as the professor places a needle under the microscope. Then they all stand
up.
CUT TO
EXT.LUXURIOUS YACHT- EVENING
FAT PROFESSOR
Do you know of my colleague's work?
HOMER
I have heard about it. He can't do anything else because of his job.
FAT PROFESSOR
This man is the greatest genius of all time.
HOMER
I'm sure of that.
FAT PROFESSOR
Businessmen have a direct influence on our lives.
HOMER
Yes, of course.
FAT PROFESSOR
This illustrious scientist used to dress in a tunic and wings during Christmas time.

227
Have you seen him sleeping?
HOMER
I haven't had that honour.
FAT PROFESSOR
He wears a long blue gown, beautiful plastic wings with golden beads and a blond wig
that goes down to his hips. He keeps a golden harp on his bedside table.
HOMER
It's interesting. Do you want another coke?
FAT PROFESSOR
All right.
Homer claps his hands and a sailor appears.
HOMER
Bring the professor a coke.
WAITER
Yes, Sir.
The man leaves the scene.
FAT PROFESSOR
He won the Nobel Prize for his thesis about the theology of Rome, written in old
Latin, but it has not been translated into any other language

The sailor arrives with the coca colas.

HOMER
What does the book say?
FAT PROFESSOR
It has 834 pages, written in verses of ten lines. Nobody knows what it says, until
someone translates it.
HOMER

228
Interesting!
FAT PROFESSOR
He has won the first prize in the story of science, being a genius must be an illness.
HOMER
That's obvious to me. Drink your coca cola.
FAT PROFESSOR
He earns $2,500 dollars a month, plus eight hundred dollars for expenses.
HOMER
Not much money for such an important job.

FAT PROFESSOR
Geniuses like us are underpaid.
HOMER
We'll have to change that.
FAT PROFESSOR
He has studied angels from his infancy, when he used to wonder about their sex, while
learning in the school. Are they men or women?
HOMER
He's a hero.
FAT PROFESSOR
How can he see an angel? He's thought about the problem for twenty years, and one
day he ran along the streets of Rome shouting: Eureka! Eureka!
HOMER
What does it mean?
FAT PROFESSOR
I don't know. It's one of his fantastic words.
HOMER
What happened then?

229
The woman appears at this moment. She has changed her clothes and doesn't have the
child.
WOMAN
I'm sorry for interrupting the conversation.
HOMER
Where is the professor?
WOMAN
He's asleep. He'll wake up for his next feed in three hours. He's so beautiful.
EVERYBODY
Bless him.
She looks at the professor working with the microscope.
WOMAN
Our wise man doesn't belong to this world anymore.
She sits down.
HOMER
Would you like some wine?
WOMAN
It has to be dry.
Homer gives orders to the hairy sailor.
FAT PROFESSOR
I told Homer of the extraordinary things the professor has done.
WOMAN
He has broken all the records with his work.
The thin professor smiles, while looking at his microscope.
THIN PROFESSOR
Thanks.
HOMER
I've heard of the moment he ran along the street naked.

230
WOMAN
Didn't you know that?
HOMER
I'm sorry, but my business
WOMAN
It was first page news in all the world papers.
FAT PROFESSOR
L. Clays won his fight for the heavy belt on the same day.
WOMAN
They wrote eight columns in the first page about the professor nakedness.
FAT PROFESSOR
He was a member of the Pieni Order eight days later.
HOMER
I like that opera.
WOMAN
The Pieni Order is not an opera but a papal decoration.
HOMER
Sorry, I didn't know.
WOMAN
The Beatles sing operas.
FAT PROFESSOR
Our friend the businessman doesn't have time for these things.
HOMER
What happened after he went naked?
FAT PROFESSOR
He could see the angels.
HOMER
Really?

231
FAT PROFESSOR
It shows us how the mind works. The professor had to see angels, so he went to find
them.
HOMER
Did he go to heaven?
FAT PROFESSOR
You have to be dead to go to heaven and our professor was alive.
HOMER
How did he do it then?
FAT PROFESSOR
He ran naked through the streets on remembering Jesus Christ's nappy kept in the
Corraplitence Monastery.

HOMER
What a man!
FAT PROFESSOR
He found them, after putting some faecal matter from the nappy with a needle blessed
by the pope, under the microscope.
HOMER
Who did he find?
FAT PROFESSOR
He saw the angels, of course.
HOMER
It's incredible.
WOMAN
Did you think he found worms?
FAT PROFESSOR
Let's not have crazy thoughts. He only saw angels in his microscopic field.

232
HOMER
What a genius!
FAT PROFESSOR
He wanted to know the angels' sex, and how many of them could dance on the head of
the needle.
WOMAN
It's a fascinating topic.
FAT PROFESSOR
As he centred the microscope on the head of the needle, he saw male and female
angels dancing in pairs.
WOMAN
All the honours of the world are not enough for such a genius.
HOMER
Do you want another coca cola?
THIN PROFESSOR
I want a cold one.
FAT PROFESSOR
I also want one.
WOMAN
I want a triple wine.
Homer leaves the scene.
WOMAN
He's an ignorant man with a heart of gold.
FAT PROFESSOR
He wants to support science.
WOMAN
We've talked about that. I'd prefer if someone helps me financially to bring up
Irwin.

233
THIN PROFESSOR
My purpose is to find a vaccine against sin under his protection. The present
intravenous one has a few side effects, while leaving the original sin untarnished.
FAT PROFESSOR
I want to finish my Donald Duck encyclopaedia under Homer's protection.
THIN PROFESSOR
That's a literary work of the twentieth century. Nothing can compare with it.
FAT PROFESSOR
Thank you.
Homer comes in.
HOMER
I have just spoken with the helicopter Mr. wise men. Professor Greer and Fifi are
about to arrive.
A sailor calls Homer.
HOMER
Excuse me, but I have to get them now.
As Homer leaves, the thin professor is with the microscope, the fat one reads his Donald
Duck collections and the woman combs her hair. They hear the noise of a helicopter.
CUT TO
EXT. LUXURIOUS SHIP- NIGHT
Homer appears.
HOMER
Professor Greer came without his wife.
FAT PROFESSOR
But they are on their honeymoon. Why did he come alone?
HOMER
No, he brought a friend.
FAT PROFESSOR

234
Is it Fifi?
A forty year old man appears accompanied by a young man, wearing light blue jeans,
long hair, and a miniskirt over his trousers. Fifi comes behind them wearing a short dress
with a low cleavage. She kisses homer in the mouth.
PROFESSOR GREER
This must be a meeting of the seven wise men of Greece.
FAT PROFESSOR
And the eighth one has just arrived.
He looks at Fifi's voluptuous body.
FAT PROFESSOR
You must be Fifi.
FIFI
I'm glad to meet you.
Fifi's dress goes up as she hugs the little man while the thin professor looks through the
microscope.
THIN PROFESSOR
I think the greatest financier of all times has just arrived.
HOMER
My dear professor Greer, make yourself at home, or in your own ship.
They hug each other. Mrs. Irwin kisses Greer while the young man fiddles with his
earring. Then Fifi hugs Mrs. Irwin.
WOMAN
I've seen your picture in the papers.
THIN PROFESSOR
They care about her life, while ignoring everything else in the country.
FIFI
I'm not so important.
CUT TO

235
EXT. LUXURIOUS YACHR- NIGHT
PROFESSOR GREER
I married before coming to the ship and this is my wife Ferny. We're on our
honeymoon.
Ferny shakes hands with everyone and sits next to Greer.
HOMER
I thought he was your friend.
PROFESSOR GREER
He's my wife. Marriage between men is common now.
FAT PROFESSOR
It's accepted in most countries of the world.
Professor Greer hugs Ferny.
PROFESSOR GREER
I adore you.
The couple kiss and hug each other as Fifi leads Homer away from the scene.
INT. LUXURIOUS YACHT- NIGHT
Fifi passes an arm around Homer's shoulders.
FIFI
I have missed you.
HOMER
How's the general?
Fifi licks his ear.
FIFI
He's fighting his wars.
HOMER
Let's have sex.
FIFI
You haven't changed.

236
Fifi caresses his chest.
As she fiddles with his trousers, Chucho appears by their side.
CHUCHO
The drinks are ready, Mr. Homer.
Fifi straightens her clothes.
HOMER
I didn't ask you to come in.
CHUCHO
But I knocked on the door first, Mr. Homer.
HOMER
Chucho, have you ever been to the jungle?
CHUCHO
I lived in Leticia for a few months, Mr. Homer.
Homer finds the manuscript inside a wardrobe.
HOMER
I want you to look at these pages.
Chucho takes the manuscripts.
CHUCHO
I'll do that later, Mr. Homer.
Chucho leaves with the manuscripts.
INT. LUXURIOUS YACHT- NIGHT
Homer and Fifi lay next to each other in a bed, as the night sky greets them beyond the
window.
FIFI
I love you more than anything on earth.
He looks at her naked body.
HOMER
You must be joking.

237
FIFI
I am not.
She goes on top of him, as he moves his hips up and down.
EXT. LUXURIOUS SHIP- NIGHT
Ferny and Professor Greer are in each other's arms.
WOMAN
Love is a wonderful thing. I was like that with Irwin.
FERNY
This is my first and last love.
He presses a handkerchief against his heart, and straightens his miniskirt.
Greer kisses him.
HOMER
Let's drink to this couple's happiness.
Fifi plays with his hair.
FIFI
What about our happiness?
She rests her head on his chest.
HOMER
We'll talk about that later.
THIN PROFESSOR
I've finished my observations for today.
The thin professor picks up his equipment and puts it in his bag, bowing in front of the
needle before touching it.

INT. LUXUROUS YACHT- NIGHT

HOMER
We're on our way to Gibraltar.
PROFESSOR GREER

238
Hurrah to our host.
EVERYBODY
Hurrah!
HOMER
Let's see. The professors want coca cola and the lady wants dry wine but what
about you, Professor Greer?
PROFESSOR GREER
I want dry Jamaican rum.
HOMER
And what does Ferny want?
FERNY
I want sweet wine in rose water. Everything else gives me a headache.
PROFESSOR GREER
He's a flower.
HOMER
He looks like a plastic flower.
FERNY
I can't drink anything strong.
Homer turns to Fifi.
HOMER
Do you want gin and soda?
FIFI
Yes, and with a slice of lemon in it.
They come to the table, while Ferny applies his makeup by the rails. Professor Greer
pours himself a large glass of rum, Homer brings some glasses and Fifi opens a bottle of
gin.
THIN PROFESSOR
Professor Greer, don't you feel sick with that drink?

239
FERNY
He's a strong man. I adore him.
PROFESSORGREER
You'll have your sweet wine, dissolved in a water of yellow flowers.
FERNY
Thank you, my treasure.
HOMER
Professor Greer, we have here the best men of science to take charge of my
Philanthropic Foundation.
PROFESSOR GREER
I'm an assessor of Homer's financial business.
HOMER
Thank you. Professor Greer will explain the problem, so that you know what to do.
Professor Greer drinks his rum.
PROFESSOR GREER
We have decided to start the Philanthropic Society to help the greatest men of science.
As you'll get one million dollars a year for your activities, we want to donate that
money to you instead of giving it to the tax and Homer wants a small favour. You'll
Give us five millions in exchange for the million, a better way to use your capital,
while evading taxes and helping science.
THIN PROFESSOR
Five million dollars for only one million is a lot of money.
FAT PROFESSOR
I agree with you.
WOMAN
I also agree.
As Homer and Professor Greer talk in a low voice, Ferny looks at Fifi.
FERNY

240
Where did you buy your dress?
FIFI
I made it myself.
FERNY
It's beautiful. I must learn to make my own clothes.
FIFI
I can teach you.
FERNY
Thank you.
PROFESSOR GREER
Homer's generosity doesn't have a name. He only wants one million and two
hundred thousand dollars.
THIN PROFESSOR
We'll give him fifty thousand dollars more.
HOMER
I accept it from such distinguished wise men.
They all applaud as Professor Greer takes a few documents out of his bag.
PROFESSOR GREER
You must sign these papers now.
They all sign the documents.
THIN PROFESSOR
I'll call my vaccine Angelic Homer.
HOMER
Thank you.
FAT PROFESSOR
I'll dedicate my book to you.
HOMER
Thank you.

241
WOMAN
Irwin will call you father.
FERNY
You're a dangerous man.
FIFI
I'll love you forever.
WOMAN
What is the surprise?
HOMER
I had forgotten about that. Excuse me for a moment.
He leaves the scene.
FERNY
What a wonderful man.
FIFI
He's my hero.
WOMAN
He's a real Mecenas.
THIN PROFESSOR
He was a man who used to give things to people.
FERNY
How boring.
WOMAN
I thought he was a Greek emperor.
FAT PROFESSOR.
Charlemagne was the Greek Emperor.
WOMAN
I never liked geography.
FIFI

242
I hate maths.
FERNY
I still don't know what Christopher Columbus did.
THIN PROFESSOR
He discovered penicillin.
FAT PROFESSOR
Don't confuse him with Gagarin. He discovered the moon.
FERNY
Was it the full moon?
THIN PROFESSOR
No, it was the honeymoon.
FERNY
I forbid you to talk about that.
FIFI
Professor Greer is Gagarin then.
Professor Greer looks drunk.
PROFESSOR GREER
Excuse me. I don't like to gargle.
FIFI
It isn't Gargarin but Gagarin.
PROFESSOR GREER
Is that a medication for the flu?
FERNY
No honey, he's the discoverer of the moon.
Homer arrives with Chucho.
HOMER
I want to introduce Chucho to these prominent scientists.
The sailor bows.

243
HOMER
Chucho must be a surprise for my scientists. Greet my guests properly Chucho.
The sailor shakes hands with everyone.
CHUCHO
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. It's a pleasure for me to serve you.
They applaud.
HOMER
You can ask him questions.
THIN PROFESSOR
Can you tell us something about the first football championship?
CHUCHO
It was played in Montevideo, Paraguay from the 13 of June to the 31 of July 1930.
Argentina won over the United States in the semi final. It was 6- 1. Uruguay bit
Yugoslavia 6- 1. Uruguay bit Argentina in the final game, 6- 2.
EVERYBODY
Unbelievable!
FAT PROFESSOR
Who was the chess champion in 1926?
CHUCHO
Jose Raul Casablanca.
HOMER
Who won the boxing championship in the same year?
CHUCHO
Jack Dempsey.
EVERYBODY
AHHHHHHHH!
FERNY
Tell me who won the Derby at Epsom in 1956?

244

CHUCHO
Lavandin.
PROFESSOR GREER
What is the square and cubic root of 1.085?
CHUCHO
The square root is 32.94, and the cubic root is 10.28.
FERNY
What is the highest mountain in the world?
CHUCHO
Mount Everest. It is 8.848 meters high.
FERNEY
How tiring!
PROFESSOR GREER
You don't have a sailor here, but a calculator.
FAT PROFESSOR
He's marvellous.
THIN PROFESSOR
He should be in the Academy of Science.
HOMER
Thank you very much, Chucho. You can go now.
Chucho bows.
CHUCHO
Yes, Sir.
Chucho leaves the scene.
HOMER
What do you think about him?
EVERYBODY

245
He's a genius.
THIN PROFESSOR
Where did you find such a brain?
FAT PROFESSOR
He should be the director of the Academy of science.
FERNY
He's as intelligent as he's ugly.
FIFI
He has sex appeal.
THIN PROFESSOR
He could be from anywhere in the world.
PROFESSOR GREER
I can't believe he's so intelligent.
FERNY
They say ugly men are very clever.
THIN PROFESSOR
That face has a price.
PROFESSOR GREER
It is beauty and the beast, if we compare him with Ferny.
FAT PROPHESOR
He reminds me of a film.
FERNY
Don't go on talking or I'll faint.
A sailor comes in with a glass in a tray.
PROFESSOR GREER
Here is your drink.
FERNY
I want my water of yellow flowers.

246
CUT TO
EXT. LUXURIOUS YACHT- EVENING
HOMER
Do you think Chucho is super intelligent?
EVERYBODY
Yes.
HOMER
Chucho is a chimpanzee.
EVERYBODY
What?????
FAT PROFESSOR
A chimpanzee?
THIN PROFESSOR
A chimpanzee?
PROFESSOR GREER
A chimpanzee?
WOMAN
A chimpanzee?
FIFI
I believe you, my darling.
FERNEY
He's a chimp. How boring!
HOMER
Here comes Chucho again.
The sailor appears wearing a swimming costume. He is a chimpanzee, who shaves his
face in the morning like anyone else. Ferny faints in Professor Greer's arms.
FAT PROFESSOR
It must be the devil.

247
HOMER
You can go now, Chucho.
Chucho leaves the scene after vowing.
PROFESSOR GREER
Where did you find such a genius?
FIFI
He might be an Antioqueo in disguise.
HOMER.
He's a chimpanzee and he's at your disposition if you want to study him. He
works for nothing and likes to eat soap after blowing bubbles.
PROFESSOR GREER
It isn't bad. He works for a box of soap a day, but have you offered him aguardiente?
HOMER
He doesn't like the smell.
THIN PROFESSOR
Who is the author of such a phenomenon?
FAT PROFESSOR
It's an attempt against human dignity.
HOMER
His owner is a Colombian man called Mario. He sold Chucho for very little
money.
PROFESSOR GREER
How much was it?
HOMER
He only charged $85,000 dollars.
WOMAN
Is he healthy?
HOMER

248
He's examined every year at Rochester.
THIN PROFESSOR
Does he bite?
HOMER
He's harmless.
FIFI
Can he make love?
FAT PROFESSOR?
It's too much money for a monkey.
HOMER
I can arrange exhibitions all over the world.
FAT PROFESSOR
Why don't you do it?
HOMER
I promised Miguel I wouldn't do that. Chucho's very useful here.
PROFESSOR GREER
Homer knows about business.
FERNY
I want more wine with water of rose petals.

Chucho's story

249
Mr. Homer
I used to work for you a long time ago. If you have any patience, I'll tell you how I
met the man who trained Chucho, without paying a single dollar for the service.
Congratulations!
Your wise men did not feel any admiration for Chucho, but wise men have small
brains, inside big bodies like the dinosaurs had a long time ago, and the day has a million
moments to enjoy, instead of thinking in stupid things.
Once upon a time I accepted Jaramillo's offer of the LSD he had brought from Europe,
where aristocrats use it to go through the black holes and other things in the depths of
space.

He handed me some pills and a glass of water, while telling me of other

dimensions I had not envisaged in my existence.

"Time and space are imaginary," he said.
I remembered Homer's comments about the nature of the space, time continuum,
before the death of the widows a long time ago, as I took a sip of the class of aguardiente
Jaramillo handed me.
"Don't worry," he said. "I take them all the time."
At first the world seemed to be the same, but then things started to change in front of
my eyes, the speed of light sending us to some other dimensions of time, and through the
mist of whatever existed in other realms.
"Careful with the car," he said.
I saw a white vehicle speeding by my side, reality blurring itself beyond my senses, as
we caught an oval spaceship a few streets away, before going somewhere else in the
universe.
"This is real," I said.
Jaramillo shrugged. "That's your opinion."
I saw the control panel amidst the seats for us to sit down and the part for our luggage,
a few black holes interrupting the view of the stars and other things I couldn't
comprehend.

250
"This is fantastic," I said.
I enjoyed the beauty of the universe, the parallel realities succeeding each other in the
roads of probability of another dimension existing by our world, as we seemed to drop
through the curtains of unreality surrounding us.
Something scratched my arms, the vacuum of unconsciousness descending over me,
after I bumped my head against something invisible.
"Help me," I said.
A bird answered me, its voice echoing in the world I had landed, in a place unknown
to my senses.
"We have no aguardiente," Jaramillo interrupted my thoughts.
"That is bad," I said.
On opening my eyes, I found myself in a clearing, as tall trees grew all around us, like
the ones I had seen in the pictures of a jungle, when we had been visiting the stars of the
Milky Way galaxy.
"We must have crashed," Jaramillo said.
He took me to the wreckage of a plane, but where was the pilot? I inspected the debris
for a few moments, expecting to find someone amidst the various bits and pieces around
us.
"We must have been in that thing," I said.
"It's called a plane," Jaramillo said.
The pollen in the breeze made me sneeze for a few times, as I thought of our trip
throughout the galaxy in the plane entangled in the vegetation.
"I'm never taking drugs again," Jaramillo said.
"You brought them from Europe," I said.
The sound of a river flowing somewhere in space, interrupted my thoughts of the
Milky Way I had seen in my dreams, when we had been in the plane.
"The pilot must have died," I said.
"What pilot?"

251
"Someone must have flown it," I said.
Jaramillo showed me a map he had found in the wreckage, with a few rivers and
towns drowning in a sea of trees.
"Let's follow that river," he said.
"I have a headache," he said.
I noticed a bit of blood by his right ear, although he seemed to be all right.
The small river led us to a bigger one, on following that one we found a very big river,
and a few hours later we moved by the shores of a huge river.
"It must be the Amazon," Jaramillo said.
We saw no buildings with the exception of a few Hilton Hotels, full of gringos
studying the butterflies of the region.
"Don't disturb us," they said.
"We want civilisation," we said.
"It's that way," they said.
We arrived at a town inhabited by nice people, but getting closer, we found the place
full of rude people. The campesinos (10) shot their guns three times, because of our
beards and some marihuana in our pockets, killing two chickens of a heart attack.
"We come in peace," I said.
"Prove it," they said.
The dollars I had saved from the wreckage proved my point, the campesinos taking us
along the streets for everyone to see.
"We found the moon men," they said.
"They're oligarchs," someone said.
The town had been built around an idiot called patepia his right foot had
elephantiasis and his left foot had mamustiasis, as a few beauty queens, wearing crowns
on their heads, welcomed us in style.
"I'll feel your balls for a few pesos," the Pineapple Queen said.
"That's my job," the arepa queen said.

252
I let them feel inside my pants for a few moments, while the queens of sausages and
beans, green cheese, white cheese, cheese spread, free plantain, kumis, marmalade,
yellow fever, rice and mazato (12) waited for their turn.
"We want your money," they said.
I had been there for some time, when Jaramillo appeared by my side, hugging one of
the girls.
"This is fun," he said.
The Mazato Queen nodded with a few pesos in her hand, before leading us down a
corridor to the hall, where the major spoke to the campesinos about the beauty queens
invading their land.
"We have the moon men," he said.
"Don't you have some spare clothes?" I asked.
Everyone laughed, including the beauty queens waiting by our side.
"You must join the party," he said.
We crowned a few girls in our dirty clothes, the world acquiring the colours of lust
while feeling their teats through their blouses.
"Come with me to that hut," I said to one of the girls.
"That's Miss Lola's house," she said.
I took her virginity behind some bushes by the hut, a few rats interrupting our pleasure
with their squeals added to the romantic moment.
"Who is there?" a woman's voice said.
The girl frowned. "That's Miss Lola."
She ran away from my arms, leaving a trail of blood along the mud, as a small woman
appeared amidst the bushes.
"You must have a shower," she said.
She offered me some of her husband's clothes, covering her nose for some reason. As
I enjoyed the cold water coming from the shower behind the curtain, as she told me how
she had been the queen of the onion, the black bean, the coffee, the curuba (14) and the

253
peanut, the base of her skull collapsing under the weight of the crowns she wore on her
head.
"I've got used to them," she said.
Every seventh of August she helped the town to recreate the battle of Boyac (15)
making the Spaniards win the battle on leap years.
"Then we have a party," she said. "And elect a few more queens."
I smiled. "That must be nice."
She told me about the school, where the children had classes by the first stone
someone had put there in 1922, while waiting for the building to be completed.
"They enjoy the fresh air," she said. "Except when it rains."
At first they told her she could have children of both sexes, but after a detailed
analysis, she realised it had to be boys and girls, and two years later she had permission
for the school. An old bus took them to the train station sometimes, an adventure for
most of the people who had never left the place in their lives.
"They might bring the trains here one day," she said.
"I'll be looking forwards to that," I said.
She introduced us to some of the campesinos drinking aguardiente.
"I'm the doctor," a small man wearing a poncho said.
He told us about the parties they had in the town hall, where everyone drank
aguardiente and vomited under the light of the moon.
"It must be horrible," I said.
He could diagnose people's illness by their vomits, and when they had bad diets, as the
night robbed us of our sanity in an alcohol induced limbo.
"This is the best place in the world," the doctor said.
I believed him in between drinking aguardiente and touching the girls by our side.
"I have to examine you," I said.
"That's not fair," they said.

254
We went into the doctor's house singing the Marseilles, followed by the beauty
queens.
"This is your bed," he pointed to a four posted bed in a corner.
The pictures of a few conquistadors adorned the walls, as the mosquitoes dined in my
blood and the beauty queens took care of my body under the blankets.
"Ahhhh," I said.
"We want your money," they said.
Something cold waking me up the next morning, after I had wandered through the
galaxy in some of my dreams.
"Ha, ha," a voice said.
I found myself in the middle of the yard, while a snake slithered on my chest and a
parrot stood by my side.
"Ha, ha, ha," the parrot said. "Margarita woke you up."
"I must be dreaming," I said.
"She should bite your bottom," the parrot said.
I tripped over a turtle, as a monkey offered me a banana, the parrot sang an opera and
a fat iguana tried to catch some flies on a stone. A man wearing underpants greeted me
by the house.
"I'm the doctor," he said.
I nodded. "I remember."
It had to be the Indian curse like Homer had told me, twisting time around the
continuum of the universe, after the wildest party of my life.
"You must have a shower," the doctor said.
He led me inside the house, where I noticed a dead caiman by the toilet, And Chucho
-the monkey- rescued me from the lion bringing some breakfast in his muzzle.
"I can explain everything," the doctor said.
A naked man running across the yard interrupted us, shouting at us to save him from
the predator chasing him.

255
The doctor scared the boa constrictor tormenting his life, before I recognised my
friend trying to save his skin and other things he considered important in his world.
"We flew here in a plane," I said.
"I understand," the doctor said.
We discussed the possibility of all of this being a dream, according to one of Freud's
theories, but the doctor wanted to tell us his story.
I had a friend in another town, whose son was a doctor, but nothing else like that had
happened in the family, apart from an uncle helping in the court. My friend died before
his son had his degree and started to study dead people. The doctor didn't eat much to
pay for the university, but after graduating, he had dinner for the first time in a hospital,
the only way doctors can survive till they die.
He had to earn some money and tried to find the health minister in a building, lost
amidst others in the city, but the lift didn't work and by the time he got to the ninth floor,
the girl left him a message to come back at three o'clock. He came back two months
later, when the lift had been repaired after the education minister collapsed with a stroke
because of all the stairs he had to climb.
Someone put him in contact with an architect Perez, the president of the society for
the protection of yellow beetles living in Barranquilla, but our doctor found the man in
the beach, crying next to the body of a dead beetle.
"We need doctors in a town in the central cordillera," the architect said.
"A few days later the doctor arrived at the station, carrying a suitcase with a blood
pressure monitor, a stethoscope and a syringe. He also had his degree documents.
"Can I have a ticket for station X?" he said to the girl at the ticket window.
The ticket seller looked at him up and down. Then she did the same but down and up.
"You must be joking," she said while cleaning her nails.
The doctor shrugged. "I need a ticket for X."
"Are you serious?" the girl asked.
"Yes, I'm."

256
She disappeared inside the office, coming back a few moments later with two fat men
and a skinny one. Two women came behind them.
"There he is," the girl said.
One of the fat men removed his glasses before confronting the young man.
"Do you know about the punishment for jokers?" he asked.
"You must be ashamed of yourself," one of the women said.
The other fat man frowned: "What a terrible thing."
"I don't understand," the doctor said.
"You must come with us," one of the fat men said.
They entered a big room where some people sat around a table. The one with more
authority addressed him:
"Tell me young man, why do you want to go to that town?"
"They don't have any doctors in the next town," the doctor replied.
"Why do you hate doctors?"
"No, sir," the young man said. "I'm a doctor."
"But you want to live in town X."
The doctor shook his head. "I'll live in the next town."
"Look, young man. I've been working in the trains for 34 years and this is the first
time someone goes to town X. Why are you going there?"
"I want to go to the next town," the doctor said.
The fat man talked to his colleagues.
"This young man has the most unusual ideas," he said. "Can we give him a job at our
offices?"
"I'm a doctor," our man said.
"You must have a real job."
The doctor shrugged. "I know medicine."
"Do you own a bicycle?" the first man asked.
"I can't ride any bicycles," the doctor said.

257
The fat man grinned. "You are useless."
"Sell me the ticket then," the doctor said.
"We're giving you a free train ticket to the town plus a hand grenade," the first man
said. "You must explode it near the town."
They gave him the ticket and the grenade he had to detonate in order to stop the train
in the middle of a field, while giving him some more instructions about what to do once
he accomplished his mission.
"We'll take care of the train," they said.
They had to provide an explanation for the bomb thrown out from none of the
carriages, after transferring the passengers to another train waiting nearby.
"All will go well," they said.
The doctor thought of the implications for him, if anything went wrong in his journey
to the town no one had visited for some time.
"The train is coming," someone said.
The smoke rose to the sky, the noise of the engine disturbing the afternoon as our man
hoped the bomb would wait for its appointment with destiny.
"Good luck," they said.
"It's a hard life," he said.
The doctor got in the train, amidst the passengers travelling towards unknown
destinations, hoping that the bomb would behave itself, thinking of the consequences of
his actions.
"Show me your ticket," A man wearing a uniform and with thick eyebrows came said.
The doctor gave him the paper the fat men had given him, with the name of the town
no one ever went.
"Have a nice day," the inspector said.
He disappeared into the next carriage, leaving the doctor alone with his thoughts, as
the train rode amidst the cows grazing in the fields, like in one of those films he had seen

258
in his childhood of the countryside. A banner announcing the name of the town appeared
next to the cows resting in the afternoon.
"One, two, three," our man threw the grenade outside the window.
The bang derailed the train, killing some of the cows resting in a field, a few chickens
and neurosurgeons working for the rail company. Our doctor went rolling down the hill
towards the trees at the bottom of the valley.
"Wake up," someone said.
The doctor opened his eyes, as a group of people around him talked at the same time,
and a man, appearing to be the pharmacist applied disinfectant to his bruises.
"You must meet the priest, the owner of the pharmacy, and Miss Lola, who knows
about injections," the pharmacist said.
"I'm a doctor," our man said.
Mr. Procolo, the richest man in town took him to his home, asking the new arrival to
help with a pregnant sow, giving birth to its piglets.
"She could die," Mr. Procolo said.
Our man became the best doctor of pigs in the region, after helping the sow to give
birth, and Mr. Procolo consented for his daughter to live with him and some of his
animals.
The doctor made his anti Edison investigations, enough for our hero to get condemned
to the electric chair, the chamber of gases or to go around Marquetalia forever, after
inheriting the pigs, the house and his wife when the old man died a few years later.
Our towns don't have any schools, hospitals, health centres, toilets or clean water. The
only water running through them is smelly and dirty but they have millions of transistors
infecting the streets with rancheras twenty five hours a day. The priest puts four giant
speakers on the church tower, and if the ones in the caf in the corner, or in the caf with
no corner are not working, his highness switches his music on. The smallest and sickest
town in Colombia makes more noise than a dormitory of Maristas brothers after the
Christmas supper.

259
Our country has thousands of radio stations for square mile and each one of them has
two programs: popular music and commercials, making us hear hundreds of radio
stations and commercials, even though some of us do not own a radio. The doctor
brought me the machine made by him.
"Switch it on," he said.
I wanted to crash it against his glasses, but the tiger licking my feet stopped me. As I
switched it on, I experienced a wonderful sensation: I couldn't hear the voice of the priest
offering the next tango to the president of the daughters of Maria. The anti Edison man
had made the greatest discovery of the twentieth century: the anti transistor.
I can't describe the sensation of hearing nothing, while asking his permission to lick
his other shoe, instead of the tiger. It didn't stop there. He taught a few animals to get
their food by avoiding the electric shocks and opening traps after acoustic or luminous
signals.
He sacrificed some of the animals, extracting an acid with a complicated name, but
known by its initials: DNA and introducing it in the nervous system of other mice, who
behaved as if they had the memory of the dead animals or in mystic terms they had
metempsychosis. I can't explain the proceeding properly. My friend contacted the
Academy of medicine, but its representative drove away in their Mercedes Benz, after
finding about his pigs.
According to this noble man, the process of knowledge is linked to a big, curved
molecule: DNA and RNA, inside the code of life. I don't know how he does it. He
bought Chucho -the chimpanzee- after an Antioqueo businessman had won him in a
game of cards with the guards of the Bucharest zoo. You don't know how important he is
from a scientific point of view.
Chucho's not just the best monkey in the world, intelligent, disinterested, but he is a
good worker, helping us to understand our evolution throughout the centuries. The tiger's
more intelligent than any dog, the parrot sings the opera Traviata by memory, while the
snake drinks milk and eats mice. The monkeys sweep the house, wash the clothes and do

260
some other chores as the turtles reproduce only when they're asked to. The iguanas are
fed by hand.
He has a troop of multicoloured mice, dancing Stravinsky's ballet with Russian
perfection. Margarita the snake is harmless but I can't say the same thing of the debt
collectors promising to take everything he owns, if he doesn't repay them within days. I
gave him a few hundred pesos and promised to sell Chucho to stop the danger.
I can't tell you anymore, or my friend's discoveries might be in danger in a world
obsessed with the money to be made from his research. Look after Chucho.
Sincerely yours.
Miguel

Twentieth century symphony

EXT. LUXURIOUS SHIP- MORNING
A middle aged man with not much hair pedals an exercise bike, but after checking the
speed and the distance it has achieved he pedals again for a few moments. He goes to the
floor and lifts weights over his head while breathing deeply, the tolling of a Chinese bell
adding some music to the scene.
He rests standing on his head, before exercising on the portable bars and a trapeze as
Chucho appears.
CHUCHO
You must have an appetite, Mr. Astronaut. Do you want any breakfast?
ASTRONAUT
What time is it?
Chucho looks at the clock.
CHUCHO
It is twenty minutes past ten.

261
ASTRONAUT
Not that one. Look at the chronometer and tell me the whole thing.
Chucho looks at a small electronic chronometer on a table.
CHUCHO
It's ten, twenty two minutes, four seconds and two decimals.
ASTRONAUT
Bring me breakfast at ten thirty flat.
CHUCHO
What do you want, sir?

ASTRONAUT
The menu is on the table.
Chucho picks up a paper from the table, reads it and then leaves the scene.
The astronaut goes on the bars and the trapeze with all the strength of an anthropoid as
Chucho arrives with two litres of oil, two pounds of grease on a plate, petrol in a bottle
and two inch screws.

After putting everything on a small table, he looks at the

chronometer.
CHUCHO
Ten thirty flat.
The astronaut jumps down from the trapeze, cleans his face and hands while breathing
ten times, before nearing the breakfast table.
He tastes the grease from the motor with a spoon, and mixes it with the petrol.
ASTRONAUT
I like the grease a bit thicker.
CHUCHO
You should have told us of your favourite oil. We use that one for our motor.
ASTRONAUT
I like all the brands.

262
A calculator moving on four wheels and reading a paper appears through the door. He
smiles on seeing the astronaut.
CALCULATOR
Hello Sompson.
ASTRONAUT
My name is Simpson.
CALCULATOR
The word sonso is funny.
ASTRONAUT
I don't like dialects.
CALCULATOR
Don't get upset or you'll lose your appetite.
The astronaut drinks the oil.
ASTRONAUT
I like this oil.
CALCULATOR
I love the sea. I'd like to be a submarine computer.
ASTRONAUT
You'd be rusty.
CALCULATOR
I like being rusty.
ASTRONAUT
Uhmmmm!
He sips the oil.
The calculator looks at Chucho.
CALCULATOR
Boy, I'm dying of hunger.
CHUCHO

263
How can I help you?
CALCULATOR
I want a beefsteak, toasts with butter and marmalade. Coffee with milk and cereal as a
starter.
ASTRONAUT
You might get an electric stroke in the system ZX34.
CALCULATOR
I have an iron health, cement and transistors.
The astronaut looks at the chronometer.
ASTRONAUT
I still have twelve minutes, thirty seconds and two decimals.
CALCULATOR
You're drinking thick oil, bad for your physique.
ASTRONAUT
It's all due to atmospheric pressure.
CALCULATOR
I think you should rest. This marine environment is beautiful.
ASTRONAUT
I'm resting now, although I've worked twenty two hours and ten decimals of a second
today.
CALCULATOR
Something might happen to your brain.
ASTRONAUT
That is not important.
CALCULATOR
The brain, altogether with the head ends the symmetry of the body. Women use it for
hair styles, hats, wigs and headaches. A woman without headaches is not a woman.
ASTRONAUT

264
I have to test the manoeuvre L-09
CALCULATOR (interrupting)
I want to see a dwarf transformer I met last night.
ASTRONAUT
Love is degrading. Men have more important functions to accomplish.
CALCULATOR
It's bad to be a man.
Chucho comes in with the breakfast for the calculator on a tray, the sound of a clarinet
interrupting the scene.
The calculator looks at Chucho.
CALCULATOR
What's that?
CHUCHO
It's the matador's guard. He wakes his master with the clarinet.
CALCULATOR
What matador?
CHUCHO
He boarded the ship last night. He's called Cagangosto and he's Homer's guest.
CALCULATOR
What does he kill?
CHUCHO
He kills bulls. He's Spanish.
CALCULATOR
Do they wake up with clarinets?
CHUCHO
I think so, sir.
CALCULATOR
Why doesn't he use an alarm clock?

265
A middle-aged man with mongoloid eyes, a mongoloid smile and a moustache appears at
the door, waving his hands.
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
Good morning everyone.
The calculator and the astronaut stand up.
ASTRONAUT AND CALCULATOR
Good morning.
The newcomer wipes his moustache with the back of his hand, taking care not to put any
dirt on his white shirt and trousers.
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
Homer is a genius. This is a beautiful yacht.
CALCULATOR
Have you tasted the food?
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
I had a bit of caviar last night.
The astronaut looks at the chronometer.
ASTRONAUT
Excuse me.
He leaves the room.
The president of Salvacion sits at the table as the calculator finishes with the food and
wipes his face with a screw driver.
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
We, the men of state, must rest from government pressure and have a good time in
Homer's yacht.
CALCULATOR
We call that a good business.
The president of Salvacion looks at Chucho.

266
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
I would like to drink something.
CALCULATOR
What about a dry wine?
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
It's a good idea.
Chucho leaves the scene.
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
Is the great Mele one of Homer's guests?
CALCULATOR
I came here last night.
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
I'm here as an incognito. I love humility.
The conversation is interrupted by the arrival of a man with a red cape, chased by another
one holding a tripod with the head of a bull. The one with the cape waves it, and the one
with the tripod runs along the deck chased by the bull head.
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
Isn't that the great matador Cagangosto? It's incredible.
CALCULATOR
They've told me everything about him. He should cure his haemorrhoids, a problem
shared by a Houston technician I know.
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
He's the greatest matador of all times. He's a monster, superb, splendid, immortal,
wonderful, and sublime.
As Chucho arrives with the bottle of wine, the calculator pours it in a glass.
CALCULATOR
Mr. President, here is the wine.
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION

267
You must say Excellency.
CALCULATOR
I'm sorry, Excellency. I've brought you the wine.
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
My wife likes Cagangosto.
CALCULATOR
Drink the wine, Excellency.
The president brings the glass to his mouth, as a ball crashes against him, his false teeth
flying in the air.
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
What the
Before he finishes his sentence, the ball crashes against his glasses.
A small man wearing a gown and with a crown on his head runs across the scene.
MELE
Hiya!
The president of Salvacion crawls on the floor, but Chucho finds the glasses under a table
and gives them to him. The president wipes his glasses with a handkerchief.
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
Who has done this to me?
He finds a machine gun under his shirt, with Dun- Dun bullets. Mele throws the ball, and
it lands in the mouth of an ornamental shark.
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
Butit's thethe king.
The man with the ball gets ready to kick it again.
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
It must be his majesty, King Mele, in person.
He puts his machine gun away and kneels on the floor.
MELE

268
Hiya!
Mele kicks the ball through the scene.
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
We have two famous people here. I can't believe it.
His voice sounds strange without his false teeth.
Chucho appears with some more bottles and glasses, while Homer enters the scene
accompanied by a beautiful woman.
HOMER
Good morning Excellency, good morning calculator. How did you sleep?
Everyone stands up.
HOMER
This is Madam Bulla, the best soprano in the world.
Madam shakes a Venetian fan.
MADAM
Excellency, and how's Mr. Calculator?
The president of Salvacion covers his mouth with a silk handkerchief.
PRESIDENTE OF SALVACION
I have some of your records. It's an honour to meet you.
MADAM
You're so kind.
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
Excuse me. I'll come back in a moment.
He leaves the scene.
CALCULATOR
He lost his false teeth.
MADAM
It's funny.
A head with horns crashes against her, and she falls down on to the floor.

269
The calculator and Chucho help her to her feet.
CALCULATOR
Cagangosto has knocked you down.
Chucho picks up Madame's wig from a bust of Julius Cesar.
MADAM
What an honour. He's the best bullfighter in the world.
The astronaut moves across the scene, wearing a space headgear while driving a
blackboard with wheels.
MADAM
Who is he?
HOMER
He's Simpson, the first American astronaut on Mars.
MADAME
I've seen many people on the camp of Marte.
HOMER
I'm talking of a star in the sky called Mars.
The president of Salvacion appears, wearing another set of false teeth.
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
The man who was eating here seems to be mad.
He makes circles on his head.
HOMER
He's Simpson, the first man to step on Mars.
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
I remember now. It was that football game where they fought for the tenth star.
MADAM
I'm sorry Excellency, but Homer talks about those little stars in the night sky.
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
I'm always so busy. Homer's guests are famous all over the world.

270
HOMER
I would say the universe.
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
We've been through university.
Mele runs in, kicking his ball fast. They all stand up.
MELE
Hiya!
HOMER
Your majesty, the twentieth century will remember you for your thousand goals.
Mele wipes his mouth with his cape.
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
I keep a piece of the ball scoring that thousandth goal in a golden box.
MADAM
I have a thread of his socks after I sang ten concerts for the benefit of the flu victims.
MELE
Hiya!
Cagangosto comes in with the bull in pursuit. As Mele kicks the desiccated head of the
bull, it rolls down the floor.
CAGANGOSTO
What's the matter with you, man?
MELE
Hiya!
CAGANGOSTO
You've just broken my training bull.
MELE
Hiya!
CAGANGOSTO
You have to mend it or I.

271

As Homer, Madam and the president, followed by Chucho and the calculator try to stop
the argument, Mele kicks Cagangosto overboard and confusion reigns in the ship.
Homer shouts through the microphone.
HOMER
Man overboard! Switch off the engine!
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
It must be an honour being kicked by such a football champion.
MADAM
It's as if the Beatles sang one of their songs for me.
CALCULATOR
Your majesty has scored one thousand and one goals now.
MELE
Hiya!
As the sailors lower a boat down to the sea, the astronaut appears with a square wheel.
ASTRONAUT
2524232221
FIRST SAILOR
I see a shoe.
SECOND SAILOR
I see the suit of lights and the red cape.
MELE
Hiya!
HOMER
Can we throw a cable?
FIRST SAILOR
He's too far.
Madam takes her clothes off.

272
MADAM
I offer my life for his.
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
Madam, your life is precious.
CALCULATOR
Why don't you tie the cable to the ball for his majesty to kick it?
MELE
Hiya!
HOMER
It's a good idea.
A few sailors fasten the rope to Mele's ball.
HOMER
Hurry up!
FIRST SAILOR
How can his majesty know where the matador is?
CALCULATOR
We'll tell him that it's goal 2002.
MELE
Hiya!
Homer ties the ball to the rope and calls Mele, who is eating a banana.
Homer bows.
HOMER
Your majesty
Mele puts the banana peeling on his bold head.
MELE
Hiya!
Homer gives the peeling to a sailor.
HOMER

273
Do you want to score goal 2002 your majesty?
MELE
Hiya!
As king Mele kicks the ball, it goes faster than sound and the president's wig flies up in
the air.
FIRST SAILOR
It's perfect.
MADAM
He's a genius!
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
Where is my wig?

MELE
Hiya!
FIRST SAILOR
He's holding the cable.
Madam wears only her pants and bra by now.
MADAM
Thank God!
HOMER
You must pull at the same time now.
FIRST SAILOR
Bring the boat.
SECOND SAILOR
We must get the oxygen ready.
FIRST SAILOR
Bring him onboard now.
Madam runs to the bars without her bra, on hearing a shout of horror.

274
MADAM
He doesn't have a head.
She faints.
HOMER
A shark must have eaten his head.
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
The greatest bullfighter of all times has died.
He cries.
CALCULATOR
It isn't so bad. He'll perform better without a head.
HOMER
He's breathing!
The men leave the scene, as Madam takes off her pants, the calculator drinks some wine
and everyone waits in silence.
A few sailors bring the headless body of Cagangosto on a stretcher, accompanied by
Homer and the President of Salvacion.
HOMER
He needs oxygen.
Blood pours out of the neck
FIRST SAILOR
We must stop the bleeding!
SECOND SAILOR
We need Cobwebs.
A sailor puts a lot of cobwebs over the bleeding neck.
PRESIDENT OD SALVACION
We must place a plantain leaf above it.
MADAM
What will happen to the world without Cagangosto?

275
She cries.
MADAM
The sun has died.
HOMER
Madam, he's still alive.
Madam stands up.
MADAM
He doesn't have a head.
CALCULATOR
He could have lost his right arm. That would have been more terrible.
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
He has to hold his cape.
Mele appears kicking the ball.
MELE
Hiya!
The astronaut walks on his hands, with a multicolour parachute tied to his right foot.
HOMER
He's still bleeding. What do we do?
CALCULATOR
Let's put the head of the bull on his neck.
MADAM
The calculator is clever.
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
It's a good idea.
Chucho gives Homer the head of the bull.
HOMER
Let's try it.
He places the head of the bull on the matador's neck.

276
CALCULATOR
It needs a few stitches.
Madam leaves the scene.
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
He's not bleeding anymore.
HOMER
It's a miracle.
CUT TO
EXT. LUXURIOUS SHIP- MORNING
Madam kneels by the body of Cagangosto, holding a golden coffer.
HOMER
You must be careful
MADAM
I'll sew my best stitches.
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
Use different colours.
CALCULATOR
He'll be better than before.
Madam sews the head, while the sailors put away all the things they've used to save the
man's life.
EXT. BOTTOM OF THE SEA- MORNING
Meanwhile in the bottom of the sea a few sharks swim about.
FIRST SHARK
I'm not feeling well. I must have appendicitis.
SECOND SHARK
Did you eat something heavy?
FIRST SHARK
I devoured the head of a bullfighter.

277
SECOND SHARK
The feet are the best things they have.
FIRST SHARK
I didn't know that.
SECOND SHARK
You'll have to learn the secrets of the job.
EXT. LUXURIOUS SHIP- MORNING
Madam has finished sewing the head. They all applaud, as the head of the bull moves
and open its eyes.
CAGANGOSTO
Where am I?
HOMER
Don't worry, matador. You're with me.
CAGANGOSTO
Who is me?
HOMER
I'm me.
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
Can't you see?
Cagangosto looks at the president.
CAGANGOSTA
Who is him?
HOMER.
You must remember the president of Salvacion, Excellency.
As Homer helps Cagangosto to stand up, he feels his right horn.
CAGANGOSTO
I'm thirsty.
CALCULATOR

278
Drink some wine.
The calculator gives him the bottle and Cagangosto drinks everything.
MADAM
He's beautiful. He looks like a Miura.
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
I'll find my other wig.
He leaves the scene.
CALCULATOR
I think the matador is better off now. Some bulls are very intelligent.
CAGANGOSTO
Bulls are the most intelligent animals in the world.
CALCULATOR
You can't include calculators, of course.
CAGANGOSTO
I'm talking about animals.
HOMER
I feel thirsty after the incident. Do you want another bottle of wine, matador?
CAGANGOSTO
Yes, man.
A sailor says something to Homer.
HOMER
I have good news for you. A helicopter with the Beatles on board is about to land
on the ship.
CAGANGOSTO
The Beatles?
Madam is still naked.
MADAM
The Beatles?

279
The president of Salvacion comes in, wearing a new wig.
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
Have I heard right?
HOMER
The Beatles will arrive in a few minutes, Excellency.
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
Aren't they the heroes of the British Empire?
MADAME
Yes, I'm very excited.
Homer says something.
Mele runs across the scene, kicking his ball.
HOMER
Excellency.
MELE
Hiya!
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
Your majesty, the Beatles are coming.
HOMER
They are the most resplendent jewel in the British crown.
CAGANGOSTO
They are members of the order Garreteer.
MELE
Hiya!
He runs after the ball.
MADAM
His majesty is a genius.
HOMER
He's superman.

280
CAGANGOSTO
The wine is very good.
CALCULATOR
Let's drink to your health, matador.
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
We represent the best of humankind.
MADAM
God has gathered the best people on this ship.
The astronaut moves across the scene pulling a tower with luminous lights as a siren goes
on. He stops and walks backwards.
CALCULATOR
Can I have some more prawns?
As Homer leaves the scene, the noise of the approaching helicopter fills everything.
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
They have arrived.
MADAM
I'm going to faint.
CAGANGOSTO
You can faint here.
He opens his arms.
MADAM
AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
She falls in the arms of Cagangosto.
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
What a sensible woman.
CAGANGOSTO
She's very nice.
As he licks her body, she faints even more.

281
CALCULATOR
Where's the urinal?
SAILOR
It's over there.
He gestures with his hand.
The calculator goes away with the sailor.
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
I don't like that machine.
CAGANGOSTO
It looks like a domesticated space ship.
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
He must be indifferent to human glory.
CAGANGOSTO
I don't think he understands much about bulls.
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
He doesn't like art.
CAGANGOSTO
That astronaut plays a science fiction game all the time.
Homer appears followed by a few people with electric guitars, long hair and wearing
similar clothes. The president of Salvacion rises to his feet.
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
The Beatles!
Madam stands up.
MADAM
The Beatles.
Cagangosto doesn't stand up.
CAGANGOSTO
The boys have arrived.

282
HOMER
Ladies and gentleman, these are the Beatles and their girlfriends.
The men in funny costumes sit in a circle on the floor, ignoring everyone around them,
while the astronaut crawls along the scene singing to himself.
ASTRONAUT
My old Kentucky home
The first Beatle looks at him.
FIRST BEATLE
We want the same stuff he has had.
HOMER
He's the astronaut Simpson, the conqueror of the Martian mountains.
SECOND BEATLE
We want the same marihuana he's had and not the girls he has conquered.
FIRST GIRL
I want some mescaline.
SECOND GIRL
I want LSD.
THIRD BEATLE
Bring everything you have.
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
They're geniuses.
Homer leaves the scene with one of the sailors as the calculator comes back.
CALCULATOR
Everything here is rubbish.
CAGANGOSTO
I remember an afternoon in Seville with bulls of Domec
MADAM
I love his wines.

283
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
I want to have a picture with the geniuses.
A few sailors come in with food, wine, cigarettes and multicoloured sweets, as Homer
appears behind them.
HOMER
You have all kind of liquors here. I have brought blonde, brown, and Asian
Marihuana, different concentrations of opium plus LSD, mescaline, sublimated heroin
and morphine.

The Beatles fiddle with their guitars, while everyone else applauds.
CALCULATOR
I'll drink some wine.
As the guests help themselves to food and stimulants, Mele arrives behind the ball.
MELE
Hiya!
HOMER
Would you like something, your majesty?
MELE
Hiya!
He goes after the ball.
CUT TO
EXT. LUXURIOUS YACHT- AFTERNOON
A sailor moves towards the president.
SAILOR
You are needed in the phone, Excellency.
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
Someone wants me?
SAILOR

284
Yes, sir. They say it's urgent.
HOMER
Bring him the phone.
The sailor goes away as the Beatles smoke marihuana and other drugs.
CUT TO
EXT. LUXURIOUS SHIP- AFTERNOON
After the sailor brings the phone to the president, a man wearing a suit with decorations
appears in the small three-dimensional screen.
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
What's the matter minister?
MINISTER
It's bad, Excellency.
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
Tell me, man.
MINISTER
The referee has made a penalty against our team, after twenty five minutes of
the football match against the republic of Bajuras.

PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
That's not possible. It's an attempt against me. That's
MINISTER
Excuse me, excellent president of the republic of Salvacion but the penalty has been
effective. We're losing one to zero.
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
Dirty dogs! Call all the reserves of air and sea.
The astronaut moves across the scene holding two globes of different colours.
MINISTER
We'll do as your Excellency says.

285
He bows before the screen.
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
Keep me informed.
He puts the receiver down and breathes deeply.
HOMER
Is it bad news, Excellency?
Madam (with no clothes on) sits next to the Beatles and sings.
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
Something awful has happened, dear Homer. In the football game for the final of
the Jules Rimmet cup, the Barujas team has scored a penalty. What an indignity!
My country has been dirtied by that bunch of idiots.
The voice of Madam singing with the Beatles floats around the ship.
CAGANGOSTO
During a bullfight in Cali, I
CALCULATOR
Drink more wine, matador.
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
I want to buy thirty planes with bombs. My country is in danger and we can't waist
any more time.
HOMER
Yes, of course.
He leaves the scene.
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
Assassins, BASTARDS!
CAGANGOSTO
Why don't you take the man who is kicking about?
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
Do you mean his majesty, King Mele?

286
CAGANGOSTO
Yes, man.
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
I don't think his country would want to lose such a jewel. It is as if Venezuela gave
away its petrol, Japan its factories, England its queen, and Argentina its generals,
Colombia the Tequendama Falls, Brazil the Amazon River or China its great wall.
The Beatles are singing in a choir, while the girls take off their clothes.
EXT. LUXURIOUS SHIP- LATE AFTERNOON
The minister appears in the telephone screen.
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
What's happening?
The minister vows.
MINISTER
The first time finished 1-0. Seven members of our sporting agency have been killed,
including the technical director, the trainer and two advisers.
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
What have you done?
MINISTER
One of our small planes dropped a bomb over the stadium, killing a central judge and
four spectators.
A sailor puts a few papers on the table, as The Beatles and the girls are naked in the deck.
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
You'll get more arms in a few minutes.
MINISTER
Thank you, Excellency.
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
Let me see the match on the telephone.

287
The minister vows and they see a few men kicking a ball in the screen, while others lie on
the floor.
PRESENTER
The player of Salvacion at the right side of the field takes the ball, passes it to another
one, who is stabbed by the central defence of Barujas.
The left defence of Salvacion points the machine gun towards the opposite goalie
but the referee stops the bloodshed.
Bajuras is winning 1-0, as they come to take the wounded with a stretcher. The left
defence of Bajuras is dead, the referee replacing the one killed during the first time,
calls the substitute. The new player shows the carnet of FIFA on the right side of the
field. What an interesting game! Ladies and gentlemen, Salvacion army invades the
northern frontiers of the other country.
As Mele kicks his ball against the phone, it breaks in a thousand pieces.
MELE
Hiya!
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
No, man.
HOMER
What a problem.
CALCULATOR
His Majesty has finished with the game.
CAGANGOSTO
It was interesting.
PRESIDENT OF SALVACION
What can I do now?
HOMER
I have the papers for your majesty to sign, before getting in the helicopter.

288
Homer leaves with the president, after getting the papers from the table as the Beatles
sing with Madam and the naked girls.
The astronaut climbs a wall and drops down into a net, he had put there before.
EXT. LUXURIOUS SHIP- LATE AFTERNOON
Homer and the sailors bring a few things.
HOMER
We must sing together, boys.
The Beatles sing their songs. Cagangosto dances flamenco on a table, Homer looks after
his instruments and king Mele kicks his ball about.
They all fall down on the floor a few moments later, except Mele with his ball and
Homer.
HOMER
Thank you everyone. I have just recorded the twentieth century symphony for the
future.

289

The nuns
EXT. LUXURIOUS YACHT- NIGHT
Two men wearing long gowns sit on the top deck of a yacht. One of them is a big man
with an even bigger stomach, a crown on his head and rings on his gingers.
The other one doesn't have a crown but a few pendants with crosses hung around his
neck.
They drink cups of tea, looking at the sea under the light of the full moon. Some cups are
on the table along with a plate full of cakes and biscuits.
CARDINAL
It's nice of Homer to let us hide in his floating mansion.
BISHOP
He helps his friends.
CARDINAL
He gets my blessings.

290
As they drink their cups of tea, the cardinal takes one of the cakes, crumbs falling down
his gown.
A nun wearing a blue tunic with matching head gear moves towards them.
SISTER CAMILLA
It's nice to find the children of God together.
CARDINAL
Homer let us use his boat while ignoring the general and showing us his generosity.
SISTER CAMILLA
They want to take him to court in the mainland.
BISHOP
He's a hero.
SISTER CAMILLA
The pope must canonize him.
She takes a cup of tea, after sitting at the table and Fifi appears in the scene showing her
pants under a mini skirt.
BISHOP
Fifi, it's nice to see you here.
FIFI
I'm enjoying Homer's hospitality.
Fifi shakes hands with the priests while hugging Sister Camilla and a tall nun wearing the
same clothes as the other one appears in the scene.
SISTER ROSA
I find so many members of the clergy in this yacht.
CARDINAL
We haven't seen our host yet.
Sister Rosa pours herself a cup of coffee, taking a biscuit from the plate as Homer
appears accompanied by a young woman in combat clothes. She's tall with long legs,
black hair, false eye lashes and big breasts.

291
They all stand up and applaud.
HOMER
I hope you're enjoying your stay in my yacht.
SISTER CAMILLA
We are glad to be far from a dangerous country.
HOMER
Consider me as your saviour.
He gestures to the girl.
HOMER
Amelia is the head of the revolutionary movement of our country.
She salutes everyone army style, and looks at Fifi.
AMELIA
I have seen your face in the papers. You must be the wife of the general.
Fifi nods.
FIFI
I'm glad to meet you.
AMELIA
I wish I could say the same thing.
HOMER
Let's drink to our health and freedom.
He puts a tray full of glasses and two bottles of wine one of the sailors has brought, on
the table.
HOMER
Cardinal, would you like a glass of wine?
CARDINAL
I want a cup of tea.
HOMER
Does anyone want wine?

292
FIFI
I want a gin and tonic.
AMELIA
I wouldn't mind a gin and tonic, Uncle Homer.
A sailor goes around replenishing cups of tea and coffee, pouring gin and tonic in the
girls' glasses, as Amelia stands in front of everyone.
AMELIA
Dear comrades. Our countries must be governed by people who don't slave and
torture their fellow human beings in the name of bigotry.
She pauses to take a sip of gin and tonic.
AMELIA
We must attack the forces of evil.

They applaud.
HOMER
I have the arms ready for your fight.
AMELIA
It's God's fight, Uncle Homer. We must win over the people who kill and torture us.
She kisses him.
HOMER
I have a surprise for you.
On clapping his hands, a few women wearing uniforms salute them military style, after
appearing through one of the doors.
Amelia smiles.
AMELIA
Thanks, Uncle Homer.
HOMER
I knew you wanted your girls.

293
The women crowd around them talking at the same time.
AMELIA
Attention!
The women stand in front of her.
AMELIA
One, two, one, two
They march around the scene.
AMELIA
Rest now.
They disperse as Amelia sips her drink. Homer hugs her, feeling around her bosom.
CARDINAL
That was a good show of solidarity.
BISHOP
You're fighting for the country.
AMELIA
We want the liberation from the oppressor.
They all look at Fifi.
FIFI
I have left my husband, the general.
CUT TO
EXT. LUXURIOUS YACHT- NIGHT
Music comes out of the loudspeakers. Homer dances with Amelia, Sister Camilla and
Sister Rosa dance with each other, while the bishop, the cardinal and Fifi sip their drinks.
The army women sit on the floor, their leader gives them instructions while holding a
bottle of coca cola in her hands.
AMELIA
We must play a game now.
WOMAN SOLDIER

294
We are waiting for instructions.
AMELIA
I say a letter.
WOMAN SOLDIER
And we must find something on ourselves beginning with it.
AMELIA
That's right. Failure to do so will result in a penalty.
WOMAN SOLDIER
We understand,
AMELIA
Let's play then.
She spins a bottle on the floor and every time it stops spinning , the army women take
their clothes off.
SISTER ROSA
Our father who art in heaven
CARDINAL
Hallowed be thy name
SISTER CAMILLE
Thou kingdom will come
Fifi moves across the scene and disappears through a door.
CUT TO
INT. CABIN IN LUXURIOUS SHIP- NIGHT
Chucho writes on his notebook under the light of a lamp. Someone knocks at the door.
FIFI (O.S)
Chucho, it's me. Can I come in?
She steps in the untidy room, sees papers on the floor, and lots of things on the table.
FIFI
It's crazy outside there.

295
Chucho stops writing.
CHUCHO
I'm working on Homer's manuscripts.
FIFI
His invisible friend wrote them.
CHUCHO
I know.
Fifi caresses his fur and kisses his mouth.
CHUCHO
Not now.

She reads what Chucho writes.

FIFI
Why are you leaving a space here?
CHUCHO
It's something I don't understand.
She keeps on reading, muttering to herself from time to time, as loud music interrupts her
concentration.
CHUCHO
You must go back to the party.
FIFI
I want to stay with you.
She kisses his fur, but Chucho's hands push her away.
FIFI
When will you finish?
CHUCHO
I don't know.
INT.CABIN IN LUXURIOUS YACHT- NIGHT

296
Fifi tidies the room.
CHUCHO
Don't touch my papers.
FIFI
They'll explain everything.
CHUCHO
I hope so.
FIFI
Tell me, please.
CHUCHO
It's complicated.
He writes in the paper, not paying any attention to Fifi's caresses.
CHUCHO
I am a chimpanzee
FIFI
And a clever one
EXT. LUXURIOUS YACHT- NIGHT
Fireworks go up the sky. The air has a pinkish hue of smoke rising to the stars, while the
cardinal, the bishop and the nuns pray around the naked women.
HOMER
This is a night to remember.
AMELIA
Hurrah to our hero!
EVERYONE
Hurrah!
The music starts again, Amelia approaches the cardinal and the girls dance with each
other.
SISTER ROSA

297
You are naked, my child.
AMELIA
This is the way God sent me to this world.
HOMER
I'll dance with you.
The cardinal prays.
The orchestra plays a tango and the naked women dance with each other.
HOMER
It has been a pleasure to see you again.
AMELIA
I've looked for you everywhere, Uncle Homer.
HOME
And you've found me here.
CUT TO
EXT. LUXURIOUS YACHT- NIGHT
The sailors bring a table with papers and calculators.
HOMER
We must talk about business now.
AMELIA
I'll sign a cheque for the ammunitions and the tanks, Uncle Homer.
She sits at the table, her breasts trembling over the papers, before writing a cheque for
lots of dollars.
AMELIA
We'll kill those bastards.
The naked girls come to the table for their drinks.
AMELIA
We toast to the revolution.
ALL THE GIRLS

298
To the revolution.
CARDINAL
Ora pro novis
HOMER
We'll have a firework display tonight.
CARDINAL
God must save us.

299

Miguel
I helped Homer's parents to build a life in a foreign land, after escaping from the
poverty of the world in one of the paths in the continuum of time, his invisible friend
giving him pleasure in his journey through life, as his parents worked in the shop they
owned by the market.
He had made up his fortune buy saving a few people from the poverty he had seen in
his new country, the weather killing the women he had helped to escape from the streets
they had inhabited for some time.
Homer had given me the shop his parents had bought with some of the money they
had brought from their country, giving me the power to leave the poverty encroaching on
our lives. He invited me to come to the yacht, after telling me of the guests he had and of
the things he had done in order to entertain them, and of the beautiful women he had
during the years.
I'll pay for your ticket, he had written in the last letter I received, before I decided to
visit his floating paradise, and that's how I found myself in the way to the yacht, ready to
see the wonders of his world.
"Homer will be waiting for you," the pilot interrupted my reverie.
I didn't like the helicopter moving up and down over the sea on our way to the yacht,
while wondering about the man I had not seen for some time.
"You look pale," the pilot said.
I nodded. "I don't like helicopters."
The pilot gave me something, after looking in a bag by his seat.
"It is chewing gum," he said. "It might help you."

300
I popped it in my mouth, hoping to stop the sea sickness caused by the movements of
the helicopter in its way to the yacht, as the pilot talked of his work.
"A footballer, a bullfighter, a few scientists and the first man on Mars have come to
Homer's yacht," the pilot said.
"That's interesting," I said.
I remembered Homer's parents teaching the young boy to read and write amidst the
merchandise they kept at the back of the shop.
"I have known Homer for a long time," I said.
The Caribbean Sea looked like a world waiting to destroy us in the name of whatever
God we happened to believe, as we got closer to the yacht Homer had bought with the
money he had made, after getting lost in the sea.
"The yacht is one of the marvels of the world," the pilot said.
"I know," I said.
He talked of the things Homer had done in the name of fun, as we flew over the
Caribbean Sea and the sun set on the sea.
"I have something to do here," I said.
The pilot pointed to the dot in the horizon, getting bigger all the time, while telling
mw more things about his life in the Caribbean Sea.
"Welcome to Homer's paradise," he said.
"I'll have fun," I said.
"You'd never believe Homer's parties," he said. "He tries to please his guests'
fantasies."
"I imagine," I said.
I hoped to enjoy the welcome Homer must have planned for me, listening to some of
the stories the pilot told me of whatever had happened aboard the yacht throughout the
years.
"I am writing about my adventures," I showed him the noted I had taken.
"That's good," the pilot said. "You can sell your book some day."

301
"It's not for sale," I said.
We went down towards the water, before landing somewhere amidst the dark sea.
"We have arrived," the pilot said.
I put my booklet in my bag, waiting for the pilot to open the door of the craft, and
thinking of the task I had to accomplish, before returning to the country of my birth. It
had been an exciting time, after Homer had ran away from the death of the widows on
that morning at the dawn of time or at the start of a new life for me and my family.
"You have arrived," a voice interrupted my reverie.
I came face to face with a big man, wearing a red shirt, like a flag of war.
"Homer," I said. "What a surprise."
"That's right," he said. "Time goes quickly."
He went on to explain how he had been in New York for a few months, but years had
gone past in the rest of the world.
"You are never serious," I said.
He shook his head. "It's the truth."
I thought of the time before he became a star, when his invisible friend visited him in
the backyard, amidst the mud and the roses his mother had planted and the mayhem of
the few things they stored.
"You won't be bored here," Homer said.
"I know," I said.
He led me along the yacht, telling me the stories of some of the guests he had had
during the years, when only a few months had gone by in his world, the laws of physics
making some exceptions in Homer's world.
"I have had the most beautiful girls of the planet in this yacht," he said.
Homer showed me the pictures he kept in his bag of the parties he had organised,
while drinking some aguardiente one of the sailors offered him.
"Time does not exist," he said.
"That's your opinion," I said.

302
He explained the intricacies of time to me, when the widows and his adventure in the
Caribbean had been a short time ago.
He pointed at some of the passengers sipping their drinks, in between the mosquitoes
dining in their blood, telling me all about their lives in some other parts of the world,
making up his reality.
"Amelia visited us last week," Homer said.
I had heard of my daughter recounting her experiences in the yacht, in the newspapers
columns hoping to make lots of money. An attractive woman looked at me from the
swimming pool, while talking to herself.
"Hi," she said.
She swam the length of the pool, pausing to rest amidst the other guests having a nice
time.
"That girl is a duchess," Homer said. "She has blue blood."
She didn't look that colour, but rich people can be funny, I thought, admiring her body.
"I want an aperitif," she said.
"You must join us then," Homer said.
She dried herself with a towel Homer had by his side, after climbing out of the pool
and showing me some of her anatomy.
"She can keep you company," he said.
I nodded. "That would be nice."
"Would you like an aguardiente?" a voice interrupted the conversation.
I came face to face with a chimpanzee holding a tray, some of the memories of my trip
to the unknown returning to my mind, after tasting the drugs Jaramillo had brought from
Europe.
The chimpanzee balanced the tray in his arms.
"We met in the jungle," I said. "Remember?"
He nodded. "I hope you enjoy it here."

303
Chucho had to be one of the greatest attractions in Homer's world of adventures,
where incredible things happened all the time.
"I hope you pay him well," I said.
Chucho offered me a drink, as the duchess applied her make up, and the fireworks
exploded in the sky.
"It's nice aguardiente," he said. "They make it in Salvacion."
I felt the liquid going all the way down to my stomach, while Chucho described some
of the parties Homer held every day.
"We danced all night," he said.
"I imagine," I said.
Chucho reminded me of the beauty queens making me happy under my pants in one
of the most extraordinary places on earth, just a few weeks ago, according to Homer's
calculations.
"The girls look thirsty," he said.
"I'll give them aguardiente," Chucho said.
He mingled with the guests talking about nothing in particular, while balancing the
tray in his hands, as I sipped my drink.
"The professor invented the anti transistor," I said.
Homer smiled. "It sounds interesting."
I went on to explain about the machine shutting down the music from the church
tower, in one of his experiments, and some other things to do with time.
"Reality forks every time we blink," Homer said. "I learned that in the jungle."
"You had too much coca," I said.
Homer looked at the girls swimming in the pool, telling me how he had not had any
drugs in his way to the jungle.
"You wanted the heads," I said.
Homer nodded. "It's the path I had to follow."
"And the goblins brought me here," I said.

304
"Stop joking," he said.
I wrote in my notebook all about my adventure in Homer's yacht in the spectrum of
time, as Chucho appeared by our side, carrying a tray full of glasses.
"The guests want to talk to you," he said.
Homer followed him towards the far side of the pool, leaving me alone with the
woman I had just met.
"I came here a few days ago," she said.
"You are lucky," I said. "This is a nice place."
I studied her body, burned by the sun, in spite of her efforts to protect her skin from
the Gamma rays and other things invading our planet from space.
"Your wife must be waiting in New York," she said.
"I am divorced," I said.
She nodded. "I used to be married."
She dried her hair with a pink towel, pretending to be shy, while showing me a tattoo
near one of her breasts, with the letters OC visible amidst a few other things
"What happened to your marriage?" she asked.
"We had our disagreements."
I wanted to sleep with her that night, but she kept on talking of anything in her life, as
I longed to feel her body.
"Chucho will take your suitcases to your cabin," Homer interrupted my thoughts.
The monkey took my bags through the rows of people having a good time, before
disappearing down a corridor, leading to the place Homer wanted me to spend the night.
"I'll get some more drinks," the duchess said.
She moved between the men admiring her curves, like a princess in her way to do
something for me later on.
"I was lost in the sea," Homer interrupted my thoughts.
"I know," I said. "I read it in the papers."
He showed me the pictures of a girl standing by his side, after his rescue from the sea.

305
"It's Fifi," Homer said.
"She seems nice," I said.
I had seen her face in the papers of the time, my mind reeling at the thought of all the
money he had made from his adventures since leaving his home some time ago.
"I was waiting for you," somebody said.
Jaramillo appeared in front of me, looking sunburned and a bit plump. I had not seen
the journalist since our adventure aboard the spacecraft taking us in a trip across the
universe, as he showed me some of the pages he had been deciphering.
"These are Homer's papers," he said.
I could not believe these were the pages he had found on the floor, when I thought his
mother had thrown them away all those years ago, but what is time for someone like
Homer.
"We'll have a firework display tonight," he said.
"I like fireworks," I said.
"He had a matador with the head of a bull last month," Jaramillo said.
"That's strange," I said.
"Matadors are funny people," he said.
He had to be funny too. We had finished in the jungle because of the drugs he had
brought from Europe, before flying through the universe in a spaceship we had found
somewhere.
"I want an orgy," Homer said. "Lightning turns me on."
He gave orders for the sailors to bring more aguardiente, and anything else he had in
store for us at that moment.
"I have to talk to you," I said.
"We'll do that some other time."
"The doctor needs money," I said.
"What doctor?"
"Chucho's owner."

306
"I'm his owner now."
I told him of the people taking the doctor to court for not giving them money, even if
he had discovered a few things in the name of science.
"I have my problems," he said.
"He trained Chucho," I said. "You owe him that."
"I'll send him some money," he said.
Homer wrote a quantity of dollars in one of the check books he had found in his
pocket, telling me all the suffering he had in his life and of the people he had helped to
get on in life.
"You helped me and my family," I said.
"I know," he said. "How is Maria?"
"She married a nice man," I said.
A few people danced by the pools amidst the storm going on around us, as I
remembered the Titanic going down to the bottom of the sea in a stormy night some time
ago.
"Ole," Homer said.
"You didn't welcome Homer," Jaramillo said.
I took a sip of aguardiente before telling him the story of the man awakening in the
future, after taking a nap.
"What does it have to do with the yacht?" he asked.

Fireworks party

307
I went back to the pool a few moments later, as the duchess listened to the guests,
talking of things I did not cared about and I went in the tepid water smelling of whatever
they poured there in order to kill the bacteria.
"I've been waiting for you," she said.
I had to impress the most beautiful woman in the yacht, trying to forget Homer's
promises of the show he had prepared for me.
"You must teach me to swim," I said.
She stopped her back stroke, her blue eyes looking the same colour as the Caribbean
Sea surrounding us.
"No one ever taught you," she said.
"I grew up in the city," I said.
I managed to keep afloat for a few moments, before the force of gravity pulled me
towards the bottom of the pool.
"I am here," she said.
She got me out of the water, giving me instructions concerning my safety in the pool,
when I wanted to kiss her.
"We had an end of the world party last week," she said.
"It sounds exciting," I said.
"You won't be bored here."
She dried herself with her pink towel with the words New York, written in pink, after
going up the steps at the side of the pool, while talking nonstop of the way Homer treated
his women.
"He wants a harem," she said.
She brushed her hair, telling me all about the jewellery he had given to Fifi, when she
wanted to have some of the riches he had given her, and the general did not seem to care.
"You are beautiful," I said.
She looked at me with her clear eyes, resembling the sky on a nice day.
"You must tell that to all the girls," she said.

308
I kissed her lips, tasting of the coca cola she had been drinking, trying to tell her
everything about my life in a country she had never visited, as a line of girls danced
around the pool, after drinking the alcohol Chucho had offered them.
"One, two, three," they chanted.
"We want to wake up," they said.
"Four, five, six..."
"He's coming for me," they said.
The duchess showed me some of the tattoos she had, letting me touch a few parts of
her body.
"What is that name?" I pointed to the letters on her arms.
"I thought I loved my husband," she said.
I shrugged. "Nothing lasts."
She had consummated her marriage in Hide Park in London, the foxes crying amidst
the bushes interrupting the enjoyment of the moment.
"My husband liked to have sex in strange places," she said.
"Some men are peculiar," I told her.
The naked girls sang La Marseilles, as I told her all about my life, before my wife
decided to run away with the butcher.
"Homer married himself," I said.
"You must be joking," she said.
"It's the truth."
Some of Homer's friends had been witnesses to his eccentricities as Father Ricardo
blessed the ceremony and Amelia played with her dolls. The noise of the girls having fun
interrupted my narrative and the duchess took off her bikini top.
"It's hot," she said.
The voices of the girls singing interrupted my examination of her body but the
duchess wanted to know more about Homer.
"Nobody marries herself or himself," she said.

309
"He claimed my daughter visited him afterwards," I said.
"That's Homer," she said.
We sat by the railings admiring the sea, as the guests sang about irrelevant things, and
she took off her pants by the pool.
"I want to cool off," she said.
I admired her body, as the sound of the orchestra playing Caribbean music brought me
back to reality, and I had to bring Homer back to his past.
"My daughter loved him once," I said.
"Where is she now?"
"She married a rich man," I said.
I told her of Homer's affair with my daughter, somewhere in the dimensions of time,
but then the widows had died some time ago.
"The widows?" she asked.
"They drowned in the houses he built for them."
"That's Homer," she said.
"He loves Fifi."
"I think she's here," the duchess said.
She showed me the picture of a woman looking at the sea, she must found amidst the
things she kept in her bag.
"She believes Homer is God," she said.
"He must have created everything," I said.
I imagined Homer making the world in one of his fantasies, planning to do something
important on a night like any other in his world.
"Homer changed our lives," I said. "We had no more debts."
He had made a difference to our existence, by erasing all the bills we had, whilst
paying for my children's education.
"He is an angel," I said.

310
The noise of the waves crashing against the sides of the yacht interrupted the
conversation, of the magic Homer had done in our lives.
"He must have a surprise tonight," she said.
"I think so," I said.
We looked at the girls dancing and singing in choir, unaware of whatever thing our
host must have prepared for us.
"Hail to Homer," I said.
"Amen, she said.
I had to find the truth of Homer's mission in the world in order to celebrate his life.
Homer appeared by our side, with a paper in his hand.
"The president has died," he said. "Hurrah to the general."
"Fifi must be sad," I said.
Homer shrugged. "She never loved him."
"Eureka," Chucho said.
He jumped on a few of the things littering the deck, holding the manuscripts he had
been studying in his cabin.
"Stop it," Jaramillo said.
"Eureka," Chucho said.
Father Ricardo taught me that word in the school some years ago, the memories of the
fat priest talking to us about God, coming back to my mind.
"He's found it," I said.
"What has he found?" the duchess asked.
The chimpanzee's short legs bent every time he jumped, interrupting the people
having a night of pleasure in the yacht.
"Eureka," he said.
"My papers," Homer said.
He ran through the deck, ending our enjoyment of the night, before the party started.
"Eureka," Chucho said.

311
"Leave him alone," I said.
Chucho's shouting disturbed the groups of people making love to each other under the
trees and plants arranged around the place.
"Eureka," Chucho said.
The sky erupted in many colours, as throngs of naked people danced to the music.
"You must listen to this," Homer switched a radio on.
"Astronomers think our sun might explode in a nova," the presenter said. "The word
means new, because a star appears in the sky where nothing was there before. We have
put together the radio stations in the country to keep you informed of the developments."
"It must be a joke," I said.
"Look at the sky," he said.
I noticed pink clouds floating in a dark horizon in the story he had brought to us from
the depth of his imagination.
"It's dawn," I said.
Homer shrugged. "A very strange dawn."
"We must remain calm," the presenter said.
I nodded. "I'm calm."
"Me too," the duchess caressed my body.
"It's the end of time," Homer said.
"Eureka," Chucho said.
"These are the latest news," the presenter interrupted. "Our sun has undergone a few
changes, according to the astronomers around the planet. We urge everyone to remain at
home, as some people have died in the churches."
"I don't like churches," my duchess said.
Homer drank a glass of aguardiente someone had forgotten on the table, burping a few
times.
"This must be a joke," I said.
"Look at the colours," my duchess said.

312
A patch of red merged with the sea, as shades of pink, struggled to appear behind the
red in the spectacle in the sky, as I tried to take on the end of the world.
"Thanks for the welcome," I said.
"I haven't done anything," Homer said.
"Eureka," Chucho said.
The monkey ran along the pool, before going up the pole by one of the cafeterias
serving the meal to some of the guests, who did not care about the end of everything we
had known.
"Monkeys don't talk," my duchess said.
I had thought many times, after our visit to the doctor living in that town and amidst
the beauty queens making everyone happy, while drinking aguardiente and playing with
the men.
Snakes talk in the bible," I said.
"I don't like that book," she said.
"The sun is changing," the radio presenter said. "The hydrogen around its core is
being consumed, while the helium expands."
The sun was a middle aged star and could not be changing, according to a science
book I had read some time ago, when I had been interested in the universe.
"Bring us aguardiente," Homer said to the waitress.
"I want some mint in mine" the duchess said.
"We have fog all over the world, bringing panic to the planet," the presenter said.
I noticed the fog outside the window, time and space getting together, like in a horror
film about to get worse.
"The colours have gone," I said.
"They must be behind the fog," the duchess said.
"Astronomers believe our sun has exhausted its helium, causing the rare phenomenon
this morning," the radio presenter said.
"Is helium the gas for balloons?" I asked.

313
"The sun is funny," the duchess said.
"Let's have an orgy," Homer said.
He gulped his aguardiente, his face getting redder, with the excitement of the party he
must have planned for the night.
"Lola's mother warned me about this," he said.
"Was she the pretty girl from the shop?" I asked.
Homer nodded. "She had a sergeant."
"You tickle me," the duchess said.
"I bring you the latest news," the radio presenter said. "Most of the earth has
disappeared under the fog, bringing chaos to the cities, where cars have been crashing
with each other."
It was the end of time, as the seagulls flew through the confusion like lost angels in a
horror film, reminding me of a book I had read about aliens bringing war to the planet
with their weapons.
"Will you marry me?" the duchess asked.
She did not seem to care about any of the things happening to the world.
"If you have my baby," I said.
"That's not fair."
"This tragedy is not fair," I said.
"It must be one of Homer's jokes."
"I'm talking to some of our newsmen in the country," the radio presenter said. "They
might be able to tell us what is going on in the roads."
After a few moments, another voice spoke in the radio.
"We have been standing in the same spot for the past hour, watching the fog
thickening all the time."
"How's the mood of the people around you?" the presenter asked.
"They are frightened."
"What about the lights?" the presenter said.

314
"We can't see them through the fog."
My hands explored the duchess' body, ignoring the nova, and any other of Homer's
jokes.
"Let's go somewhere," I said.
My duchess kissed me, letting my fingers massage her just below the abdomen.
"It's the end of the world," Homer said.
He mentioned something about his Uncle Hugh hiding somewhere in the boat, waiting
to be with him after the calamity.
"He visited you in your childhood," I said.
"And I need him now," he said.

Armageddon
I had to change reality, like the ghosts told Homer in the jungle an eternity ago, matter
being particles and waves, whilst dividing into different universes all the time.

remembered the day Homer had followed the Indian to the jungle, looking for the heads
hidden in the undergrowth.
"We are waves of probability," he said.

315
We seemed to be waves of anything at that moment, when the earth and its inhabitants
had to go off in a puff of smoke, Homer's engineers preparing us for the best spectacle of
our lives.
"You've had a few end of the world parties," I said.
"This is different," he said. "We had fireworks."
"We have fireworks now," I said.
He explained how our star never did anything exceptional, while circling the centre of
the galaxy for millions of years.
"I was born under a dark sun," he said.
"I know." I said.
Fireworks went up the sky, leaving a trail in the darkness of the night, the laws of
physics ruling our lives with its formulas of space and time forever.
"Has the radio said anything?" I asked.
"I switched it off," Homer said.
One moment the sun would end our existence and now he didn't seem to care, like
another of his jokes or the fact that he thought the universe divided all the time. I had
come to have a good time and to relax in Homer's paradise.
"It's all in here," Jaramillo pointed to his pages.
"What is?" I asked.
"The fog and the lights," he said.
He fiddled with some of the pages Homer had found in the backyard, even if his
mother wanted to throw them away.
"They are written in code," Jaramillo said.
He told me of the horrible things before the end of the world, in the pages Homer must
have given him during his visits to the yacht.
"There will be earthquakes," he said.
We drank an aguardiente in order to calm our nerves, the music interrupting the
conversation about the end of the world.

316
"The Beatles came here," Homer said.
I nodded. "That's interesting."
Cagangosto had lost his head, before the Beatles interrupted all the fun with their
songs and drugs and Pele scored lots of goals.
"I haven't slept at all," I said.
"Sleep here," the duchess made some room in the floor by our side.
It didn't seem to be the best place for me to rest, when the other guests discussed the
lights in the sky and the fog would not go away.
"It must be done with lasers," she said.
I thought of a laser machine hidden somewhere in the yacht, after listening to Homer's
explanation of everything in superposition outside our senses. The world had to be crazy
when we had to observe something for it to exist in our reality.
"I translated the papers?" Jaramillo said.
He showed me a notebook filled with a few graphics of a language no one else had
studied.
"Homer's invisible friend wrote them," I said.
"That is what you think," he said.
He explained some of the complexities of that language he had encountered in the
pages Homer had found in the backyard.
"This letter here means something," he said.
Something resembled a zero in one of the pages, amidst some of the characters from
another world.
"We must talk about this," I said.
"There is nothing to talk about," he said.
Jaramillo did not seem afraid of the microbes surrounding him everywhere, like he
had done on his first visit to Homer's shop at the beginning of time.
"It has the theory of everything," he interrupted my thoughts.
I wanted to know what he meant by that and whether it could be proven by science.

317
"It's interesting," I said.
An old man came out of the shadows, his white hair in stark contrast with his blue
shirt, while looking at me through his thick glasses.
"This is Uncle Hugh," Homer said.
"I'm tired of hiding," he said.
He greeted us, pushing his glasses up his nose, like he used to do in the past.
"I'm glad you could come," he said.
We had to be together for Homer's sake, before the passing of our world into some
other stage in the continuum.
"He was the first person I saw," Homer said. "My mother was there."
Uncle Hugh showed us a few pictures depicting Homer and his parents somewhere in
time, proving he had travelled with them in their journey to another land.
"I had to see Homer's yacht," Uncle Hugh said.
I studied the pictures of Homer's parent's enjoying their life in their country, before
travelling a long way.
"Homer loves drama," I said.
Uncle Hugh told me of his life in that other land he had left a long time ago, when he
had to feed his family with his hard work.
"The sky is turning many colours," the presenter said. "And a few rings seem to be
surrounding the earth."
The night kept its secrets away from us in those terrible moments, even though we
could not see anything through the fog.
"They are the remnants of an asteroid," the presenter said. "Destroyed by the sun's
gravity,"
"Eureka," Chucho said.
The monkey held a bunch of papers in his hands, while jumping and shouting around
the deck.

318
"According to the latest news, the sun is pulsating," the presenter's voice interrupted
the scene. "The authorities are trying to stop the panic in the country."
"This is real," Homer said.
"Is it?" I asked.
"The radio says so."
"You control the radio," I said. "It's a circular argument."
Fingers of fire reached the furthest parts of the sky in the most beautiful display I had
ever seen, as Homer told us what to expect if the sun behaved funny.
"The country has awoken to a rare phenomenon," the presenter interrupted. "The sun
is pulsating."
"Eureka," Chucho said.
"We have to do something," Uncle Hugh said.
"I don't understand," I said.
There must be places in the universe, where the electron existed in a limbo, as Homer
talked of his life some time ago, forgetting the tragedy menacing humankind for the
moment.
"My parents are not here," he said.
They were dead, and dead people did not become zombies for the sake of being
together.
"You wanted us here," I said.
"That's true," Jaramillo said.
Homer had to explain his behaviour tonight, frightening us with the end of the world,
as throngs of naked people shouted amidst the confusion.
"This is the national news at the moment," the presenter interrupted. "It's raining in
Bogot. Attention! An electric storm has developed over the city, with rain and hail."
It also rained in the yacht, wisps of lightning dancing above our heads, like in a movie
gone mad.
"It's the end of time," Homer said.

319
The duchess nodded. "I want more drugs."
She couldn't take her eyes off the sky, excited by the carrousel of fire stretching
through the heavens.
"Can you see that?" she asked.
"It's not your imagination," I told her.
More lights appeared in the horizon, reminding me of my trip to the jungle, when
marihuana or L.S.D had taken us to the stars.
"Homer must have put something in the cocktails," she said.
"I haven't done anything," he said.
"You are a liar."
We drank alcohol to calm our nerves, the sky giving us the best display on earth as the
chimp ran around the yacht with papers in his hand.
"Homer found some Indians in the jungle," I said.
My duchess smiled. "That's interesting."
"They shrank their enemy's heads."
Homer waited for the end of humankind in our company, the radio's narrative of doom
guiding us in the last moments of our lives.
"We give you an extraordinary bulletin," the presenter said. "The sun will explode as
a nova. The word means new, because a star appears where nothing was there before."
"Eureka," Chucho said.
"This is nonsense," I said.
I had to stop the madness aboard the yacht, while the chimpanzee shouted about
finding something amidst the guests.
"Look at the clouds," my duchess said.
A fountain of light evaporated like a Christmas decoration in the fog, turning the
heavens into a display of power.
"It has crashed with the arch," she said.
"I hate Homer," I said.

320
"A fat sun is rising over there," she said.
A light rose behind the clouds, nature giving us the best spectacle anyone could wish
for humankind.
"Don't bite me," someone said.
"Hurrah to our host."
"The captain is a cynic."
"You're mad."
"Where's my cup?"
"If you kiss me ten times, I'll tell you."
"Eureka," Chucho said.
The fog had thickened, and a fountain of colours adorned the sky at the edge of reality.
"I want to kill Homer," I said.
"Fuck me first," my duchess said.
"It's Armageddon," I said.
Homer led us in the path through reality he had prepared for us, oblivious to the fact
we did not want to die.
"Let's imagine the earth rotating in space," he said. "Everything outside our senses
doesn't exist."

321

The end of time

A girl appeared amidst the passengers in the deck, looking beautiful in the most
difficult times of humankind, while making her way in between the people looking at the
sky.
"You must be Miguel," she interrupted my thoughts.
"Nice to meet you," I said.
Homer kissed her, caressing her breasts, ignoring the tragedy waiting to strike the
world.
"I am Fifi," she said.
"I know," I said.
Homer led us to one of the tables, ordering more aguardiente as the tragedy he must
have designed with the help of his assistants ranged around us.
"It is written in the scriptures," he said.
"The scriptures?" I asked.

322
He pointed at the pages Jaramillo had in his hands, telling us how everything we had
experienced had to be written in those papers he called the scriptures, when we had to
prepare ourselves for the end of time.
"The seas will get rough." Homer said.
The sea had not been behaving since I had arrived at the yacht a few hours ago, kas he
told some more of the things we might expect in the end of times, like the fact that the
drugs tasted bad and the orchestra did not play well.
"The radio talks of the sun expanding its outer layers," I said. "But our sun is a
middle aged star."
"I have faith in the pages," Jaramillo said.
"The radio has been talking about that," I said.
"It's the end of the world," Jaramillo said.
"That is the impression I get here," I said. "You believe the radio presenter's words."
He looked amidst the pages for some explanation for the events we had been
experiencing during the past few days.
"Homer copied those pages a few times," I said.
"There were not printers at that time," Jaramillo said.
Homer joined the discussion of the authenticity of the papers he had found in his
garden and how they might explain the end of the world, according to whatever Jaramillo
had been studying in his lifetime.
"This is done in the name of fun," I said.
Homer showed us the norms of whatever could be allowed in the yacht, sending my
ideas of him tricking us overboard.
"You have had end of the world parties," I said.
"They were fireworks displays," he said.
I could not understand why no one else seemed to be frightened of the end of the word
the radio had told us a few moments ago, as Fifi seemed more interested in her time in
the yacht about to disintegrate very soon.

323
She showed me some of the pictures she had taken of their time together, when she
had been cheating on her husband, the general.
"This is us in the pool," she pointed to one of the pictures.
"You must love him," I said.
"We've had our problems," she said. "But we are still together."
Reality took us into different pathways of time, like the one leading us to the end of
everything.
"This is his world of adventures," Fifi said.
"It's not a joke," I said.
The sound of fireworks interrupted my words in a night we might never forget, if we
did not finish in the next few minutes. Homer put a small television on the table, where
the image of the earth looking like a jewel in space filled most of the screen.
"I don't see anything wrong with our planet," I said.
"You have to lie down in a safe place as I say the words: we have seven minutes," the
radio presenter interrupted. "Then the force of the nova will reach us."
We could not see any of it in the screen in front of us, except the clouds but the lights
had to be under the clouds. Then darkness appeared in the screen, like the curtains of evil
over the world.
"It's night time," I said.
"It will be an eternal night," he said.
I thought what to do during the last moments of humankind, when we had to say
goodbye to everything we had known, listening to Homer's words of the things
happening to the world.
"You must have arranged this," I said.
I examined the radio he must have bought somewhere in the Caribbean, expecting to
find the clue to his lies, as the laptop showed us the satellite going around our planet.
"It's the truth," he said.

324
It might not have happened in the other realities created by the electrons in our bodies
following different pathways in time.
"We can alter our path," I said.
"Nature is in charge of that," he said. "We can do nothing."
We heard some more instructions of the reporter telling us everything we had to do in
order to protect ourselves, the image of the earth in the screen showing us Armageddon.
"What is a nova?" The duchess interrupted.
"The sun swells, before discarding its outer layers," I said.
"I don't understand."
"It will explode," I said.
"That's horrible."
She cried in my arms, her tears making my shirt wet, while listening to the radio
presenter narrative of the end of time.
"Make it stop," she said.
"I can't," I said. "It's one of Homer's pranks."
I wanted to discuss his theory of the world dividing with our thoughts, while the
colours in the sky mixed with the fog in the sea.
"The electron must go around the atom," Homer said. "That is why it has to be a
wave."
"It's a particle under our observation," I said.
"You are learning," he said.
The cries of the guests mixing with the music brought me back the memories of my
family, before being cursed by Homer's money.
"There must be some way out of this problem," I said.
Homer pointed at the sea around the yacht.
"We are inside it."
"There must be a lot of universes," Fifi interrupted.
Homer nodded. "An infinite number of them."

325
The sky went on doing odd things, as we discussed our fate under the stars and Fifi
told us of Homer's life. She did not seem to care about the end of the universe in the next
few moments, if we believed the radio Homer had brought to the table.
"He had a bullfighter called Cagangosto," she said. "And a shark ate his head."
"That's incredible," I said.
"Eureka," Chucho said.
"We must keep calm," the radio presenter said. "Most of the victims have happened
because of the panic everywhere, and the skyscrapers disappeared under the fog in New
York."
Some of the guests talked amongst themselves, in that dream I must be having in the
continuum of time.
"Are we running away from New York?" someone said.
"They're right. It's boring."
"It must be the high rents."
"Homer is a genius. First he shows us the lights, and now he frightens us."
"Where did you buy that record?"
"I have that novel by Wells."
They seemed to have forgotten the end of the world, while discussing their affairs
outside the space and time of the yacht.
"This is a joke," I said.
"Attention," the radio presenter said. "You must lie somewhere safe when I say we
have seven minutes."
Everybody got excited, forgetting whatever they had been talking about one second
ago.
"Chucho must have found something," Homer said.
"You think so."
"He has my papers."

326
I didn't know what the present situation had to do with the pages Chucho had been
studying in the yacht.
"Jose left them on the floor," I said.
"I have some of them," Jaramillo said.
Those papers had to explain the last few moments of humankind, while the TV screen,
showed the continents amidst the clouds.
"The nova is sending radiation through space," Homer said.
"You are lying to us," I said.
He pointed at the screen, muttering something about the sun finishing with us, when
everything looked peaceful.
"A man will rise amongst us," Jaramillo pointed to one of the pages.
"It must be me," Homer said.
The waves took the yacht up and down like a yo-yo, as we argued, and the passengers
looked nervous, the voice of the presenter informing us of the latest news.
"The sun is expanding its outer layers and reaching our way, according to the
astronomers," he said. "And the explosion will take seven minutes to come to us."
The blue globe of the earth occupied most of the screen, while the presenter told us of
whatever had been happening in the world.
"Eureka," Chucho said.
"The monkey has my papers," Jaramillo said.
"I know," I said. "He is clever."
I remembered the death of Homer's parents in the midst of time, when he fancied my
daughter and his coca on a daily basis.
"We have some news," the radio presenter interrupted. "The planet Mercury has
exploded. We'll see the results soon."
"Eureka," Chucho said.
I hugged the duchess and thought of the countdown the radio had mentioned.
"Have some LSD," Home said.

327
The universe looked different after swallowing some of the tablets with a sip of
aguardiente, when we had to prepare ourselves for the end of the world.
"I never thought of this happening," I said.
The road through reality took us to a future of uncertainty inside the yacht, unless
Homer had decided to deceive us for some reason.
"Observation collapses the wave," he said.
"What wave?" I asked.
"Everything is waves of uncertainty."
We had to survive the collapse of reality in our lives, the way Homer had plotted in his
path through reality.

328

The last minutes

"The waves are getting bigger," Fifi pointed at the sea.
I thought of the waves of uncertainty sending our bodies into the paths of the
continuum of time, like Homer had told us so many times.
"I must be dreaming," I said.
I tried to find some connection to reality amidst the confusion around me, the shouts
of the guests interrupting my thoughts.
"Tell me more about his parties," I said.
Fifi showed me some of the pictures she had of one of Homer's orgies, where
everyone pretended to be someone else, in order to make love to whoever they could
find.
"It seems interesting," I said.
"We had a good time," she said. "But he wants to confuse us tonight."
We discussed whatever he had decided to do tonight, the lights in the sky adding to the
confusion in the deck.
"He must have learned these things in his quantum jungle," she said.
Fifi helped me to decipher one of the equations written in a notebook Homer had
brought to the yacht, in an effort to forget our situation, when we could die that night.
"The thing is," she said. "He wanted to get us together."
I thought of Uncle Hugh waiting for something to happen by Homer's side and of the
naked girls celebrating the end of everything.

329
"I have to think of something," She said.
"You've been to some other end of the world parties," I said.
"Homer says this time is different."
She showed me some other pictures of the parties, organised by Homer, the lights in
the sky providing amusement for his guests.
"The sun has become a nova," Homer said.
"I know some astronomy," I said. "And our sun is a middle aged star with lots of
more years before its death."
"It's exploding," Homer said.
I nodded. "I heard the radio."
"But you don't believe it."
Homer captured the lights bathing the yacht at that moment in time, with a Polaroid
camera he had brought, adding to the confusion of the moment.
"This is not real," I said.
"Homer has the best parties on the earth," Fifi said.
I pondered about the laws of the universe, governing our lives every day of our
existence, as I studied a booklet Homer had given me depicting the electrons going
around the nucleus in a wavy function. Matter could be particles or waves, depending
whether somebody looked at it or not.
"It's the end of the world," Fifi said.
"We have to stop observing ourselves," Homer said.
"How do we do it?" she asked.
"The outside world is in a superposition of states," he said.
We studied the booklet with the orbit of the electron around its nucleus and the
formula of the wave function, the equations of matter told us what to expect that night.
"Stop this nonsense," I said.

330
Homer looked at me with the radio in his hand, when we had to say farewell to
everything we had known through time, while the clouds covered much of the world in
the image I could see in the screen.
"Nothing is happening," I said.
"It's not obvious from space," he said.
"You had an end of the world party the other day," I said.
"It was not like this," he said.
"We have seven minutes," the radio presenter interrupted. "Attention. We have seven
minutes!!"
The clock ticked towards the end of time, setting in motion my thought processes as
Homer took us to the bridge, where the boats waited for us.
"This is reality," he said.
"I wish I could stop this madness," I said.
He talked of matter being a particle and a wave as the duchess complained of the fog
giving her a headache, the end of the world setting in motion our fears for the unknown.
"Homer holds parties like this every night," Fifi said.
The computer screen showed us the view of the earth from space, the waves of
uncertainty sending our molecules through the roads of probability in our way to the end
of everything.
"Let's go," Fifi said.
"Go where?" I asked.
"We don't have a time machine," Homer said.
"We have boats," Fifi said.
"I'll go whenever he goes," the duchess pointed at me.
"We have six minutes," the voice in the radio interrupted.
I dragged one of the boats towards the railings by the sea, as the voice in the radio told
us more things about the sun exploding.
"Eureka," Chucho said.

331
Jaramillo appeared by our side with a glass of aguardiente in his hands, and looking
flustered.
"It's the end of the world," Homer said.
"I know," he said. "You have done it on purpose."
We saw the view of the satellite from space, in spite of the fact that the earth could
finish in a few moments.
"He had a clown the other night," Fifi said.
"A clown?" I asked.
"It was an end of the world party," she said.
Homer showed us some of the pictures of the girls posing by the horsemen of the
apocalypse and the fireworks going up the sky.
"This is all made believe," I said.
"It's not," Homer said.
"Attention," the radio presenter said. "We have five minutes."
We sat down at the table by the railing, watching the waves taking the boat up and
down, while the image of the earth with a blue ocean appeared in the screen.
Homer had taken his shirt off, in order to lead us through the end of time.
"We have to avert the tragedy," he said.
Fifi shrugged. "You invented it."
The duchess whispered something about having fun, as the earth seemed to appear
three dimensionally in the screen on the table.
"It's beautiful," said Fifi,
"And the end of the world," I said.
Uncle Hugh appeared by our side, looking tired and muttering something about the
noise interfering with his sleep.
"The sun welcomed me and the sun will greet me back," Homer said.
"There is nothing wrong with the world," Jaramillo put his hands through the three
dimensional image of our planet.

332
"You will damage it," the duchess said.
I comforted the duchess in a day to remember, if we didn't dissolve in zillions of
atoms in a few moments.
"We have four minutes," the presenter said.
Someone ran along the deck as the countdown went on, the lights in the sky
welcoming us to Armageddon, as people screamed and prayed to their invisible friends in
the sky.
"Eureka," Chucho said.
"I want my petrol ships," Homer said.
"Let's do it now," Fifi said.
"Stop it," Jaramillo said.
I thought of all the things happening during the night, when Homer wanted to give us
the best party in the world.
"I want sex," Fifi said.
"We have three minutes," the voice in the radio interrupted.
Jaramillo put Homer's papers in front of my face, expecting me to do something about
them in the end of time.
"We could multiply these two numbers," he said.
"Which ones?" I asked.
He pointed to the particle amidst the others making the formula in the middle of one
of the pages.
"We are made of atoms," he said.
"It doesn't make any sense," I said.
I tried to solve the problem of some other reality encroaching into ours, even though
we could not see any of it in the mathematical formula.
"You have to calm down," Homer said.
I shook my head. "There is nothing wrong with me."

333
I fell in a stupor after swallowing some pills the duchess gave me, the voice of the
man in the radio telling us of the destruction of the earth by our star.
"Bye, world," I said.
"Kiss me," the duchess said.
I nodded. "You are sexy."
A giant moon had appeared over our heads, but no one could have done that with
lasers or any other inventions of our time.
"I miss my family," I said.
Homer must have done all these things with his technology inside the yacht, like the
day I had travelled to the stars, before crowning the beauty queens somewhere in time.
"I love you," the duchess said.
"We have to be quick," I said.
My head hurt from all the things I had taken, as more lights appeared in the sky, and I
made her groan with pleasure in the last moments of humanity.
"We have two minutes," the radio said.
"Don't listen to that," I said.
I left a trail of saliva from her neck to the stomach, the voice of the presenter
preparing us for the end of the world.
"Eureka," Chucho said.
"I have the solution to the equations," Jaramillo said.
"I know what to do," Homer said.
"Make love to me," Fifi said.
"Clear your minds of any thoughts," Homer said.
He told us to think of nothing, while divorcing ourselves from reality.
"We have one minute," the presenter in the radio interrupted.
"Eureka," Chucho said.
"I have solved the equations," Jaramillo said.
He gave me one of the pages he held in his hand, and I studied it for a few moments.

334
"Eureka," Chucho said.
I kissed my duchess, as she called her mother and Fifi cried her love for Homer, time
and space getting together for a final act amidst the waves.
"Eureka," Chucho said.

335

Prologue
Everything goes dark, the fractal tree of existence collapsing in front of Homer's
senses, as the universe disappears from his view.
What is time? He thinks, floating in the abyss of his mind.
Then a light irrupts in his world, before going back to wherever he has landed, after
the end of the earth in that party he had in the yacht.
"The world did not finish," he says to no one in particular.
A child picks his nose within the shadows of time, bringing back the memories of the
end of humanity.
"Where am I?" Homer asks.
He does not know what has happened to the world in the dimensions of time, the
memory of that party in the yacht still in his mind, after he had made love to Fifi for the
last time.
"I'm Jose," the child says.
Homer nods his head. "I know."
On moving closer, he sees the freckles and other things the little boy has, the shadows
around him bringing memories of some other universe existing in the dimensions of time.
"Has everything finished?" Homer asks.
"I think so," the boy says.
"It is a joke," Homer says.
He thinks of the day Uncle Hugh appeared by his side, within the debris of his life and
the end of time, when the ants crawled in the backyard in some other region of the space
continuum he had inhabited from his birth.
"It started with the dark sun," Homer says.
Jose runs his truck on the floor, unaware of Homer's longing for his world.

336
"It might have done," he says.
Homer remembers his mother's face amidst the rest of his life: the Indians, the boats,
the widows, the war and the manuscripts.
"I was joking," he says.
"What do you mean?"
"I paid for the fireworks, the laser and the radio presenter to scare everyone to death."
Jose looks at him. "And it really happened."
"It did?" Homer asks.
Jose explains how everything can happen within the scope of reality, like the end of
time.
"I'm alive somewhere else then," Homer says.
The child shrugs. "You have forgotten."
Reality exists in the infinity of wherever he has landed, the shadows around him
hiding the truth o-f whatever happened to his world.
"I was in the yacht one second ago," Homer says.
"What is time?" the boy asks.
"We use it in the mathematical formulas." Homer says.
Jose plays with his car, ignoring Homer's concern for the planet he inhabited an
eternity ago.
"I must be dreaming," he says.
He looks at the bushes around him, trying to find some clue to how he came to be in
the jungle.
"Where are the ghosts?" he asks.
"They've gone," Jose says.
"I have to find the priest," Homer says.
Homer hears the drums the Indians must be playing in order to confuse him, after
sleeping for some time in the jungle.
"It was all a dream," he says.

337
He moves through the jungle, hoping to find the ghosts dancing on the trees, and
remembering his shop in Miguel's hands somewhere in reality.
"You've done it this time," the boy says.
They arrive at the shores of a river, leading him to another place within the waves of
probability making up his world.
"Show me the ghosts," Homer says.
"You are here, there and everywhere," Jose says.
"I see one of me," Homer says.
The water shows worlds in super position, like one of those mirrors, where you see
your face many times.
"This is your world," Jose says.
Homer's shop floats in one of the levels of reality, the pace of time taking everything
towards a point in infinity of places
"Send me back," Homer says.
Jose shakes his head. "I don't know."
"Please."
Homer remembers a few things from the past he inhabited, before the sun careered
through the sky in its journey to Armageddon. The child plays, unaware of the distress
he has caused to the planet.
"I'll give you anything," Homer says.
"Anything?" the child asks.
"Yes," Homer says.
The child smiles, dimples forming at the sides of his mouth, like a cherub thrown from
heaven for misbehaving.
"You never cared about the Indians," he says.
"I did."
"The widows died."
"It wasn't my fault."

338
"Nothing ever was."
Homer wonders what has happened to his world, the memory of the tragedy assaulting
his senses.
"Shut your eyes," Jose says.
Homer falls in a whirlpool of light, losing all the sense of the world in the recesses of
time.
"Don't collapse the wave," a voice says.
"What wave?" Homer asks.
On opening his eyes, he sees his boats sailing across the garden pond, as the muck
covers his clothes in another day by the market.
"I have a surprise for you," his mother says.
A shadow appears in front of him, dissolving into his uncle's face a few moments later.
"I haven't seen you for some time," he says.
Homer remembers the fantasies taking him away from the ants bothering him to death
in the mysteries of eternity.
"I like your yacht," his uncle says.

SPANISH WORDS
1: El Baratillo: a shop that sells cheap things.
2: Aguardiente: Colombian liquor.

339
3: Socorro is a woman's name.
4: Mulato: person of mixed origin.
5: Pandebobo is a kind of bread.
6: Panela is made of sugar cane.
7: Antioqueno is someone from Antioquia, a region in North West Colombia.
8: Morcilla is a kind of sausage. It's made with the intestines of a pig.
9: Bocadillos: Colombian sweet made with Guava and sugar.
10: Campesinos: country people.
11: Sancocho is a regional chicken soup.
12: Mazato: a drink made with corn.
13: Arepa: pastry made with corn and sometimes cheese.
14: Curuba: tropical fruit.
15: Boyaca is a region of Colombia.

340