Javier Cercas - Outlaws

‘How did you do it?’

‘The way we all did: grabbing them. I’ve since read that a famous juvenile delinquent of the time said that Zarco invented the grab and all he did was borrow it from Zarco or from Zarco’s film character; maybe you read that too in some cutting in my file. . It might be true, I’m not saying it’s not, although I tend to believe that this kind of thing says more about Zarco’s legend than reality: after all, there’s almost nothing connected to the juvenile violence of the time that hasn’t been attributed directly or indirectly to him. Because when it comes down to it grabbing a handbag is such an elemental thing that nobody really needed to invent it. All you had to do was steal a car and choose a suitable victim and location: the ideal victim was an older woman with a wealthy appearance if possible and the ideal location was an out-of-the-way sidestreet, solitary if possible; once chosen, the driver approached the victim from behind and drove slowly beside her and at this moment I, who would be sitting in the front passenger seat, had two options: one — the simplest and best — consisted of sticking my body out the window and grabbing the handbag away from the victim in one yank; the other — more complicated, that we’d only use when there was no other choice — consisted of jumping out of the moving car, running to the victim, snatching the bag and, once it was in my hands, running and jumping back in the car. The only precaution I took in both cases consisted of taking off my glasses so the victim couldn’t recognize me by them. Like I said it was a very simple thing, and comparatively low risk; of course low earning too, because there normally wasn’t a lot of money in the stolen handbags. Anyhow, at first that was the kind of robbery in which I most frequently played the part of protagonist, although not the only one: now I remember, for example, one afternoon when I stole the day’s takings from a refreshment stand on the beach in Tossa while Tere distracted the manager by flirting with him. But that wasn’t very usual. The usual was that I played the part of bait or front, or I just kept a lookout while the rest worked, or did both successively. That’s what I’d done the first time I robbed with them, the afternoon in La Montgoda, and that’s what I kept doing throughout the month of July, up until Guille’s death and Chino, Tío and Drácula’s arrest changed things.’

‘It’s odd. The way you tell the story, anyone might think that it wasn’t you who joined up with Zarco’s gang but Zarco who recruited you.’

‘It doesn’t strike me as a mistaken deduction. Although probably the two things happened at once; in other words: that I needed what Zarco had and that Zarco needed what I had.’

‘I understand what you might have needed from Zarco, but what could Zarco have needed from you? That you acted as bait or a front, as you put it?’

‘Sure. That was useful for a gang like that; besides, remember what Tere told me to convince me to come with them on the robbery in La Montgoda: they needed someone like me, someone who looked like a student at the Marists’ school with a face like he’d never broken a plate, someone who spoke Catalan. . I think that’s what Zarco thought of me, at least at first. Do you remember the character of Gafitas in the first part of that film Wild Boys ? Obviously, that’s based on me, was inspired by me, and the Zarco of the film recruits him for his fictional gang for the same reason I believe the real Zarco recruited me for his gang in reality: so I could act as bait or as a front. Anyway, I’m not saying that Zarco went to the Vilaró arcade looking for me on purpose or anything like that; what I think happened is that our paths crossed by chance at the arcade and that, when he realized I could be useful to him, he did everything he could to keep me. Probably including inventing an attack on the arcade.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Well, most likely Zarco never had any intention of robbing the Vilaró arcade. Neither Zarco nor Guille, or anybody else either. It’s possible. The truth is it wasn’t the kind of job they were doing then, without guns or anything, so it’s possible that Zarco invented it to scare me so I would ask him not to do it and he would do me a false favour and I would feel obliged to owe him one.’

‘Are you sure of that?’

‘No, not sure, although once Zarco told me that was what happened.’

‘What other things do you think Zarco might have done to recruit you?’

‘Are you thinking of something in particular?’

‘The same as you.’

‘What am I thinking of?’

‘Tere. Do you think Zarco could have convinced her to do what she did?’

‘You mean what happened in the washrooms of the Vilaró arcade?’

‘Yeah.’

‘I don’t know. There were times when I thought that and other times when I thought not; now I don’t know what to think. Besides, I don’t think this has anything to do with your book, so we better change the subject.’

‘Sorry. You’re right. Let’s talk about something else. You mentioned Guille’s death and Chino, Tío and Drácula’s arrest. What happened? How did Guille die? How did the other three get arrested? How did it affect the gang?’

‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be rude. Of course what happened in the arcade has to do with your book, at least in my case, everything to do with Tere has to do with Zarco and vice versa; so if you don’t understand my relationship with Tere you won’t understand my relationship with Zarco, which is what this is about. Did I tell you I joined Zarco’s gang for Tere?’

‘Yes, but you also said that she probably wasn’t the only reason.’

‘I’m not saying she was the only reason; I do say she was decisive. How would I have dared to get into that gang of quinquis and do what I did if it wasn’t the only way to get close to Tere? She was what I most needed of what Zarco’s gang had. Love made me brave. I’d fallen in love before, but not like I fell in love with Tere. At first it even passed through my head that Tere could be my girlfriend, the first girl I’d go out with; after my first few days in the gang I ruled that out, of course, and not because it was impossible in theory — after all, whether or not she was Zarco’s girl, Tere slept with whoever she wanted and even flirted with me once in a while or I had the impression that she was flirting with me — but because she seemed too much for me: too independent, too good-looking, too much of a tease, too grown-up, too dangerous; in reality, I don’t know what I aspired to with her: I probably just hoped that what happened in the washrooms of the Vilaró arcade would happen again, and that she’d sleep with me every once in a while.’

‘Yeah, you told me that too.’

‘The thing is Tere turned into an obsession. I’d been masturbating since I was thirteen or fourteen, but that summer I must have broken the world wanking record; and up till then I’d masturbated over photos from The Book of Woman , illustrations in comics, movie actresses, heroines of novels and girls in nude magazines or garage mechanics’ calendars, from then on Tere was the absolute protagonist of my imaginary harem. So much so that I often felt that Tere wasn’t one character but two: the real character I met every afternoon at La Font and the fictional character with whom I went to bed morning, noon and night in my fantasies. If I’m honest, I sometimes had my doubts about which one of the two had shared the washrooms of the Vilaró arcade with me.

‘Until one night in late July it seemed like the real person and the fictional character finally merged into one, and that meant that everything was going to change between us. It’s one of the nights of that summer that I remember best, maybe because over the years since I’ve gone over and over what happened. If you like I’ll tell you.’