Carlos Fuentes - The Death of Artemio Cruz

"…and get it all back in a couple of years…"

"…the people from my gallery sent it…"

"…or less…"

"…from New York…"

"…for a long time she lived in France; disappointments…is what they say…"

"…just us girls are going to get together…"

"…Paris, the city of light, par excellence…"

"…and have a good time…"

"…if you like, we can go to Acapulco tomorrow…"

"…laughing all the way to the bank; the wheels of Swiss industry…"

"…the American ambassador called to warn me…"

"…turn because of those ten billion dollars…"

"…Laura; Laura Rivière; she married again over there…"

"…in the company plane…"

"…we Latin Americans have on deposit there…"

"…no country is safe from subversion…"

"…of course, I read it in Excélsior …"

"…I'll tell you: a great dancer…"

"…Rome, the eternal city, par excellence…"

"…but he's now worth a penny…"

"…I made my money the old-fashioned way…"

"…oh, but, darling, it's like the Eucharist dipped in egg…"

"…you tell me why I should pay taxes to a government full of crooks…"

"…they call him the Mummy, the Mummy of Coyoacán…"

"…Darling, a sensational dressmaker…"

"…subsidies for agriculture?…"

"…I'm telling you: he always falls apart when he putts…"

"…poor Catalina…"

"…Yeah? And who's controlling the droughts and the frosts?…"

"…no way around it: without American investments…"

"…they say she was the great love of his life, but…"

"…Madrid, divine; Seville, just lovely…"

"…we'll never get out of this rut…"

"…you know what they say, there's only one Mexico…"

"…turns out it wasn't worth the trouble, understand?…"

"…the lady of the house; if it weren't…"

"…I get back forty-five centavos of every peso…"

"…they give us their money and their know-how…"

"…even before making the loan…"

"…and we still complain…"

"…it was twenty-some years ago…"

"…sure: bosses, venal leaders, whatever you want…"

"…he did everything in white and gold, you'll just die!…"

"…but the good politician doesn't try to reform reality…"

"…why, yes, I have the honor to be the President's friend…"

"…instead, we should take advantage of it, work with it…"

"…from the deals he's got with Juan Felipe, for sure…"

"he's got tons of charities, but he never talks about them…"

"…I just said to him: The pleasure is all mine…"

"…we all owe each other favors, am I right or am I wrong?"

"…what she would give to leave him!…"

"…if it were me, I'd be out of there, poor Catalina!…"

"…he talked them down, but it couldn't have been less than ten thousand dollars…"

"…Laura; I think her name's Laura; I think she was very beautiful…"

"…but what do you want, for heaven's sake, women are weak…"

The tides of dancing and talk brought them close and carried them away. But now this young man with an open smile and light hair hunkered down next to the old man, balancing a champagne glass in one hand, his other hand on the arm of the chair…The young man asked if he would rather he kept his distance, and the old man said, "You've done nothing else all night, Mr. Ceballos…" He didn't look at the young man…but kept his eyes fixed on the center of the uproar…an unwritten law…the guests were not to come too close, except to praise the house and the dinner, quickly…respect his inviolate territory…thank him for his hospitality and entertainment…the stage and the seat in the audience…Obviously, young Ceballos did not realize…"You know? I admire you…" He dug into his jacket pocket and pulled out a crushed pack of cigarettes…He lit one slowly…without looking at the young man…who said that only a king could look at people with that kind of disdain, the disdain with which he was looking at them when…And he asked if this was the first time he'd ever come to…And the young man said yes…"Didn't your father-in-law…?" "Of course…" "Well, then…" "Those rules were made without consulting me, Don Artemio…" He gave in…With languid eyes…spirals of smoke…he turned to face Jaime, and the Young man stared back without blinking…mischief in his eyes…the interplay of lips and jawbone…the old man's…the young man's…he recognized himself, ah…he disconcerted him, ah…"What, Mr. Ceballos, what did you sacrifice?"…I don't understand'he didn't understand, he said he didn't understand'he exhaled a smile through his nostrils…"The wound we suffer when we betray ourselves, my friend…Who do you think you're talking to? Do you really think I'm fooling myself…?" Jaime held out the ashtray…Ah, they crossed the river that morning on horseback…"for some kind of justification…?" he observed without being observed…"Your father-in-law and other people you deal with must have…" They crossed the river, that morning…"That our wealth is justified, that we've worked hard to earn it…our reward, isn't that right?…" She asked if they would go together to the sea…"Do you know why I'm on top of all these little people…why I control them?…" Jaime held out the ashtray; he made a gesture with his cigarette butt…he came out of the ford with his chest bare…"Ah, you came over to me, I didn't call you…" Jaime narrowed his eyes and drank from his glass…"Are you losing your illusions?"…She repeated, "My God, I don't deserve this," raising the mirror, wondering if that is what he'd seen when he came back…Poor Catalina…"Because I'm not fooling myself…" on the other bank, they could make out the ghost of land, right, the ghost…"How do you like this party?"… vacilón, qué rico vacilón, cha cha cha …The air smelled of banana. Cocuya…"It doesn't matter to me…" he dug his spurs into his horse's flanks; faced him and smiled…"…my paintings, my wines, my comforts, which I control the same way I control all of you…" "Do you think…?"…you remembered your youth because of him and because of these places…"Power is its own reward, that's all I know, and to get power you have to be able to do anything…" but you didn't want to tell him how much it meant to you, you might have strained his affection…"exactly the way your father-in-law and I did it, the way everybody dancing here did it…" that morning I waited for him with pleasure…"the same way you'll have to do it-if that's what you want…" To work with you, Don Artemio, you might perhaps find a place for me in one of your businesses…the boy's raised hand pointed east, to where the sun rises, toward the lake…"Usually these matters are arranged in a different way…" the horses trotted slowly, parting the tangled grass, shaking their manes, raising a scattered foam…"your father-in-law would call and insinuate that his son-in-law is…" they looked each other in the eye and smiled…But, you see, I have other ideals…to the ocean, to the open sea, and Lorenzo ran, agile, toward the waves that broke around his waist…He accepted things as they are; he became a realist…"Yes, exactly right. Just like you, Don Artemio…" he asked if he'd ever thought about the other side of the ocean; all land is the same, only the sea is different…Just like me!…He told him there were islands…did he fight in the Revolution, did he risk his hide, was he an inch away from being shot?…the sea tasted like bitter beer, smelled like melon, quince, strawberry…What?…No…I…A ship leaves in ten days. I've booked passage…My friend, you just got here and the party's over. Hurry and pick up the crumbs…Wouldn't you do the same thing, Papa…on top of forty years because we were baptized in the glory of the Revolution…Yes…but what about you? Do you think all that can be inherited? How are they going to make it last…? Now there is that front. I think it's the only one left…yes…our power?…I'm leaving…You all showed us how…"Bah! I'm telling you, you've come too late"…I waited for him with pleasure that morning…Others might try to fool me; I've never fooled myself; that's why I'm here…they crossed the river on horseback…hurry up…fill your belly…because it's all disappearing…he asked if they would go to the sea together…What does it matter to me…the sea watched over by the low flight of the sea gulls…I'll die, and it'll make me laugh…the sea that only pokes its tired tongue out on the beach…and it will make me laugh to think…toward the waves that broke around his waist…I keep a world alive for which there are no measures…the old man brought his head close to Ceballos's ear…the sea that tastes of bitter beer…"Shall I confess something to you"…the sea that smells like melon and guava…his finger made a dry ping on the young man's glass…the fishermen dragging their nets toward the sand…"Real power is always born out of revolt…" Do I believe? I don't know. You brought me here, showed me all these things…And you…all of you…With his ten fingers outstretched, under the overcast sky, facing the open sea…and all of you…no longer have what it takes…