Javier Calvo - Wonderful World

“It doesn't matter that you can't see them yet.” Valentina turns toward Giraut again with her brow slightly furrowed. Giraut notices a smell of urine. “The signs are there. Everywhere. Look at Barcelona. Didn't you ever ask yourself why nothing ever happens in Barcelona? People just shop, cook and go to work. They sleep and watch TV. Doesn't that seem suspicious to you? I mean, normally things happen. And everybody seems so happy…” She brings a tense hand to her inner thigh. “But they just seem that way. Because they're not them anymore.”

The nurse chaperone stands up in alarm. From the stall comes a sound of intestinal exertion that is somewhat reminiscent of the noises that opponents in martial arts movies make in the moments before attacking.

“Please.” Valentina looks intently at Giraut. “You have to make sure that at least one of us is still around. In case they erase my memories.”

A couple of nights ago, Lucas Giraut visited Marcia Parini's apartment with two deluxe set menus from the Thai/Japanese restaurant on their street and a copy of the movie Carrie in DVD. For some reason he didn't think it was a good idea to bring a bottle of wine. A seriously sedated Marcia Parini opened the door and then, after making some unintelligible comment, tried to kiss Giraut on the lips. Giraut turned his face so that the kiss landed on his cheek. Later Marcia and Giraut were sitting very close to one another on the sofa in the living room of the Parini house watching the movie. The same sofa where they both usually sat with Valentina to watch a movie almost every Sunday. Usually horror movies related to Stephen King's literary and film works. Remastered editions in DVD of Cujo and The Dead Zone and Misery and Children of the Corn. While watching Carrie, Marcia spent a good long while nibbling on Giraut's earlobe before falling asleep with her head resting on his shoulder. For some reason the main character in Carrie makes Giraut think of Valentina. For some reason he can't explain.

“Sir.” The nurse comes toward them with a worried face. “The girl has peed on herself, sir.”

Valentina moves even closer to Giraut and grabs him by the arms. She brings her lips close to his ear again.

“This is the Prayer of Those Who Have No Father and No Mother,” she says. “Listen carefully and memorize it. If you want you can write it down.”

“Sir,” repeats the nurse. “I'll remind you we are a center with very strict rules.”

“We are the people who have no father and no mother,” says Valentina. “The world began with us. And we are better than the rest. Because we are stuck in the armpit of love. And the things that smell bad are the things that make us strong. We started the world. Because no one is our father and no one is our mother.”

The sounds of vaguely Asian intestinal exertion coming from the stall continue, muffled by the door. It is one of those doors that don't reach the floor or the upper part of the frame. The nurse is talking to someone on some sort of an institutional walkie-talkie.

“Get me the book,” says Valentina. “The prayer works better when you repeat it several times.”

The nurse takes Valentina out of the bathroom. Valentina says good-bye with a strange hand gesture before leaving. Giraut is left alone in the bathroom of the children's psychiatric center. With the two folding chairs and the bouquet of flowers in the wastebasket. The sound of intestinal exertion coming from the stall has changed into something similar to a gurgle of satisfaction.

Lucas Giraut would like his lawyer to stop looking lasciviously at the legs of the Legal Mediator sent by the District Court. Legs that are slender and tanned like the legs of many professional women. The Legal Mediator is sitting with her legs crossed at knee height in a position that causes her skirt to rise above her knee and reveal a triangular section of thigh through the back slit. The way the lawyer is looking lasciviously at the Legal Mediator's legs is: leaning his body way back and sprawling in his chair, with his legs very wide open, and his head tilted so he can see the Mediator's legs to one side of the meeting table. Chewing a pen with an expression that's rife with overtones of sexual predation. The Mediator is young and wears glasses and her hair is short. Lucas Giraut's lawyer is Arab or maybe from the Indian subcontinent and wears a very short beard, the way Peter Gabriel did in the eighties, which accentuates the lascivious elements of his expression. His expression is lascivious in that spontaneous, effortless way that the faces of many Arab men, or men from the Indian subcontinent, are.

The rest of the people seated at the meeting table of the conference room at the legal firm are: Lucas Giraut, Fonseca, and the sickly-looking redheaded lawyer who visited the mezzanine of LORENZO GIRAUT, LTD., a week ago with the subpoena. Of all of them, only Fonseca has taken off his suit jacket and is leaning his elbows on the table. Both Fonseca and Giraut are seated beside their legal representatives in a way that accentuates the divisions between the two camps at the meeting table. With the Mediator seated at one end of the table, lateral to both groups.

“The terms of the agreement that Mr. Fonseca is offering are what we call an amicable solution,” the Mediator explains with hand gestures and a facial expression that somehow are structurally conciliatory. With a slight maternal/condescending overtone in the details and emphasis of her gestures. “Which of course would end the legal action. And cancel the legal and medical measures set in motion by Mr. Giraut's family. And these terms, to sum up, are specifically four. First of all, that Mr. Lucas Giraut renounce, voluntarily and in writing before a notary, two percent of his stock in LORENZO GIRAUT, LTD., with which he would go from being the holder of fifty-one percent of said stock to holding forty-nine percent, with which he would continue to be the individual shareholder with the largest percentage of the company's stock. The plaintiff wants it to be noted that the defendant will continue to be the primary shareholder. Second, in exchange for said renunciation the shareholders' committee will guarantee Mr. Lucas Giraut the position of Director of Archives and Catalogues at LORENZO GIRAUT, LTD., with important economic compensations independent of his condition as nonprincipal shareholder. Third, the plaintiff would also agree to finance the psychiatric or psychological treatment most suitable for Mr. Lucas Giraut during however long it is necessary. Guaranteeing Mr. Giraut's continued employment and salary for the duration of said treatment. And fourth, in exchange for the renunciation specified in the first point of the offer, the plaintiff represented at this table by Mr. Fonseca and his legal representative agree to withdraw the lawsuit that has been filed and close all legal actions associated with these proceedings. And now, please.” She looks around her with a conciliatory smile that makes her nose wrinkle beneath her glasses. “This is the moment to ask questions if any one of those points has not been completely made clear.”

Although he wouldn't swear to it, Lucas Giraut has the distinct impression that his lawyer is now touching his crotch in an improper way. While looking at the Legal Mediator's legs. It's a crotch-touching that's ambiguous enough that it's unclear if it's inappropriate or not. It could perfectly well be an automatic response to some sort of small discomfort. Like, for example, a slight itch or a poor placement of the contents of one's briefs. The Arab or Hindustani lawyer, by the way, is not Lucas Giraut's regular lawyer. He is a regular professional colleague of Mr. Bocanegra, who recommended him to Giraut to help with his problems with the family business. The slight clacking heard in the room is coming from the Arab/Hindustani lawyer's little, unconscious nibbling on the pen in his mouth. The Legal Mediator looks at the meeting's attendees one by one without her smile losing even a hint of composure. She finally leans forward to listen to something the redheaded lawyer is saying into her ear with a frown while making small explanatory gestures with his hands. The Legal Mediator nods several times and uncrosses her legs.