The Butterfly Box(16)

‘We’ll see you in time for lunch, then,’ he said, before hanging up. ‘Right, Fede, what shall we do now?’

‘I don’t know,’ she replied and grinned, for she knew her father always had something planned.

‘Let’s go into town and buy your grandmother a present, shall we?’

‘And buy a juice,’ she added.

‘A juice and a palta sandwich,’ he said, getting up. ‘Go and tell your mother we’ll be back in time for tea.’



Mariana Campione put down the receiver and shouted to her husband Ignacio who was lying in the hammock on the terrace reading, round glasses perched on the bridge of his aquiline nose and his panama hat pulled down over his

bushy eyebrows - an indication that he did not wish to be disturbed.

‘Nacho, Ramon’s back and he’s coming to visit with the family tomorrow,’ she said in delight. Ignacio did not move, except to turn the page. Mariana, a full-bodied, large-boned woman with silver-grey hair and a kind open face, walked out through the French doors to where her husband was lying in the shade of an acacia tree. ‘Mi amor, did you hear me? Ramon’s home. They’re coming to visit tomorrow,’ she repeated, her cheeks stung with joy.

‘I heard you, woman,’ he said without looking up from his book.

‘Nacho, you don’t deserve to have grandchildren,’ she said, but she smiled and shook her head.

‘He disappears for months without so much as a letter, what sort of a man does that to his family? I’ve told you before, Helena will lose patience with him eventually. I lost my patience with him years ago and I’m not married to him,’ he said firmly, then glanced at his wife over his book to see her reaction.

‘Don’t be silly,’ she chided gently, ‘Helena is a good wife and mother. She’s loyal to Ramon. I’m not saying he’s right to desert her like that all the time, but she’s an old-fashioned woman. She understands him. I’m thrilled they’re coming to stay.’ Her large face creased into a tender smile.

‘How long are they staying for?’ he asked, still looking at her.

‘I don’t know. He didn’t say.’

‘Still, I suppose we should be grateful,’ he said sarcastically. ‘Out of our eight children Ramon’s the one we see the least so when he shows up it’s more of an event.’

‘Now you’re being petulant.’

‘For the love of God, Mariana, he’s a forty-year-old man, or thereabouts, it’s high time he grew up and took some responsibility before he loses everything. If that long-suffering wife of his leaves him he’ll only have himself to blame, and I’ll be on her side one hundred per cent.’

Mariana laughed and retreated into the cool interior of the house. She had listened to his argument enough times to know it by heart. Ramon was just a free spirit, she understood him like Helena did, she thought, wandering into the kitchen to inform their young maid, Estella, about the change in numbers. He was so talented it would be very wrong to tie him down and stifle such precious creativity. She read and re-read all his books and articles and felt immense pride when people told her how much they too enjoyed his writing. He was celebrated in Chile and he had earned every bit of the respect he was

given. ‘I know I’m his mother,’ she said to her husband, ‘but he really does write most beautifully.’

Estella had awoken from her siesta and was already chopping the vegetables for dinner when Mariana entered the kitchen. As in most Chilean households of the well-to-do, the kitchen was part of the maid’s quarters, along with her bedroom and bathroom, which were situated at the back of the house, hidden behind thick perennial bushes and bougainvillea trees. Estella was new. After Consuelo, their maid for twenty years, had died the previous summer they had been very fortunate to have found Estella, through friends who had a summer house in Zapallar, the neighbouring village. Mariana had liked her immediately. Whereas Consuelo had become too old to clean properly and too sour to cook with any enthusiasm, Estella had set to work immediately, polishing, sweeping, scrubbing and airing with an energy bestowed on her by her youth and with a smile that bubbled up from her sweet nature and desire to please. She was courteous, discreet and a quick learner, which was vital, for Ignacio was impatient and pedantic.

‘Estella, my son Ramon is arriving tomorrow at lunchtime with his wife and two small children, please make sure that the blue spare room is made up for them and the room next door, I know how my son likes his space. The children can share, it’s more fun that way.’