‘We’re going to school in England next year,’ said Alicia to Mercedes as she scooped a large dollop of dulce de leche from the pot on the stove with her finger. Mercedes fed the parrot sunflower seeds through the bars of his cage. ‘Gracias,’ he squawked after each offering because he knew such politeness guaranteed him more.
‘That’s a long way to go to get an education, niña,’ she said in her slow, flat drawl, thinking the whole idea preposterous. ‘Besides, too much knowledge is a bad thing.’ Mercedes always saw the negative side of everything.
‘Daddy says that an English education is the best in the world,’ she explained.
‘Look at me,’ said Mercedes, opening the cage door to allow Loro to hop about the kitchen. ‘My mother taught me how to cook and my grandmother taught me how to pray. Cooking has won me many a good man, praying has earned me forgiveness for such transgressions. What more does a woman need to know? You’ll marry and have children whether you know the earth is round and rotating or not. Either way it won’t stop turning.’
‘We’ll stay with Aunt Cicely in the holidays. She has an enormous house. It’s a castle, I think. Probably haunted, you wouldn’t like it, Merchi, you don’t like ghosts.’
‘I don’t mind ghosts as long as they keep themselves to themselves. My late husband is the only ghost I object to because he still considers it his right to share my bed forty years after he died in it.’ Loro scratched his depleted green feather coat then used his claws to climb up the stool where Alicia sat licking her toffee fingers.
‘Why is Loro losing his feathers?’ she asked, watching him move across to pick at the buttons on her dress.
‘Because he’s lonely,’ replied Mercedes. She pouted her thick lips and added, ‘That’s no reason to let himself go. I’ve been lonely all my life and I take good care of myself. You never know . . .’
‘Why don’t you marry Oscar?’
Mercedes wasn’t surprised by the child’s question. It had crossed her mind many times. Not because she liked the look of him but because it would be nice to have a permanent relationship. She was getting too old to take lovers and besides, sex wasn’t as good as it used to be when she had had the energy to enjoy it and a slimmer, firmer body to be proud of. It was companionship she craved nowadays.
‘Because he’s not rich enough to keep me and he’s losing his teeth,’ she replied nonchalantly.
‘Perhaps he’s lonely like Loro.’
‘Perhaps he is, niña, or perhaps he’s just plagued with ill health and bad luck.’
‘He’s ugly,’ she stated, running her long fingers through her corkscrew hair. Sometimes Mercedes had to pinch herself for Alicia reminded her so much of Isla.
‘Too much beauty is a bad thing. You’ll learn that the hard way. You can’t hide an ugly nature behind a beautiful face because it will seep into your features in the end. One must never rely on exterior beauty, inner beauty will always shine through when youth has faded.’
Alicia stroked Loro’s balding back and sighed. ‘I’m looking forward to going to England.’
‘The grass is always greener. I know that one. Esteban took lovers but he always came back.’
‘He’s still there,’ said Alicia and giggled.
‘Yes.’ Mercedes sighed. ‘Perhaps if I married again he’d leave the bed free for my new husband.’
‘Or haunt your house and frighten your new husband away.’
Mercedes studied the child through the narrowed eyes of a Mexican witchdoctor. ‘You know your problem, child?’
‘No, what’s that, Merchi?’
‘You’re too clever for your own good,’ she said, pinching the little girl on her cheek. ‘You’ll come to a bad end, I warn you.’
‘Ouch! I hate it when you do that. I’m not a baby any longer, I’m nearly ten.’
‘Shame. You were quite sweet as a baby, age has already ruined you.’
Alicia laughed and clicked her tongue. ‘Will you miss me when I’m gone?’ she asked.
‘No,’ replied Mercedes. ‘Because you’ll come back.’
‘I’ll come back for Christmas.’
‘With an education to boast of.’
‘I’ll teach you a thing or two.’
‘You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.’
‘You’re not a dog, Merchi.’
‘Perhaps not, but I am old!’ She threw her head back and laughed raucously.
Alicia hopped down from the stool, pushing Loro onto the floor where he squawked in fury and began attacking her ankles. ‘You know what you should do for Loro?’