Hell Calling Read Free Page A

you over nothing. She wouldn’t have given it as much significance as you are now.”
    Crestfallen, with his eyes fixed on the bank of the lake, Carlos added:
    “Or she saw me as being so distant that she thought there was no point telling me anything...  What could I contribute, being so far away and unfamiliar?”
    “Don’t be so hard on yourself. Today’s society isn’t set up so that parents can enjoy being with their children. Put simply, son, you were just one of the many others.”
    Carlos got up and went over towards the lake. He picked up a smooth, flat pebble, and threw it with force.
    “Four bounces, Dad. Let’s see who can beat that.”
    IX
    Bzzzzz... Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii... Bzzzz...
    Carlos turned over in bed, still foggy from the deep sleep he had been in.
    Bzzzzz... Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii... Bzzzz...
    He sat bolt upright.
    ‘Shit, what the hell is going on with this alarm clock.’
    He inspected it, but just like on the previous occasion, the radio was switched off. He decided to stay there with the light on for a while, watching the small device on top of his bedside table.
    ‘I don’t believe this.’
    He watched as the minutes went by. Half an hour later, when the digital clock was showing that it was now quarter past three in the morning, he chose to turn off the light and try to get back to sleep. Forty second’s hadn’t even gone by when, to his irritation, he heard:
    Bzzzzz... Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii... Bzzzz...
    X
    That day, he gathered together all of his things. He did it slowly and hesitantly, as if every movement and every object required an extraordinary amount of attention. Luis, the president of the agency, observed him attentively, and with an expression of sincere sadness.
    “What are you going to do now?”
    “I don’t know, I really don’t know.”
    “I can offer you some little things to do, so you don’t get bored at home. I’ll pay you well for it...”
    Carlos made a gesture of refusal with his hands.
    “Luis, you’ve already done a lot for me. You’re still doing a lot.”
    “I don’t know. I was the one who insisted that you leave work for a while. Perhaps now I’m regretting it. I realise that in some way, I’m being selfish, but on the other hand I’m not sure if not doing anything at all is the right thing for you at the moment.”
    “I will be doing something. At the moment, I want to find out who my daughter was, what she was interested in, who her friends were. It seems as if it’s only now, when it’s all too late, that I suddenly decide to act like a real father.”
    Luis went up to him and hugged him, without embarrassment. It was the first time he had ever done it. He hadn’t even done it when they had just landed a big contract for the agency.
    “This place won’t be the same without you. These doors are always open to you, you know that.”
    “Thank you.”
    Luis left him alone with his things, and walked discreetly out, only just managing to contain the emotion that he usually had well under control.
    “Thank you,” repeated Carlos, although there was no longer anybody around to hear it.
    He continued rummaging around the drawers and shelves, picking out which items he would be taking home with him, and which ones would be going in the bin. Eight years meant the accumulation of many kilos of rubbish, many kilos of memories and useless papers: more useless now than ever.
    ‘Well I’ll be...’
    On one piece of paper there were notes on things that needed attending to, and it was from the same date that his wife and daughter had died. Some of them were written out in red, and to the side he had emphasised them further with a couple of exclamation marks.
    ‘Call Sánchez... Visit the Merchandising Fair... You small-minded little man, you absolute idiot!’
    That list, with twelve or thirteen topics written on it, was now completely dispensable, absurd, and ridiculous. He would have gladly turned back time and modified the list to read: Spend more time