One Out of Two Read Free

large sum, everything they needed to make a real go of it, especially when combined with their savings, accumulated in dribs and drabs.
    “I’m going to say it again: get married.”
    How could they ever get married when they spent all their time together?
    Which would he pick? To feed both—now there’s a thought—with luscious bodies, but their faces: better to keep lips sealed: that’s what a possible suitor would most likely think … They were, are, good women, singularly talented and well educated, but you couldn’t tell as much by looking at them. This is where desire comes into play: it’s possible that someone someday would win their hearts: one as opposed to the other: interesting because: “to each her own …”: indeed. Things get more complicated when we remember that because of their rare curse—having been marked before they were born by the hand of God or the Devil—the ingrates looked more and more alike as the years went by: a genuine conjugation, and apparently unavoidable. But, fortunate? Hmm … Next, they took the necessary step: to pack their suitcases. Two each, neither too heavy. No possession is worth much when there is so much money to spend.
    Now for their send-off. Hands waving: farewell! in front of the house, like an embossment of such deep relief it perforates the page: the aunt, the shirtless smoking husband, and around them: the urchins, holding still: their mischief kept under wraps; they would have loved to run after the twins and lift up their skirts one last time, so they’d never forget their innocent pranks.
    But there is restraint and irritability, if you will: ephemeral sorrows: yes: that seem to complement each other; there are: knots in throats that are easy to untangle and eyes staring long and hard in this direction: at the girls, who turn to look back out of a sense of duty, to express their gratitude with subtle effusion. Farewell … oh, dear! Then, they turn to face forward and catch a glimpse of a blurry figure that has yet to take shape; but sorrowful departures must not be prolonged or repeated, because saying good-bye more than once, according to a local superstition, is like spilling salt, or even like returning whence one hailed, because all paths are erased once taken. A curtain is drawn and behind it an improbable space opens up and … No. The Gamal twins sped up their steps: identical strands of hair blown in the breeze. To tell the truth: they were not heading anywhere in particular, at least not in spirit.
    /
    Pedaling—in the present—to the rhythm of a song: there’s always something, here in Ocampo, for these machines that are almost human to do: their clientele has grown and will continue to do so if they keep at it … These days Constitución and Gloria think complacently of their humble beginnings. What a difficult position to take off from! Here: they’ve been settled for ten years after wandering from place to place looking for just the right conditions. Ocampo is it and will continue to be for as long as things go well.
    Now let’s tell their tale: after they learned to work morning, noon, and night, their ambitions became so thoroughly sealed by the absolute value they placed on money that one peso poorly spent, they feared, would ruin them. With this as their guiding principle, they sustained the flow, and despite constant increases in costs and prices, it never devolved to a trickle. They never went under because they had learned their fundamental lesson: to live without luxuries.
    Except—for to be miserly is also to err—they dipped into their capital to buy a portable black-and-white camera. It was very important that the pictures they took be true to their similitude: to prove it, constantly, but no, not even this was enough.
    On the contrary, each revelation fused them more fully together: grimaces of hilarity and grimaces of gravity: one out of two or two in one or … Pretending they were poor was an affirming and robust