Swift as Desire Read Free

simple change of meaning, Júbilo had been able to give each of them what they had been seeking: to feel appreciated.
    From that day on, doña Itzel, convinced her orders were now being followed to the last letter, stopped interfering in the kitchen; and doña Jesusa, confident that her mother-in-law finally accepted her way of life, was able to approach her
suegra
, her mother-in-law, affectionately. The whole family returned to normal thanks to Júbilo’s mediation, and he in turn felt completely satisfied. He had discovered the power of words and, having acted as his family’s translator since his early childhood, it wasn’t too surprising that instead of wanting to be a fireman or a policeman, he expressed the desire to become a telegraph operator when he grew up.
    This idea crystallized one afternoon as Júbilo lay in his hammock next to his father, listening to him talk. The Mexican Revolution had ended several years earlier, but all kinds of stories were still circulating about what had happened during the war. That afternoon the topic was telegraph operators. Júbilo listened eagerly to his father. Nothing gave him greater pleasure than to wake up from his compulsory siesta to hear his father’s stories. The tropical heat forced the family to sleep in hammocks installed at the rear of the house, where there was a breeze from the ocean. There, beside
K’ak’nab
, they rested and talked. The gentle rhythm of the waves had carried Júbilo off into a deep sleep and the murmur of conversation brought him back in a delicious ebb and flow. Littleby little, his father’s words intruded upon his sleep and made him aware that he was back at home and that it was time to exercise his imagination. So, setting his tropical drowsiness aside, he rubbed his eyes and devoted himself to listening intently to his father.
    Júbilo’s father had just begun telling a story he’d heard about General Pancho Villa and his corps of telegraph operators. It has been said that the importance Villa always gave to telecommunications was one of the key factors in his success as a military strategist. He was well aware that it was a powerful weapon and he was very adept at its use. An example of this was the unusual way he used the telegraph in his siege of Ciudad Juárez. Because of its strategic location, the border city was an important stronghold, and it was very well provisioned. Villa didn’t want to attack the city from the vulnerable position of the open desert, and he couldn’t cross the border for a better approach, so he decided to capture a coal train on its way from Chihuahua to Ciudad Juárez and use it as a kind of Trojan horse. He loaded his troops onto the train and when they reached the first station along the route, they seized the official telegraph operator and replaced him with Villa’s own head telegraph man, who sent a telegram to the
federales
saying: “Villa is pursuing us. What should we do?” Their answer was: “Return to Ciudad Juárez as fast as you can.” And that’s just what Villa’s men did. The coal train arrived in Ciudad Juárez at dawn. The
federales
allowed it to enter the city and by the time they realized that instead of coal thetrain was filled with armed men, it was too late. And Villa was able to take Ciudad Juárez with a minimum of bloodshed.
    They say a good listener requires few words. All Júbilo needed to hear his father say was, “Without the help of his telegraph operator, General Villa would never have won!” In Júbilo’s mind, the image of the telegraph operator immediately grew to heroic proportions, that unknown soldier whose name no one even knew. If that man was admirable in his father’s eyes, then he wanted to be a telegraph operator, too! He wanted to stop having to compete with his eleven older siblings. They were many years ahead of him, and had done a lot more studying. If his brothers weren’t lawyers, they were doctors; if his sisters weren’t beautiful dancers,