Winning the Game and Other Stories Read Free Page A

Ghostwriter?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œM. J. Ramos?”
    â€œMaria José.”
    She spoke shyly, seemingly constrained.
    â€œSit down. Can you prove it?”
    â€œThat’s easy. I have the whole book in my head. I’m going to tell you how I wrote it.”
    Cutting what she said, fifteen minutes later I said, “That’s enough, I believe you. What is it you want?”
    She fell silent. She must have been about thirty, delicate legs and brown eyes. She was wearing a skirt and blouse, unfashionable shoes with low heels and was carrying a small plastic purse. Her teeth were yellow from smoke.
    â€œI feel—”
    â€œNonsense. You can speak.”
    â€œI need an operation.”
    â€œYou or your mother?”
    â€œMe.”
    â€œHow much?”
    â€œWell, there’s the doctor, the hospitalization … I don’t have any health insurance …”
    â€œWhat type of operation?”
    â€œI’d rather not say. But I’ve already scheduled the operation. I knew I could count on you.”
    A con job, that’s something I understand.
    â€œOkay, I have a proposal for you. I’ll give you some dough today for your urgent expenses. I’ll deposit in a bank account of your choosing all the money the book has brought in so far and will bring in later, for the rest of my life. Give me the number of your account.”
    â€œYou know it; you’ve already made deposits to it. I shouldn’t ask for anything else. A deal’s a deal.”
    â€œDon’t worry about it. You deserve much more.”
    I signed a check and gave it to her. “This is just the first payment.”
    â€œI don’t need this much,” she said, putting the check in her purse. “And I don’t want anything more.”
    â€œWith what’s left, buy yourself some clothes. Would you like a lift? Where do you live?”
    â€œIt’s out of your way. Jacarepaguá.”
    â€œI’ll take you.”
    It was getting dark when we got the car. We took Avenida Niemeyer. When I was a nobody, I used to dream about having a car to drive around the Barra. Now that I lived in the Barra, driving on that avenue was a nuisance. She sat mutely beside me. What could be going through her head? That I was street smart and had tumbled to her story about an operation, but that the scam she had pulled on me wasn’t enough to repair the error she had committed by selling me the book? Or maybe that I was a generous guy who had put an end to her difficulties? Or—?
    â€œHow many commissioned books have you written?”
    â€œThis was the first. I mean, I’ve always written since I was a girl, but I tore them up.”
    â€œThe first? We could write another. What do you think?”
    â€œI don’t know. I don’t want to do it anymore.”
    â€œRegrets?”
    â€œSomething like that.”
    The houses were becoming less frequent, and we drove along a dark deserted highway. I pondered about a way to solve my perplexity once and for all. In case of doubt, don’t hesitate. That’s how you make money. I could grab her by the neck, strangle her and dump her body by the beach. But that wasn’t how I did business. Buying and selling, that’s something I understand.
    â€œLook,” I said, “I can’t let you go without settling our matter.”
    â€œI thought we’d already done that.”
    In the dark Maria José wasn’t so plain. For some moments I imagined what she would look like in Gisela’s clothes. There are those who say that to be elegant a woman has to have slim legs.
    â€œWe won’t settle the matter just yet. I’m going to tell you how the story can have a happy ending.”
    I spoke for half an hour. She listened in silence.
    â€œWell?” I asked.
    â€œI never could have expected that you—that someone would propose that to me … I never—When I was a girl, boys