UNDER THE SKY
felt
in
his
pocket for the stub and the whole cigarette, and keeping
his
fingers around them, walked across to the park. The celestial
fireworks were very bright, but there was no thunder. Throughout
the town sounded the clink and purr of the marimbas, some near
and some far away. A soft breeze stirred the branches of the few
lemon trees in the park. He walked along thoughtfully until he came
to a bench directly opposite the entrance of the hotel, and there he
sat down and brazenly began to smoke
his
stub. Mter a few minutes
it was easier for him to believe that one of the two yellow-haired
women would come out. He flicked away the butt, leaned back and
stared straight at the hotel. The manager had put a square loud–
speaker over the entrance door, and out of
it
came a great crackling
and hissing that covered the sound of the marimbas. Occasionally a
few loud notes of band music rose above the chaos, and from time
to time there seemed to be a man's voice speaking behind the noise.
Jacinto was annoyed: the women would want to stay inside where
they could hear the sound better.
A long time went by. The radio was silenced. The few voices in
the park disappeared down the streets. By the cathedral everyone was
asleep. Even the marimbas seemed to have stopped, but when the
breeze occasionally grew more active, it brought with it, swelling and
dying, long marimba
trills
from a distant part of the town.
It grew very late. There was no sound but the lemon leaves
rubbing together and the jet of water splashing into the basin in the
center of the market. Jacinto was used to waiting. And halfway
through the night a woman stepped out of the hotel, stood for a
moment looking at the sky, and walked across the street to the park.
From
his
bench in the dark he watched her as she approached. In
the lightning he saw that it was not the younger one. He was disap–
pointed. She looked upward again before moving into the shade of
the lemon trees, and in a moment she sat down on the next bench
and lighted a cigarette. He waited a few minutes. Then he said:
"Senorita."
· The yellow-haired woman cried: "Oh!" She had not seen him.
She jumped up and stood still, peering toward his bench.
He moved to the end of the seat and calmly repeated the word.
"Senorita."
She walked uncertainly toward him, still peering. He knew
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