FELISBERTO HERNANDEZ
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po inLed. He moved to the podium, irrita ted a t the way the no ise of the
machines seemed to clas h with the sounds of the piano. But after a few
minutes he turned to the doll s aga in and decided they were p robabl y
two women who loved the same man . T hen he opened the drawer and
read the cap tion: "The bl onde has a boy fri end. He di scovered , not long
ago, tha t he preferred her fri end , the brunette, and decl a red hi s love.
She was also secretl y in love with him, but tri ed to talk him out of it.
He persisted , and on thi s Carni va l ni ght has just told the bl onde about
her ri va l. Now the two g irl s meet (or the (irst time, knowing the truth .
T hey h aven 't yet spoken as they stand there in a long sil ence, wea rin g
their di sgui ses ." At last he' d guessed one of the captions, he thought;
but then wondered whether the co incidence wasn 't a portenL or
warning o f something that was already going on between him and the
two doll s, and whether he was n 't in love with Daisy. The questi on–
whi ch drew him back in to the g lass case (or a better look-l ed to others:
Wha t was it about Daisy tha t could have made him (all in love with
her? Did the do lls perhaps give him something more than a purely
arti sti c pleasure? Was Daisy rea ll y just an eventual substitute for his
wife? And for how long would she be happy to pl ay second fiddl e to
her? It was absolutely necessary (or him to reconsider their rol es. He
didn 't want to take these worri es up to th e bedroom with him; so he
call ed Alex, had him dismi ss Walter, then sent him (or a bo ttl e o f
French win e, and sat with it for a whil e, li stening to the noise of the
machines. Then he walked up and down the room, smoking. Each
time he came to the glas case he drank some wine, and then set out
aga in , thinking:
" If
there are spirits tha t h aunt empty houses, why
wouldn 't they a lso haunt empty doll s?" He thought of those haunted
castl es, (ull of spooked obj ects and furni shings joined in a heavy sleep,
under thi ck wraps, where onl y ghosts and spirits roam, among whist–
I
ing ba ts and ma rshy sighs.... At tha t moment he was struck by the
noise of the machines and he dropped hi s glass. His hair stood on end,
as it dawned on him that if spirits had voices, they were probabl y the
stray sounds of the world, speaking thro ugh them, and so maybe the
spirit tha t li ved in Daisy spoke the language of the machines . Tryin g to
shake
0 ([
these thoughts, he felt chill s running up his spine. He
dropped into an armchair and went on thinking: no wonder such
strange things had happened on a recent moonlit night. They were out
in the ga rden, a ll three of them, and suddenl y he started chasing his
wife. Sh e ran , la ughing, to hide behind Daisy-which , as h e realized,
wasn 't the same as hiding behind a tree- and when he tri ed to kiss her
over Daisy's shoulder, he felt a strong pinprick. Almos t a t once, he
