FELISBERTO HERNANDEZ
401
the nighl. Since Frank had put the doll at his disposal, he' d felt himself
riding a lucky strea k he hadn 't known since youth. His having l1!issed
Mary's departure was a good sign ; so was his youthful sense of being in
control.
If
it was tha t easy to give up one doll for ano ther, it was no use
was tin g tears on a corpse. Mary was sure to be back, now tha t he no
longer ca red about her; so he' d leave the corpse to her.
Suddenl y Horace sta rted to edge along the wall like a thief. Sidling
up
to
a wardrobe, he drew the curta in across the mirror. H e repeated
the ges ture a t the other wardrobe. He' d had the curta ins hung years
ago. Mary was a lways caref ul to shi eld him from the mirrors : she
dressed behind closed ·doors and made sure the curtains were back in
place befo re lea vin g the room. Now he was annoyed to think the twins
had no t onl y been wearing her clothes but had left the mirrors
un covered.
It
wasn't tha t he didn't like
to
see things in mirrors; but his
sa ll ow face reminded him of some wax dolls he'd seen in a museum one
a fternoon . A sho pkeeper had been murdered that day, like many of the
figures represented in the d611 s, and the splotches of blood on the wax
were as repulsive to him as if he' d actua ll y ca ught the murderer at work
with hi s knife. The onl y uncovered mirror in the room was the one on
the dresser. It was a low mirro r where he could bend for a quick
glimpse a t the kno t of hi s ti e, as he went by every day. Since he combed
and shaved by touch , it had never seen hi s face; so tha t now, feeling
safe, he passed it as usua l, but with the same unpl easant feeling he
would have had a t the sight of his face, as suddenly it pi ctured hi s hand
aga inst hi s dark suil. He rea li zed then hi s hands were a lso the color of
wax. At the same time, he remembered some loose arms he' d seen in
Frank 's o[[ice tha t mo rning. They were pleasantl y colo red and shaped
like those of the bl ond doll ; and , like a child as king a carpenter for
scraps, he' d to ld Fra nk : " I could use some of those a rms and legs, if you
have an y left over. "
Frank couldn ' t imagine wha t for; so he' d expl ai ned : " I'd like the
boys to ma ke up some scenes with loose arms and legs. For in stance, an
arm hangin g from a mirro r, a leg sti cking out from under a bed and so
on ."
Frank, bent over hi s work, had wa tched him as kance.
At lun ch tha t day, Ho race drank his wine as calml y as if Mary were
out spendin g the day with rela tives . He kept thinking of his good luck.
He go t up fee ling ela ted, sa t a t the piano fo r a while, letting his fingers
roam , and fin a ll y went up for his nap . On hi s way pas t the dresser, he
thought : "One of these days I'll get over my fear and face the mirro rs ."
He was already looking fo rwa rd
to
the surprises he' d find in their
jumbl ed images. T hen , with a no ther g lance a t Da isy, who wou ld have
