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“Claudia, at your service. Maybe the old man has told you about me,<br />
no? I’ve heard a lot about you. I can tell he likes you. So, what does he say<br />
about me?”<br />
While she drew a breath, I mulled over her indelicate question. <strong>My</strong><br />
response was snagged somewhere between unrestrained frankness and<br />
polished tact.<br />
“He says he really likes you but wishes you would stay <strong>with</strong> him and<br />
not leave him each morning to go home.”<br />
“But I have to. I have a house, five sons, a cornfield, and animals to care<br />
for. I’ll stay <strong>with</strong> him when I’m ready, but he has to help me. This takes<br />
money, and only <strong>with</strong> money will the dog dance. Con dinero baile el<br />
perro.”<br />
We heard stirring in the bedroom, and she hoisted herself up and peered<br />
behind the curtain to his bed.<br />
“So, you’re back!” I heard him say, <strong>with</strong> a detectable chilliness.<br />
“I can stay a week this time, my king. <strong>My</strong> corn is all harvested, and my<br />
sons are storing it away. The youngest will make meals for the others, and<br />
they’ll manage fine <strong>with</strong>out me,” she said matter-of-factly.<br />
Panti pushed the curtain aside, still pulling on his cotton shirt and<br />
scratching his bites and stings from the bush.<br />
“This is my student, Rosita,” he said, motioning toward me. “She’ll be<br />
here too for a few days helping me collect medicine. You can get to know<br />
each other.” She turned toward me, and her smile reminded me of a<br />
Cheshire cat’s.<br />
She stashed her bags in his small room, then sauntered over to the<br />
kitchen hut, where I heard her stoking up the fire. Panti and I soon returned<br />
to the hut to resume our chopping chores.<br />
Having another woman there—and one who knew him so intimately—<br />
gave the hut a cozy feel. While she stuffed papers in the fire and fanned the<br />
nibbling flames, she gabbed effortlessly to a sour-looking Panti. We heard<br />
about her corn, her unemployed sons, and a horse that had foaled in her<br />
yard. But <strong>with</strong>in the half hour, Panti began warming up to her, failing<br />
miserably at his efforts to remain aloof. She seemed the sort of person who<br />
was oblivious to such subtle rebukes anyway.<br />
He began weaving tales that were a keen match for her ambitious<br />
ramblings. I watched their faces light up from chuckling and simple, wideeyed<br />
wonder at any morsel of news about livestock, crops, weather, history,