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Chapter 17
…the ceremony is the best part of the feeling.
Feeling happy Luis says to Don Lupe: ―Don Lupe take out the bottle of cognac.
Don Lupe looks at him fondly and nods his head while he heads for the next room. There is Luis Armstrong music in the back.
Seizing the moment, Manuel tells Don Lupe:
―What happens when two people want to open the letter on the same day, you open two bottles?
―Of course, the ceremony is the best part of the feeling, before something so important the least we can do is give it solemnity―. He went back smiling peacefully.
Manuel had already decided to open the envelope, he wasn’t thinking about opening it that Thursday, though. Once decided, he was burning in curiosity for knowing the date of his death.
It might as well be on the month they were living in, the circumstances coincided perfectly, he had taken care of what he had to take care, just like Luis, and he felt ready to leave.
Once seated in respectful silence, they turned around to look at Luis. He observes the cream―colored envelope, without glue, sealed with red wax and the figure of a sun and a moon combined. He knows it’s time to open it and he was going to do it when suddenly, Don Lupe puts a beautiful mahogany box on the table, he opens it and a beautiful paperknife appears. Luis takes it and observes an inscription on the handle, it is the infinite symbol. He opens the envelope, printed in parchment and with Arabic numbers he sees the exact month and year they were living in, same he read out loud with a steady voice. Manuel was observing him, despite looking calmed a small vein in his low left eyelid was shaking, which happened whenever he was nervous. Manuel thought everything would end that day, somehow Chema and Don Lupe were the ones in the house, Gago had already gone and with what had happened to Luis… Manuel felt that the normal thing was for him to close his own cycle and that the date in the envelope was the same.
Luis gave the envelope to Don Lupe, he was about to put it away when he saw Manuel had taken his, he cuts it with the paperknife. The expression on his face is sober.
Manuel puts the envelope against the light and opens it ceremoniously with the paperknife, the paper is unfolded and little by little he looks at the date. Like the poker player that uncovers his last cards, first he looks at the month: December; the month he was living in. His mouth was dry and he had a hole in his stomach. Finally he looks at the year, surprisingly he sees it’s not the present one, it’s ten years from now.
The feeling of relief could not compensate completely the excitement, tears fell from his eyes, the first thing he thought was that he would be able to see his grandson grow up, then his wife, in that critical moment the most important thing that came to his mind was that he could continue giving her coffee in bed every morning, without talking of course.
Manuel looks at Luis, Gago, Chema and finally Don Lupe; this last one said to him with a nice smile:
―It seems we will continue to see each other for a while…
Manuel thought: Ten years seem like a lot, but they are not. A feeling of self―sacrifice took over him, he wanted to join Luis and Gago in their journeys; somehow he was abandoning them, he wanted to stay in the group. He remained quiet and so did everyone else.
They took a glass and got up from their seats, there were no words. They just held the glasses in the air with a profound feeling. Manuel became aware of the importance of the toast, they always toasted for the past and for the future at the same time, but now he realized that what matter the most was the cosmic moment of being together.
The camera makes a wide take, we can see them talking holding their glasses in their hands, then the images of the tunnel, the light, Luis’ funeral, his wife and children by his side crying, the man who took him to the graveyard, the lady who helped in Tesistan.
Then we can see the image of Gago getting into the tunnel, the blurred images of his wife going with him, of his children, everything happening ethereally until it vanishes in the upper corner of the living―room.
Manuel wakes up in his bed at three fifteen in the morning.
The End.
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