TALES THAT ARE NOT TALES

Spring soul

He woke up at seven-thirty every morning, so as not to miss the sounds of the neighborhood and feel that still existed in the suburb where he was born long ago. Later, when they began to open shops, to move more people, the birdsong and everything would be lost again, as every day, at the least Monday to Saturday, part of a big city. He bathed, prepared mate, and a few slices of toast to which smeared with butter and dulce de leche, he sat down to breakfast in the garden set in the yard, all fittings as a spiral that seemed enmeshed more drawn by the hand of the blacksmith. Under the vine he allowed himself to dream that time had not passed and that he was still young the future was expected; Lidia, his girlfriend for almost five years, was still by him and they will not be separated for anything, not even for his continuous and stubborn refusal to wedding date; he allowed himself to believe his mother was still alive, and that he had not yet fallen ill, and who was she who prepared those breakfasts for him; he would allow himself to forget that she had been dead for almost fifteen years and since then he was alone because after Lidia his mother was the center of his world and after her no one else.

It was eight when she decided to get dressed, The ceremony demanded him every day for about half an hour while elegy shirt and tie use. Enough to see the whole house to believe that the time had not happened since the early years of the decade of the seventies; to equal his clothes, shirts pastel colors, wide ties and bright colors, bags flaps reaching almost to the shoulders, defying fashion without even realizing it, everything seemed frozen in time, which was his best time He thought about putting on the hairpiece; that day, he felt younger. He wanted to show it, but he regretted remembering how ridiculous it was for Emilio, one of his colleagues in the investment area, for whom baldness played a lousy time, day by day, increasing its surface and demonstrating the insufficient size of the capillary applique. He laughed when he remembered that many years ago, all the employees of the Bank used them, many even hiding from their women, so every morning, they crowded in front of the dressing room mirrors to put them on carefully. When he was finally ready, he looked like a personification of a bank employee from two decades ago. Whoever saw him could not imagine how much dedication his clothes had chosen; he only managed to observe how old-fashioned he was despite realizing that he was still in excellent condition.

He left his home convinced that this would be a special day, so strange that thought had invaded during breakfast, and the anxiety he felt increased slowly. As in the last thirty-two years, he completed his routine of walking to the subway; he dodged the loose tiles, knowing that profuse amounts of dirty water were hidden at their base; those raised by the roots of the old trees, whose branches covered with dense and glossy foliage seemed to caress the sky making way between the cables of the electrical, telephone and cable television lines; dog droppings abandoned as malefic traps by animal owners; cars parked on pedestrian lines; potholes in the asphalt and crooked cobblestones, ready as always to leave an injured ankle; that day he added to his routine dodging the cars detained in a disorderly way, whose horns demanded the solution to the delay in their displacement as a result of a traffic light determined to stay with the three colors on instead of ordering the quick walk of the city. He reached the mouth of the subway, down the stairs as he pulled from his wallet the card to place on the turnstile, he was glad to noticing he had two, he avoided having to greet the employee vending shop which was always in a bad mood; as every day he went up to the wagon that seemed empty but just as I traveled crammed, as he consoled each day remembering that I had read that in Japan people traveling tighter in the subways; down like every day in Peru season, This routine replaced by the walk inside the underground tunnels that matched line D rainy days; I walk down the pedestrian Peru observing the same precautions that every day for broken tiles, loose and trenches barely signalized works of telephone companies, when the street changes name one block later to be called Florida as every day and each block the precautions increased in proportion to the increase of passers almost all too rushed, especially as different men to him not only because sported a bordering walk with late everywhere, but also suits wide cut, big shoulder pads to increase the width of the shoulders, narrow lapels and nipped pants as opposed to his style; as always greeted those responsible for the two posts of newspapers and magazines located in those blocks and two of the bootblack who had their fixed stops for so long he no longer remembered from when known; He came to the bank with enough time to greet your coworkers before heading to his office, only more cheerful than usual. That morning his duties were somewhat altered, the audit department carried out a review of the stocks of Government titles that were in his custody; his routine was altered in his office and in those of his neighbors in the Treasure vault, a place suffocating due to the staleness of the air despite modern air conditioning systems, his workspace for twenty-eight years; The review again showed how efficient he was in his tasks, and his knowledge will be demonstrated when his eyes were evident the inexperience of these young people, none of them over thirty years old, who came to control him and try to teach the technique to count those values; for a certain moment that he would rather change his experience for the years of youth with which he had paid and to be like them, happy to have a world ahead, to be full of projects and to know what could achieve them; He quickly gave up on continuing that sad thought, after all, that was an amazing day.

He took his time lunch at one of the later as every day. He went to the dining room of the Banking Association through the streets of narrow sidewalks for which they can not pass over two pedestrians, people who choose to walk the streets with trucks flows, taxis, and motorbikes cadets as always in a hurry that zigzagged between cars and pedestrians it was part of his usual walk, past the imposing buildings of banks wagered on that special circuit to the people who frequent it calls "the city"; as always he ordered the menu the day, schnitzel with apple puree and dessert; although this November day was strangely like all previous days in recent years, so much that anyone would consider it routine, inside the feeling that something special would happen, so I returned to his work more anxious morning was increasing. He spent his afternoon in his usual tasks and prepared the orders for movements of public securities for the next two days, while he did it he could not help thinking that these securities were the last would have in custody, the new bonds were barely certified, some pieces of paper issued in the name of the owner in which indicated the amount owned, he recalled that in the early seventies the physical space where they kept in custody the shares of thriving companies and the bonds issued by the governments on duty was a vault that looked like a parties saloon crowded with floor-to-ceiling safes covering not only the walls but the entire interior surface leaving corridors of no more than seventy centimeters to transit, that was his best time, now the space for his tasks was tiny and only conserved several safes for the companies actions did not even exist, to that and those in which they have kept values ​​from floor to ceiling. When it finally came time to retire was a very euphoric feeling that soon would happen so special that I was expecting. now the space for homework was minimal and only retained several safe deposit boxes for the actions of several companies that did not even exist at that and where values ​​were kept from the floor to the ceiling. When it finally came time to retire was a very euphoric feeling that soon would happen so special that I was expecting.

He went to visit his niece, as she always did once a week; it was the daughter who had never had, and since I was six years mom had become the grandfather who could ever be. He enjoyed that afternoon of love that they always toasted, become mates with orange peel and games in which the little he did participate, but as that day was sitting on a small bench in front of an equally table tiny being student girl.

He went home, and as usual, plants watered the yard, cleaned the cage of the canary, you change the water and put food; cooked dinner, he ate watching television and continued watching their regular programs while, as usual, extended the end of the contents of the cup of tea until the tea was cold. At eleven o'clock at night and turned off the TV every day, still waiting for something to happen, especially in what remained of the day. He repeated his routine and eleven-thirty laydown. He fell asleep thinking that tomorrow would be the special day and if it was not perhaps the next day or the future, or would happen to that.