Fruit of the Drunken Tree

by Ingrid Rojas Contreras

Isa and Lala

Escapology.”

Haha

“Blessed Souls of Purgatory, save us,”

the Blessed Souls of Purgatory.

Haha

Haha

Isa said Purgatory Souls had see-through skin and that you could only see them in one spot, which meant that as you stood there watching you were constantly seeing one Purgatory Soul come into being in one step and then disappearing into the next.

Where did that come from?

guard booths and gates.

Our neighborhood was patrolled twenty-four hours by guards who sat inside the wooden booths in their full uniform,

Haha

Haha

Elisario,

We were about to give up our search for the Purgatory Spot when we came upon a large house.

“That is a mansion,”

she was a Nazi with an accent. “What’s a Nazi?” I said. “The same people who burnt witches at the stake, don’t you know?” Lala said.

Haha - not so far off

hiding posing as a German woman concealing her Nazi roots.

an Oligarch,”

Haha

Both she and Petrona wore the white dress that was like a cross between a sleeping robe and a lab coat, which nobody called a maid’s uniform, but that’s what it was.

Haha

She was not a ghost, not a poet, but was she a saint, or under a spell?

Mami

patilimpia

Question

Señor...

that large house with prope...

our famous an...

white skin and our fine black hair.

They have a room on top of their house where no one actually sleeps, but which they fill with the excess of their stuff.

Haha - excess indeed

I didn’t tell my family I had a bedroom of my own and a shower too. It felt cruel because our bathroom was an outhouse, and our front door a curtain.

My employers are rich. They have breakfast every day with milk.

In the Hills, everyone’s dinner, lunch, breakfast, snack was pan con gaseosa.

bread and soda pop

the little Santiago girl asked me to teach her to wash.

someday she would go off to college and there would be nobody there to wash her clothes.

Chula

Aurora,

Why not ask to bring home some leftovers? Question

Ramón,

Papi, who refused the government handouts, the paramilitary handouts, the guerrilla handouts,

the militarized groups who were also just a different version of a state.

Is this real? We’re there others like that? Question

encapotados.

The sweet smell filled my nose, and I understood his weakness, but later I told him not to do that again.

Father’s been killed?

I loved Fridays because they were the only days when I could really observe Petrona.

Because Roman Catholic superstition? Question

Petrona’s mouth.

Haha

suddenly the vowel sounds of laughter came out.

disturbed by the graphic quality of the news reports.

When I asked Mamá who Pablo Escobar was, she sat up. “Pablo Escobar? He’s the one responsible for every shit that happens in this country.”

Death was such a common thing.