Galindo became another man. He left his son to hired help, dragged himself in all corners of the house; flabby, weak, dirty, and ragged. Meanwhile, the great man made his life a misery, giving himself excessively to loose women and alcohol.
One night sleeping away one of his alcoholic perturbations, he had a desolate dream. It was Susana, bending over the crib of the bay, embracing him, and covering him on her bosom, and quietly taking him through the closed doors….
He stopped her ---“Where are you going? Where are you taking the child? What are you doing woman?”…
She looked at him bitterly and her cruel words fell like the blows of a hammer on the temple of the dreamer.
“You have converted love into hate and you are not worthy of perpetuating yourself among men. I am taking our son, because all mothers, at death, should do the same. Remain in the lies of your pleasures and intoxication. The truth is I am, and I am taking the angel with me…”
Galindo woke up aghast. He jumped from the bed and ran toward the next room where the child was sleeping.
He picked up the boy in his arms; he shook the boy’s head, pulling him strongly against his breast. The child was dead.
Jesús Balmori
Excelsior, Manila
