THE SUGAR BREAD MOUNTAIN
IN RIO DE JANEIRO-AN ICON OF BRAZIL
Permanent training was one of the characteristics of our work at The Firm. I was back to work in mid June 1972, and the first thing I had to do was to attend a training course for Latin American Tax Managers, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Tax Division was, at the time, the fastest growing area within The Firm, and, therefore, an intense training program had been developed for us. I was able to see again many of my colleagues from all over Latin America, some of them had become managers, some others had already become partners, and all of them had two things in common which I tried to learn from; Professionalism and Chivalry.
During the rest of the year I was assigned to many different jobs in Guayaquil, Quito and Cuenca, most of them included auditing and tax work which came handy to me as I was increasingly involved in both areas. In July 1972, I was promoted to the position of Senior Auditor, in charge of the Tax Division, with many responsibilities which corresponded to a Manager, an indication that I was just about to become a manager in The Firm. Meanwhile I continued attending the U as much as my work permitted, and complying with all the school assignments just as any other regular student would. At this point I was registered in the sixth level at the School of Economics at the U of Guayaquil, and was only months from completing the program to become an Economist after submitting my Thesis which would be subject to approval by the Board of the School of Economics before the U would issue my official diploma.
My private life was kind of messy though. Too many trips and a lot of time away from home had prevented me from maintaining a steady relationship with any girl, least of all with Fanny, who, with all the reason in the world, started to complain about my long absences and the lack of commitment in our relationship. Seriously, I was not ready to dedicate too much of my time to what at this point I did not consider one of my priorities. I was at this time more concerned about my job in the first place, in complying with my school assignments, in the second place, in having fun with my friends over the weekends in the third place, and thinking about a serious relationship was only a distant fourth. It was at this point when I came to have three girl friends simultaneously, frankly I don’t remember now how did I manage to do this and not being caught by any of the three, the fact of the matter is that all three of them were also students at the U of G and they knew I was a”very busy man”, but at the same time they knew (I guess), I was a good prospect who they wanted to pursue. Normally I would assign Friday night to go out with one of them, Saturday night to go out with the other, and Fanny always had Sunday all for herself. Monday through Friday I was normally away, working somewhere away from Guayaquil. Thank God there were no cell phones in those days.
On June 30, 1972, the day I came to be 30, I was in the hospital because my tonsils had been removed that morning. I was lying on my bed in a two bed room with no patient in the other bed. I had been advised by my doctor not to speak for three consecutive days, an order that I was complying to the point.
In order to avoid any undesirable encounters, I had advised of my operation to no one but my sister Lilita and her family, who were in fact my own family. They visited me by noon time and had left the room at about 2 PM; they left a nice flower bouquet on top of the table next to my bed and wished me a happy birthday and a prompt recovery. About one hour later, unexpectedly, Fanny showed up in my room, she kissed me in my cheek, wished me a happy BD, and handed me a present packed in a little box which I opened and saw that it contained a nice golden chain with a crucifix, and a card wishing me a happy BD and a nice handwritten message on it. The card was signed “I love you much, Fanny”. That was certainly something I did not expect from Fanny as we had been distanced from each other for over a month by then. I felt good about it and wished I could embrace her, kiss her and tell her I loved her too, but I could only hold her hand tightly and bring it closer to my chest, to my heart which should have been galloping like a colt following his mother. I really felt good about her visit, her message and her present. We remained holding hands for about half an hour, just looking at each other and immersed in our own thoughts about our relationship, when, suddenly, a young girl opened the door and showed her face as if trying to enter the room, she was one of my other two girl friends, she had a present in her hand. She looked at me and Fanny as we were holding hands, she stopped right at the door; she looked at me with her eyes in flames and left the room even before entering it, shutting the door loudly behind her. I wanted to be 30 feet below the ground, I was terribly embarrassed, I literally could not speak and I think it was better that way, as I had no valid explanation for Fanny, who by now had let my hand loose and was showing her irritation in silence, in her eyes, with an expression of more fury than disgust. Five minutes later she left the room in silence without even saying good bye to me, I believe she though for a moment of taking her present and the happy BD card back with her, but she didn’t. I guess I deserved her irritation. I was actually afraid that that was it with Fanny, I felt terribly sorry for her and I wished I could follow her wherever she went and try to explain the unexplainable so as to get her to pardon me. That was the day when I started thinking seriously about our relationship, if I just was able to rebuild it!
THE COPACABANA BEACH, A JEWEL OF BRAZIL
AND LATIN AMERICA
The rest of the year 1972 went by with nothing special to remember, except the fact that I tried several times to rebuild my relationship with Fanny with little success. In September 1972, I was invited to the wedding of one of my classmates, Guido Cortes, a fine, chubby guy who was a student leader and an auditor working for the Government’s Tax Department. The reception took place at the Lions’ Club’s main building nearby the soccer stadium, a place that was not far from the place I lived at, with my sister Lilita. I had decided to attend the party and invited no one to be my couple. Little did I know that I was going to see Fanny in that party, she was accompanied by a guy I didn’t know and I still don’t know who he was. Whether she was dating him or was just a friend, I never knew, the fact of the matter is that she was there and she and I pretended we hadn’t seen each other. I didn’t feel good about it, I was hurt by the fact she was in a party with someone that was not me, period. From then on, I decided to play the role of the hurt guy and stopped calling her altogether, I knew I deserved whatever she was up to, and after all, for all practical purposes we had broken apart, or so I thought. But I did not want to accept the fact she was dating someone else, I guess you can say I was jealous, maybe, or, perhaps I wasn’t but it still didn’t make me feel good. So, for over a month and a half I did not call her, but somehow I hoped that she would call, but she didn’t. Finally, one night, before school was over, I left my classroom and went right across my school campus toward Fanny’s, I wanted to wait and see if I could pick Fanny as she was going home after her own classes. I was lucky, she saw my car and she saw me standing by it. She separated from a group of classmates she was walking with and came to me, we said hello to each other amicably, tenderly, I hugged her and she hugged me, no words were said, no words needed to be said, she and I had reconciled, she sat in my car and we headed home, slowly, as if nothing had happened. I guess that was the best way to do it. Neither one of us needed to say we were sorry…
In my next posting: CHILE AND A BIT OF ITS RECENT HISTORY
No comments:
Post a Comment