Lost Angel

03

"I didn't know you'd had four husbands, Aunt," said Tony.

"You don't know much about my life! The last time you came to my house you were eight years old! Remember, the time with the helicopter?"

Tony opened his eyes wide.

"Oh, no... Don't tell that please..." he said.

"Nonsense! You were a lovely boy."

"What happened?" Hilda was interested.

"Nothing! I visited my aunt," said Tony. "It was a normal visit."

"It was summer. Tony was eight years old. I was always asking his father to bring the kids to me because I had a small pool. My fourth husband was crazy about pools, so if he didn't build a pool in the back of the house he would die. Oh, it's so hot, he said, if only I could soak in a pool! You're hot because you're fat, I would say, but nothing, he wanted his pool. He built his pool and loved to dive in. It wasn't very big. Every time he went in, the water rose a lot, he was quite fat. Then he would call me. Come, my dear, to our personal pool! Where do you want me to go? I would say, your belly takes my place! I was never much of a pool person. I like to have my hair done, and pools are not good for one's hair. Anyway, I divorced my husband but the pool stayed at home. I would have filled it in with concrete, but Alice liked the pool, she always took a swim in the late afternoon. To this day, when it's hot. I told Alice: you can keep the pool, but you will have to take care of it, put chlorine in it and all that. And Alice said to me: Mrs. Mecha, I have always been the one who took care of the pool. She was right, that's what she was the housekeeper for. Well, then use it, I told her! She even bought one of those big black life preservers, which you could sit on and float on. Remember, Tony? That life preserver saved you from getting a good blow!"

Tony put his hand to his face. He covered his eyes.

"I remember," he said.

"Well, since I had the pool," Aunt Mecha continued, "I told my nephew, Tony's father: let's see when you bring your children to spend some time in my pool! Because they lived in a house where they didn't have a pool. But my nephew's family lived far away, they were never around this area. But one day Tony's dad called me and told me that they had to take the girl to the doctor. I don't remember what it was about. Was she sick?"

"She had a cast on her arm," said Tony. "She had fallen off her bicycle, she was a little girl."

"That's it! We have to take the girl to have the cast removed, it's near your house. Or to have a second cast put on the other arm, I don't remember the details. I'm not a doctor. I'll take Tony to spend the afternoon with you, he said. Oh, I was so happy! Because although I was married four times, I didn't have children, and I love being with children! Not too long, of course, then I have no patience with them," she explained. "I remember I sent Alice out for ice cream. Alice had a sweet tooth, she always did, she brought enough ice cream to last a week. Then your parents brought you in, you had your bathing suit on. You didn't look too happy about spending the afternoon with two older women, I could tell. But then you soaked in the pool and ate your ice cream, and you felt more at ease. And to play with you had a sort of plastic helicopter, which flew when you put a toothed belt on it and took it off fast. The propeller would make it fly for a minute or so. Oh, it's like I see it today! You started playing with the plastic helicopter. The helicopter would make a noise every time you launched it. Brzzzzz, brzzzzz, brzzzzz... And you were like that for quite a while. Brzzzzz, brzzzzz... The helicopter would go up. Then it would fall on the grass. You picked it up again and brzzzzz, brzzzzz... The helicopter would go up again. Then it would fall in the grass and everything would repeat itself. You were like that for about half an hour. Brzzzzz, brzzzzz... I was in the kitchen watching a soap opera me and Alice used to watch. Alice was keeping an eye on you in the garden. I had told her: Alice, the boy cannot stay alone in the garden, he needs an adult to watch him. He can fall in the pool. There are never children in this house, I don't want the first one who visits us to drown, you must take care of him. Alice kept an eye on you. Since I am a good person, I gave Alice a little mirror so she could watch a little of what was happening on the TV screen from the side. I didn't want her to miss an episode of the soap opera. I mean, it would have been a pain to have to tell her the whole chapter later... She couldn't hear the dialogues, of course, but she could imagine them. Soap operas are all alike! Until at one point you came into the kitchen crying. You had dropped the helicopter in the neighbors' backyard! Oh, how you were crying, it broke my heart."