Chapter 76

I needed to walk. I needed to get out of the cabin, to breathe, to feel the wind against my face, to smell my surroundings. It sounds bucolic, it sounds very romantic or poetic, but it was a pure obsession. When you are, for months, enclosed within four walls, even the smell of manure seems a wonder. A stinking and avoidable wonder, but wonder, after all.

I don’t understand why Chuleta didn’t feel this same need.

He stayed with Clara in the house, watching TV or just talking. The day was rainy, but I didn’t care. With wellies and a raincoat, I was more than ready for a walk. Water against my face; it was paradise. There were a couple of stages in my life; one of them was that I had no time for anything; it was just working and spending time with my baby.

There was another one when I was never at home because I was always out for a walk, on horseback, or on foot, but I spent hours visiting every corner of my land. I remember one afternoon I went with my daughter. We