Kiss of the Spider Woman (20 page)
Read Kiss of the Spider Woman Online
Authors: Manuel Puig
Tags: #Regional.Latin America, #Fiction.Magical Realism, #Fiction.Literature.Modern, #Acclaimed.Horror 100 Best.Index
—A little . . . but I can barely follow what you’re saying. the endless night, the cold night, endless thoughts, cold thoughts, sharp slivers of broken glass
—But I ought to stop then.
the strict nurse, the very tall cap stiff with starch, the slight smile not without cunning
the strict nurse, the very tall cap stiff with starch, the slight smile not without cunning
—No, honestly, when you distract me a little I feel better, please, go on.
the endless night, the icy night, the walls green with mildew, the walls stricken with gangrene, the injured fist
the endless night, the icy night, the walls green with mildew, the walls stricken with gangrene, the injured fist
—Okay. So . . . how did it go next? They hear drums way off in the distance, and the husband’s expression changes, all that peace is gone, he can’t sleep now, so he gets up. The girl doesn’t say anything, discretion itself, she doesn’t move a muscle, making like she’s fast asleep, but she really pricks up her ears and hears this noise of a cupboard door being opened and squeaking, and then nothing more. She doesn’t dare get up and actually investigate, but then it gets later and later and still no sign of him. She decides to look, and finds him lying across an easy chair, completely drunk. And she quickly eyes all the furniture and discovers a little open cabinet, hardly big enough for one bottle, the empty bottle of cognac, but the husband also seems to have another bottle, next to him, and that one is just half empty. So the girl wonders where it came from, because there’s no liquor kept in the house at all, and then she notices how, just underneath the bottle in the cabinet, certain things have been tucked away, and it’s a bunch of letters and photographs. And it’s a job for her to drag him back into the bedroom, where she just lies down beside him, trying to cheer him up because she loves him and promises him he’s not going to be alone anymore, and he looks gratefully at her and falls back asleep. She tries to get some sleep too, but now she can’t, although before she was so contented, but seeing him drunk like that makes her incredibly upset. And she realizes how right the majordomo was to smash that rum keg. She puts on her negligee and goes back to the cabinet to look at the photos, because what intrigues her incredibly is the possibility of finding a picture of the first wife. But when she gets there she finds the cabinet closed, and locked too. But who could’ve locked it? She looks around but everything is swallowed up in complete darkness and absolute silence, except for those drums, which you can still hear. Then she goes over to shut the window so as not to have to listen to them, but right at that very moment they stop, as if they’d spotted her from miles and miles away. Anyhow, the next morning he looks as if he doesn’t remember anything, and he wakes her with their breakfast all ready, and smiley as can be, and informs her that he’s going to take her on a ride by the sea. She becomes totally infected with his excitement, and off they go into the tropics, in a great convertible with the top down, and there’s a peppy musical background, calypso type, and they drive past a couple of divine beaches, and here it’s a very sexy scene because she feels the urge to go for a swim, because by then they’ve already seen the lovely coconut groves, and rocky cliffs looking out to sea, and here and there some natural gardens with gigantic flowers, and the sun is scorching hot but she’s forgotten to bring along a bathing suit, so he says, why not swim in the nude? and they stop the car, she undresses behind some rocks and then you see her off in the distance running naked to the ocean. And later on you catch them lying on the beach together, under the palms, her with a sarong out of his shirt, and him with just his pants on, nothing else, and barefoot, and you have no idea where it comes from, but you know the way it happens in movies, you suddenly just hear the words of this song, saying how when it comes to love, it’s a question of earning it, and at the end of some dark trail, strewn with all kinds of hardships, love awaits those who struggle to the last in order to earn that love. And you can see the girl and he are completely enchanted with each other once again and they decide to let bygones be bygones. And then it begins to get dark, and when they drive up a little ridge of road, you just manage to catch in the background, not too far from there, all glinty from the sun which is like this fiery red ball, a very old colonial house, but pretty, and very mysterious, because it’s completely overrun by vegetation, which covers it up almost totally. And the girl says how some other day she’d like to go for a ride to that house, and she asks why it’s been abandoned. But at this point he seems to get very nervous and tells her like very rudely, never, never go near that house, but he doesn’t offer the slightest explanation, just saying that he’ll tell her why some other time.
the night nurse is inexperienced, the night nurse sleepwalks, is she asleep or awake? the night shift is long, she’s all by herself and doesn’t know where to turn for help
You’re so quiet, you’re not even making any wise-cracks . . .
the night nurse is inexperienced, the night nurse sleepwalks, is she asleep or awake? the night shift is long, she’s all by herself and doesn’t know where to turn for help
You’re so quiet, you’re not even making any wise-cracks . . .
—Somehow I’m not feeling very good. Just go on with the film, it’s good to take my mind off things for a while.
—Wait, now I lost the thread.
—I don’t understand how you manage to keep so many details in your head anyway.
the hollow head, the glass skull, filled with mass cards of saints and whores, someone throws the glass head against the putrid wall, the head smashes, all mass cards fall onto the floor
the hollow head, the glass skull, filled with mass cards of saints and whores, someone throws the glass head against the putrid wall, the head smashes, all mass cards fall onto the floor
—In spite of the great time they were having that whole day, the girl gets upset all over again now, because she saw how nervous he became the minute she asked about that house, the one that looked abandoned. Well, when they arrive back at the mansion, he takes a shower, and that’s when she can’t resist looking through his pockets for the keys in order to search through that cabinet of the night before. And she goes and searches through his pants, and finds a key ring, and runs to the cabinet. On the key ring there’s only one tiny key; she tries it and it fits. She opens the cabinet. There’s a full bottle of cognac inside, but who put it there? Because she hasn’t left her husband’s side for a second since the night before, so he didn’t do it; she would have seen him. And underneath the bottle there’s some letters, love letters, signed by him and others signed by the first wife, and underneath the letters some photographs, of him and some other woman, was that the first wife? The girl seems to recognize her, it’s as if she’s seen her somewhere before; surely she’s come upon that face before, but where? An interesting type, very very tall, long blond hair. The girl goes on looking through each and every photograph, and then she discovers one in particular that’s like a portrait, just of the face, the eyes very pale, that slightly lost look . . . And the girl remembers! It’s the woman who chased her in the nightmare, with the face of a madwoman, dressed all in black down to her toes . . . But at that point she notices the water isn’t running in the shower, and her husband could easily catch her going through his things! So she tries frantically to put away all that stuff, setting the bottle back on top of the letters and photographs, closing the cabinet, and then going back into the bedroom, where she finds him right there! all wrapped up in this huge bath towel, but smiling away. She doesn’t know what to do, so she offers to dry his back, she has no idea how to keep him busy, how to distract him
the poor nurse, so unlucky, they assign her to a patient on the critical list and she doesn’t know how to keep him from dying or killing her, the danger of contagion is stronger than ever
because he’s already about to start getting dressed, but she’s terrified that she has the key right in her hand, and he might notice that fact any minute now. But she goes on drying his shoulders with one hand, looking over at his pants draped on the chair, and doesn’t know what to do to get the key back into his pocket—until she gets an idea, and says she’d like to comb his hair. And he answers, wonderful, the comb is in the bathroom if you want to get it, and she says, that’s no way for a gentleman to act, saying that, so then he goes to look for it himself and meantime she takes the chance to slip the key back into his pocket just in the nick of time, and when he comes back she starts combing his hair and massaging his bare shoulders. And the poor little newlywed, she just breathes a sigh of relief. Then a few days go by, and the girl realizes how the husband always gets up around midnight because he can’t sleep, and she pretends to be sound asleep, because she’s afraid of bringing up the subject face to face with him, but in the early morning she gets up to help him back into bed, because he always ends up bombed out of his mind and collapsed in the armchair. And she always checks the bottle, and it’s a different one each time, and it’s full, so who’s putting it there in that cabinet? The girl doesn’t dare ask him a thing, because when he comes back every evening from the plantations he’s so happy to see her waiting there for him, embroidering something, but at midnight you always begin to hear those drums again, and he gets all obsessed about something, and can’t sleep anymore unless he gets himself into a drunken stupor. So obviously, the girl gets more and more uptight about the whole thing, and at one point when her husband is outside somewhere, she tries to have a word with the majordomo, to discover some possible secret from him maybe, about why the husband seems so nervous at times, but the majordomo tells her with a big sigh how they’re having lots of problems with the peons, etcetera, etcetera, and in the end he really doesn’t say too much about anything. Well, the thing is, the girl, one time when the husband tells her he’s going off for that whole day with the majordomo, to that plantation that’s the farthest away of all, and won’t be back until the following day, she decides to go off by herself on foot to that same abandoned house, because she’s sure she’ll find out something there. And so just after tea, around five o’clock, when the sun isn’t so strong anymore, the husband and the majordomo set out on their trip, and the girl eventually goes off too. And she’s looking for the road to that abandoned house, but she gets lost, and soon it’s getting late, and already almost nightfall, when she manages to find that ridge in the road from where you got to see the house, and she doesn’t know whether to turn back or not, but her curiosity gets the best of her, and she goes on to the house. And she sees how suddenly, inside there, a light goes on, which encourages her a little more. But once she reaches the house, which is, no exaggeration, almost buried by wild plants, she doesn’t hear anything, and through the windows you can see how on the table there’s a candle burning, and the girl gets up enough courage to open the door and even take a look inside, and she sees over in the corner a voodoo altar, with more candles burning, and she goes farther inside to see what’s on top of the altar, and she walks right up to it, and on top of the altar she finds a doll with black hair with a pin stuck right through the middle of the chest, and the doll is dressed in an outfit made to look exactly like what she was wearing herself on her own wedding day! And at this point she almost faints with fright but spins around to run away through the same door that she came in by . . . And what’s in the doorway? . . . this incredibly huge black guy, with bulging eyeballs, wearing only a ragged pair of old pants, and with the look of somebody who’s totally out of his mind, staring at her and blocking any escape. And the poor thing, all she has left to do is let out a desperate scream, but the guy, who’s actually what they call a zombie, one of the living dead, he keeps coming closer and closer, with his arms reaching out, just like the woman from the other night in the garden. And the girl lets out another scream, and runs into the next room and locks the door behind her. The room’s almost dark, with the window almost covered with jungle growth so only a tiny bit of light comes through, a little twilight, and the room has a bed in it, which little by little the girl begins to make out, as she becomes more accustomed to the darkness. And every inch of her shudders, nearly suffocated by her own cries and her terror, as she sees there on the bed . . . something moving . . . and it’s . . . that woman! Incredibly pale, all disheveled, the hair hanging down to her waist, and with the same black duster on, she slowly rises and begins to move toward the girl! in that room without escape, all locked up . . . The girl would like to drop dead she’s so frightened, and now she can’t even scream, but suddenly . . . from the window you hear a voice ordering the zombie woman to stop and go back to her bed . . . It’s the kindly black housekeeper. And she tells the girl not to be scared, that she’s going to come right in and protect her. The girl opens the door, the black woman hugs her and calms her down; and behind her, in the front doorway, is that black giant, but he’s totally obedient now to the housekeeper, who tells him he must look after the girl, and not attack her. The giant black zombie obeys, and the zombie woman, too, all disheveled, because the housekeeper orders her back to her bed, and the woman completely obeys. Then the housekeeper takes the girl affectionately by her shoulders and tells her she’s going to get her back safely to the main house in a little donkey cart, and along the way she tells her the whole story, because by now the girl’s realized that the zombie woman with the blond hair down to her waist . . . is her husband’s first wife. And the housekeeper begins to tell how it all happened.
the nurse trembles, the patient looks up at her, asking for morphine? asking to be caressed? or does he just want the contagion to be instantaneous and deadly?
the poor nurse, so unlucky, they assign her to a patient on the critical list and she doesn’t know how to keep him from dying or killing her, the danger of contagion is stronger than ever
because he’s already about to start getting dressed, but she’s terrified that she has the key right in her hand, and he might notice that fact any minute now. But she goes on drying his shoulders with one hand, looking over at his pants draped on the chair, and doesn’t know what to do to get the key back into his pocket—until she gets an idea, and says she’d like to comb his hair. And he answers, wonderful, the comb is in the bathroom if you want to get it, and she says, that’s no way for a gentleman to act, saying that, so then he goes to look for it himself and meantime she takes the chance to slip the key back into his pocket just in the nick of time, and when he comes back she starts combing his hair and massaging his bare shoulders. And the poor little newlywed, she just breathes a sigh of relief. Then a few days go by, and the girl realizes how the husband always gets up around midnight because he can’t sleep, and she pretends to be sound asleep, because she’s afraid of bringing up the subject face to face with him, but in the early morning she gets up to help him back into bed, because he always ends up bombed out of his mind and collapsed in the armchair. And she always checks the bottle, and it’s a different one each time, and it’s full, so who’s putting it there in that cabinet? The girl doesn’t dare ask him a thing, because when he comes back every evening from the plantations he’s so happy to see her waiting there for him, embroidering something, but at midnight you always begin to hear those drums again, and he gets all obsessed about something, and can’t sleep anymore unless he gets himself into a drunken stupor. So obviously, the girl gets more and more uptight about the whole thing, and at one point when her husband is outside somewhere, she tries to have a word with the majordomo, to discover some possible secret from him maybe, about why the husband seems so nervous at times, but the majordomo tells her with a big sigh how they’re having lots of problems with the peons, etcetera, etcetera, and in the end he really doesn’t say too much about anything. Well, the thing is, the girl, one time when the husband tells her he’s going off for that whole day with the majordomo, to that plantation that’s the farthest away of all, and won’t be back until the following day, she decides to go off by herself on foot to that same abandoned house, because she’s sure she’ll find out something there. And so just after tea, around five o’clock, when the sun isn’t so strong anymore, the husband and the majordomo set out on their trip, and the girl eventually goes off too. And she’s looking for the road to that abandoned house, but she gets lost, and soon it’s getting late, and already almost nightfall, when she manages to find that ridge in the road from where you got to see the house, and she doesn’t know whether to turn back or not, but her curiosity gets the best of her, and she goes on to the house. And she sees how suddenly, inside there, a light goes on, which encourages her a little more. But once she reaches the house, which is, no exaggeration, almost buried by wild plants, she doesn’t hear anything, and through the windows you can see how on the table there’s a candle burning, and the girl gets up enough courage to open the door and even take a look inside, and she sees over in the corner a voodoo altar, with more candles burning, and she goes farther inside to see what’s on top of the altar, and she walks right up to it, and on top of the altar she finds a doll with black hair with a pin stuck right through the middle of the chest, and the doll is dressed in an outfit made to look exactly like what she was wearing herself on her own wedding day! And at this point she almost faints with fright but spins around to run away through the same door that she came in by . . . And what’s in the doorway? . . . this incredibly huge black guy, with bulging eyeballs, wearing only a ragged pair of old pants, and with the look of somebody who’s totally out of his mind, staring at her and blocking any escape. And the poor thing, all she has left to do is let out a desperate scream, but the guy, who’s actually what they call a zombie, one of the living dead, he keeps coming closer and closer, with his arms reaching out, just like the woman from the other night in the garden. And the girl lets out another scream, and runs into the next room and locks the door behind her. The room’s almost dark, with the window almost covered with jungle growth so only a tiny bit of light comes through, a little twilight, and the room has a bed in it, which little by little the girl begins to make out, as she becomes more accustomed to the darkness. And every inch of her shudders, nearly suffocated by her own cries and her terror, as she sees there on the bed . . . something moving . . . and it’s . . . that woman! Incredibly pale, all disheveled, the hair hanging down to her waist, and with the same black duster on, she slowly rises and begins to move toward the girl! in that room without escape, all locked up . . . The girl would like to drop dead she’s so frightened, and now she can’t even scream, but suddenly . . . from the window you hear a voice ordering the zombie woman to stop and go back to her bed . . . It’s the kindly black housekeeper. And she tells the girl not to be scared, that she’s going to come right in and protect her. The girl opens the door, the black woman hugs her and calms her down; and behind her, in the front doorway, is that black giant, but he’s totally obedient now to the housekeeper, who tells him he must look after the girl, and not attack her. The giant black zombie obeys, and the zombie woman, too, all disheveled, because the housekeeper orders her back to her bed, and the woman completely obeys. Then the housekeeper takes the girl affectionately by her shoulders and tells her she’s going to get her back safely to the main house in a little donkey cart, and along the way she tells her the whole story, because by now the girl’s realized that the zombie woman with the blond hair down to her waist . . . is her husband’s first wife. And the housekeeper begins to tell how it all happened.
the nurse trembles, the patient looks up at her, asking for morphine? asking to be caressed? or does he just want the contagion to be instantaneous and deadly?
—
the skull is glass, the body is glass too, easy to break a toy made out of glass, slivers of sharp cold glass in the cold night, the humid night, gangrene spreading through the hand shredded by the punch
Do you mind if I say something?
the skull is glass, the body is glass too, easy to break a toy made out of glass, slivers of sharp cold glass in the cold night, the humid night, gangrene spreading through the hand shredded by the punch
Do you mind if I say something?
—
at night the patient gets up and walks barefoot, he catches cold, his condition deteriorates
What? Go ahead.
at night the patient gets up and walks barefoot, he catches cold, his condition deteriorates
What? Go ahead.
—
the glass skull full of mass cards of saints and whores, old yellowed mass cards, dead faces outlined in cracked paper, inside my chest the dead mass cards, glass mass cards, sharp, shredding, spreading the gangrene into the lungs, the chest, the heart
I’m very depressed. I can hardly follow what you say. I think it’d be much better to save the rest for tomorrow, don’t you? And this way we can talk a little.
the glass skull full of mass cards of saints and whores, old yellowed mass cards, dead faces outlined in cracked paper, inside my chest the dead mass cards, glass mass cards, sharp, shredding, spreading the gangrene into the lungs, the chest, the heart
I’m very depressed. I can hardly follow what you say. I think it’d be much better to save the rest for tomorrow, don’t you? And this way we can talk a little.
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