The lawyer pulled out another folder.This one was dark blue, with my name printed on a white label.Memo stared at it as if it were a weapon.\u201cWhat is that?\u201dI didn\u2019t answer right away. Instead, I took Do\u00f1a Juana\u2019s twelve hundred pesos and placed the bills in front of her one by one, like I was returning something sacred.\u201cThis was the only honest thing anyone gave me that week.\u201dDo\u00f1a Juana wiped her eyes with the corner of her apron.\u201cSon, I didn\u2019t come here for money. You told me there were papers about my stove.\u201dSusana gave a poisonous little laugh.\u201cHow convenient. The old lady knew nothing, and now she\u2019s about to win a prize.\u201dDo\u00f1a Juana lowered her head.Anger rose in me slowly, hot as steam from the ovens at dawn.\u201cDon\u2019t speak to her like that.\u201dMemo slapped the table.\u201cShe\u2019s a stranger. We\u2019re your blood.\u201dI stepped closer.My blood was eating steak while I was telling them I might lose an eye.\u201dHe went quiet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The lawyer cleared his throat.As I was saying, Mr. Sebasti\u00e1n Rivas has formalized the purchase and donation, with lifetime usufruct, of the house on Abasolo Street in the Independencia neighborhood, in favor of Mrs. Juana Mart\u00ednez. A maintenance fund of five million pesos has also been established for housing, food, and medical care.\u201dDo\u00f1a Juana stopped crying.For a moment, she looked like she had forgotten how to breathe.No, son.\u201dYes.\u201dI can\u2019t accept that.\u201dYou can, and you will. The roof over your house is failing, your stove leaks gas, and every time it rains, water runs through the wall. You shouldn\u2019t have to sleep afraid that one spark will end everything.\u201dMemo grabbed his hea.\u201cFive million? For an old woman who gave you a thousand pesos?\u201d\u201cTwelve hundred,\u201d I corrected. \u201cAnd it was everything she had.\u201dSusana stood up.\u201cThis is manipulation. That woman took advantage of you when you were weak.\u201dDo\u00f1a Juana stood too, trembling with shame.\u201cI knew nothing about any prize, miss. I only saw a frightened man.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The lawyer pulled out another folder.This one was dark blue, with my name printed on a white label.Memo stared at it as if it were a weapon.\u201cWhat… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":51603,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"views":39,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51602"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51604,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51602\/revisions\/51604"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/51603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}