The widow and the bicycle.

• Author: Varas, Jose Miguel
• Position: LATITUDES - Short story - Reprint

When old man Garcia, the veteran typesetter at the print shop, died, he left behind a widow and a bicycle in good condition.

She was tall, thin, elegant, freely tuned ... and coveted by many. Her beauty was undeniable, but her lines and her class also suggested a noble character; it was clear she'd never fail you in a tight situation. She was also amazingly light and easy; you could carry her away with just two fingers under her seat! The men in the shop and in the neighborhood would have given anything to ride her. What a bicycle!

The widow wasn't bad either. Her name was Flor and she always wore a flower in her hair. It was an abundant and luxurious crop of hair that fell down her shoulders in silky black cascades with just a hint of red. She was on the tall side with delicate arms and legs, but she also possessed a lovely set of tea cups and was nicely endowed in terms of her posterity.

Both the widow and the bicycle lived in House #9 in the neighborhood of Los Cardenales.

The end of the block, where the street was wider and nicer, was the domain of washerwomen. It was rill of washtubs and clotheslines festooned with other people's laundry hanging out to dry, and the cobblestones below were always awash in milky puddles of suds. There in the biggest house, House #18, young Osvaldo was renting a room. He had recently returned from military service and was thinner and more birdlike than before, but a foot and a half taller. All of his clothes were too small for him, and his hands dangled from skinny arms which his shirt sleeves managed to cover only a little past his elbows.

They took him back at the print shop, in the same position he had been in before, delivering the finished jobs and bringing in paper and metal on the shop's tricycle.

A few days after old Garcia was buried, astute observers at the corner bar, Las Glorias del Colocolo, saw Osvaldo pedaling by on the deceased typesetter's marvelous bicycle with an expression of sheer joy on his face. They also began to notice him at the door of House #9 in the afternoons, leaning against the bike and chatting with Flor. Twice they saw him go in to have some refreshment with her. When he left, he bid her goodbye with a handshake, all the while holding onto the bicycle.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Customers at the bar opined that things were going quite well indeed for the youngster and that you had to give him credit. Pedro Alday said that he'd seen Osvaldo near Cousino Park taking another...