WELL, WHAT ABOUT THE REST?
Now why is it that none of these was able to make me forget the first love my heart ever knew? Perhaps because none of them had whirlpool eyes or the sly, cunning eyes of a gypsy. But that is not what I mean by the rest of the book. The rest is to know whether the Capitu of Glória beach was there inside the Capitu of Matacavalos or whether the latter was changed into the former by force of circumstance. Jesus, the son of Sirach, had he known of my initial jealousy, would have said, as in his chapter 9, verse 1: ‘Be not jealous of thy wife, lest she deceive thee with arts she learned of thee.’ But I don’t think so, and you will agree with me. If you remember Capitu the girl, you must admit that the one was inside the other as the fruit is inside the husk.
But when all is said and done, the one certainty is that the girl who was my first love and the man who was my best friend, so dear to me, so beloved – destiny decreed they should unite to deceive me … May they rest in peace. Now let’s turn to the History of the Suburbs.