:12:32
This is how we used to sit
around the table for meals...
:12:36
or for sermons:
Father at the head...
:12:41
to his right,
ordered according to age,
:12:44
There was Pedro, Rosa,
Zuleika and Huda.
:12:48
To his left, Mother, myself...
:12:53
Ana and Lula, the youngest.
:12:56
The right branch...
:12:58
had grown spontaneously
from the trunk.
:13:03
But the left branch was scarred,
:13:08
as if Mother, where the left
branch started, were an anomaly,
:13:14
a morbid offshoot,
weighed down by affection.
:13:26
You have no idea of what
we've been through since you left.
:13:33
You would be shocked to see
our family's strained face.
:13:41
It's hard for me to
say this, brother...
:13:47
but Mother can't hide
her sobbing anymore.
:13:54
She didn't tell anyone
you had left.
:13:59
That day, at lunch time,