Hope's dream

     I have received news of Hope

     Like her name, Hope has always had the hope of leading a different life and in one way or another she has achieved it. Like you Fran or me. Like any. Only in the case of my sister much more accentuated. A life that runs parallel to what she actually lives.

     As girls, when we told each other our dreams, she said that one day she would have money, a lot of money, that she would not have to get up at night to go to the cows and that she would have servants who would serve her food and more food.

     My mother said of her that she was a young lady who had mistakenly been born in a house of poor people. Once he went ironically to her and exclaimed: who has seen a king keep pigs! In her case, a ‘queen’ keeping pigs and cows.

     Hope was —is— what in this land is called culillo de mal asiento. She was not satisfied with anything that she had to do and almost always made a fuss about any task assigned.

     And the truth is that she almost came to fulfil her dream. When she could, she left our parents' house and went to the big city; there she met a bank employee and began to enjoy a good life. But she got tired after a few years. After nine years of marriage, she asked her husband for a divorce because, she said, she was not in love with him anymore. Nine years, for Hope is an eternity. I wonder how she could stand so much.

     Their children spent a week with her and another with their father, and they continued in the same school because the parents thought they had already undergone changes with the separation and it was not advisable that they go to another school and another neighbourhood, where they would have to make new friends. He was the one who looked for an apartment for rent and she compensated him with the money they agreed to. At all times they sought a separation as friendly as possible.

     She has always wanted to live on the fat of the land, as they say. That sometimes happens and most of the time it does not. Hope —and her filthy of temper— has always wanted to do what she wanted to. For example, when we slept together and she kept the blanket and said that she did not want to, that she was asleep and I knew that it was not true, but that she did it on purpose.

     After a long time, a few days ago I received an email from her. If I'm honest, Fran, that my sister the wayward, write me from time to time gives me immense joy. It's not that I'm not happy that my other sisters remember me, but you'll understand that someone like Hope is a gift that surprises me a lot.

     She told me she had found a new partner, another one! And that they were going to get married.

     Oh, Hope.

     Y. a.

     Mary