I knew Clemencia well enough to know that she didn’t give a damn what the habitants of the house ate. I couldn’t believe it; she was defending the cockroaches. But Isabel, who somehow hadn’t realized whose side her mother was on, kept insisting, over and over, that it was the only way to defeat them. I once saw a program on TV about how insects get rid of each other. The best way to finish off a species is to let another one eat it. Isabel was right and the results spoke for themselves.

Days later, as I kept her company while she smoked one of her unfiltered Delicados, Clemencia spoke to me about the cockroaches, with obvious admiration.

“Those animals were the first inhabitants of Earth and even if the world were to end tomorrow, they would survive. They are the memory of our ancestors. They are our grandparents and our descendants. Do you realize what it means to eat them?”

Clemencia was not joking with that question. The kinship seemed invaluable to her. I told her that Isabel and I weren’t trying to exterminate the entire species, we just wanted them out of the house.

“Besides there’s nothing wrong with eating insects!” I exclaimed, using Isabel’s words. “They sell them in the market.”

Clemencia remained silent, and as she did she looked at me, accusingly and full of resentment. “Nobody, except for you people, eats cockroaches. But in this life we must pay for all we do. Don’t be surprised by your bad luck.”

I returned to my room terrified by the old woman’s threat. I’d already seen how her crazy predictions come true.

Friday morning my aunt came to school to bring me home. I asked her if something bad had happened but she only shook her head no. She looked so serious that I didn’t dare ask anything else. We rode the entire way in silence. In the foyer I recognized my mother’s coat. From the living room came the diffused, peculiar scent of her dark cigarettes. I was surprised by how outdated her clothes looked. In the months I’d spent in that housing complex I had gotten used to the sheen of middle-class clothing and spotless furniture.