Gaspar woke up before Vicky and Adela, and from the sofa bed he heard Lidia Peirano talking in low tones while she got Virginia, her younger daughter, ready for school. The girl was sniveling, still half asleep. Despite the cold, Gaspar didn’t stay curled up under the blanket; he put on his pants and ran to the bathroom. Then he went into the kitchen and had breakfast with Lidia and Virginia before they left for school. The little girl was still yawning and sniffling; I think she’s about to catch a cold, Lidia told him. She’s really cranky.

Gaspar folded up the sofa bed where he’d slept, loaded the sheets in the washing machine, and waited to see if either Vicky or Adela would appear, but the door to the room where the girls were sleeping was shut, and he heard only silence. He stayed over at Vicky’s pretty often: if it got late, they always invited him to sleep there. Sometimes he forced the invitation if he noticed his father was in an especially bad mood, or if Esteban was visiting, like last night. He preferred to leave them alone. It was less common for Adela to spend the night at Vicky’s, but her mom had supposedly gone to a friend’s wedding; the party was at a country house far away, and she’d be back late. But Adela didn’t believe that. I think she has a boyfriend, she’d said, annoyed. Adela still held out hope her father would come back.

But Adela and Vicky didn’t wake up, and Gaspar left without seeing them. It was early and he could walk to school quickly, so he passed by his house first. Esteban’s car was gone. Had he left alone? He didn’t have time to go in and check. Several times, Gaspar had seen the way his father and Esteban caressed each other distractedly, and once he’d even found them sleeping together, naked. That time he’d gotten scared: it seemed to him, from the things he’d heard, that it must be illegal for a man to have a boyfriend, and they could be arrested. But he looked into it and learned that they couldn’t. People are very prejudiced, Vicky’s mom had told him, they can’t stand people living freely. But it’s not illegal. He realized that if people at school or around the neighborhood found out, they would tease and bully him forever for being the son of a fag. Gaspar was willing to put up with it, though. Sometimes he thought that if Esteban moved in with them and they kept it a secret, things could improve. Esteban seemed capable of dealing with his father—not of controlling him, but at least he was someone Juan listened to. His father had various reactions to Esteban; at times he seemed calmer, and Gaspar could see how even his shoulders relaxed and he slept better; but sometimes, especially after Esteban left, he would lock himself in or have fits of fury or do irrational things, like cover the terrace with sharp shards of glass (last year) or make Gaspar always keep the lights off, even in the kitchen and bathroom (starting last summer, and still in force); or else he’d disappear for several days, leaving money on the table with a short note that gave no information and that terrified Gaspar: what would happen if he didn’t come back? What if he never saw his father again?