I picked up the telephone and rang him and told him I was having problems. He said that he would come around and see me. As I waited I became more depressed. I knew that I should not have done it. His face looked flushed when he arrived. I told him that taking the second check was difficult. I wanted to give him the check back, or tear it up. Don’t touch it, he said, one-quarter of that money is going to the very top. Did he mean Menem, I asked. No, not Menem, he said, not Menem, but not far away from him. Your application, he said, is completely above board. It was seen by the most senior people, and it was agreed. I have a form which says that the trucks we ordered arrived and the crude oil was transported as agreed from point A to point B. This is why the check has been issued. Everything is above board. You are entitled, he said, to withdraw any money in cash you please from the bank without any questions being asked. Go ahead and deposit it, he said, pointing at the check, deposit it today. I don’t have time to waste like this, he said. Just deposit it and let me know when you’re going to hand over the cash. He stood up and walked out. He had left his cigarettes on the desk. As soon as he had gone, I walked down to the bank and deposited the check.

SUSAN’S AMERICAN FRIEND rang me in the office a few days later. He was called Charles and he sounded nervous. I was sorry that I had not asked Susan to describe him in more detail. I must have sounded less than encouraging because he wondered if it would be better to ring me some other time. I said that we should meet, and that I was usually free. He was busy all this week, he said, but he would have time on Saturday. For the next few days I put Pablo out of my mind, and I thought about Charles—six feet tall, he said, with dark hair and brown eyes. I was going to meet him in the bar of the Sheraton at eight o’clock on Saturday night. Suddenly, I found that it was not difficult to transfer all the longing I felt about Pablo to this American whom I had never seen and to whom I had only briefly spoken. I realized that I was desperate for someone. I felt uneasy about this, and vulnerable. I had always believed that I was self-contained, happier alone.