Blood-drenched Beard

Someone calls his name, and he turns cautiously, afraid he won’t recognize the person. It is the twins, Tayanne and Rayanne, who are with their parents and another family of friends, to whom he is introduced as the girls’ swimming instructor. They have to speak up to be heard over the loud music, clamor of voices, and revving motorbikes. Gian and Giovani finish the concert and invite two girls from the audience up onto the stage with everyone watching. The girls are allowed to kiss the artists and are presented with Gian & Giovani towels. The group decides to get something to eat, and he accompanies them through the food stall circuit. There are hot dogs, steak rolls, sandwiches made with Lebanese bread, appetizing servings of French fries, and grilled sausage. The Pastoral Care for Children stall is selling fried pastries and skewers of meat. He buys some coconut candy from the Association of Parents and Friends of the Disabled stall. And there is still the entire dessert sector, with fried coconut shavings coated in brown sugar, coconut flans, chocolate and coconut fudge balls, cakes, star fruit, passion fruit, or apple compotes, handmade chocolates with nuts and wine, and a hugely popular delicacy known as “coconut delight.”

At some point in the evening, he catches sight of a silhouette without shoulders that can only belong to Bonobo. He is wearing red tracksuit bottoms and a white ski jacket and is drinking mulled wine with Altair and a bald guy who looks like a surfer. They are standing next to the small stage where, they tell him, a local street-dance group is about to perform. You’re going to be blown away by all the hotties, says Altair, who is sporting a shiny leather jacket and smoking a clove cigarette, puffing sweet-smelling smoke through his nostrils. The dance group performs an aggressive, eroticized dance that combines the aesthetics of tango with cinematically choreographed street-gang clashes in a mise en scène replete with simulated fights, seduction, and caresses, set to the sound of techno music. The dancers are wearing black and red skirts with slits up the side, fishnet stockings, jackets with flowers in the lapels, and hats. The girls really are beautiful, the men have athletic builds, the dance is vigorous and acrobatic, and the crowd applauds enthusiastically.

After the performance, the four of them head to a side street where the League of Women Against Cancer has set up a Mullet Feast tent. The fresh fish are baked over hot coals and served on clay roof shingles. A colorful buffet of side dishes is arranged on a real boat. They order two mullet and drink a few cans of beer while sitting at the plastic tables. The live performances end, and the tourists start returning to the vans and enormous buses that brought them there from all over the state.

The next morning he goes to check on Beta at the veterinary clinic. The operation went well, but Greice won’t allow visits yet and promises to call him when the time is right. He runs with the group on the beach early on the Friday morning, teaches swimming at the pool in the afternoon, picks up Pablo from school for the last time, and makes an online bank transfer to Bonobo from the Internet café. He spends Thursday and Friday nights at home in bed listening to the noise and music from the fair blending with the rhythmic wash of the waves under his window until well after midnight.

• • •

The fair heats up again on the Saturday night. He watches the interminable coming and going of groups of adolescents with their dramas, crushes, and scheming. In the blink of an eye, they oscillate between laughter and seriousness, between being full of attitude and staring off into space. Couples in love walk along, light and serene, rubbing faces and exchanging body heat, looking proud. Those who aren’t quite as in love are resigned, carrying out a necessary ritual, and there are also those who look as if they have been forced together and are merely fulfilling an obligation. Some parade their partners like trophies, proud to be holding hands, or have their arm around the shoulder of someone who anyone can see doesn’t desire them or just tolerates them. There is hatred between some couples. Most of the single men are adult fishermen and old men in dress clothes. They are wearing tailored pants and sweaters or even suits and hats. They walk with their heads up. They have earned the right to their air of authority. For older members of the community, the church fair is a pompous occasion, and they appear to be inspecting the habits of the younger generations. They drink at the counters of beverage stands or wander about, not really understanding what is going on. They don’t look flustered. Nothing would surprise them at this stage.