Caray, Caray!

Capítulo 137

Alfonso (what is with all these characters being named with Al derivatives?), aka Fonzie, asks Maricruz to tell him about her life. He asks if she’s married. MC confesses that she was once, but that fate was the cause of her separation from her man. Fonzie says he doesn’t believe in fate. MC doesn’t really want to go there and he decides to leave sleeping dogs lie. He’s got an appointment with his fiancée, anyway. Yes, he admits, despite the times they are a changin’ when it comes to families choosing marital mates for their children, his wealthy parents apparently are slow adapters. The pretty little rich girl they picked out for him, he complains, is the DF poster child for Valley Girls R Us, and he’s not looking forward to getting hitched.




Fonzie’s parents are introduced to us with a discussion of how Mama says their son couldn’t be marrying into a finer family and Papa grumbling that the marriage will be an unhappy one cuz Sonny simply isn’t into Mexican Valley Girls like the one she’s pushed onto him.

In another part of the city, Simona, gets word from her brain surgeon, Danilo, that things are progressing well enough that she’ll be going home in another week or so. The unexpected bonus with that surgery, apparently, is that the doc managed to turn off the bitch switch while removing her tumor. Dr. Dan, besides being brilliant at fixing broken brains it turns out, is also a great psychological therapist and rebuilds broken hearts on the side. (Who knew? She got a two-fer.) He’s listened all these weeks to Salmona’s whole sad story of her miserable marriage during her recuperation. He knows her past and what she’ll be returning home to: unrequited love from the man she married. Salmona and Dr. Dan discuss their vision of true love. The doc, with his emotive hand-holding verging on the professional misconduct borderline, answers in his obtuse way, that (whatever it is for him) she has shown him what love for a woman should be.

The twist, explains Salmona, is that she’d rather not have to return home and if it weren’t for Tavito, nothing would hold her there. Whatever angst or jealousy she felt towards Octavio or the woman he’d given up when marrying her instead, simply isn’t there any longer. Since the surgery, her angst regarding her husband’s affection—or rather, his lack of affection for her—no longer bothers her, despite having loved him since they were children in grade school. In fact, he’s no longer important to her at all! No. All she really cares about is getting back to tend to her little son. Dr. Dan suggests then that if the man is in love with another, then she ought to give the guy his freedom and move on with her life. She smiles and does not argue.

The next day, after modeling for Fonzie and leaving for the elevator, Fonzie’s BFF opens his sexist, male chauvinist piggy mouth to comment that she’s probably in hawg heaven modeling for Mr. Rich and I’m Too Sexy For My Shades Alfonso. However, he winks and snickers, she shouldn’t figure she’s caught him or anything, since this is how the guy plays it with all his sexy models to get what he wants from her, which isn’t just a pretty face to paint.

MC goes home to tell Juanita she’s not going back to the high paying modeling/house-keeper job. It’s a trip through the want-ads starting tomorrow morning--and oh, please send a note to Octavio to let him know where they’re staying in the city.

A few days later, Fonzie complains to said BFF that he’s upset that Maricruz quit her job without a word. He hasn’t heard from her and never got her address or her phone number. (Dope!) BFF plays dumb and doesn’t mention their discussion in the hallway that last day, but hints that Fonzie was probably upset at not getting his jollies from her “modeling” any longer for him. Fonzie tells him it was nothing like that.

Time passes and Salmona is being discharged the next day or two. She tells Dr. Dan that she’s going to miss him. He’s become such a fixture in her life that she doesn’t know what she’ll do without him. He complains that while she’s going back to a her old life it’s with a new attitude, he is stuck with surgeries and patient reviews. He has nothing else in his life and knows there’s more. She asks him to come for a quick visit with her to see her ranch for a change of pace. He agrees.

Jose Antonio and Esther disagree about what Octavio will do once Simona returns from her surgery. He's certain Tav will follow Maricruz to the ends of the earth, but Esther thinks he's too attached to the life of luxury Simona offers. JA knows, along with Viewerville, that Esther's got the two brothers' personalities confused. Miguel, definitely would stay put, but Octavio, nuh-uh.

MC interviews with Fonzie’s Mama for a position as a companion. She lies about her personal situation in order to get the job. Mama tells her to wear an elegant dress for the opera they’ll be attending then next night.

The same day, Octavio receives a letter/telegram? from Salmona in which she advises she’ll be arriving the next morning but will not need them to pick her up in town. Ofelia’s pleased that the lady of the house will be returning. Picking up after men in the house must have gotten to be a drag for Awfulia. With a cured lady of the house back and in charge, life should undoubtedly return to normal. On the other hand, Miguel’s not happy about that since Tav will be packing his bags and moving on while he and Miguelito, will be left out on the street with nothing and nowhere to go.

Meanwhile, Nazario is shootin’ the bull with Blind Girl’s alcoholic daddy. He means to settle the score with Miguel Narvaez for killing his brother. Twinsebio says he’s waited long enough to do what he came there for. Miguel Narvaez is a dead-man walking!

When Salmona returns and arrives back at the ranch, she’s got a surprise guest with her, the brain surgeon that saved her life. Migui and Tav note how the two are doing a lot of affectionate hand-holding, oblivious to the people around them. They exchange knowing glances as Salmona fawns all over Dr. Dan and Dr. Dan goes all “Aw, shucks!” on her. To everybody’s surprise, she even goes as far as suggesting she’ll build a surgical hospital in town if he’ll do the brain surgery and run the place for her.

Afterwards, Tav tells Migui that this is the answer to all their problems—at least, to his—since Salmona’s obviously fallen in love with her doctor. He's going to talk with her later today and tell her he’ll be leaving tomorrow to follow Maricruz to the DF. Miguel reminds Tav they’ll both be left without a centavo to their name. Tav figures he'll ask to keep Miguel on long enough to find something else for himself to do. Miguel doesn’t think he can and is pissed about his bro abandoning him—but then, as Viewerville notes, if he were anything but a resentful, scheming, and lazy slug, Tav wouldn’t have had to carry the load for the two of them in the first place.

Tav has to wait until the following day to speak to Salmona. She tells him she also wants to have a serious chat with him. Before he gets to say his spiel, she comes out and tells him she wants a divorce. All she wants is to have custody of their son. Tav just wants his freedom back--except he asks if she'd be kind enough to allow Miguel a month or so to find another job and place. Salmona has only good thoughts about Migui and says of course she can do that for him. Tav is relieved that it’s all been her idea to divorce and grateful just to be free again. He tells her he’ll accept the divorce on whatever terms she requests.

Miguel, meanwhile, has gone off to the back forty to look after things while Tav has his overdue divorce talk with Samona. Twinsebio is drunk as a skunk and meaner than a junkyard dog when he spies Miguel in the fields. The ranch hands watch the deadly encounter from a distance as he pulls his gun against Miguel and calls him out. Migui says he thought they’d settled that a while ago. Twinsebio says he had his fingers crossed and he’s gonna make him pay for gunning down his twin brother, Eusebio.

Miguel hasn’t got a gun and tells Twinsebio that. However, Viewerville figures Migui used to be the type of kid who enjoyed knocking down wasp nests and banging on beehives, cuz he tells Twinsebio that Ewwy was a scoundrel for trying to rape his wife and deserved to die. Twinsebio yells back in a fit of self righteous rancor that Lucia was loose, probably led Ewwie on, and no doubt was asking for it when he found the two of them together. Migui shouts at him not to dirty his wife’s memory that way. Twinsebio lets lose with two bullets to the chest and Migui drops to the ground while Twinsebio sneers over him.

Tav and Simona’s discussion is cut short when Offalia comes racing into the room screaming for Tav that Don Miguel’s in a bad way. They all race to the pasture where Tav finds his brother bleeding to death and no time to save him. Miguel has just enough breath left to tell him it was Nazario who shot him and to get Tav to promise he’ll take care of Miguelito and to ask to be buried on their old ranch. Tav cries to the heavens over the death of his brother. (I suggest looking downward and crying in the opposite direction. After all, it is Miguel who just died.)

The funeral is held the next day practically. Tav takes charge of Miguelito—who is cuter than a bug in a rug. It's now going to be just the two of them. “—¡Sí, Tío!”

Back in Mexico City that night, Fonzie shows up at the manse, complaining to his mama that he’s got to attend the opera with her and keep two old fuddy-duddy dames company for the evening. Mama says not exactly. The doorbell buzzes. He answers the door and waddayaknow! It’s Maricruz dressed in a beautiful, simple red silk and gauze number. Cara de OMG! it’s you! de M/C and Fonzie.

Labels: Indomable