36- Everything changes and I am apart

—En el fondo, para nada. Pero puede comprobar ante, cualquier persona que se esforzó en conseguir algo. Hay gente que valora cuando un joven es voluntarioso.

—Démelo, entonces.

—Con mucho gusto. Yo conozco algunos jóvenes de su edad que cantan en el metro y piden limosna y muestran el certificado. Eso les ablanda el corazón a los pasajeros.

—¿Limosna, dice usted?

—No es lo óptimo, pero la necesidad obliga.

El funcionario rellenó el formulario con partes ya rutinariamente impresas, y luego estampó dos timbres de tinta con optimista energía.

—Le deseo buena suerte, señor Santiago.

—Se lo agradezco.

—¿Qué piensa hacer con el certificado?

—Lo que usted me dijo, caballero. Nada.

El joven se puso de pie, barrió con una mano algo de la viruta sobre el escritorio y la depositó sobre la cuenca de la mano izquierda.

—No se ha inventado nada más grande que el lápiz Faber número dos. ¿No es cierto, señor?

—Es el que recomiendan en los colegios.

—Si uno le afila bien la punta, puede lograr una caligrafía muy elegante. ¿Veo que usted no usa sacapuntas?

—Gillette, no más.

—¿Y por qué?

—Cumple dos funciones: afila la punta al lápiz y calma los nervios.

Date of the first Punic War, when did Hannibal invade the Iberian Peninsula after crossing the Alps, in what year did Julius Caesar die, how does an aristocratic government differ from an oligarchic one, what is the name given to saturated hydrocarbons, what is the name of the ketone with the formula CH3—CO—CH3, who translated the Bible into German, name three novels by Blasco Ibáñez, who was the mother of Emperor Charles V, who formulated the maxim "the imagination could not invent as many and as diverse contradictions as naturally exist in the heart of each individual", according to Husserl, what is the epogéphenomenological, who said "Zamora was not won in one hour", what chemical compound was the first transistor made of in 1948, in what year was the ceasefire signed that permanently divided the two Koreas, what was the name of the priestess in the Temple of Delphi who gave the oracles, what name is given to the plants of one of the two classes of phanerogams that have only one cotyledon in the seed, what is the relationship between Gandhi and the Aniristar massacre, "I am sure that he is guilty", is it a directive, assertive, declarative, compromissory, or expressive statement?; analyze the following communicative situation and mark the correct option: "A prominent journalist interviews the football player of the year and compares him to great players of all time like Pelé or Maradona." Who fulfills the role of emitter and receiver: a) The journalist is the emitter, and the football player, the receiver; b) football is the emitter, and the journalist, the receiver; c) the football player and the journalist interchange the roles of emitter and receiver; d) journalist, Pelé, and Maradona are the emitters and the football player is the receiver; e) none of the above. What do the Egyptian Anwar el-Sadat and the Israeli Menachem Begin have in common, what is the region called the Horn of Africa, how are the basic units designated when subatomic particles absorb or release energy, from what animal was insulin extracted, what is the effect called when carbon dioxide increases in the atmosphere, what novel begins with the phrase "Would I find the Maga?", what is a megatherium, how is the inflammation of the mucous membrane that lines the urethra designated? The questions and their possible answers were stones under Victoria Ponce's pillow. The memories of humiliation in the ballet teacher's studio stuck in her eyelids like real metal splinters. From the windows, she had been staring and the lesson continued perfectly naturally without her. The pain of that exclusion suffocated her. Santiago tried to cheer her up: tomorrow she would get money, and since there is no harm that doesn't bring good, she could concentrate during those hours on reviewing the subjects. Once the path to school was clear, we would see, together, he said, "the best way for you to become an artist at the Municipal Theater." He got on a bus with a broken exhaust pipe. Its emissions blended with the cold wind of the night and the poisonous formula set fire to her cheeks. The mother wasn't surprised to see her arrive early. After a few minutes, she placed a plate of pea soup with bacon pieces on the table and sat down to keep her company, taking off her black shawl with filigrees. Every now and then, she took a sip from a glass of red wine, and then ran the tip of her tongue over her lips. She once glanced at the turned-off television and stared at it for a while, as if there were cold drafts on the bus, and that she might have caught a cold. Her mother served her a glass of tap water and an aspirin. It was cold in all of Santiago's rooms. Something was happening in the city that made the walls suck the heat from the bodies and expel it outside. The plastic-covered armchairs were icy, the carpets had the same temperature as the cement. On the couch, Victoria piled up the books with the different subjects and flipped through them in an attempt to regain some vigor to make use of those hours. She wanted to visualize the committee that would subject her to the final test tomorrow, and when she succeeded, a tremor shook her body. She closed her eyes and pictured an image she remembered from the ballet La Bayadère: her image multiplied in an eternal flight into a forest.

Así, una y otra vez, se veía escapando por las calles de Santiago después de la vergüenza a la que la maestra la había sometido. ¿Por qué se había vuelto tan sensible? ¿Un par de noches de pasión con un chico conocido por sus errores y una carrera hacia el lago en un día lleno de pájaros y perros habían sido suficientes para abrirle un camino que le devolviera el entusiasmo?

Ángel Santiago había presenciado su fracaso en la puerta del estudio de ballet y solo pudo mirar y suplicarle a la maestra. Luego, la llevó abrazada hasta la parada de autobús, impidiendo que ella saliera corriendo desesperadamente debido al dolor. Con la garganta rasposa, logró reprocharle entre lágrimas rápidas que no había cumplido su promesa. Él le había dicho dos veces que encontraría una solución para el tema de la deuda y el ultimátum que la maestra le había planteado. Sin embargo, al final, sus promesas parecían haber sido consumidas por la impotencia. Juntó las manos sobre su pecho en un gesto de oración que había conservado desde su infancia. Pero al igual que en otras noches, no rezó a nadie, no pidió ayuda divina, no invocó a su ángel guardián, no le dijo nada a la pequeña figura de la Virgen María sobre el pedestal. Ángel Santiago le había gritado desde la calle, cuando el vehículo ya se había ido, que al día siguiente temprano iría al colegio con el dinero para la maestra. ¿Lograría cumplir esto o solo estaba presumiendo?