The Dead Girls

by Jorge Ibargüengoitia

  She used various names, being listed in the State of Mezcala Venereal Disease Registry as María de Jesús Gómez, María Elena Lara, Pilar Cardona, Norma Mendoza and, finally, under the name she kept until her death and by which she is remembered to this day: Blanca Medina. (The only reason she did not carry on the practice of changing her name any further, the Skeleton observes, was not because she wouldn’t have liked to, but because Dr. Arellano, who was in charge of the registry, became annoyed and told her quite angrily that this name-changing of hers had to stop.)

  The reason she assumed such a variety of names seems to be related to certain aspects of her personality which, despite its simplicity, had many facets. Those who knew her say that her great talent and the secret of her success lay in her capacity to instantly project qualities that each man expected, without his realizing it. This explains the contradictions in the accounts given by her admirers. She made one of them wait for her at the bar, alone, while she sat at a table, also alone, making believe that she was waiting for “a suitor” who did not exist and, of course, never arrived. Finally, feigning vindictiveness toward this man, she summoned the one at the bar, took him to her room and delivered herself in a kind of erotic catalepsy that he considered sensational. In contrast, with another man—a lawyer—she tore his necktie in the act of undressing him, pushed him violently back on the bed, and threw herself on top of him. He, likewise, was a satisfied customer.

  Some say she was an attentive listener who patiently heard out all the stories she was told no matter how long-winded they were. Others describe her as talkative. The Whoremaster, for example, says that each time he visited her over a period of several months, she related a new episode in a story she had made up. What most impressed the Whoremaster, however, was that simultaneously Blanca was telling a completely different story, also made up, to a friend of his who was frequenting her during this same period. On the other hand, a mining engineer who had been with Blanca just once relates that they had a memorable tussle lasting a couple of hours during which she did not utter a word.

  The other girls with whom she worked remember her with admiration and affection. Although she earned more than any of them, she aroused no envy. She would recommend the services of her less-favored companions, and if a good opportunity presented itself, she would not hesitate to stand aside. Nobody can recall her ever getting into a hair-pulling match with any of the girls out of jealousy or greed. She gave away clothing to the others that was still in good condition. The Baladros and the Skeleton adored her.

  It is known that Blanca felt inhibited about only one thing, her discolored teeth. This prompted her acquisition of the only luxury she ever permitted herself. After saving for years, she went to the best dentist in Pedrones who replaced her four upper incisors with gold teeth. Although Blanca’s appearance must have been changed by this innovation, it does not seem to have disfigured her at all. According to the Whoremaster, who knew her with her discolored teeth, without them—while she was waiting for the new ones to be put in—and with her gold teeth, he was not sure which way he liked her best. The glitter of gold only accentuated her exotic beauty: Blanca was black.

  3

  This is the story Blanca told the Whoremaster:

  Blanca says that one day while she was out for a stroll she sat down on a bench in the square. A man whom she thought very handsome walked by, and then he walked by again, and then again. Finally the man sat down on a bench across from hers and kept looking at her. Blanca went back to the house without his having ventured to speak to her. The next day, Blanca returned to the square and the same man passed back and forth, ending up by sitting down and looking at her again. On the third day, he approaches her, tells her he is a professional soccer player, and wants to know who she is. She tells him she is a waitress in a restaurant. He proposes marriage. She tells him that would be impossible because she has an invalid mother.

  Many episodes follow, in which the man, who insists on pursuing her, is about to discover her true profession. For example, he invites her to an oyster bar where, after having drunk several bottles of beer, she does things she can’t remember, and is later haunted by the fear that during her mental lapse she may have said, “What the hell, I’m a whore!” Or else, the man comes to the México Lindo with his teammates and she has to hide under a table, and so forth.

  The story ends on the night the Whoremaster comes to the cabaret and finds Blanca downcast, asks her why, and she tells him that the soccer player is dead. She then launches into a description, with a wealth of realistic detail, of a bloody highway smashup. Blanca never mentioned the soccer player again after that night and the Whoremaster could not bring himself to ask about him.

  4

  Her illness:

  In September, 1962—when the Plan de Abajo brothels were closed and all the girls were living and working at the México Lindo—Blanca discovered that she was pregnant. It was not the first time. As on previous occasions, she went to the Skeleton for help, who—according to her own statement—prepared an infusion of rue and wormwood leaves, which the patient drank hot, one cupful three times a day. This remedy, prepared many times before by the Skeleton and used with excellent results by the women who worked for the Baladro sisters, was considered infallible for inducing an abortion. Blanca took it for two months without effect, in view of which she decided to consult the Baladros. Serafina advised an operation and told her that she and her sister would pay for it.

  Dr. Arellano, whose signature appeared on a number of IOUs held by Arcángela, admits that he performed the operation in exchange for these IOUs after considerable urging by the sisters in the face of his warning that it was dangerous because of the advanced stage of the pregnancy. He operated on Blanca one day in November, with the Skeleton assisting. The operation was not completely successful, because the patient hemorrhaged profusely, which the doctor attributed to a hematological imbalance produced by the large quantity of rue and wormwood she had taken. He had to give her eight vitamin K injections before the bleeding finally stopped at eleven o’clock that night and everybody thought Blanca was saved. The doctor left the house after Arcángela turned the IOUs over to him. Serafina and Arcángela went down to attend to the cabaret and the Skeleton to supervise the rooms. The patient remained in her room, asleep. The next morning when the Skeleton opened the door and went in, carrying a glass of orange juice, she noted that Blanca’s features looked twisted. On closer inspection it was apparent that the entire left side of her body was paralyzed.

  Dr. Arellano refused to visit the patient. As a consequence, Serafina called in Dr. Abdulio Meneses, over the objections of Arcángela who was fearful of the cost and possible complications. He examined Blanca and after asking a number of bumbling questions with respect to how the illness started—which must have received even clumsier answers—decided that she should be moved to his private hospital for intensive treatment.

  Blanca was admitted on December 4, 1962 to the Sacred Heart Sanatorium, which had the reputation of being the best in the region. Serafina Baladro’s name appears on the admission record as Blanca’s closest relative and the person responsible for all bills. Several of the girls came to visit her on the fifth and the sixth and found her much improved; the Whoremaster brought her a bunch of red roses on the seventh and was unable—according to one of the nurses who was present—to control a grimace of horror at seeing her so deformed. Humberto was murdered on the eighth; the México Lindo was shut down on the tenth; and on the eleventh, Dr. Meneses, having decided that Blanca’s bill would never be paid, ordered treatment to be suspended and the patient discharged.

  The record of her discharge from the Sacred Heart Sanatorium gives the impression that the patient was picked up by relatives. (There is an illegible signature on the slip.) That same day, Blanca was admitted to the San Pedro de las Corrientes Municipal Hospital under the name of María Méndez—the only one she ever bore in her life that she herself had not invented—with no indication on
the admittance slip of next of kin or attending physician.

  The Whoremaster went to visit Blanca in January and the receptionist at the Sacred Heart Sanatorium informed him that the patient had been discharged and picked up by relatives. The Whoremaster assumed that Blanca must have recovered and was back with the Baladros, and so did not look for her any further. He felt certain that the sisters would soon reappear in a new place, either in San Pedro or some other town in the region and that, being one of their steadiest customers, he would be notified whenever that happened.

  The Baladros, however, in their distress over the death of Humberto, the closing down of the México Lindo, and the tumult of moving, forgot about Blanca for a time. When they finally remembered her, they took it for granted that she was still at the Sacred Heart Sanatorium—with a huge bill piled up that Serafina had assumed the responsibility for paying. This was the reason they made no attempt to visit her or to check up on how she was doing.

  Finally, in March, the Whoremaster had to make a trip to Concepción to collect a bill. (He is an automobile salesman.) After taking care of his business, in an upsurge of erotic nostalgia he decided to have a look at the outside of the Casino del Danzón. He left his car near the square, walked to Independence Street, and was standing before the sealed door when, to his surprise, the Skeleton, on her way to buy lard, came out of the adjoining house. They embraced like the old friends they were and the Skeleton told him two lies—that she was coming from a visit to an old acquaintance of hers, señora Benavides, and that the other girls were all living in Muérdago. When the Whore-master asked about Blanca, she told him that she was at the Sacred Heart Sanatorium.

  That is how it came out that Blanca had disappeared. As they were strolling together toward the butcher shop, the Whoremaster got the idea of notifying the police. The Skeleton begged him not to, and in explaining why it was necessary to be so discreet, she was compelled to tell him where the Baladros, she, and the other women were living. The Whoremaster agreed to hunt for Blanca on his own and if he found her to leave word by telephone at the taxi stand where Ladder worked.

  Three days after this conversation, the Whoremaster found Blanca in the first place he looked—the women’s ward of the municipal hospital. She did not even remotely resemble the woman he knew. Her mental faculties were impaired and her face so grotesquely distorted that it cost him an effort to believe it was she. The invalid’s speech was practically unintelligible because one side of her mouth was paralyzed.

  The Whoremaster was so upset by the experience that after notifying the Skeleton, as he had promised, he wanted to know nothing more of Blanca.

  5

  The Skeleton visited Blanca the next day. When the hospital superintendent noticed that the patient María Méndez had a visitor, he called the Skeleton aside, informed her that the woman’s condition was hopeless, and asked her to notify her relatives to come and take her away because other patients who could be helped were waiting for a bed.

  6

  The day after that, the Baladros arrived at the municipal hospital in Ladder’s car, signed the necessary papers, and took Blanca to the Casino del Danzón with them.

  According to the statements of witnesses, two of the women carried Blanca down from the room in the mornings to the yard, where they would leave her to bask in the sun curled up in a galvanized metal bathtub. Later on, they would carry her back up to her room. She was completely emaciated, her only food the gruels that the Skeleton prepared for her, and she gave no sign of understanding when she was spoken to and nobody understood what she said.

  In May, Arcángela—who was constantly complaining of how much it was costing her to feed all those mouths while nothing was coming in—decided that inasmuch as Blanca was unable to chew anyway, it would be just as well to remove her gold teeth and sell them to compensate in part for all the trouble she was causing. Arcángela entered Blanca’s room one morning with that intention and tried to pull out the teeth, but the invalid clamped her jaws shut so tightly that after a brief struggle she gave up the attempt.

  On July 5, the Skeleton took a trip to Pedrones to consult a famous healer, Tomasa X, on how to cure paralysis. It was Tomasa X who explained the treatment that is described below and which she recommended as being very effective. Back in Concepción, the Skeleton asked permission from her employers to attempt a cure and it was granted.

  (Several days went by when the Skeleton and various of the other women were busy preparing the mole that was to be the main dish at the celebration of the blessing of the farm.)

  The day of July 17 comes. Ticho wires the legs of three tables together to make them firm and places them in the middle of the cabaret, chosen by the Skeleton as the most appropriate place for applying the treatment. Having done this, Ticho leaves the house, having no idea what was to take place later on. At eleven o’clock, fires are kindled in two braziers which are set on either side of the tables. Marta, Rosa, Evelia, and Feliza, acting as the Skeleton’s assistants, place six flatirons to heat on the braziers. The Skeleton rubs the invalid’s body with a tincture of the bark of the cazaguate tree. The assistants tie the patient to the tables with two sheets. The Baladro sisters watch the treatment from the balcony of the cabaret. The assistants cover the patient’s body with a light flannel blanket. Marta, a pitcher of water in her hand, is in charge of wetting the blanket to which the Skeleton applies the hot irons; Rosa changes the irons as they cool off; Evelia and Feliza hold the patient down when she writhes.

  The prescription is the following: Apply hot irons to the dampened blanket on the patient’s paralyzed side until the blanket turns dark brown.

  In the beginning, it seemed as though the treatment was working. Not only were the invalid’s screams more coherent than her speech had been in the last few months, but it was also noted that when the irons were applied, she moved muscles that had been inert for a long time. Afterward, the invalid fainted. The women tried to bring her around by giving her Coca-Cola to drink, but it was impossible to make her swallow it, the liquid dribbling out between her lips. The Skeleton hesitated momentarily about whether or not the treatment should be continued. She decided to go on with it and kept applying the irons until the blanket turned dark brown as specified by señora Tomasa. They tried giving her Coca-Cola again, but without success. On lifting the blanket off the patient’s body they were surprised to see that her skin was stuck to the cloth.

  “Cover her up! Cover her up!” Serafina screamed from the balcony, they say.

  One of the women ran for another blanket. The others untied the invalid. After covering her, they carried her to her room and put her to bed. She did not regain consciousness. The girls and the Baladros stayed with her until midnight, the hour at which she stopped breathing.

  XI

  Various Views

  1

  María del Carmen Regulez states in regard to that day, that after breakfast the Skeleton told her and three of the other girls: “Go out for a walk. Take your time, stop in at the market, stay awhile and look over the vegetables. Don’t come back before five o’clock.” She gave each of them one peso for food.

  These orders surprised the girls, but they obeyed. As they were walking along Cuauhtemoc Street they went by a garage where three boys who knew them worked. On seeing them pass, the boys followed behind, “making vulgar remarks.” They kept on walking to the edge of town and then headed toward the reservoir where the boys caught up with them and “took advantage of them” behind some bushes. After having a bite to eat in the market, they walked around the square until it got to be five o’clock.

  When they returned to the Casino del Danzón, they went to the kitchen with the idea of notifying the Skeleton that they were back. There was no one there nor any signs of food, the fire had not been made, and there was no charcoal on the grates.

  María del Carmen went out to the yard to take in the clothes she had hung on the line. She noticed that Blanca’s tub was not under the lemon tree, but next
to the cabaret door, which was closed.

  When she returned to the kitchen she found several of the other girls who had also just gotten back. Eleven women went out that day—something that rarely happened.

  She says that when she got upstairs she heard voices in Blanca’s room and was very curious but did not dare go in because she thought she recognized the voices of the Baladros among them; that she stayed in her room for a while and then, on hearing a noise in the hall, opened the door a crack and saw Arcángela and the Skeleton walking toward the stairs; that she heard Arcángela say, “It was all your fault!”

  There was nothing but orange-leaf tea for supper that night. Several of the girls asked Feliza what had happened, but she would not say. The rumor began to circulate that Blanca had taken a turn for the worse. When she went up to her room—María del Carmen says—she noticed that the tub was no longer by the cabaret door.

  She says that she slept for a while but was awakened by hunger pangs. She heard voices and footsteps and she intended to get up to see what was happening, but fell asleep again.

  María del Carmen woke up early the next morning—she was hungry—and went down to the kitchen. The Skeleton had lit the fire and was fixing cracklings in green tomato sauce for Ticho’s breakfast. María del Carmen asked if Blanca was any worse and the Skeleton answered, “She got so bad we had to take her to the hospital again.”

  María del Carmen says that for several days she believed that what the Skeleton had told her was true.

  2

  Ticho states with reference to the events that took place that night and the day before, that, after tying the legs of the tables together and putting them where the Skeleton told him, he asked for permission to go to work. (After the México Lindo was closed, the Baladros stopped Ticho’s salary and he had to take odd jobs loading and unloading trucks and carrying goods.)