Chapter 3

My Father’s Morals

My father asked me, as always, if everything was fine. I climbed down quickly. I didn’t want Solange to find me up on the tank. She was so stupid she probably still thought the world revolved around her, and she would surely think I had climbed up there to spy on her. She was egocentric and stupid.

I remember that time when I checked the tank for the first time, when my father shouted up at me in case I couldn’t hear him…

“Henry! Did you check?”

I still remember my father’s voice.

The last thing I wanted back then was for anyone to see me. Solange would scream and accuse me of spying on her.

Now I think the same, but back then I had more shame, because that was exactly what I was doing. I was spying on her, but unintentionally, because it had been pure chance that I climbed up to check the tank while she was there, almost naked, sunbathing.

At that moment, I didn’t answer my father. I was only looking at the delicious body of that very unpleasant girl. I climbed the last two steps and uncovered the tank, trying not to make any noise so they wouldn’t see me.

I did make some noise, but they didn’t look.

It must have been because of the music they were playing at such a loud volume.

The tank was clean, but the float had fallen. That was the problem. I hadn’t remembered what had happened until now…

My father kept insisting from below. Why couldn’t he wait until I came down to know what the problem was?

I didn’t answer him. I only gestured for him to wait. I think he understood, because he didn’t ask anything else.

I pretended I was checking something, but I couldn’t stop looking at Solange.

I remember everything as if it had happened yesterday…

Roxanne turned onto her stomach, and Solange grabbed a tube of sunscreen or something like that and rubbed it over her friend’s back. I even remember that my unfriendly neighbor was kneeling, provocative, as if she wanted to turn me on, except I believed she hadn’t seen me…

She spread the cream over her friend’s back and then over her ass, doing it without the slightest shame.

“With that ass of yours, Oski is going to lose his mind tonight. Wear the white miniskirt.”

I heard her say it, and I’m amazed because I even remember their conversation. They were speaking loudly, probably because of the volume of the music.

Roxanne didn’t answer her.

But she tied her swimsuit and now she was the one rubbing cream on Solange’s back.

She didn’t reach her ass. That was where I would’ve liked to rub it…

“Come down!”

My father told me, because I was taking too long.

I covered the tank, trying not to make any noise.

When I climbed down two steps, Solange looked toward where I was. She did it with a smile and started laughing.

The brat had realized I was looking at her.

That little dance had been so I would watch her.

I felt like an idiot.

She was a…

She didn’t have even the slightest bit of shame.

I was sure she was going to think I liked her.

Yes, I admit that… I liked her.

I had never seen her as a woman before. She couldn’t have even been seventeen. Compared to my twenty-two, she was a child… with tits and an ass I could spend all day on.

But I discovered that that day.

I finished climbing down and told my father that the float had fallen, that we would have to buy a few, and that a plumber could change it.

“No, you can do that.”

“Have you lost your mind?”

I asked my father, stunned.

“It’s true that we can call the plumber, but it’s easy to change, and you can do it without any problem. It’ll take you five minutes.”

“Why?”

My father used to think that a man had to know how to maintain a house.

“So you learn how to take care of a house and don’t depend on anyone.”

“If we have money and I work, I can pay whatever professional I need.”

“Son, you never know the turns life can take, and it costs you nothing to learn how to make small repairs around a house.”

I didn’t agree, and I told him so, but he insisted and asked me to go with him to the hardware store. It was four blocks away, and when I was grabbing the car keys, my father told me we were going to walk.

I thought he had completely lost his mind.

“You need to value everything we have and learn to be less pretentious and egocentric.”

I didn’t feel egocentric, and my expectations were valid. At least, that was what I believed at the time.

I almost had my law degree. I was only missing one course, and within my father’s network of companies, I was already standing out, and not because I was his son.

I pushed myself every single day, and everything my father was saying seemed unnecessary to me.

I went with my father to the hardware store. I couldn’t believe so much nonsense from him.

He went on talking about values and many other foolish things.

At least, back then, that was how I saw it.

When we were coming back, he told me I was arrogant with our employees and even with the neighbors. He said it because Solange happened to be leaving her house with her friend, and she, strangely enough, greeted my father. I didn’t answer her because she said:

“Good afternoon, sir.”

It was obvious that “sir” wasn’t meant for me.

She must have said it to show that she was greeting my father and not me. She was a rude little brat… who had driven me insane when I saw her almost naked and dancing shamelessly, because those bursts of laughter had been because they realized I was watching them.

That bothered me and humiliated me.

“I have no intention of greeting that rude little brat.”

I told my father.

“What did she do to you that you even deny her a greeting?”

“She greeted you, not me!”

My father smiled.

“You’re more childish than she is!”

“No, I’m a man, and she’s… she’s the rude one.”

“Henry, enough nonsense. You’re lowering yourself to the level of a child. Truly, son, grow up, please. You’re practically a lawyer, and as you say, you’re a man. At the very least, you can greet the neighbors. Values and manners…”

“Enough, Father! I greet the neighbors. I just can’t stand Solange, and I’m not going to greet her. My greeting has value, and I give it to whoever deserves it.”

My father didn’t agree with my words, but I didn’t agree with his either.

Years have passed since that conversation, and I still think more or less the same… I can’t stand Solange, and on the other hand… she’s as sexy as she was before…

No, she isn’t like before. She’s much better than before, but she is still a conceited woman…

She is too beautiful not to be. Daphne, who is beautiful without being as striking as Solange, can sometimes be unbearable in the way she behaves, even though life slapped her in the face regarding Axel’s illness and our marriage, which practically no longer exists, and also financially, because I’m sure that every day she thinks I’m going to throw her out.

From the moment I found out I wasn’t Axel’s father, Daphne moved into another room, and there are many nights when I don’t come home to sleep.

Once in a while, I had sex with my wife again. She believed we could fix our marriage…

That will never happen. The sex happened because she is undeniably a beautiful woman and she was there. I didn’t need to go out looking for company. However, my contempt for her is deep, and she doesn’t manage to satisfy me when we do it.

Her betrayals were many.

My brother arrived at my parents’ house. He had also come to help with whatever they might need. My mother always receives him very warmly, just like she does me. However, my father sometimes treats him with a certain distance, though he tries to hide it.

“Solange is here!”

My brother exclaimed it as if it were a matter of great importance. It even seemed to me that he said her name with a certain affection.

If he likes her, he’s lost, because she’s with someone. I saw that guy kiss her myself.

In any case, it’s not as if she thinks of Rick as anything more than a friend, assuming she feels the same fondness for him that my brother shows for her.

“Yes, your mother invited her parents. We’ve been neighbors for thirty years, and there’s a certain friendship between us. Their children are coming too.”

At that moment, he looks at me and points his finger at me.

“I know you don’t like Solange. I hope you behave.”

“Don’t treat me like a child. I simply think she’s rude, but don’t worry. If I have her in front of me, I’ll greet her, and I’ll do it only for Mom.”

My brother looked at me, opened his mouth, and then closed it without saying anything.

I think he gets along well with our neighbor…

I saw them talking many times when we were teenagers. However, he has nothing to say, because he knows nothing about that night…

Many years have passed since that moment.