What Men Don't Understand Read online

  "You have to come right now Hugo. I can't take it anymore. I choked ... The neighbor is here ...

  "Don't you get it, bitch?”, she heard from a woman's voice. "Leave him alone! He left you long ago, but you played dumb. He's with me now, bith. Don't you ever call back."

  The phone slipped from her hands and fell on the floor. The door opened slowly. They were coming in crawling. She backed up to the balcony. Sibi, by the threshold, was a black silhouette, but two small glares pointed her cold and clear eyes. Inma relized how stupid she had been. On her desperation, she didn't think about making an emergency call. The phone was already surrounded by snakes. The python, which had already tasted her sweat and blood, was coming back to get her. Inma peered into the garden. Four floors were too high. Then, without thinking, she passed over the railing and grabbed the fir branch that reached her balcony. It began to creak under her weight. First one hand, then the other. She dropped her feet and swung further. Her palms were hurting but she continued plaintively. At times she could get one leg hooked also at the branch, but soon it would loosen. She managed to look back for a moment. The python was already perched on the branch and glided toward her with devilish easiness. Inma quickly, ignoring the pain of her injuried hands and her exhaustion, moved faster this time. Blood and sweat made her slip. She barely had time to fell vertigo in her stomach. Then an impact, suddenly damped. Her body was covered with scratches, but she was over a hedge, and surely she had descended enough before falling down. Sibi was still on the balcony, but quickly turned away. She was going to get her. The snake had barely reached the floor. Inma ran. Limping, she reached the doorway and then hit the streets. There was no one, not even a car passing by. As fast as she could, she stumbled up the next corner. A taxi was passing. Inma threw herself on the street. The tires squealed to be just a few inches from her. She heard the angry voice of the driver. To Inma it sounded like a chorus of angels.

  The theory of love

  Romantic comedies carried the day, fortune tellers filled their offices, internet chats overflowed with unbearable loneliness, and on weekends, bars and clubs, flooding in alcohol, perpetuated miseries of singleness again. We have been nurtured to love, programmed to feel fulfilled only if we have a special one, driven to a search filled with dissatisfaction and failed attempts. We believe in love. We have no choice. And we look away from lovelessness, that still slaps us with impunity. But nothing prepared us for what happened. It was something totally unexpected. Unimaginable. When it was published in the most prestigious science journals, and then jumped to the news, we were so shocked that at first we refused to believe it, but curiosity got even to the most skeptical. In front of the television, we heard a thousand times from all channels the statements that Dr. Herbert P. Morehouse made exclusively for CNN. That man, who might look like an expert on anything but love, with cold confidence and incomprehensible graphics behind him, said categorically that he had found a reliable scientific technique to find the perfect match for each of us.

  Dr. Morehouse, an authority on quantum physics and molecular biology, who had achieved great prestige some years back, with some surprising findings based on the uncertainty principle, claimed that humans possess a latency emitted by our brains, and projected very subtle by our cells. In a laboratory at Cornell University, with a strange and immense device, like one of those MRI machines, but on steroids, Dr. Morehouse had managed to capture such latency in several spectroscopic images, that was shaped as an aura around the subject tested. This aura, different for each person, identified a number of features more similar to an astral chart than to a scientific analysis. Dr. Morehouse said that people with complementary auras were compatible at 97.3%.

  The day after the statements the headlines didn't talk about anything else, and satiric cartoons in the newspapers were crazy funny. Everyone had an opinion about it, but beyond that, there was a big concern about what the discovery was going to sink a business that moved billions worldwide: the business of love. What movie would tell now about a random encounter that becomes a romance, if a machine was able to save the anguish and suffering of frustrated expectations? What pythoness would unfold her client's fears about a future partner, when Dr. Morehouse's theory tells us to abandon any fear about the other person because we'll understand it's mind almost as if we'd read it? Fortune-tellers had a dark future, but they deserved it for not having foreseen what hit them.

  On the contrary to what it seemed at first, Dr. Morehouse theories were confirmed by the scientific community, and ratified the following year with a brand new Nobel prize. Those who claimed that it was all a farce had to be silent. However people felt some nostalgia, because although they got the desired love, they also got it at the cost of losing the romance.

  Dr. Morehouse said it had to be that way. Nobody is forced to examine his aura and include it in the huge database, where it was collated with others to find their ideal partner. But who could resist? In fact, even the most stable couples tried it, and when most of them learned about their incompatibility, they broke up to find harmony in his complementary aura.

  Those who were enrolled in matrimonial agencies, moved their applications to the long waiting lists to perform an aura analysis in private clinics.

  Health insurances flatly refused to pay the expense of a aura analysis, what it deems a medical expense, even though sociological studies affirmed that a country of people in love and visibly happier, would lower the risk of many other diseases that come from stress, anxiety and depression.

  But it wasn't that simple. There were people who could not locate an additional aura easily, and sometimes, to find a mate, had to go to Germany, Canada or anywhere in the database that had located the proper aura, although that added some romanticism over the meeting. But usually, in cities like Madrid or Barcelona, it was possible to find someone compatible, because usually there were several auras harmonizable per person. Thus, many even could choose among several candidates or candidates, as appropriate.

  The meetings were very strange and exciting. Special places were arranged, so when a person was about to finally meet the ONE, would feel at ease. Several psychologists would prepe them talking first about what the other person was like, next a photograph of the other was showed, and then they were invited to speak and hear each other voices through an audio device. When at last the two were face to face, the air seemed to release sparks. The surprises were constant, the theory of love put together people who would never have looked to each other on the street. Dr. Morehouse said that that happened, because we usually make an image of the person we would like to have on our side, but that image does not usually concur with what we really need, that's why until then so many couples had failed. Dr. Morehouse said also that often the first stages of cohabitation among compatible people were not always to be idyllic, but rather the contrary. Sometimes the socioeconomic and cultural differences were huge, and they had to adapt. If a person had more than a complementary aura, the database would decided by choosing the closest one to the applicant in the social scale. But when faced with problems, couples seemed to fight for their relationship in a way that has never been seen before, despite the drawbacks and differences arising everywhere. A few fell apart, but it was a bitter situation that occurred in isolated cases, and with any luck, they tried again in another compatible person's aura.

  The church, which originally had maintained a skeptical attitude, when it saw that couples were stabilized and created families, wisely stopped and turned to consecrate marriages right and left.

  In a talk show a philosopher argued: since man lost his faith in God to find it in science, marriages are again what they were hundreds of years ago, an unbreakable bond. Before they were arrangements between families, now it's decided by a dumb machine.

  This is not happening to me

  When the subway car doors opened, Rafa stepped out pushed by the maelstrom of squashed people, usual these early hours. A few meters he got to the bottleneck formed before th
e escalators. Despite the neat and pleasant appearance of all those people who were going to work in the business area of the city, their behavior resembled rather to savages.

  Suddenly he saw his friend Antonia standing still against the wall. The strength of the human stream had pushed her to a corner from which it was impossible to access the escalator. With dozens of people flowing against him, Rafa fought against the tide trying to approach her. Antonia's eyes were wide open, showing her terror, and as they met Rafa's eyes, they were filled in tears.

  When he finally arrived, they hugged each other without saying a word. Rafa embraced her with his arm, made his way through the crowd and finally got to the stairs. Antonia wore her sunglasses to hide her tears.

  “What were you doing there?”, Rafa said. “Didn't we arrange to meet upstairs?”

  “I do not know”, said Antonia still confused. “People started coming and I stayed there.”

  “You didn't have breakfast, right?”

  “Of course not.”

  “And how your stomach?”

  “Awful, but is my least concern now.”

  Once outside, they walked slowly and Rafa kept talking.

  “I'm sure you didn't sleep at all.”

  “Very little, but I wish I wouldn't sleep at all, I had horrible nightmares.”

  “I can imagine...”

  Antonia knew that Rafa wanted to talk to ease the situation up, and she answered him knowing that it was useless. She felt that she could lose her temper again at any moment, as it had happened in the subway.

  At last they arrived, somehow reluctant, to the lobby of a building. Above the door, a discreet sign said simply: Clinic

  They gave her name to the receptionist and they were shown into an empty waiting room. It was very early.

  They sat down, and after about ten minutes a woman with downcast eyes arrived. She muttered a "good morning" without raising his eyes and sat across the room. Soon came a man carrying some papers and sat with her. All were silent. A few minutes later a nurse came and called Antonia by her name and last name. With a shift in her heart she stood up to follow the nurse, but suddenly she became terrified and looked at Rafa. Then she looked at the nurse, and back to Rafa.

  “Don't worry”, said the nurse. “Now we'll just do some tests.

  While Antonia was away, more women in panic kept arriving with poorly disguised expressions, accompanied by men, and sometimes, other women. When Antonia came back, the room was almost packed.

  “What happened?”, Rafa said.

  “I have been asked a couple of things and I had a sample blood taken to analyze. I have been told that they'll perform on me an ultrasound to confirm ...

  “Sure...”

  Antonia was suddenly surprised seeing so many people around. Women from any social class were gathered there. Despite having more than fifty people in the room, there was a deathly silence. After the woman who came after them, the rest of the people had entered the room without greeting or looking, as if this situation was more common for those who were already waiting, as for those who entered. The silence of the room with open windows was interrupted now and then with the chirping of morning sparrows and the sound of people passing by the street. They were on the first floor, and they could hear everything going on outside. Nearby, there was the sound of some women chatting. The peculiar sound of small plastic wheels on the sidewalk revealed the baby stroller pushed by one of them, and suddenly, the cry of a baby came sharp and clear in the room. The faces of women in the room twisted in a more horrible grimace of pain and guilt (if that was even possible).

  After a while they called Antonia. But this time she went a little calmer, knowing it would be only for the ultrasound.

  Women started watching Antonia when they realized she was the first, and everything she was doing, it would come about to the others later.

  Rafa was too nervous to read boring magazines so he observed discreetly people around. There was a mulatto woman very attractive, stunning. She was by herself. Rafa ventured to think she was a prostitute. A young Chinese woman was accompanied by her mother. There was another girl, very discreet, who was unable to conceal her origin; everything from the pose to the clothes, or the high ponytail, gave away her upper status. Beside, her boyfriend was well dressed, as if he had escaped the law firm to go be with her.

  There were three people of Romanian origin. A couple that would be about forty, and a another woman who seemed the wife's friend or relative. No one would understand what they were saing in Romanian, but still they talked to their ear very quickly in a low voice. The husband was wearing a track-suit and had overweight. She was also obese, dressing in gray and black, with no makeup and her hands were spoiled from hard work. Suddenly, the other woman whispered urgently in her ear, and the wife was slightly altered. She glanced furtively around at her and, with some effort, pulled the wedding ring finger. When she put it in the bag her face showed a sigh of relief.

  There were also South American women ,and girls who were quite young, accompanied by friends. Antonia returned.

  “What happened?”, Rafa asked.

  “Nothing, after the ultrasound they confirmed I'm... Next they'll call me to see a psychologist.”

  “And what are you gonna say? You're supposed to explain your reasons or something. Right?”

  “I don't know, I will say I can't have it and that's it. I'm not ready and could not keep it economically. Anything ... I'll say anything...”

  Antonia was feeling thick headed. She had had very little sleep during the last week and too many thoughts collapsing her. It was more than anyone could take. Even there, in the clinic, in the process, she kept asking herself how was it possible that she had become pregnant. It could only have been that night, nearly three months ago, with a man she met at a nightclub. She didn't answered his phone calls in the following days. She was thirty-three, she had had many intercourses during her life, and she had always been very careful. However it had happened, and many ghosts have emerged asking questions to which she did not want to answer. One of her biggest concerns was the moment when it was happening. At her age, this might be the first and last time she'd get pregnant. Maybe she was throwing away her only chance to have a child. She knew it wasn't. It was not possible tho have a child now, but despite that rational certainty, she could not remove some doubts from her mind. Maybe everything was part of an ancestral instinct, fighting at all costs to enforce the rules of procreation. But rational thought and the reality of her life were stronger.

  Antonia noticed a young girl who was accompanied by a friend. She was very big one and moved like a self-important lady. It was strange to see her acting like she was proud of what she was doing, or as if she had done it many times. Her attitude puzzled Antonia. Suddenly three people came in a big scandal with voices and laughter. They were two women and a man. They sat in one of the few seats that were available and, ignoring everyone, they talked loudly, as if they were in a bar drinking beer. Their language and behavior were filthy. The man and one woman wore track-suits and sneakers, but it didn't seem they would exercise a lot. Everyone looked at them askance, horrified. Rafa was really upset with their attitude. He knew right away that the patient was the woman in the tracksuit, and that she and the man's tracksuit were heroin addicts. As they ran out of jokes, they took some gossip magazines and began to discuss, aloud with laughter, the adventures of pseudo-celebrities. Fortunately, after a while they began to shut up, and made only sporadic comments. Everyone seemed grateful.

  Many women had passed the first test, and tension in the air was obvious. In front of them there was a very thin woman sitting with her husband. The woman looked very delicate, and took advantage of its proximity to Antonia and Rafa to find out more accurately about the process she would have to go through later on. Antonia was called again. She was annoyed every time she heard her name called out. She wondered if he could have used a false name. Everyone watched every time her name was pronounced.
/>   When Antonia left, Rafa could see that there was another waiting room adjoining, which also was filling up. Suddenly he thought it was amazing the number of abortions that were performed in one single day, in one clinic. All that was happening was beyond his imagination, and he knew that if he wasn't seeing with his own eyes, he would never have believed the magnitude of that daily drama. It was one of those times when reality surpasses imagination. He knew that if he ever told his friends what he was living (which would not for Antonia's privacy), they'd believe that he was exaggerating everything. Being there and seeing it was the only way to believe it. Although to really understand it, Rafa knew that it was not enough to be there, as he was, because only a woman could.