HEB

Sometimes my only healthy diversion during a long day is shopping at HEB. HEB has several supermarkets in Brownsville, but the middle and upper classes prefer this locale. The number of beautiful women patrolling the aisles is remarkable. I've never had any standards when it comes to a brief rendezvous, but I can appreciate quality. Men with the best of intentions would fall victim to this barrage of beauties. The animal never rests. He can be hibernating, but at the faintest whiff of meat he raises his nose before he even thinks about opening his eyes. I buy strawberries and bananas for a smoothie in the morning, spend a few minutes in the wine section before deciding on a $15 bottle of Merlot that has been marked down from $20. I'm picking up the bottle when I noticed that Martha Talaveres is standing next to me. "Tommy, how are you doing?" "Martha! I'm fine. How are you?" "Is this your boy? He's beautiful. He looks like his mother. Did you hear about Harry and me?" Martha and I had a six-month fling prior to my meeting Fabiola. It was the modern version of the old days when as a young fellow I would pound at a gal's door after the bars had closed and beg her to let me spend the night with her. Iliana and I had been friends with Martha and her former husband. He had been Iliana's principal for several years and we socialized during those years. Martha was a longtime counselor in the school district. I encountered her at a party. "You and Iliana aren't married, are you?" "We haven't been married for more than two years." "I know that you're not together, but are you married?" "We're divorced." "She says that you're married." "That's not true." "I want to make sure." That night we went back to her house. I didn't want to risk my arrangement with Iliana and go public with Martha because she wasn't the one. She owned an upscale home and lived alone, her two children away at college. And she liked the after-midnight visits. I would call her and she would extend me an invitation. I'd take a bottle of wine and we would sit on her bed and watch Brazilian soap operas as well as listen to Portuguese fados. She piqued my curiosity for all things Portuguese. Between the television and the music, I would spend two or three hours and return to my place well before dawn. I would be in my own bed in case Iliana called. Martha ended the relationship when she met Harry McCarthy, a lawyer. He was a boisterous, gregarious guy who loved smoking dope and talking hockey. Though Martha never broached the subject, she had hoped that something more substantial might develop between us, but when it didn't, her eye wandered elsewhere until she settled on Harry. According to Martha, he was crazy about her. "He bought a condo at the Island and gave me the key," she told me during one of our last calls. "He said I could move out there if I wanted. I told him weekend stays would be suffiicent." I replied that I was pleased she had found someone, but I hoped that I hadn't burned my bridges with her. "Not at all, Tommy." "We might want to cross that span one day." "You never know," she giggled. Love is the beginning of hate and sure enough the adage once more rang true. "What happened to you and Harry?" "I had him arrested," she informed me in the same low conspiratorial voice that she used to inform me about the dark side of her ex. "He beat me up." Harry was a big guy and Martha was a wisp of a thing, but she was one of those females with disproportionately large tits. "He picked me up and started shaking me. Then he kicked me. I had bruises on my arms and legs. I went to an emergency clinic and had the nurse take pictures. You know how he gets when he starts smoking and drinking." "I've partied with him. He never struck me as a violent person." She looked up and down the aisle and patted Marcos on the head before continuing. "He's fine if he's not high, but he loses it when he starts on the alcohol and dope. And it's not just a few drinks and a few hits. He gets so out-of-it that he doesn't remember anything the next day. He had no memory of mistreating me the next morning. I talked to my friends and they told me that no man had the right to treat a woman the way he treated me and that I should press charges. The cops arrested him and I've taken out a restraining order on him." She had been a fine fuck who always let me come in her. I had assumed that she had had her tubes tied, but I had never asked. "Is this going to trial?" I asked. "We have a preliminary date, but Harry knows all the judges and I'm fearful that he is using his influence to undermine me. I won't stop though. He had no right to treat me like that." She had complained throughout our time together that her former husband had humiliated her time and time again. She had never been able to wreak her revenge against him. "Have you seen him or talked to him?" "I talked to him on the phone and told him that I was going to the condo to collect my clothes. He said that he would be there, but I told him that I would be going with a policeman and that I didn't want to have any communication with him. I told him that I would send him the key." "I'm sorry to hear this, Martha. If you need anything, you can count on me at the newspaper. Do you want the paper to investigate?" "No! No! No! That's why I was afraid to tell you. I need to keep this hush-hush until we go to trial." "You can trust me. You know that." "I know. Please don't say anything." "I won't.: "How is your marriage going?" "I haven't found a reason to beat the shit out of her yet." "Have you seen Iliana? Is she seeing anyone?" "I've heard a few things but nothing concrete. I don't want to know. I haven't seen her. I never see her. Do you see her?" "Never. And the boys?" "The same. They didn't think it was fair that their mother had to do all the suffering so they've exacted their pound of flesh from me." "They'll come around. They always do." "I hope so. It was good to see you. Let's stay in contact and keep me posted on the ordeal. You can contact me at the newspaper anytime." "That's a cute boy. "Thanks." We share kisses on the cheeks before she departs toward the meat section while I turn toward the canned goods. I have a hankering for pickled asparagus. I turn the corner and nearly collide with Cliff Frazier. I haven't seen him for a while. When it came to gathering information on insurance contracts for the major public entities, I could count on Cliff to explain the complicated formulas to me. As an agent he had frequently bidded on these proposals. "You're looking good," I say to him. "Have you lost weight?" "I went to Brazil on a fishing trip for ten days. Everyone down there is slim. I was with a group of beer-bellied Americans and I figured it must be the food. I've decided to change my diet. I used to eat barbecue and enchiladas until I could hardly move. I've changed my diet and I'm feeling great. How are you doing?" "Fine." "And the family?" "Everything's cool." "And the latest marriage?" "I like the ups and downs when we're fucking. Other than that, the usual bullshit." "I can't imagine you monogamous. You're too old to settle down. You need to go to Marras." "Marras?" "It's along the Amazon River. We met a salesman who spent a week there. He said he finally knew what it was like to be a pretty woman in a bar. He said that the women of Marras outnumber the men six to one. He said that the women were hitting on him left and right and that every one was a beauty. He took a different woman back to his room every night. If I were a young man, I would go to Brazil and never come back. If my wife dies before I do, I know where I'll be spending my final years." "Don't do this to me, Cliff. I'm trying my best to maintain a marriage. I don't want to hear about a paradise where women are easy." "It's a wonderful place. If I were free, I would go there in a second." "I'm heading in the other direction. I've been chasing pussy all my life and it has brought me nothing but misery and sorrow. I'm searching for something more permanent and tranquil." "That's called death, my friend. You're not meant to be single, Tommy. You should be more concerned about freeing yourself instead of tying yourself down. Since my heart attack, I'm enjoying myself and not allowing anything to stand in the way." "If this marriage doesn't work out, I'll give you a call and we'll depart for Marras and heaven of earth." "Hallelujah." At the checkout couner, Clem, the assistant manager, is working the cash register. He has been with the company for years. "Hey, Tommy! How are you doing?" "Everything is going well." "Is that your little boy?" "Sure is." "Good lookin' kid. Must take after his mother. My wife and I have been debating about having a baby, but with my two and her two I don't think we're up to the financial challenge." "I'm looking forward to his starting kindergarten in the public schools because day-care as well as the doctor visits and other miscellaneous expenses are bankrupting me." "Bottle of wine. Are you chillin' tonight?" "I'm chillin' tonight. It's been a long day." "That will be $19.42." I pay the bill, the price of admission for promenading around the plaza known as HEB and reacquainting myself with the community. "Take care, Tommy." "Take care, big guy." I put Marcos in his seat, place the bag with the wine and the asparagus on the floor beneath him and start the engine. I have been listening to nothing but fados recently. When a fadista starts singing, the bar comes to a complete silence as these songs lament about the sadness of life. I have been studying Portuguese for several years since Martha first introduced me to the culture with her soap operas. I can read and converse with myself, but I haven't had an opportunity to speak the language with anyone. I have been toying with the idea that Portugal might be the country for me with its access to Europe and Africa.My retirement plan allows for a payout and I could qualify for $150,000, which would leave me with $2,000 a month. If Fabiola and the family were with me, we could move to Lisbon and live in a apartment near the city's center for a few years. If I weren't with them, I could leave and never come back. I don't want to die in Brownsville.