Selected Cronicas

NON-ACCEPTANCE

Once she started ageing she preferred to remain indoors. I am convinced she actually thought it was in bad taste to be seen out and about after reaching a certain age: the air outside was so fresh and pure, her body so repugnant with its flabbiness and wrinkles. The sea in particular was so clear that it looked naked. Others did not mind her presence in public for everyone accepts that people grow old. But she herself found it distasteful. How anxiously she tried to restore the figure she had lost, distress written in those eyes which were still bright.

Another thing: in the old days her face did not betray her thoughts, only her features were accentuated. Now, when she involuntarily glances at herself in the mirror, she almost cries out in horror: I was thinking no such thing! Although it was impossible and hopeless trying to decide what her expression conveyed, just as it was impossible and hopeless trying to explain what she herself was thinking.

All around her things were fresh, a story was about to unfold, and there was wind, wind … Meanwhile her belly sagged and her legs thickened, and her hair had settled into natural drabness.