Seven Ways to Kill a Cat

PEACE AND LOVE

I WALK DOWN towards the port, book tucked under my arm, hands in my pockets. In the right-hand pocket I feel Yanina’s spliff. I didn’t want to smoke it earlier because I was feeling a bit freaked out and when I smoke weed it always heightens whatever I’m feeling. If I’m bummed, it messes me up. If I’m happy, it makes me ecstatic. If I’m freaked out, it makes me completely fucking paranoid.

But now I feel maybe I might spark it up. The whale cheered me up — not the one on the cover of the book, the one on TV. It was huge but it could shrink down to the size of a drop of water. Josefina, it was called. I even remember the theme song. When it got bigger again, it would fly off with a little boy on its back. Somewhere far away. It was cool. I don’t know why I’m still thinking about cousin Toni. He kind of reminds me of the kid in the cartoon. Maybe when I was little, when Toni disappeared, I dreamed he flew away on the back of the whale.

I zigzag across the fourteen lanes of the Avenida 9 de Julio, brakes screeching, horns honking. I’m completely out of it and I haven’t even sparked up the spliff yet. I cut into the park looking for a quiet place for a toke. There’s not many people around. One or two couples sitting under the trees, a few kids playing football. On the steps around the fountain are some people selling crafts, with all their stuff on blankets in front of them. I amble towards them, then suddenly I freeze. I start trembling. I can’t fucking believe it. I rub my eyes hard and look again, but it’s definitely him. His hair is longer and he’s got a bit of a beard going, but it’s definitely him. He’s twisting a piece of wire and chatting to some long-haired guy. He hasn’t seen me. I light a cigarette, trying to calm down. This can’t be an accident. It’s too much of a coincidence.

I psych myself up and walk over to stand in front of the stuff he’s got laid out on his blanket, like I’m thinking of buying something. He doesn’t look up. He goes on doing what he’s doing. I kick the carved hash pipe nearest me so it rolls towards him forcing him to finally react.

‘What the fuck d’you think you’re doing?’ he yells, looking up and staring me hard in the eye. It takes a couple of seconds before he recognises me and jumps up.

‘Gringuito! Fucking hell!’ he yells into my ear, lifting me off the ground with a bear hug.

‘Toni … Jesus fucking …’ I can’t finish the sentence because I’ve got a lump in my throat the size of a grapefruit.

Any minute now, I’m going to start bawling and I don’t want him to think I’m some punk bitch. We keep hugging and kissing until the feeling passes.

‘I thought the fuckers had killed you …’ I say, squeezing his arm. I still can’t believe it.

‘In their dreams.’

‘Couple of years later, I ran into this guy who told me you’d fucked off to Brazil.’

‘Yeah, I was there for a bit,’ he says with a cheeky smile, ‘mas agora eu fico aqui, maluco.’

‘Huh …?’ I’ve no fucking clue what he just said.

Toni bursts out laughing. So do I.

‘It means now I’m back, loco.’

‘Yeah, so far back you’ve turned into a filthy hippy,’ I bait him.

‘What do you want? It’s tough on the streets, viejo.’ He laughs again, but then says seriously, ‘It’s a jungle out here, loco, I’m not shitting you. And I’m tired of living in fear. There comes a point when you just want to slam the door and move somewhere else, but you can’t get out. And no matter how bad things are, they can always get worse. You know why?’

He pauses like this is a riddle. I look at him quizzically.

‘Because the jungle’s inside you, loco. There is no outside, there’s nowhere to go.’

‘Wow! That’s deep …’ I say, breaking the awkward silence. ‘Don’t tell me you’re a Jehovah’s Witness now?’

Toni shits himself laughing.

‘Love and peace, brother.’ He makes the V-sign, still laughing his arse off. When he’s done laughing, he claps me on the back, hugs me again, pinches my cheek.

‘It’s good to see you, Gringuito. Fuck but you’ve grown …’

He’s right. When I was a kid Toni looked like a giant to me. These days, I’m half a head taller than him.

‘But hey, tell me, what are you doing here? Were you on the march?’

‘Like I give a shit …’

‘Where’s your solidarity, comrade?!’ he says, raising his fist in a salute. Now it’s his turn to take the piss.

But it turns out that it’s only because of the march that we ran into each other. The artisans’ union were on the march. They’re not affiliated but they came to show solidarity, Toni explains, introducing me to his friends. El Piti, a scrawny guy, his face thin like a smack addict, scarred and pockmarked; then there’s Laurita, a girl with big tits and her face painted green.

They never come into Buenos Aires. The Feds are always hassling them about street vendors’ permits, so with what they make it isn’t worth the hassle. It’s not even enough to bribe the cops to turn a blind eye. They prefer to hang out in the Tigre Delta, he says, because most of the year it’s a stop-off for foreign tourists. Gullible tourists prepared to splash out wads of cash on ‘genuine native artefacts’. Actually, the beads they use in the necklaces come from China and the alloy wire is mined in Africa.

‘But come on, Gringo, spill, what’s going on? How’s Mamina? What’s been happening in the barrio?’

Same old, same old. What can I tell him …? I make an effort, try to make it sound more interesting than it is, but I just can’t do it. It’s hardly surprising. There’s nothing to say. But he keeps asking about Mamina, so I tell him, ‘She’s getting on a bit now … Why don’t you drop by and see her sometime? She’d be stoked …’

‘I can’t, Gringo. I’ve got unfinished business in the barrio. Probably best I don’t show my face there.’ He looks at me seriously. ‘But give her a big kiss from me and tell her I think about her all the time.’

Another awkward silence falls on us, the air so thick you could run a comb through it. And now’s not a good time to make jokes.

‘Hang on there a second, I’ll be right back,’ I say.

I throw the book I’ve still got under my arm onto his mat and dash off. A couple of minutes later I’m back with five bottles of beer. Two in each hand and one under my arm. The tribe give me a round of applause. Using lighters, pliers, teeth, they’ve popped the caps in half a second and the beers are doing the rounds.

‘A spliff in your honour, you filthy hippy!’ I say to Toni, finally sparking Yanina’s joint.

It was worth hanging on to it. I see him smiling through the smoke. I take a couple of tokes and pass it. He does the same, holding the smoke in. He nods at the book, laughs, coughs, chokes …

‘I see you’re an intellectual these days, Gringo,’ he says mockingly.

‘Too right!’ I say, putting on a posh, scholarly face.

‘Hey, Piti,’ he nudges his friend, jerking his thumb at the book, ‘Gringo here is reading one of your favourites …’

‘Uy! It’s the whale,’ says Piti laughing to himself. ‘Got to be very careful when you’re dealing with the whale, loco.’

I tell him I haven’t even started reading it yet so I’ve no idea what he’s on about. But all I get from him is the same warning. He’s being all mysterious.

‘You’ll see …’ he says.

We go on drinking and chatting and joking. They’re good people. I feel at home with them. Toni reels off stories about his travels and about his time living on the streets. Some of the stories sound kind of sketchy, but I believe them anyway. Then he gets to talking about some bad memories of the barrio. And he does it because he realises I know what he’s talking about, I can put myself in his shoes, I understand him perfectly. Even the spaces between the words.

It’s pitch dark by now. There’s no one left in the park and the hawkers are starting to pack up and leave. I’ve been slyly winkling info out of Toni about his work, trying to get as much as I can. It’s got its ups and downs, but there’s money to be made year-round. Not much, but enough to get by. The secret is to keep moving, not to stay in one place for more than two or three months. Toni’s group hangs out in the Delta. They head down to the Atlantic coast from time to time, or up into the hills, to Córdoba. When it gets too hot, they head south and do the Lake District around Bariloche.

‘So, is it hard work?’ I’m not beating about the bush any more.

‘Nah … With a bit of patience and someone to show you a couple of things, you’re set. The rest you learn as you go.’

‘So what would you need to start?’ I ask straight out. He knows what I’m getting at.

‘Don’t tell me you want to take up a trade?’

‘Thinking about it,’ I tell him. And it’s true.

‘Well, depends on what you want to make …’

‘What do I know? Necklaces, earrings, bracelets … All the shit you make.’

Toni gets excited now and starts trying to explain everything. If you’re going to make a living, the important thing is to work in groups. Keep things moving, make stuff that’s seasonal. Concentrate on jewellery around Christmas and when you’re in the mountains. In summer, churn out the threads and braids girls like to put in their hair. At the beach, there’s big money to be made doing henna tattoos. During school term, the best thing to make is hash pipes, because kids are always into paraphernalia.

He’s about to tell me some more, but he can tell from my expression that I need him to be more specific. He starts bundling his stuff into his blanket and goes back to talking about jewellery. He talks about alpaca, tin, silver; plate and alloy wire — length in metres, diameter in millimetres — about semi-precious stones, paste jewellery, beads, glass. I’m completely confused, and I’m getting annoyed now.

‘Yeah, but how much to get started?’

He starts calculating, pulling numbers out of the air.

‘Just a rough guess, Toni.’

He gives me a figure. I do a quick calculation of what I’ve got left in my pocket after my spending spree, and figure I’ve got more than enough.

‘Then there’s the tools. To start off, you’ll need a couple of pairs of needle-nose pliers, nail clippers, a jeweller’s hammer. But don’t worry, I can front you for a while.’

‘OK, Toni, that’s enough to be going on with, viejo.’ With everything he’s told me, I’m already excited.

We say nothing for a couple of minutes but when he’s finished packing up he says, ‘When you make up your mind, let me know. I’ve got this girl I work with who’ll do me a good price, she’ll even bankroll me.’

‘How do I find you?’

‘We’re out on an island in the Tigre Delta until next month.’ He takes a scrap of paper and a biro from his backpack and writes out the address. ‘It’s easy to find. You can’t miss it,’ he says looking at me and smiling. ‘But I’ll give you the girl’s phone number. Cristina, her name is; she always knows where to find us.’

I slip the piece of paper into my book and say goodbye. Toni doesn’t say anything. He gives me a big hug and slopes off with the rest of the gang. After a couple of steps he turns and gives me a wink. And I stand there, alone in the park, sorting things out in my head.