“This is the Prayer of Those Who Have No Father and No Mother,” she says. “Listen carefully and memorize it. If you want you can write it down.”
“Sir,” repeats the nurse. “I'll remind you we are a center with very strict rules.”
“We are the people who have no father and no mother,” says Valentina. “The world began with us. And we are better than the rest. Because we are stuck in the armpit of love. And the things that smell bad are the things that make us strong. We started the world. Because no one is our father and no one is our mother.”
The sounds of vaguely Asian intestinal exertion coming from the stall continue, muffled by the door. It is one of those doors that don't reach the floor or the upper part of the frame. The nurse is talking to someone on some sort of an institutional walkie-talkie.
“Get me the book,” says Valentina. “The prayer works better when you repeat it several times.”
The nurse takes Valentina out of the bathroom. Valentina says good-bye with a strange hand gesture before leaving. Giraut is left alone in the bathroom of the children's psychiatric center. With the two folding chairs and the bouquet of flowers in the wastebasket. The sound of intestinal exertion coming from the stall has changed into something similar to a gurgle of satisfaction.
CHAPTER 34. A Waste of Time in an Expensive Suit
Lucas Giraut would like his lawyer to stop looking lasciviously at the legs of the Legal Mediator sent by the District Court. Legs that are slender and tanned like the legs of many professional women. The Legal Mediator is sitting with her legs crossed at knee height in a position that causes her skirt to rise above her knee and reveal a triangular section of thigh through the back slit. The way the lawyer is looking lasciviously at the Legal Mediator's legs is: leaning his body way back and sprawling in his chair, with his legs very wide open, and his head tilted so he can see the Mediator's legs to one side of the meeting table. Chewing a pen with an expression that's rife with overtones of sexual predation. The Mediator is young and wears glasses and her hair is short. Lucas Giraut's lawyer is Arab or maybe from the Indian subcontinent and wears a very short beard, the way Peter Gabriel did in the eighties, which accentuates the lascivious elements of his expression. His expression is lascivious in that spontaneous, effortless way that the faces of many Arab men, or men from the Indian subcontinent, are.
The rest of the people seated at the meeting table of the conference room at the legal firm are: Lucas Giraut, Fonseca, and the sickly-looking redheaded lawyer who visited the mezzanine of LORENZO GIRAUT, LTD., a week ago with the subpoena. Of all of them, only Fonseca has taken off his suit jacket and is leaning his elbows on the table. Both Fonseca and Giraut are seated beside their legal representatives in a way that accentuates the divisions between the two camps at the meeting table. With the Mediator seated at one end of the table, lateral to both groups.
“The terms of the agreement that Mr. Fonseca is offering are what we call an amicable solution,” the Mediator explains with hand gestures and a facial expression that somehow are structurally conciliatory. With a slight maternal/condescending overtone in the details and emphasis of her gestures. “Which of course would end the legal action. And cancel the legal and medical measures set in motion by Mr. Giraut's family. And these terms, to sum up, are specifically four. First of all, that Mr. Lucas Giraut renounce, voluntarily and in writing before a notary, two percent of his stock in LORENZO GIRAUT, LTD., with which he would go from being the holder of fifty-one percent of said stock to holding forty-nine percent, with which he would continue to be the individual shareholder with the largest percentage of the company's stock. The plaintiff wants it to be noted that the defendant will continue to be the primary shareholder. Second, in exchange for said renunciation the shareholders' committee will guarantee Mr. Lucas Giraut the position of Director of Archives and Catalogues at LORENZO GIRAUT, LTD., with important economic compensations independent of his condition as nonprincipal shareholder. Third, the plaintiff would also agree to finance the psychiatric or psychological treatment most suitable for Mr. Lucas Giraut during however long it is necessary. Guaranteeing Mr. Giraut's continued employment and salary for the duration of said treatment. And fourth, in exchange for the renunciation specified in the first point of the offer, the plaintiff represented at this table by Mr. Fonseca and his legal representative agree to withdraw the lawsuit that has been filed and close all legal actions associated with these proceedings. And now, please.” She looks around her with a conciliatory smile that makes her nose wrinkle beneath her glasses. “This is the moment to ask questions if any one of those points has not been completely made clear.”
Although he wouldn't swear to it, Lucas Giraut has the distinct impression that his lawyer is now touching his crotch in an improper way. While looking at the Legal Mediator's legs. It's a crotch-touching that's ambiguous enough that it's unclear if it's inappropriate or not. It could perfectly well be an automatic response to some sort of small discomfort. Like, for example, a slight itch or a poor placement of the contents of one's briefs. The Arab or Hindustani lawyer, by the way, is not Lucas Giraut's regular lawyer. He is a regular professional colleague of Mr. Bocanegra, who recommended him to Giraut to help with his problems with the family business. The slight clacking heard in the room is coming from the Arab/Hindustani lawyer's little, unconscious nibbling on the pen in his mouth. The Legal Mediator looks at the meeting's attendees one by one without her smile losing even a hint of composure. She finally leans forward to listen to something the redheaded lawyer is saying into her ear with a frown while making small explanatory gestures with his hands. The Legal Mediator nods several times and uncrosses her legs.
“My client has something to say,” says the redheaded lawyer without looking at anyone in attendance. “Something important in terms of what is being discussed here. My client would like to state that we are looking into the possibility of having the defendant's representation deemed unfit. And I would like to personally introduce the idea that we are dealing with someone who is a disgrace to my profession. A regular partner to organized crime and someone who has been involved in several cases of judicial corruption and coercion of juries. We have brought some of the documentation that incriminates him.” He takes a shockingly fat dossier of documents out of his briefcase and puts it on the table. Giraut can't help noticing that his fingers and the back of his hand have pigmentation stains and that the whiter parts look painfully irritated. They even have that texture of flesh that's been scalded with boiling water. “Including indictment certificates and photographic documentation. Mr. Giraut.” He looks at Giraut. “I assume you realize how damaging this professional association is to you. In terms of how your case is going to be received in a courtroom. I don't need to tell you that this could go further. That things do get leaked to the press.”
Giraut interlocks his fingers and rests his chin on the resulting interwoven fists. According to the observations he has been making over the years, Estefanía “Fanny” Giraut considers her only son a mentally weak individual, completely incapable of doing anything worthwhile with his life. With serious problems of introversion close to autism that make him live in an inner world of childish fantasies partially inherited from his father. With a total lack of the mental mechanisms necessary to carry out the natural socialization process that everyone carries out during their prepubescence. As a result of which he has never had what is commonly known as a Circle of Friends. Those male friends that one goes out for drinks with, or plays golf with, and those female friends that could potentially become girlfriends and/or wives. Someone who hasn't gone through those necessary natural phases that are known as the Ages of Man, among which are sexual awakening and the entrance into adult life. A mediocre student. A person who lacks initiative. A thirty-three-year-old total virgin. A misfit, in other words. A failure, because of his congenital deficiency, and definitively ruined by a father who was also defective and a criminal repeat offender. On one occasion, Fanny Giraut made a comment alluding to the fact that Lucas Giraut lacked the sufficient degree of masculinity for carrying out a typical act of coitus with a woman. It is true that Lucas Giraut is a virgin in many more senses than he would be willing to admit publicly.