Dead Stars

On Sunday mornings after mass, father and son would go crunching up the gravel road to the house on the hill. The Judge’s wife invariably offered them beer, which Don Julian enjoyed and Alfredo did not. After a half hour or so, the chessboard would be brought out; then Alfredo and Julia Salas would go out to the porch to chat. She sat in the low hammock and he in a rocking chair and the hours–warm, quiet March hours–sped by. He enjoyed talking with her and it was evident that she liked his company; yet what feeling there was between them was so undisturbed that it seemed a matter of course.”

In this stanza, there was a hint that Alfredo and Julia would continue to deepen their relationship with each other with the phrase, “He enjoyed talking with her and it was evident that she liked his company; yet what feeling there was between them was so undisturbed that it seemed a matter of course”. The author is giving the readers the information that there would be an affair between Julia and Alfredo.

“Esperanza had wanted to know if he went straight home after mass. Alfredo suddenly realized that for several Sundays now he had not waited for Esperanza to come out of the church as he had been wont to do. He had been eager to go “neighboring.” He answered that he went home to work. And, because he was not habitually untruthful, added, “Sometimes I go with Papa to Judge del Valle’s.”

The author wanted the readers to know that the affair of Alfredo and Julia will continue. Alfredo didn’t really tell what he was doing at the house of Judge del Valle giving the readers a hint that there would be more parts of the story with Alfredo and Julia together.

“He had to find that elusive old woman. That the search was leading him to that particular lake town which was Julia Salas’ home should not disturb him unduly yet he was disturbed to a degree utterly out of proportion to the prosaicness of his errand.”