Berlin, Love and Hate

By Maira Leticia Rivera Pinto

Against a political power struggle in the 1980s, a romance is born – it begins disinterested, grows in secret, and develops during the war. Gabriela is a willful, rebellious, and uncontrollable teenager in the wake of her parents’ divorce. In an attempt to calm her wild spirit, her mother sends her to live with her father, who lives in the outskirts of a small village called Berlin. In a house on a coffee farm, she is subjected to a strict education from her father. She confronts the simple world of the peasants, faces the problems of the armed conflict, and falls in love with a man who makes her subdue the rebellion of her heart.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Nov 30, 2020
• ISBN: 9781645365877

Maira Leticia Rivera Pinto

Maira Leticia Rivera Pinto is a writer and artist. She is the author of Berlín, amor y odio, Tiempo de amar, tiempo de corer, and El multimillonario más joven del mundo, which are all romantic-fiction novels; Los secretos de una historia, a history novel about El Salvador in the 1850s; Vagabundito, a short story based on a true story about a homeless boy and how he survived on the streets of El Salvador, which has been selected to be part of the schoolbook in Germany; and Cuentos de niñas, a collection of five fairy tales with strong virtues as courage, loyalty, faith, and love. To know about Maira, visit painting by Rivera Pinto.

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Author

Dedication

Thanks to God, my husband and son, and Sonia, my dear friend,

for encouraging me to publish the Spanish edition of this novel in 2008.

Copyright Information ©

Maira Leticia Rivera Pinto (2020)

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher.

Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Ordering Information

Quantity sales: Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the publisher at the address below.

Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication data

Pinto, Maira Leticia Rivera

Berlin, Love and Hate

ISBN 9781643789972 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781643789989 (Hardback)

ISBN 9781645365877 (ePub e-book)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020908901

www.austinmacauley.com/us

First Published (2020)

Austin Macauley Publishers LLC

40 Wall Street, 28th Floor

New York, NY 10005

USA

[e-mail]

[phone]

It does not justify a war to change the way of people thinking and living. It is much better to educate people to think of a better way for living.

– Maira Leticia Rivera Pinto

First Part

The Expel

The riots and demonstrations in the capital, plus the problems and behavior of her daughter, did make Estela to take a decision that would change the comfort life of Gabriela drastically.

Gabriela was going in a light aircraft to Berlin thoughtful. It was a charming small village in Usulutan State. She was going to live with her father, as a punishment of her mother because she had been expelled from two schools, and for not coming out during the summer vacation. The eastern area will be more care by the action of the army. They were dismantling secret camps and clandestine hospitals of the subversives in Berlin. Those actions of the army, gave her mother confidence that she would be safe there.

In the office of the lawyer, she remembered her mother Estela, with serious determined expression, and her father, Esteban, restless, pale and with a slight hope in his eyes that Estela would change her mind. Nevertheless, things continued its unhappy course and the lawyer gave them the document of divorce for signature. Estela signed and stood up with the farewells of the situation; Esteban, nervous, hugged his daughter and kissed. That was the last day that she saw her father. She was nine years old. Now after five long years, they were going to meet each other again.

Gabriela was remembering the happy years that she lived in Berlin where the coffee farmer of her family was. Berlin is a picturesque town of Usulutan State with cool weather most of the time, located at 930 meters above the sea level, where the thick cloud covering generously the mountain, on the reds and clogged coffee trees when the daylight fade on the skyline. She remembered when she played with her cousins Antonio and Mario, older than her, and when they did make her cry with their heavy games, and someone went out to protect her, he was Nanny Milagro’s nephew, but she did not remember his name.

When Gabriela was five years old, her mother decided that it was necessary to move to the capital and found a good school for her education. Esteban bought a house in an exclusive area of San Salvador and came to see them once a week because he did not like the hustle and bustle of the capital. He despaired and soon enough returned to Berlin, with the promise that he will be back next weekend.

Gabriela recalled that everything was going well, that they were a happy family. She did not know exactly what had happened with her parents, and she had never asked her mother.

Estela Alwood was a good family daughter from the capital and well prepared. She was white skin, brown eyes, and blonde hair. When she divorced Esteban, she got employment as manager of a bank branch, aided by her connections in the society and references of studies and academic qualifications.

Esteban Bustamante born in a small town named Santiago de Maria and grew up there, in one of those families where their tradition was the coffee harvest. Esteban was a gruff man, sturdy factions, white skin, and blue eyes, penetrating gaze, tall and imposing. When he married Estela, he was 40 years old, 20 years older than her. He inherited the coffee farms from his father, and his father had inherited them from his father, grandfather of Esteban, who had won a small farm by gambling. However, by his ability to manage and invest well, he had been able to buy more land to continue harvesting coffee.

For many years in El Salvador, coffee farms were the well investment in which many families had amassed large fortunes. When Estela started to work, it was a little time that she spent and dedicated to Gabriela, reason by which she was always her will. She needed her mother’s time and tried to get her attention. It was the period of growth where children most need the help of parents. There was the time when she started giving problems and headaches to Estela.

The first blow to Estela was when she had been called by the school director to talk about the behavior of her daughter. With thousand promises, she swore that she would behave pretty well. She was intelligent, but very restless; she was a leader among her classmates and that popularity took her to do mischief that she later repented. Her mother tried in vain to mend her until she was expelled from the school.

Estela registered her in another good school, and at the beginning, she did well, but soon enough, she became known for her conduct. Together with Lorena, her best friend, did their teachers to burst their patience. It was shortly to the end of her school year when she was expelled for a second time. Estela did not know what to do. She was frustrated and often wondered what error she had made in her education. This child, as she says, was uncontrollable.

Then Estela took the decision to send her with her father at the farm, in Berlin. This time there would be no sentimental blackmail, as usual on many occasions before.

Gabriela recalled the discussion the night before her departure. She was very tranquil, as nothing had happened, in her room listening to loud music and watching her fashion magazines. When her mother with serious tone told her what she was going to do and began to pack her suitcase.

I’ll send you with your father in Berlin and there is no complaining, she said with determination.

Will you send me to the farm? she asked smiling and thinking that it was another threat of her mother who would not carry out. So, and what will I do there?

Do you think it’s nice that the board of directors made me ashamed because of your bad behavior? It is enough, two expels in only three years is too much! No, Gabriela! Your pamper mother is over! You have killed the goose that lays the golden eggs! She turned off the radio and replied.

Are you serious? she asked, seeing her mother, pulling her clothes and putting them in the suitcase.

What do you think I am doing?

But, Mam, you’ll send me into wildlife, what am I supposed to do out there?

Gabriela, I warned you, if you’ll not behave, you’ll have punishment, well, this is your punishment.

But… Mam, she said scared, as she had never seen her so upset.

But nothing, you’ll depart tomorrow morning! I had already arranged with your father, and he will be waiting for you on the runway of Usulutan.

I want to be with you, I love you, Mam…I’m going to behave well, I swear, I’m going to clean my room, I will not see TV shows all night long, I will help you in what you want, ask me whatever… Please! she begged and started crying, the best resource that she ever had.

I’m tired of the same promises that you have never kept! Your blackmail and whining will not work this time, it’s already late…, and you’ll depart tomorrow! she slammed the room door.

Gabriela opened the door and followed her, and yelled angrily, The thing is that you want to get rid of me because you want to be happy with that stupid Julian!

Her mother turned around and slapped on her face, throwing her a reproachable look.

Julian Santamaria was a divorced promising lawyer who, for a long time, intended to date Estela. She met him at the bank and began to be friends, but recently that became a loving relationship. Gabriela disliked this situation, who was jealous of her relationship and tried as much as possible to avoid him. She never answered his calls, and when she answered, she did not give the messages to her mother and behaved rudely with him when he came to see her mother.

You’ll depart tomorrow! she said dryly.

This sentence reminded in her head each time. She had never expected a reaction from her mother, she had always manipulated her with flattery, but this time, it had not worked. Another fear invaded her suddenly. She had not seen her father since she was nine years old. Despite her pleas to her mother to let her go to see her father after the divorce, she never left her. She enrolled her where she could take: swimming, English classes, French classes, ballet, to keep her occupied and had excuses for not sending her to him. Moreover, her father was full of pain as well, never intended to go to San Salvador to see his daughter, even if he wanted so badly to do it because he did not want to meet Estela again.

The Meeting

Finally, the light airplane landed. She tried to seek her father, but he was not there. She recognized the old, grey jeep that he had. A young man greeted her very glad to see her. She sensed he is the waiter of the farm by his appearance. He was wearing jeans, a blue pale shirt, wearing a cap stained by sweat, and leather boots. He stepped forward to take the suitcases.

Good morning, Gabriela, Victor greeted her and was very thrilled to see her after so many years. Moreover, the confidence to call her by her name, Gabriela was because he had cared for her when she was a little girl and he fills as part of the family as Esteban made him fills.

For you: Miss Gabriela! she demanded, watching him haughty form head to foot. Then she asked him, Where is my father?

He is waiting for you on the farmhouse, he answered very disappointedly by the abject way that she treated him.

This young man was Nanny Milagro’s nephew and the foster child of the house. He was an orphan of parents, his mother died giving birth, and his father was a drunker who had been killed in a street brawl. Victor Manuel had physical muscular complexion and strong, manly features, brown eyes, and brown skin, outside of the common prototype of that region; and he was the trustworthy men of Esteban. Esteban adopted Victor as a foster child when his father died. His father had been the caporal for many years of Esteban’s coffee farm. This loyalty made Esteban take care of his son. He gave him the opportunity to study until high school, then he studied at the National University in the capital of San Salvador, but he did not complete it because the university had been closed. During those years, the university was the hotbed of the Revolutionary Army of the People, a clandestine organization that caused street strikes, protests, and manifestations against the high class of the country.

The road was quiet. Both Gabriela and Victor did not cross any word. She was absorbed in her thoughts; she did not have time for saying goodbye to her best friend. She remembered her mother’s last words: You’ll depart tomorrow… that did not stop in her mind. She felt very resentful with her mother, angry with herself, and fearful of what she awaited on the farm.

When she was a little girl, she just loved the farm. She had many things to do, play hide-and-seek, run, plays baseball, slides down the slopes in cardboard boxes, play gift shop made with logs and branches. In the gift shop, she used to sell natural stuff as the flower of the banana as meat, and the money was long leaves. She loved to climb trees, and when it was a harvest season, she went out with her little basket to harvest too. Imagination had no limits when she was a little girl. She recalled the song from a game that she loved much: chanchavalancha flowers of marquis, a lady had told me that a hundred daughters he has… But now, what would she do? She is a teenager now and she likes parties, gets boyfriends, and goes to the movie theater with her friends.

Victor, on the other hand, thought about how beautiful she was, but haughty and petulant, the girl who was known to be so sweet and kind had disappeared: she was someone else.

They passed the Berlin village, and she felt the icy breeze from the mountains. They took the detour to San Lorenzo Valley where Esteban had the farmhouse; it was about two kilometers road above the village. The ground road had stones in some sections, and from a long way, they saw rising dust when the vehicle touched the ground. Gabriela smelled a characteristic odor that gave off the coffee around the road on both sides, but the signal that they were already arriving, was the smell of four towering cypress trees at the entrance of the farm.

The farmhouse had surrounded by walls of stone on the side of the road, but at the level of the house made the function of a balcony with hanging plants. Next to the house, there was the coffee plantation, after a large courtyard in which the coffee was dried. The farmhouse was two-story, its façade had stone arches covered almost completely by ivy. The arch of the center in the main entrance was adorned by a tunnel of colorful bougainvilleas that were planted by Estela. What proud would she had felt to see already flowered and mature. In front of the other arches were gardens of roses and geraniums. On the front porch, there were two Adirondack chairs and a swing hanging from the ceiling. Nothing has changed, she thought.

Inside the house, the distribution was perfect. At the entrance, there was a big living room furnishing with a very antique, old farmer style furniture. The next room was an intimate room with a fireplace and a small bar; covering the floor with a Persian rug that gave it an elegant eastern touch. On the right side of the entrance were the dining room, the kitchen and a little warehouse to keep firewood. On the left side of the entrance were Esteban’s studio and a guest room that was used as a warehouse or sometimes was used by Victor when he needed to sleep. The steps to the second floor were built of wood and squeaked when going upstairs. The second floor had four rooms and one bathroom at the end of the corridor, with an old fashion bathtub yellowish by the years. On the right of the farmhouse was the garage where he used to keep the pickup, jeep, trailer, and the room of requirement where he kept sacks, lassos, molds, and other farming tools. Behind the garage, there was a small field cultivated of fruit trees, herbs, and vegetables, and next to other small fields of corn.

Gabriela got out of the car slowly, fearful of the meeting with her father. Suddenly, Nanny Milagro went through, Victor’s aunt. She was a native, fatty woman with pink and bright cheeks, her smile shown an incomplete denture, her lustrous black hair did not show her age, but she was around fifty years old.

The girl! she cried effusively. The child has come already!

Surrounded her by many curious children who lived in the neighborhood and knew that Gabriela had arrived, it was an event that they could not miss.

Nanny immediately embraced her. Gabriela felt uncomfortable because she did not know what to do. She did not expect such hosting. They came into the house, and Esteban left his studio when heard the cries of Nanny.

Don Esteban, look: how pretty is girl, Gabriela! Nanny exclaimed.

Indeed, she had inherited the better of her two parents, blue eyes, thick lips, and demeanor of her father; blonde hair, and fine features of her mother. She had tan skin, because of the fashion among teenagers to look better tan. She will turn fifteen years old in November.

Both were contemplating for a while. She could not believe how her father had aged so much in only five years. He looked more than sixty and he was fifty-five years old. He was half-bald, had bags on the lower eyelids, his formerly athletic body, was deformed, had a prominent belly and his legs and arms showed flaccidity. The only thing that had not changed was the cigarette in his mouth. His eyes no longer had the same brightness as before. He watched his daughter formed as a young woman; she reminded his beloved Estela and giving him a deep nostalgia. For five years, he had tried to forget her, but now, Gabriela would remember her again.

There was not what to say, after five years, she had lost the habit of calling him ‘Daddy.’ On the other hand, he was mute, just contemplated how she had become alike Estela. A thousand thoughts came into his memory, only he remembered his nine-year-old girl and now stood in front of a teenager.

How you have grown! he exclaimed. That was the only thing that had occurred to him to say. For him, she was an unknown. In his memory only had recorded the image of the nine-year-old girl.

Yes, so they said, and how have you been? It occurred to her to ask, also she felt strange, and her father was no longer the same as before.

Good. How is your mother?

She is fine.

He had also lost the habit of trying gently to her daughter, despite the fact that on himself he wanted to hug her and kiss her, like when she was little, that both had endless ways to show love. She had grown now; he could not load her in his arms.

How was the trip? he asked just for asking something. He was a little speechless.

Good, she answered laconically.

You must be tired. Nanny, take her to her room! I think you remember the house, do you?

Yes, it is just as I remember, she said, taking a look around.

Victor, carry the suitcases to the room! he ordered.

They went up to the same room that she had when she was a little girl. Everything was the same as she remembered it. There was still her first lamp of Mickey Mouse, a box of music that makes her falls asleep, and a mirror with a wood handle on the night table. Over the drawer, there were her first dolls with hairs cut, and a teddy bear without one eye. She opened the drawers with curiosity. There were her first drawings on dust roasted paper yellowish by the pass of the time. She had drawn deformed figures of her father and her mother in a heart, it was what she wanted to represent in her childhood imagination. All of her drawings had represented a happy family. She felt sad and wanted to cry for what she kept them quickly. On the walls, there were still hanging little angels of ceramic with pale colors smiling at her. In one of the corners, placed on a shelf, a picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus with two candles with dust and spider web, that fashioned the room with a touch of country. She was in amusement that still hung the same curtains for five years. In addition, she touched with admiration her pink bedspread with embroidery on the side guards handmade by her grandmother.

She opened the window to let the cold breeze come inside the room and made her take a deep breath. At that moment, her father came into her room.

Close that window or you are going to have a cold, he paused and continued, I am not going to take lunch here, I have to attend an important meeting in San Miguel City, but I will come back tomorrow. If there is anything you need, just tell Victor or Nanny. This is your house, he said and went out to do his own.

Okay, thanks. What a hosting! she said to herself.

She did not know what to think of her father, he was a total stranger to her, unlike the image of him five years ago. She decided to look forward to another thing that occupied her thoughts. After all, she was a ‘strawberry girl.’ Strawberry Club was founded by Gabriela. It was formed in school with the society girls, and those who wanted to belong, had to dress up in the latest fashion, do not be sentimental because that was a weakness, had to have a boyfriend or two, to be the best athletes, to show superiority and never rat out anyone, that was its code of conduct. Who wanted to enter, she had to make disobedience to the professor that Gabriela chose, and then the candidate was able to aspire to the strawberry jacket.

She went down to the dining room without appetite. Although she would not recognize herself, this change had affected her so much. She was thinking about the boredom that would be on the farm. The silent house tortured her. She went out to the terrace and sat in the trapezium, thoughtful. It was a cool windy afternoon in October. She got cool and entered the house. She went upstairs to her room to get rest, but she did not. At 5 o’clock, Nanny announced that the dinner was ready. She did not eat much and went to sleep.

Aunt Armida’s House

The next day, she woke up late. The noises of the night had not left her to sleep. Her conscience bothered her so much as well. She wanted to believe that everything had been a nightmare, but she had taken to the room a look with disappointment, pictures, toys, the big bureau, the chest at the foot of the bed. She covered herself with the blanket. She wanted to cry, but she could not, she was so spiteful with her mother that she could not believe what was happening to her. A smell of coffee, roasted in the woodstove, woke her up the appetite, and she decided to make her thoughts aside and ordered the breakfast in bed.

When Nanny went up to bring her breakfast, Don Esteban stopped her.

Leave that on the table. I’ll warn her, he ordered.

He went upstairs to the room of Gabriela and opened the door slammed. She frightened.

Breakfast is served at the table, he said. And hurry to get dressed because we have to go.

She remained silent. "He didn’t salute me. This is going to be hard to endure," she said to herself. She got out of bed and dressed. She hesitated to take a bath; this cold morning made her not considering. She only washed her face and went downstairs to the dining room. There was her father as usual with his cigarette in his mouth, a cup of steaming black coffee and reading the newspaper.

Good morning, she greeted him.

Take your breakfast as fast as possible, I have to go to meet the workers, and I want you to accompany me, he said while reading the newspaper.

Don Esteban had two coffee farms, one called ‘The Stool’ because the hill had the shape of stool; and the other ‘San Antonio,’ his uncle’s name who sold it to him because his children did not want to take care of it. They went to see ‘The Stool’ first. This property was divided, the other half belonged to his brother-in-law, Benedicto Argueta who was married to his sister, Armida Bustamante, already deceased, whose death, no one knew pretty well.

They penetrated the coffee plantation to meet with his workers. It approached the harvest season and they have to prepare it: cutting weed, trimming the trees, removing a bit of shade and redoing the trails. Esteban was explaining what they were doing, but Gabriela had no interest very much what he was saying, and only thought about her friends, strolls by the capital that has many places where they have fun, and she was losing it and above all, she had to listen to tedious explanations of the coffee farm by her father.

Are you paying attention?

Yes! she lied.

Esteban, on the other hand, thought that she was better born a male, so he would understand better, although he remembered the affectionate that was when she was a little girl and the well that was with her. She was his worship, but always with the hope that Estela had another child, a boy.

Nevertheless, what can he do with a teenager? He knew that she did not pay attention to what he was saying. On the coffee farm, there was nothing for a girl. Yet, he did not understand why Estela had sent her to him? When they spoke by phone about it, he had refused to receive her in the first place, but his love for her made him reconsider and agreed with no more questions, but he felt uncomfortable with her, he did not know how to treat her.

Thinking thus, Victor met him, and they started talking about the political situation in the country, which could be heard the guerrillas in Morazan villages, and disturbances of unionists in the capital San Salvador.

Really, Don Esteban, I don’t know what is going to happen. All looks bad, the revolutionary Board of Government now have another President Eng. José Napoleón Duarte.

Yes, and look who do they put as Vice President, Colonel Abdul Gutierrez, Esteban commented. Through history, we know that militaries don’t know about politics, they know to defend the sovereignty of a country, but until that, nothing else.

In San Salvador, the situation is terrible, at least here we have the army, and I consider that we have some protection; but out there, already the subversives walk on the streets as free as us, they are taken Cathedral as enter into their houses, burning buses, and fired tires as a barricade to stop the traffic and create chaos. It is incredible that the governor doesn’t stop them. I do not understand how they let them do that. If it is the transport of the masses, and they say that they work for the masses, why they do that? Victor commented with indignation.

But what hurts is that the guerrilla kills the civilian.

Well, they are smart. They castle between civilians so that the army does not pull them out, but when they have to bombard villages, there is no way. They have to kill innocent people also.

The guerrilla does not have any respect for people. They claim to defend the poor, but the poorest are the people who have been affected. This situation is increasingly frightening.

Both fought in the conversation that they neglected to Gabriela. She was looking for a place where to rest, a trunk, or a spot clear into the wood. She found a path. She recalled playing with the children of the peasants to follow paths inside the coffee plantation, and somehow maybe by reflection she followed it. It reached a boundary that had a slope in front of her. She saw upward and to her surprise, the house of her Aunt Armida stood imposing. She got excited about the idea of return to see her cousins, and with joy, she thought that her boredom and ordeal would end. She started climbing the slope, she was going up by the hope of seeing them again, but when she got to the top of the hill, a shadow covered her face: the handsome two-story house was neglected by abandonment. She remembered how it was, yellow clear brown balconies, a garden that was the envy of Estela, with a huge cedar tree in the center of a stone ring, gardens were composed of beautiful roses of all colors. Nothing left. She saw everywhere dried branches and litter withers accumulated for so long in front of the house, up to the cedar seemed death too; vines and wildflowers had trapped the house, up to the second floor. The house demonstrated to have been uninhabited for a century. It had a broken window and some untied wooden balconies. Even so, she decided to enter, climbed the metal gate, and jumped it. She came to the entrance of the house. She knocked on the door, but it was useless, she did so only by education. The door was unlocked, as if it was waiting for her, easily opened. She came into creeping, fearful of what she could find such as mice or snakes. She cast a quick glance to see and everything was there; pictures, and furniture. She moved to the old chest that had inside her aunt’s family albums. She saw the photos of her cousins and uncles, but there is something bizarre, she observed that many photos in which appeared her uncle, he had crossed out, and in others cut or ripped. She wondered what had happened. Where are they now? She was with many questions when someone put a hand in her shoulder. A jump of fright took her out of her occupations.

What the hell are you doing here? Esteban questioned her.

Trying to recover from the shock, she replied in agony,

I came to…, I wanted to see my aunt… I, I thought that they were still living here.

Never, ever come back to this place again! Do you understand?

Yes, sir, she replied swallowing thick saliva to calm down the adrenaline that was flowing excessively in her body.

Esteban turned furious and murmuring,

I don’t know why Estela sent her here; this is no place for a woman. Victor! Lock that door!

Yes, Don Esteban.

Antonio

At night, during dinner, Gabriela wanted to address the issue of Aunt Armida.

What happened to my Aunt Armida? she asked her father.

She died.

How did she die?

What does it matter now? he answered curtly.

Where are my cousins?

Walkout there. Already don’t ask, he stood up and adding, I have a commitment in San Miguel, don’t expect me, I will come until tomorrow.

It was just 6 o’clock, and in the house, there was no television yet, much less phone, only had an old radio where nanny still heard her radio dramas; the only innovation in the house was that it had electricity just for lighting. How she missed all the modernism. She recalled that Victor was available, and sent for him.

Victor, I have to make a phone call, is there any phone close by?

Only in the village.

Well, what are you waiting for, take me there! she ordered.

Victor took the Jeep from the garage and led to the Coffee Beneficiary office. He asked the security guard, who was his friend, to allow them entrance to make a phone call.

She dialed the number of Lorena, her best friend.

Hello, Lorena? What’s up?

Gaby! Where are you? I called you but your mom told me that you are not able to receive phone calls and hung up on me.

I am in Berlin.

Are you in Germany?

Oh, how ignorant you are! I’m in Usulutan, one of the 14 states of the country and one of its villages is Berlin. I’m with my father.

With your father! I thought you hadn’t.

Well, yes, I have. This is my punishment. My mother sent me here.

Gaby, I am sorry, if you denounced me with the director, you’d be still here, after all, I was your accomplice.

Oh, forget it, we are Strawberry Girls, and I am true to the code. In addition, I know that my mother will do the impossible for being accepted at school again, you’ll see.

When will I see you?

I don’t know. It will be much better if you come for a vacation, what do you think? I am bored, terribly.

Super, I will say to mom. I also will invite Jorge and Charlie. What do you think?

Stupendous! It will be more fun! How is Charlie? Is he suffering for me?

Well, he made a lot of phone calls to you, but your mother did not tell him where you are.

Oh! My mother! she exclaimed dissatisfied. I will not speak to her until she gets me to come back.

Don’t say that, she is your mother and she is good, you’re a bad girl, Lorena told her.

Better not continue talking. I call you tomorrow because we have no telephone in the house and I have to come to the village to call you. It is dreadful!

Oh, yes it is, poor Gaby! Lorena said in disbelief.

Well, we have a plan.

At least she had known something about her friends and boyfriend. When she left the office, she saw pass a young man on a Suzuki motorcycle racing. He turned to see her very blatant and turned towards her. At the time, she concealed a little and moved towards the Jeep. He put himself to step aside from her. He was a handsome, tall, athletic body, and voice that invited her to a conversation.

Hello. You’re not from here, right, he started very boldly.

No.

Let me introduce myself. I am Antonio Jose Argueta Bustamante to serve you, he said very gallant and extending his hand.

What did you say? she asked surprised and smiling. You are my cousin! she exclaimed with joy.

What? Your cousin? he said with disappointment and added, No, God, why do you do this to me? he said graciously looking towards the sky.

Well, is there any hug for your cousin? he asked picaresque.

Of course, she said at the same time as extending her arms. I am Gabriela Bustamante, by the way.

This is a pleasant encounter! he said at the time that he gave her a long hug and a dream kiss on her cheek.

Victor was watching the meeting from the door of the office. He had been talking with the caretaker for a long time. He did not know if intervene or not. He knew that Don Esteban dislike his nephew, Antonio, and he would be angry if his daughter sympathized with him.

Would you like to take a ride with me?

Of course, she exclaimed happy to have found someone with whom to talk and enjoy. Her eyes brightened him thinking that maybe is not going to be so boring after all.

Then Victor came out to stop her, but it was too late, they had already left. Antonio showed her where he lived with his father, Benedicto Argueta. It was a large modern house at the center of a huge garden walled in its boundaries. The tall wall impeded that nobody could see the house from outside. It was located at the end of a fork to San Lorenzo Valley. He showed her the agribusiness that his father managed. He gave her a tour all over the village. Berlin was a quaint, little town with adobe houses with high balconies and painted in two bright colors. Like all villages, had its church in front of a park with a small acoustic shell, where once upon a time the band played on it. On the south side of the park were The City Hall and business portals, and on the north side, the cantina. They stopped in front of Patricia’s pharmacy, one of Gabriela’s childhood little friends, with whom she had played many times and enjoyed piñatas together. Patty was busy at the time