The Stories of Eva Luna

Eva Luna’s next story is set in the small, close-knit town of Agua Santa. Tomás Vargas, an arrogant miser, keeps his gold buried and hidden. He refuses to use his money even to educate his children, using what pocket change he has to buy drinks and boast about his affairs at the local bars instead. The local schoolteacher, Inés, educates the Vargas children for free as charity. When he’s drunk, Vargas beats his wife, a proud woman named Antonia Sierra. The local storekeeper, a Turkish man named Riad Halabí, is the only one who can shame Vargas into leaving Antonia alone when he enters a rage.

One day, a pregnant young girl named Concha Díaz rides into town on the back of a petroleum truck. She goes to Riad Halabí in tears, asking where to find the father of her unborn child: Tomás Vargas. Riad Halabí offers to host Concha at his own home, but she tearfully insists on staying with Vargas, the only person in town that she knows. Vargas brings her home, and Antonia screams out her fury when she finds her husband’s mistress in her bed that night. She takes out her rage and humiliation on Concha with insults and haughty silence.

As Concha’s pregnancy develops, she grows sicker and weaker. Vargas, sick of her tears, starts avoiding the house, and the women spend more time near each other. Slowly, Antonia grows to pity Concha, even beginning to feel maternal toward her. Eventually, Antonia goes to Riad Halabí for help, and he drives the two women into the city for medicine and clothes. Riad Halabí helps pay for the expenses of Concha’s pregnancy while Vargas gets drunk in town. Less than two weeks after Concha gives birth, Vargas tries to have sex with her again, but he can’t help himself from flinching when Antonia and Concha both fiercely move to stop him. After that, Vargas leaves them alone, but in his bitterness, he turns to gambling.

Agua Santa takes gambling debts seriously; everyone has to pay their dues on time, or there’s hell to pay from the community. For a while, Vargas plays without incident. One day, however, he beats the vindictive Lieutenant and wins 200 pesos from him. Vargas boasts about his victory to whoever will listen until the Lieutenant challenges him to a rematch—this time for 1000 pesos. Vargas accepts, and with the whole town watching, he loses the game. The only way he can pay the Lieutenant his debt is if he digs up his buried gold. Pale and miserable, he leads the town to his hiding-place and digs—but to his despair, he can’t find his gold where he buried it.

Vargas insists that he doesn’t know where his gold is, but the Lieutenant demands Vargas pay up. Riad Halabí separates the men for the moment, and Vargas staggers home, where Antonia and Concha sip coffee and watch him impassively. Vargas lies low for a few days, but when he finally ventures out for a drink, the Lieutenant murders him and leaves his body in the place where he supposedly hid his gold. Antonia and Concha bury him and go on with their lives, living together and raising their children side by side. Together, they start a meal delivery business and start to grow their wealth.