Antonio’s parents, Floro and Clarita, had felt anxiety when they allowed him to travel to France.

Anxiety, they thought, each in his/her own way, is the common denominator of being parents. It is like a curse that happens once infatuation is gone. The ardor of the first encounters. The great temptation. The satisfaction of desires. The unexpected consequence of pregnancy. It came to her as a real surprise.

Clarita never thought that being so in love with this dark skinned man would have any consequences. When she left with him, there were no tomorrows, just moment by moment of being with him.

For Floro, this was yet another girl to satisfy what he thought were his male needs. Men are not really made to be trapped. They should be free to roam like a ram and have several females in his territory. Then the pregnancy. The moment of truth. He was married already because of the same reason. His wife got pregnant before they got married. Then she lost the baby only three months after they married. Stupid girls that don’t know how to take care of themselves. He would never use a condom, of course.

Then the fight because he lost his job and then the separation. When his wife learned he lost his job, she told him that she had no intention of maintaining him.

But he remembered that Filomena had property in the country side, and even if she and her daughter were not rich, they had chickens, vegetables and fruit to eat from the land. He would say he felt a bit guilty and came to both Filomena and her daughter with his tail between his hind legs. He surrendered.

Then everything got right. Clarita inherited the pharmacy; his first wife died; he learned how to do business with the trucks. They had another child. They moved to Santiago.

However, when his parents learned Antonio had been arrested, they felt more anxiety plus guilt. They asked themselves what had they done wrong. Really?

His mother did not remember telling him about sex, nor did his father. Of course, Filomena, the grandmother had not done that either. In fact, his father even thought that he was a little bit effeminate. After all, Filomena had brought him up together with the chickens in the back of the truck. Who knows if learning how to make empanadas and how long the oven had to be heated before inserting the bread in it had made him to be so horny.

Antonio felt so guilty for what he had done. While visiting the museum he had seen the stone statue of a woman. He saw it from the distance. He thought it was rather in the rough. Her cheek bones were ample and so were her hips. But then when he came to her side he realized that she had a hole between her legs. He was immediately aroused. The rest was unclear. He really did not remember anything else until the museum clerk found him without his pants, sleeping next to the statue. He only woke up when the police asked him to get up and took him away.

Filomena had taught Antonio to use the rosary and recite endless Hail Mary’s and Our Fathers. He used to be a very good boy. Quiet and frequently ignored by his classmates in school and even by the teachers. He never caused any problems or asked any questions but got good grades. Filomena felt full of anxiety about her skills as a grandmother.

Had all this accumulation of anxiety and guilt ended in him wanting to be a priest? His mother was not sure about this sudden vocation at all. She wanted him to be, not a pervert but, a strong macho man, like his father. She had never thought what it would be like to be the mother of a priest. That made her really anxious.