(Award-winning work at the Literary Academy, about two modern characters that represent the tendencies of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. Written when I was 15 years old when I was in the equivalent to 11th grade of high school.) (“The golden dawn is mine” sentence comes form a poem from Ruben Dario, famous poet from Nicaragua. See https://allpoetry.com/Cancion-de-Otoo-en-Primavera-(Song-of-Autumn-in-the-Springtime))

It was 11:00 in the morning and Doña Clara still hadn’t come to do her daily shopping. Don Giuseppe, the grocer, could not understand Doña Clara’s delay; she was always so punctual. At last, he decided to find out, thinking that his old friend lived alone, with no one to care for her, and that she might be ill.

He was ready to leave when he saw something that left him astonished. Doña Clara was heading there, but she was not dressed in her classic black dress. She wore a very soft lilac dress, dotted with blue sprigs, and her coat had been replaced by a white mantilla of fine silk; also, her low-heeled and pointed shoes had been changed into fine white suede shoes with a round toe and half heel. Her gait was quick and agile. She opened the glass door of the “Gato Michino” and released a loud “Buon giorno, Don Giuseppe”.

With this, the poor grocer had to quickly steady himself holding the counter, because he thought he could fall. “Ma do … Doña Clara, questo … io no capisco … lei … You …” (“What happened Donna Clara?”)

“Ah! Don Giuseppe, if you only knew. He is here! He has returned, Don Giuseppe! Spring and the soft trills of the birds seem to surround me. The sun throws its rays towards me and lets me know that youth is back. Yes, Don Giuseppe, youth! Youth again! Oh yeah! Now I see the world again in its splendor. I seem to be watching the Sunday’s walk in the Plaza de Armas, the ladies with their parasols and their wonderful dresses “A la mode Française” with bustles. The men with their red and white striped suits, their bamboo canes, their round straw hats and the elegant white sports ankle boots with patent leather. Ah! Once again I feel like the very sought after young lady of those times.”

Don Giuseppe smiles dumbfounded. He does not understand the reverie in which Dona Clara always seems to live, he does not understand anything that is outside his macaroni, ravioli and spaghetti. For him, his life is the present, selling and eating. His business is going well, why worry more? Life is becoming more expensive, but vegetables, preserves, oil and sugar are essential, what more could a man want? His wife, almost as pot-bellied as he, cooks wonderfully the lasagna, the Genoese spaghetti, mm… Yes, just thinking about it makes his mouth water.

“Ma Donia Clara now I capisco less”
“How? What do you say? What don’t you understand Don Giuseppe?”
“Ah, Doña Clara! But who has returned? What do the chirping of the birds, the bustles and the straw hats have to do with all this?”

“‘Oh! But, don’t you see? Gastón has returned! Gastón Bondine, my eternal admirer. He has been traveling through Europe but now he has returned, surely he will not have been able to forget me. My thoughts intimately linked with the wonders of Europe, must have reached him, transported on wings of love. You must know that none of my suitors liked me more than Gastón. Oh! Don Giuseppe, surely tomorrow he will go to my house and prostrating at my feet he will feverishly ask me to be his wife, to accompany him in his sad hours, to, in short, with my thoughts and dreamy fantasies, make his monotonous life as a lawyer more bearable.”

“Gastón, if you knew that I have never forgotten you, corresponding to your fidelity, how quickly you would come to take me with you again to Europe, where we would be eternally happy.”

Don Giuseppe, increasingly amazed with wide eyes and unblinking, follows the theatrics of Doña Clara. She is panting, she falls into a chair with a silent smile on her lips, a triumphant smile of infinite joy. Her eyes gently narrowed and her lips, pale and slightly parted, seem to savor her intimate joy. Don Giuseppe stares at her as if wanting to penetrate her feelings. How he wished he could decipher – the extravagant and fantastic way of thinking, of that woman in her fifties, rejuvenated by bliss! 

Meanwhile, a captivating couple was crossing the road at a rapid pace, the young woman with an incredulous, amazed, and perhaps a little mocking smile, she says; “I can hardly believe the description, that the concierge gave me, of the clothes that aunt is wearing now. Can you imagine Luis, a woman of more than fifty years with a white silk scarf and also white suede heeled shoes! Furthermore, once Aunt Clara told me that she had a lilac dress that had belonged to her mother, and that is the one that I think she must have worn. Doesn’t that seem impossible?” The young man smiles and shakes his head disapproving or, perhaps, not believing what his girlfriend tells him. When they arrive at the door of the nice little store, Luis goes ahead, opens the glass partition, and nimbly gives way to his girlfriend.

Don Giuseppe, assuming that it is a client, prepares to receive them, but is petrified when he sees that Doña Clara, looking towards the door, excitedly hops and exclaims imperceptibly “Gastón!”. But then, realizing that her niece Marta is coming towards her with her arms outstretched, she reacts, and mechanically hugs her. “Aunt Clara, how many years without seeing you, but you look the same Aunt, you never change. Oh, I had forgotten, this is Luis Errázuriz, my fiancé, we are going to get married in a month. The wedding will be great, as I always wanted.” Marta suddenly fixes her eyes on Doña Clara and when she sees the idiotic expression on her face, she asks her, “But Aunt Clara, what’s the matter? Didn’t Mom tell you about Luis?”

Doña Clara, seeing herself thus challenged by her niece, shakes her head, as if wanting to dismiss her thoughts, she slowly answers; “It’s been more than a year since your mother has come here, I don’t know what could have happened. Besides, you know, I never go out, much less could I go to see you at the other end of the city and without knowing your address!” “But Auntie, Mom wrote to you about two months ago! As she did not receive an answer, she sent Luis yesterday to see you. But she gave him the wrong address and Luis could not find you, finally today I could come, and here we are.”

“Oh! dear me,” says Doña Clara, “I haven’t received any letters! Anyway…” Addressing Luis, she greeted him cordially. Then, believing that Don Giuseppe might have realized the reaction she had had when seeing Luis, she turned to him, hoping to find some telltale expression on his face, but Don Giuseppe, already recovered, and extremely prudent and delicate, was busily ordering the cans of sardines, to hide his painful discovery about the story of Don Gastón Bondine.

Marta, ignorant of the tragicomedy that was taking place there, said happily to Doña Clara: “Well, Auntie, since you liked Luis, finish your shopping soon and we will tell you about our projects at your home. Doña Clara, delighted with the simplicity of her niece and with the chivalry of her almost nephew, approached the counter smiling. But Don Giuseppe could clearly notice how different this smile was from the one she wore before her niece came with her boyfriend Luis. Her eyes had once again become opaque, as usual, and her wrinkled face had lost the soft rosy tones that gave her dreams and fantasies. Her pale and dry lips instructed him as always: “Give me half a liter of oil, a candle, and, Don Giuseppe, has the sugar still not arrived?”