The benefits of a trench
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Chapter VII: About the trenches and the multiplying tables
Santiago de Querétaro, Querétaro, México
As it was, one unbearably hot summer night, my grandparents had retired to rest. An incoming light breeze entered through the balcony’s door. It upset one of the candles which happened to fall and light the bed’s mosquito-net; but Grandfather was quick, and he immediately extinguished the burning cloth. For that purpose, he doused the fire with a glass of water and its ice cubes. For good measure and with a profound regret, he quickly added his triple shot of Flor de Caña, Seven Year Old Rum, which he had been enjoying at that precise moment. It was his usual bedtime drink, he called it his GoodNighter Shot; and with it, he sadly made sure the fire was out completely. For that reason, whenever he retold that night’s adventures, he would wistfully say:
“What really burns me up about that whole situation, it just drives me mad… To have had to waste such a fine and excellent drink, for the sake of saving a lousy, flimsy, and undeserving bed. That drink was at its exact, perfect point, for I had barely refreshed it, with a small ice cube. The room, at the time, began to fill with smoke from the burning nets. That was a decisive moment, when Manuelita began to cough (she sounded like a locomotive going up a hill and running out of fuel). So I had my rum in my hand and to my side, Manuela coughing away. There was nothing to be done, I drank the rum in one gulp…well, not precisely; I had to own up and sadly pour my excellent drink on the fire!
“Now on the other hand, I can cast no doubt on the multiplying capabilities of that bed; our fifteen children, at that time, proved the point, to my total satisfaction and beyond any doubt. So, as you learn, when fighting in the war, to never underestimate the value of a good trench in the midst of a battle, I have to admit: for the sake of our three children waiting to be born, that multiplying table was well worth saving.”
In the land of volcanoes’ Chapters Purchase the book