Table of Contents
Title
Content

Fraudulent Fertilisation

Episode 1

Ricardo Ludovico Gulminelli

Global Fiction

First publication: May 2002

http://badosa.com/n145-02

MAR DEL PLATA
Friday 21 April 1989

Alicia stopped at the door of Esteban Álvez’s gynaecological practice. She was nervous, anguished. She felt that something unknown, worrying, perhaps dangerous, was lying in wait for her inside. Hesitantly, she pressed the doorbell. She needed help, she had no choice...

Estela Cáceres, a quiet and gloomy secretary who had been working for Álvez for five years, ushered her in.

The rooms were sober and decorated to be appealing. However, Alicia did not feel comfortable. There was something there that made her uneasy, something almost imperceptible, sinister. Something that gave her goose-pimples.

Alicia is twenty-five years old and she’s magnificent, one of those girls who make a deep impression on men. She does not awaken a wild desire in them, nor a mere physical attraction; she generates deeper sensations, she moves warm and intimate fibres. She is a woman who leaves the flavour of her presence in everything. To see her leave, to lose her, to be unable to seize her, touch her, just caress her, can be painful. Small and warm Alicia knows this perfectly well, and that increases her magical charm. Running through her veins is the fiery Bologna blood of her parental grandparents and the noble Castilian blood from her mother’s side; the best of her ancestry found its synthesis in Alicia. The honey of her hair shines warmly, it merges with her eyes. Her image transmits a warm sensation of Autumn, a peaceful unity, a delicate harmony. Of medium height, she is neither very thin nor voluptuous, with small but pert breasts. Reserved, of an infrequent sweetness and hypnotic beauty, she is like a spring of affection, to drink from which is a pressing matter. Alicia is one of those who know that men almost inevitably fall in love with. It’s impossible to get close to her and come away unscathed. In spite of that, she is not arrogant, nor superficial, nor vain, but deep, sensitive, melancholic... She hates judging her fellow man, she prefers to be tolerant. Her humanitarian feelings induce her to be generous, to be good.

Doctor Álvez received her after an hour’s wait. When she entered his office, she was anxious, her hands were trembling slightly.

Esteban Álvez is a forty-five year old man, dark-haired, with olive-coloured skin, tall and solidly built. Well-endowed by nature, owner of a highly individual cynicism and self-assurance, he is used to making contact with lowly passions. In his gynaecological practice he has learnt to laugh at human misfortunes. Lesser problems do not exist for him. He knows that time will inexorably and vertiginously strip him of his vitality. Death worries him, he imagines it too close. After that looms only nothingness. He satirizes everything, he laughs at the world, he is sceptical of principles. He loves drinking life in, choking on pleasures and madness. He loves the wind in his face, the sun on his skin. He is firmly convinced that the differences between men are real, tangible. A very selfish man, he has been divorced three times. He does not accept limits, the only weakness he shows is his love for his only son, although he never really made any effort for him. During his childhood he hardly ever visited him, now he is a resentful teenager at odds with him. It is difficult to find positive aspects in his personality. He is a perfect professional who, scrutinising patients with his dark eyes, reads their interior with ease; a few words are enough for him to guess their intentions. He knows the souls of women like few others do. He enjoys enslaving them, using them according to his whims. He finds it rejuvenating to sleep with young women, at work he finds new affairs on a daily basis. But even within this individual way of life he has his preferences: one of his lovers, Juanita Artigas, has lasted for a long time. He consolidated a bond with her that is difficult to describe, a mixture of love, sadomasochism and promiscuity. Álvez has the virtue of unleashing the lowly instincts of his lovers. Their shadowy side, their buried libido, the universe of their sexual obsessions, the most shameful things, bloom thanks to him. His fancy women lose all their inhibitions, they relax without limits before him. They know he does not judge them, that he knows them intimately, that if they behave any other way, he will guess that they are pretending. Álvez only accepts primitive sexual conduct, he believes it is the only authentic one.

He treated Alicia amicably, as if he was following a secret code which he had rehearsed for a long time.

“Come in, dear... how can I help you?”

He spoke this sentence with sharp assurance; he knew he was in his own game reserve and took as much advantage as possible of this superiority and his prolonged experience as a gynaecologist and as a man.

“I’ve got a serious problem, doctor... I’ve come to see you on the recommendation of Héctor Sueyro, he’s my cousin. Here’s his card, he’s written you a few lines...”

“Ah yes! I’ve had some business dealings with him. How is he?”

“He’s fine, doctor, thank you very much... I’ve come to see you because my little sister, who’s only just turned thirteen, is almost three months pregnant. If my father found out, he’d die: he couldn’t stand it. He’s already had three heart attacks, he wouldn’t survive another one. I don’t want to hide anything from you, doctor. My sister Mabel has a blood deficiency, difficulties with coagulation. There’s a surgical risk.”

“She ought to have the child,” said the doctor.

“That’s not possible doctor, she’s just a kid. She was unable to judge the consequence of her actions, she wouldn’t be able to raise a baby.”

Álvez spoke to her very seriously. “Well, things aren’t that simple. It’s true that her pregnancy is advanced. Like it or not, you can’t ignore it.”

“Of course, doctor. It goes without saying that I’m aware of the seriousness of the situation, that’s why I’m desperate.”

Álvez looked at her fixedly and noticed that he was dominating the situation more and more easily; the growing anguish of Alicia left her neediness exposed, it showed that she was at his mercy, that he could ask of her whatever he wanted. This was to the experienced professional’s liking, he’d been waiting for a girl like this for several months. Now that he had found her, he had a very important, crucial and perverse task for her.

Translation: Peter Miller (© 2002)