Chapter 9: School's out. What next? 

The disappointment of not winning a prize at the Carnaval soon fades into distant memory.

Spring turns into summer and it is getting hotter by the day. Soon the last school day approaches. And then it is over. This group of friends says a sad farewell to each other with promises of keeping in touch. Then they go their separate ways. Ángel downhill, Luis and the rest uphill before they too split up left, right and straight on.

They have of course talked about what they would do or would like to do, many times over the recent past as the day gets closer.

Alejandro would like to spend a year travelling the world, to see what is happening in the free world. He has Asia and Australia in his sight, but realises that speaking only Spanish and in a hard to understand dialect at that, and with only song lyrics in English at his disposal he will have a hard time managing to survive.

Always an impromptu action man, he is not worried, always willing to take a chance.

Gabriel has his sight set on owning a Bodega. That's it.

Filipe wants to play his guitar and would like to travel to Rumania to learn their language. Nobody can understand why this might be. What use could the Rumanian language be in the future after all?

Ángel as we know as his sight on the beauty next door to his parent’s ramshackle farm building. Apart from being a good handyman, he is also good with figures and he thinks good at selling. So he dithers between being an accountant or an insurance salesman. Studying engineering would be nice, but money is scarce. Accountancy takes a lot of time and money to learn, whereas selling insurance can bring instant rewards if he can find a firm to work for in this backwater. The capital may be an option.

Daniel just wants a quiet life with his friends. Torremolinos is his goal.

As for Luis, ever the dreamer and always plotting improbable scenarios, he is happy to sit back outside his favourite bar, El Moro, and see what comes along.

Sitting there in the sunshine one day, he is in awe of some of the older village people, infirm with arthritis or suffering from shortness of breath, braving the steep village streets. They struggle on, but never give up no matter how much pain they may be experiencing. The flat of the square gives them a little respite and leaning on sticks, or pushing old rusty walking frames, wheels or not, one step at a time they make their way from where they came to where they want to go. It may take hours but they persevere.

When a stranger to the village sits himself at the table next to Luis and orders a coffee and a sandwich in broken Spanish, Luis asks him his name, which turns out to something incomprehensible in a foreign language. Luis decides to call him Pepe; easy to pronounce and easy to remember. The coffee arrives but not the sandwich. Pepe looks confused but Luis signals him to be patient. El Morro does not have a kitchen so food is ordered in the bar next door, accounts settled at the end of the day. His food soon arrives, local Serrano ham in a toasted pitufo bun.

Asked what he is doing so far from civilization Pepe says he is looking for a friend he met on the Costa, Sergio his name.

So you are one of them, thinks Luis; Daniel's crowd. Never mind, there is room in this world for all kinds, he muses philosophically but says nothing. As far as he knows Sergio is a painter, not of houses but of things. Putting things on canvas, that cannot be very profitable, but who cares. Live and let live, that is Luis's attitude to life.

Inquiring whether Pepe is an artist, Luis gets a shrug in return. Not much information to glean from this guiri or franchute.

Eventually Luis points to the furthest south western corner of the square. The corner building where Paqui's ferretería is located; she is closed now and the building is in shade. But there is an entrance door down that side street, the side street where Daniel's parent's town house is situated half way down.

Good luck to them he thinks. Keep discreet and be safe. These are not friendly times for the likes of them.