Born Slaves
The 39-year-old PhD scientist was born in Lafayette, Louisiana. He had just come back from a trip to visit his family, the first time after Kathrina’s devastation. The whole area—which is 60 miles from the coast—was destroyed by seawater and winds. His family farm was still there, but no one grew anything. The young men had left the countryside. They used to grow sugar cane, figs, corn, and other staples. Europeans settled in the area, and their traditions remained very much alive. People lived many years. He met his grandparents because his grandma died at 106.
“They were born slaves,” he said, “and were liberated at five or six years of age. My grandpa used to sit me in his lap and tell me stories.”
Sufferings of Love/ Garcia Marquez
The young doctor was disappointed: he had never had the opportunity to study the effects of gold cyanide on a cadaver. Dr. Juvenal Urbino had been surprised that he had not seen him at the Medical School, but he understood in an instant from the young man’s easy blush and Andean accent that he was probably a recent arrival in the city. He said:
“There is bound to be someone driven mad by love who will give you the chance one of these days.”
And only after he said it, he realized that among the countless suicides he could remember, this was the first with cyanide that had not been caused by the sufferings of love. Then something changed in the tone of his voice.
“And when you do find one, observe with care,” he said to the intern: “they almost always have crystals in their heart.”
