“I’ll do all that’s possible to rehabilitate myself, General, sir,” Captain Pantoja’s voice, heart, eyes rejoice. “No punishment will be worse than remorse for having caused an involuntary injury to the Army.”
“O.K. Don’t ever put your foot in your mouth that way again.” General Victoria looks at his watch, says it’s ten, I’m leaving. “We’ve found a new assignment for you, really far from Iquitos.”
“You’re leaving tomorrow morning and you won’t budge from that place for at least a year, not even for twenty-four hours,” Tiger Collazos puts on his jacket, tightens his tie, smooths down his hair. “If you want to stay in the Army it’s indispensable that people forget about the existence of the famous Captain Pantoja. Later, when no one remembers the matter, we’ll see.”
“Arms tied up like this, footsies like this, your head fallen on this titty,” Lieutenant Santana pants, goes, comes, decorates, ties knots, measures. “And now close your eyes and play dead, Pichuza. Just like that. Poor little specialist, oh, how awful, my little crucified girl, my pretty little ‘sister’ from the Ark.”
“The garrison at Pomata, they need a quartermaster,” Colonel López López closes the curtains, locks closets, straightens up the desks, grabs a briefcase. “Instead of the Amazon River, you’ll have Lake Titicaca.”
“And instead of the jungle’s heat you’ll have the cold of the mountains,” General Victoria opens the door, lets the others go out ahead of him.
“And instead of specialists—llamas and vicuñas,” Tiger Collazos puts on his kepi, turns off the light, holds out his hand. “What a strange bird you turned out to be, Pantoja. Yes, you can leave now.”
“Brrrr, it’s so cold, so cold,” Pochita is shivering. “Where’re the matches, where’s the darn candle, how awful it is to live without electric lights. Wake up, Panta, it’s five o’clock already. I don’t know why you have to go yourself to see the soldiers’ breakfast, you maniac. It’s really early; I’m dying of the cold. Oh, idiot, you scratched me with that bracelet again; why don’t you take it off at night? I told you, it’s five o’clock already. Wake up, Panta.”
The Cubs and Other Stories
The Time of the Hero
The Green House
Captain Pantoja and the Special Service
Conversation in The Cathedral
Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter
The War of the End of the World
The Perpetual Orgy
Who Killed Palomino Molero?
The Storyteller
In Praise of the Stepmother
English translation © 1978 by Harper and Row, Publishers, Inc.
Originally published in Spanish as Pantaleón y las Visitadoras, © 1973 by Mario Vargas Llosa
All rights reserved
This edition first published in 1990 by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
Library of Congress catalog card number: 90-82000
ISBN: 978-0-374-52236-0