His mother, Amparo, put down her knitting in surprise. His father was listening to the radio closely, making an ear trumpet with the palm of his hand. Cassius Clay, newly named Muhammad Ali, had just been stripped of his world heavyweight title due to his refusal to be inducted into the military during the Vietnam War. Lucho Malpica turned down the volume and jumped to his feet. ‘What’s this money?’ ‘Mr Rumbo gave it to me for cleaning the vats.’ ‘He never pays that much for cleaning vats.’ ‘Well, it was about time he paid more,’ said Fins uneasily. Lucho Malpica waved the note in front of his son’s face. ‘Don’t ever lie to me!’ The boy remained silent, feeling uncomfortable, chewing over the words of before and afterwards. ‘The worst lie of all is silence.’ ‘Mr Mariscal gave it to me,’ said the boy eventually. ‘I helped unload some tobacco.’ ‘That’s more like it. More than I can earn fighting with the sea for a whole damn week!’ Now two of them were chewing over the past and present.
