increased his curiosity. He demanded so much, promised with such insistence that he would not mistreat the
things, that 2rsula, gave him the keys. No one had gone into the room again since they had taken Melquaades?
body out and had put on the door a padlock whose parts had become fused together with rust. But when
Aureliano Segundo opened the windows a familiar light entered that seemed accustomed to lighting the room
every day and there was not the slightest trace of dust or cobwebs, with everything swept and clean, better swept
and cleaner than on the day of the burial, and the ink had not dried up in the inkwell nor had oxidation
diminished the shine of the metals nor had the embers gone out under the water pipe where Jos?Arcadio Buendaa
had vaporized mercury. On the shelves were the books bound in a cardboard-like material, pale, like tanned
human skin, and the manuscripts were intact. In spite of the room’s having been shut up for many years, the air
seemed fresher than in the rest of the house. Everything was so recent that several weeks later, when 2rsula went
into the room with a pail of water and a brush to wash the floor, there was nothing for her to do. Aureliano
Segundo was deep in the reading of a book. Although it had no cover and the title did not appear anywhere, the
boy enjoyed the story of a woman who sat at a table and ate nothing but kernels of rice, which she picked up
with a pin,luna online gold, and the story of the fisherman who borrowed a weight for his net from a neighbor and when he gave
him a fish in payment later it had a diamond in its stomach, and the one about the lamp that fulfilled wishes and
about flying carpets. Surprised, he asked 2rsula if all that was true and she answered him that it was, that many
years ago the gypsies had brought magic lamps and flying mats to Macondo.
“What’s happening,?she sighed, “is that the world is slowly coming to an end and those things don’t come
here any more.?
When he finished the book, in which many of the stories had no endings because there were pages missing,
Aureliano Segundo set about deciphering the manuscripts. It was impossible. The letters looked like clothes hung
out to dry on a line and they looked more like musical notation than writing. One hot noontime, while he was
poring over the, manuscripts, he sensed that he was not alone in the room. Against the light from the window,
sitting with his hands on his knees, was Melquaades. He was under forty years of age. He was wearing the same
old-fashioned vest and the hat that looked like a raven’s wings, and across his pale temples there flowed the
grease from his hair that had been melted by the heat,runescape power leveling, just as Aureliano and Jos?Arcadio had seen him when they
were children. Aureliano Segundo recognized him at once, because that hereditary memory had been transmitted
from generation to generation and had come to him through the memory of his grandfather.
“Hello,?Aureliano Segundo said.
“Hello, young man,?said Melquaades.
From then on, for several years, they saw each other almost every afternoon. Melquaades talked to him about
the world, tried to infuse him with his old wisdom, but he refused to translate the manuscripts. “No one must
know their meaning until he has reached one hundred years of age,?he explained. Aureliano kept those meetings
secret forever. On one occasion he felt that his private world had fallen apart because 2rsula came in when
Melquaades was in the room. But she did not see him.
“Who were you talking to??she asked him.
“Nobody,?Aureliano Segundo said.
“That’s what your great-grandfather did,cheap lord of the rings gold,?2rsula, said. “He used to talk to himself too.?
Jos?Arcadio Segundo,l2 power leveling, in the meantime, had satisfied his wish to see a shooting. For the rest of his life he
would remember the livid flash of the six simultaneous shots-and the echo of the discharge as it broke against the
the tormenting hammering and the constant noise of wooden lathings ceased in a silence that was startled at the
order and neatness of the music. They all ran to the parlor. Jos?Arcadio Buendaa was as if struck by lightning, not
because of the beauty of the melody, but because of the automatic working of the keys of the pianola, and he set
up Melquaades?camera with the hope of getting a daguerreotype of the invisible player. That day the Italian had
lunch with them. Rebeca and Amaranta, serving the table, were intimidated by the way in which the angelic man
with pale and ringless hands manipulated the utensils. In the living room,cheap eve online isk, next to the parlor, Pietro Crespi taught
them how to dance. He showed them the steps without touching them, keeping time with a metronome,l2 power leveling, under the
friendly eye of 2rsula, who did not leave the room for a moment while her daughters had their lesson. Pietro
Crespi wore special pants on those days, very elastic and tight, and dancing slippers,runescape power leveling, “You don’t have to worry so
much,?Jos?Arcadio Buendaa told her. “The man’s a fairy.?But she did not leave off her vigilance until the
apprenticeship was over and the Italian left Macondo. Then they began to organize the party. 2rsula drew up a
strict guest list, in which the only ones invited were the descendants of the founders, except for the family of
Pilar Ternera, who by then had had two more children by unknown fathers. It was truly a high-class list, except
that it was determined by feelings of friendship, for those favored were not only the oldest friends of Jos?Arcadio
Buendaa’s house since before they undertook the exodus and the founding of Macondo, but also their sons and
grandsons, who were the constant companions of Aureliano and Arcadio since infancy, and their daughters, who
were the only ones who visited the house to embroider with Rebeca and Amaranta. Don Apolinar Moscote, the
benevolent ruler whose activity had been reduced to the maintenance from his scanty resources of two policemen
armed with wooden clubs, was a figurehead. In older to support the household expenses his daughters had
opened a sewing shop, where they made felt flowers as well as guava delicacies,conan power leveling, and wrote love notes to order.
?28 312188 3
But in spite of being modest and hard-working, the most beautiful girls in Iowa, and the most skilled at the new
dances, they did not manage to be considered for the party.
While 2rsula and the girls unpacked furniture, polished silverware, and hung pictures of maidens in boats full
of roses, which gave a breath of new life to the naked areas that the masons had built, Jos?Arcadio Buendaa
stopped his pursuit of the image of God, convinced of His nonexistence, and he took the pianola apart in order to
decipher its magical secret. Two days before the party, swamped in a shower of leftover keys and hammers,
bungling in the midst of a mix-up of strings that would unroll in one direction and roll up again in the other, he
succeeded in a fashion in putting the instrument back together. There had never been as many surprises and as
much dashing about as in those days, but the new pitch lamps were lighted on the designated day and hour. The
house was opened, still smelling of resin and damp whitewash, and the children and grandchildren of the
founders saw the porch with ferns and begonias, the quiet rooms, the garden saturated with the fragrance of the
roses, and they gathered together in the parlor, facing the unknown invention that had been covered with a white
sheet. Those who were familiar with the piano, popular in other towns in the swamp, felt a little disheartened, but
more bitter was 2rsula’s disappointment when she put in the first roll so that Amaranta and Rebeca could begin
earn in a short time more money than 2rsula had with her delicious candy fauna,l2 power leveling, but everybody thought it
strange that he was now a full-grown man and had not known a woman. It was true that he had never had one.
Several months later saw the return of Francisco the Man, as ancient vagabond who was almost two hundred
years old and who frequently passed through Macondo distributing songs that he composed himself. In them
Francisco the Man told in great detail the things that had happened in the towns along his route, from Manaure to
the edge of the swamp,l2 power leveling, so that if anyone had a message to send or an event to make public, he would pay him
two cents to include it in his repertory. That was how 2rsula learned of the death of her mother, as a simple
consequence of listening to the songs in the hope that they would say something about her son Jos?Arcadio.
Francisco the Man, called that because he had once defeated the devil in a duel of improvisation, and whose real
name no one knew, disappeared from Macondo during the insomnia plague and one night he appeared suddenly
in Catarino’s store. The whole town went to listen to him to find out what had happened in the world. On that
occasion there arrived with him a woman who was so fat that four Indians had to carry her in a rocking chair, and
an adolescent mulatto girl with a forlorn look who protected her from the sun with an umbrella. Aureliano went
to Catarino’s store that night. He found Francisco the Man, like a monolithic chameleon, sitting in the midst of a
circle of bystanders. He was singing the news with his old, out-of-tune voice, accompanying himself with the
same archaic accordion that Sir Walter Raleigh had given him in the Guianas and keeping time with his great
walking feet that were cracked from saltpeter. In front of a door at the rear through which men were going and
coming, the matron of the rocking chair was sitting and fanning herself in silence. Catarino, with a felt rose
behind his ear, was selling the gathering mugs of fermented cane juice, and he took advantage of the occasion to
go over to the men and put his hand on them where he should not have. Toward midnight the heat was
unbearable. Aureliano listened to the news to the end without hearing anything that was of interest to his family.
He was getting ready to go home when the matron signaled him with her hand.
“You go in too.?she told him. “It only costs twenty cents.?
Aureliano threw a coin into the hopper that the matron had in her lap and went into the room without knowing
why. The adolescent mulatto girl, with her small bitch’s teats, was naked on the bed. Before Aureliano sixty-three
men had passed through the room that night. From being used so much,wow gold, kneaded with sweat and sighs, the air in
the room had begun to turn to mud. The girl took off the soaked sheet and asked Aureliano to hold it by one side.
It was as heavy as a piece of canvas. They squeezed it,cheap runescape gold, twisting it at the ends until it regained its natural weight.
They turned over the mat and the sweat came out of the other side. Aureliano was anxious for that operation
never to end. He knew the theoretical mechanics of love, but he could not stay on his feet because of the
weakness of his knees, and although he had goose pimples on his burning skin he could not resist the urgent need
?24 312188 3
to expel the weight of his bowels. When the girl finished fixing up the bed and told him to get undressed, he gave
her a confused explanation: “They made me come in. They told me to throw twenty cents into the hopper and
hurry up.?The girl understood his confusion. “If you throw in twenty cents more when you go out, you can stay a