This novel consists of a prologue and seven chapters. You can find them on this very blog.
CHAPTER I: The Beginnings
She was a friend of number one, Edwin Vértiz, and they called her “Vértiz’s girlfriend”, but they were not boyfriends; but she admired him. Being number one in the University of Engineering entrance exam was not to be taken lightly. The entrance exams of that university were reputed to be the most difficult in the country. She had earned that nickname because they had been seen many times having a very animated conversation.
Actually, she admired all the “chancones”, all those who got good grades in the tests of Mathematics, Physics and the other courses. This admiration was a reflection of the admiration she felt for her brother, a brilliant electronics engineer, tragically killed in a car accident.
His brother had been at the top of his class, he had always obtained the highest grades (years later, Erasmo would see those grades, kept like a treasure by Isaura, the girl we are talking about), he was very self-assured and charismatic, he had countless friends and was always willing to help. He quickly got a job after university and was, soon after, on a work trip to the provinces when (to his misfortune and that of all his relatives and friends) he met his death.
She also entered the University of Engineering, in the career of Architecture. She did not do badly at all because she entered the position one hundred and ten; a good position, considering that a little more than five thousand young people applied. Everything was going well until one day, in the Drawing course, they gave one of her drawings a bad grade. Very upset, she decided that Architecture was not for her and changed to another career, and guess what it was: the one that her brother studied, Electronic Engineering. This is how we now have Isaura in the same career that Erasmo was studying. Things of destiny.
As soon as his brother died, she saw the need to start working, to contribute to her home. Her brother’s co-workers talked to their bosses and got her a job as a telephone operator, with very flexible hours, so that she could continue her studies at the university. This is the reason why in each cycle she took the minimum number of courses. It should be mentioned that she was not “pulled” in any course (she never had to repeat any) during her entire career; achievement of which very few students can be proud, probably one in a thousand, and perhaps even fewer.
Erasmus was an outstanding student. He achieved an excellent rank of 71 in the same entrance exam that Isaura took. At first the university took him by surprise. He missed the first Math I graded practice because he overslept; they took it on a Saturday at eight in the morning. But he gradually recovered and by the fourth cycle he was one of the best in the promotion, always studying, always staying up late. It was very common for him to go to bed at two in the morning on any day of the week.
Erasmo saw Isaura and Isaura saw Erasmo. Erasmo liked Isaura and Isaura was attracted to Erasmo, but it took no less than three years and a month since they entered university for them to become friends. One day, by pure chance, Erasmo was walking behind Isaura and she turned to look at him; She kept walking and a little further on Isaura turned to look at Erasmo again, in a somewhat scandalous way, which astonished Vicente, the friend with whom Erasmo was. But nothing else happened that day. It would take almost two more years for them to start talking.
On another occasion, Erasmo arrived early at the room where the Mathematics III class was to be taught. The two-hour class started at 6 p.m., but the teacher was so good that the students saved places from 2 p.m. Well, there were many. The room had capacity for more than 400 students, but it was completely full; the individual folders reached almost to the blackboard, making it a bit difficult for the teacher to act. Erasmo arrived at 2 p.m.; he was going to save a place for him and for his friend Maria, from 2 to 4 because at 4 he had another class. At 4 o’clock Maria would arrive, who would keep his place until 6 o’clock.
At 3:30 a young man arrived who sat to the right of Erasmo and saved a seat apart from his. But Erasmo already knew this young man, if only by sight. He always made room for Isaura and from miles away you could tell that he was madly in love with her. Then Erasmo understood that he would sit next to Isaura and not the young man in love, because those seats were almost in a corner and of course the young man would give preference to Isaura, so that she would be, even a few centimeters, closer to the teacher. .
And, indeed, it was. Isaura arrived a few minutes before the teacher did and, very happy and with grateful laughter, she passed close to Erasmo (because he had to get up from her seat so she could pass) and sat next to him. The young Romeo monopolized her conversation and only once did Isaura speak to Erasmo (for the first time in her life), to ask him about a word written on the blackboard that she did not understand very well. But nothing else happened that night.
REFERENCES: For the article: none. For photos: internet.
