WEBVTT 00:00:52.048 --> 00:01:03.286 Last summer, I had the great idea of buying a dog. 00:01:03.286 --> 00:01:05.275 Everything started when Manuel left me, 00:01:05.275 --> 00:01:09.127 and I came up with nothing better than substituting him with a big dog, 00:01:09.127 --> 00:01:13.088 with lots of fur, 00:01:13.088 --> 00:01:18.889 and a huge snout. 00:01:18.889 --> 00:01:22.300 I have always been against having animals at home. 00:01:22.300 --> 00:01:23.851 It seemed cruel to the animal, 00:01:23.851 --> 00:01:28.419 and not very hygienic for people. 00:01:28.419 --> 00:01:36.656 I didn´t even want us to keep the turtle that Manuel's co-workers had given him for his birthday. 00:01:36.656 --> 00:01:42.108 It was big and ugly. 00:01:42.108 --> 00:01:44.662 We had it in the bidet a few weeks... 00:01:44.662 --> 00:02:05.510 until I started having nightmares in which the turtle became gigantic and chased me all over the house. 00:02:05.510 --> 00:02:13.123 I managed to convince Manuel to take it to the river than streamed near his hometown. 00:02:13.123 --> 00:02:25.584 We didn´t talk about it again. Even though I knew he would have loved to have a kitten, a puppy, or a bird. 00:02:25.584 --> 00:02:30.178 Maybe that's the reason, for revenge, that I decided to buy myself a dog. 00:02:30.178 --> 00:02:33.981 Now that you are gone, I buy myself a dog, and you won´t get to know him. 00:02:33.981 --> 00:02:35.644 But of course, he didn´t even find out. 00:02:35.644 --> 00:02:37.306 Do you want me to wrap it up? 00:02:37.306 --> 00:02:42.591 what a revenge... 00:02:42.591 --> 00:02:49.116 I was advised to give him a monosyllabic name, so that the dog would learn it fast. 00:02:49.116 --> 00:02:50.716 I decided to call him "Man" 00:02:50.716 --> 00:02:54.882 I liked it because it was half of Manuel, and it also meant man. 00:02:54.882 --> 00:03:15.132 Even though you are only half of Manuel, you are more of a man than he is. 00:03:15.132 --> 00:03:18.275 Manuel has one part of man and the other of "uel". 00:03:18.275 --> 00:03:30.731 Why do we need that part that means nothing, that only brings memories and longing? 00:03:30.731 --> 00:03:38.668 At the beginning, when I took him out for a walk around the neighborhood, I was a little embarrassed to call him by his name. 00:03:38.668 --> 00:03:45.753 But after hearing the irreverent names that people called their dogs, I stopped having complications. 00:03:45.753 --> 00:03:49.598 Brutus, easy, boy, easy. 00:03:49.598 --> 00:04:03.055 Man, come here! 00:04:03.055 --> 00:04:07.260 Man and I would go every Sunday to the marketplace. He loved it. 00:04:07.260 --> 00:04:12.066 He'd spend all morning from one stall to the other, going after anything that moved or called his attention. 00:04:12.066 --> 00:04:17.061 He reminded me of the times I went with Manuel, who enjoyed showing me all kinds of trinkets. 00:04:17.061 --> 00:04:19.800 He made the shopkeepers mad haggling nonstop. 00:04:19.800 --> 00:04:27.567 He'd always tell me to haggle. That the prices were increased for the tourists, but I was always too shy. 00:04:27.567 --> 00:04:30.521 Man grew up, 00:04:30.521 --> 00:04:34.458 and although I had become very fond of him, after many months of living with him, 00:04:34.458 --> 00:04:37.326 I started to get tired. 00:04:37.326 --> 00:04:39.707 He wasn´t nearly half of what Manuel had been. 00:04:39.707 --> 00:04:51.578 He wasn´t but a poor dog, who deserved something better than living with me. 00:04:51.578 --> 00:04:52.972 It was Christmas, 00:04:52.972 --> 00:04:57.528 and a friend gave me a record in which there was a song that suited me perfectly. 00:04:57.528 --> 00:05:03.785 It said that having a dog when one is young and doesn´t want to be alone is a sign of defeat. 00:05:03.785 --> 00:05:12.723 If we were as free as we say, we wouldn´t need dogs to replace anyone. 00:05:12.723 --> 00:05:14.618 I felt horrible. 00:05:14.618 --> 00:05:21.492 I played the song over and over, while man looked at me with eyes that seemed to understand me. 00:05:21.492 --> 00:05:23.151 I wanted to be free, 00:05:23.151 --> 00:05:28.097 but that half of Manuel, who was still with me, held me back. 00:05:28.097 --> 00:05:31.029 Maybe with a different name, I would have been able to forget him, 00:05:31.029 --> 00:05:33.880 but it was too late to change it. 00:05:33.880 --> 00:05:37.165 So, I had to make a decision. 00:05:37.165 --> 00:05:42.436 Like every year, the 24th my family gathered in my parents' house for dinner. 00:05:42.436 --> 00:05:44.388 I hadn´t told them anything about Man... 00:05:44.388 --> 00:06:15.464 Not even that Manuel had left me. 00:06:15.464 --> 00:06:19.978 Dinner would always end with the exchange of Christmas presents. 00:06:19.978 --> 00:06:24.343 Every year my mom made a raffle to decide who would give to whom 00:06:24.343 --> 00:06:26.589 Last year I had gotten Manuel. 00:06:26.589 --> 00:06:36.361 I made him a wool scarf, and he gave me an photoalbum filled with pictures. 00:06:36.361 --> 00:06:38.201 This year I got my brother Javier. 00:06:38.201 --> 00:06:39.694 I had bought him a cologne... 00:06:39.694 --> 00:06:48.314 but when I was wrapping it up at home, I realized that was my chance to get rid of the dog, and start a new life. 00:06:48.314 --> 00:06:50.318 I left Man in the car during dinner, 00:06:50.318 --> 00:06:54.560 and I went down to get him while the gifts were being given. 00:06:54.560 --> 00:07:00.298 but downstairs, where I had left them, there was neither the car nor the dog. 00:07:00.298 --> 00:07:02.922 It was the second time I had had my car stolen, 00:07:02.922 --> 00:07:26.854 but it was the first time that it was stolen with the dog inside. 00:07:26.854 --> 00:07:30.152 The car was found by the Police on a clearing a few days later... 00:07:30.152 --> 00:07:33.266 but there was no sign of the dog. 00:07:33.266 --> 00:07:42.971 I knew that I should have felt glad for not having to worry about him anymore... 00:07:42.971 --> 00:07:46.290 Nonetheless, I was still sad. 00:07:46.290 --> 00:08:03.001 Even more so than when Manuel left me. 00:08:03.001 --> 00:08:06.151 I put up signs with Man's picture all over the neighborhood. 00:08:06.151 --> 00:08:08.495 There weren´t any news for many days. 00:08:08.495 --> 00:08:22.697 Until one morning, someone knocked on my door... 00:08:22.697 --> 00:08:25.220 Man...Manuel. 00:08:25.220 --> 00:08:27.243 Manuel and Man together. 00:08:27.243 --> 00:08:29.517 I couldn´t believe it. 00:08:29.517 --> 00:08:34.928 He told me he had just bought him that morning in the marketplace. 00:08:34.928 --> 00:08:36.940 and that, although hard to believe, 00:08:36.940 --> 00:08:44.652 he had had the feeling that it was the dog who had dragged him to my house. 00:08:44.652 --> 00:08:48.755 He also said that he missed me and that he wanted to get back together. 00:08:48.755 --> 00:08:51.805 Man immediately recognized me and started to play. 00:08:51.805 --> 00:08:57.893 I didn´t want to say anything about it to Manuel, who was very surprised to see that the dog was smitten with me. 00:08:57.893 --> 00:08:59.566 He told me, he had named him Max. 00:08:59.566 --> 00:09:01.388 It was alright with me. 00:09:01.388 --> 00:09:03.083 It sounded nearly the same to the dog, 00:09:03.083 --> 99:59:59.999 and to me it was a third of Manuel, and a part X, unknown, which had joined the three of us back together.