Ana y Manuel HQ

Last summer, I had the great idea of buying a dog.

Everything started when Manuel left me,

and I came up with nothing better than substituting him with a big dog,

with lots of fur,

and a huge snout.

I have always been against having animals at home.

It seemed cruel to the animal,

and not very hygienic for people.

I didn´t even want us to keep the turtle that Manuel's co-workers had given him for his birthday.

It was big and ugly.

We had it in the bidet a few weeks...

until I started having nightmares in which the turtle became gigantic and chased me all over the house.

I managed to convince Manuel to take it to the river than streamed near his hometown.

We didn´t talk about it again. Even though I knew he would have loved to have a kitten, a puppy, or a bird.

Maybe that's the reason, for revenge, that I decided to buy myself a dog.

Now that you are gone, I buy myself a dog, and you won´t get to know him.

But of course, he didn´t even find out.

Do you want me to wrap it up?

what a revenge...

I was advised to give him a monosyllabic name, so that the dog would learn it fast.

I decided to call him "Man"

I liked it because it was half of Manuel, and it also meant man.

Even though you are only half of Manuel, you are more of a man than he is.

Manuel has one part of man and the other of "uel".

Why do we need that part that means nothing, that only brings memories and longing?

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.

But after hearing the irreverent names that people called their dogs, I stopped having complications.

Brutus, easy, boy, easy.

Man, come here!

Man and I would go every Sunday to the marketplace. He loved it.

He'd spend all morning from one stall to the other, going after anything that moved or called his attention.

He reminded me of the times I went with Manuel, who enjoyed showing me all kinds of trinkets.

He made the shopkeepers mad haggling nonstop.

He'd always tell me to haggle. That the prices were increased for the tourists, but I was always too shy.

Man grew up,

and although I had become very fond of him, after many months of living with him,

I started to get tired.

He wasn´t nearly half of what Manuel had been.

He wasn´t but a poor dog, who deserved something better than living with me.

It was Christmas,

and a friend gave me a record in which there was a song that suited me perfectly.

It said that having a dog when one is young and doesn´t want to be alone is a sign of defeat.

If we were as free as we say, we wouldn´t need dogs to replace anyone.

I felt horrible.

I played the song over and over, while man looked at me with eyes that seemed to understand me.

I wanted to be free,

but that half of Manuel, who was still with me, held me back.

Maybe with a different name, I would have been able to forget him,

but it was too late to change it.

So, I had to make a decision.

Like every year, the 24th my family gathered in my parents' house for dinner.

I hadn´t told them anything about Man...

Not even that Manuel had left me.

Dinner would always end with the exchange of Christmas presents.

Every year my mom made a raffle to decide who would give to whom

Last year I had gotten Manuel.

I made him a wool scarf, and he gave me an photoalbum filled with pictures.

This year I got my brother Javier.

I had bought him a cologne...

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.

I left Man in the car during dinner,

and I went down to get him while the gifts were being given.

but downstairs, where I had left them, there was neither the car nor the dog.

It was the second time I had had my car stolen,

but it was the first time that it was stolen with the dog inside.

The car was found by the Police on a clearing a few days later...

but there was no sign of the dog.

I knew that I should have felt glad for not having to worry about him anymore...

Nonetheless, I was still sad.

Even more so than when Manuel left me.

I put up signs with Man's picture all over the neighborhood.

There weren´t any news for many days.

Until one morning, someone knocked on my door...

Man...Manuel.

Manuel and Man together.

I couldn´t believe it.

He told me he had just bought him that morning in the marketplace.

and that, although hard to believe,

he had had the feeling that it was the dog who had dragged him to my house.

He also said that he missed me and that he wanted to get back together.

Man immediately recognized me and started to play.

I didn´t want to say anything about it to Manuel, who was very surprised to see that the dog was smitten with me.

He told me, he had named him Max.

It was alright with me.

It sounded nearly the same to the dog,

and to me it was a third of Manuel, and a part X, unknown, which had joined the three of us back together.