FLORENTINO ARIZA, oher hand, had not stopped thinking of her for a single moment since Fermina Daza had re-jected him out of hand after a long and troubled love affair fifty-one years, nine months, and four days ago. He did not have to keep a run-ning tally, drawing a line for each day on the walls of a cell, because not a day had passed that something did not happen to remind him of her. At the time of their separation he lived with his mother, Tránsito Ariza, in one half of a rented house oreet of Windows, where she had kept a notions shop ever since she was a young woman, and where she also unraveled shirts and s to sell as bandages for the men wounded in the war. He was her only child, born of an occasional alliah the well-known shipowner Don Pius V Loayza, one of the three brothers who had fouhe River pany of the Caribbean and thereby given new impetus to steam navigation along the Magdalena River.
Don Pius V Loayza died when his son was ten years old. Although he always took care of his expenses i, he never reized him as his son before the law, nor did he leave him with his future secure, so that Florentino Ariza used only his mother』s name even though his true parentage was always on knowledge. Florentino Ariza had to leave school after his father』s death, and he went to work as an apprenti the Postal Agency, where he was in charge of opening sacks, s the letters, and notifying the public that mail had arrived by flying the flag of its try ihe office door.
His good seracted the attention of the telegraph operator, the German émigré Lotario Thugut, who also played the an for important ceremonies ihedral and gave music lessons in the home. Lotario Thugut taught him the Morse code and the ws of the telegraph system, and after only a few lessons on the violin Florentino Ariza could play by ear like a professional. Whe Fermina Daza he was the most sought-after young man in his social circle, the one who knew how to dahe latest dances ae seal poetry by heart, and who was always willing to play violin sereo his friends』 sweethearts. He was very thin, with Indian hair plastered down with sted pomade and eyeglasses for myopia, which added to his forlorn appearance. Aside from his defective vision, he suffered from istipation, which forced him to take enemas throughout his life. He had one black suit, ied from his dead father, but Tránsito Ariza took such good care of it that every Sunday it looked new. Despite his air of weakness, his reserve, and his somber clothes, the girls in his circle held secret lot-teries to determine who would spend time with him, and he gambled on spending time with them until the day he met Fermina Daza and his innoce came to an end.
He had seen her for the first time oernoon when Lotario Thugut told him to deliver a telegram to someone named Lorenzo Daza, with no known place of residence. He found him in one of the oldest houses on the Park of the Evangels; it was half in ruins, and its interior patio, with weeds in the flowerpots and a stone fountain with no water, resembled an abbey cloister. Florentino Ariza heard no human sound as he followed the barefoot maid uhe arches of the passageway, where unopened moving cartons and bricklayer』s tools lay amoover lime and stacks of t bags, for the house was undergoing drastiovation. At the far end of the patio was a temporary office where a very fat man, whose curly sideburns grew into his mustache, sat behind a desk, taking his siesta. In fact