The only memory that you have of your Jewish anarchist father is one in which he is covering your small feet with sand. Your mother turned him in to the Guardia Civil when you were very young, but tries desperately to have you believe that she loved him, that he was the cause of his misfortune. And he did die, you realize; he killed himself in prison. You found his Dr. Plumb's pipe in a box buried in the closet. You use this pipe; it's the only one you'll ever own. Your zealous grandmother thinks that you're a girl (and treats you like a girl), even though you're a ten year old boy. The moat around the castle in Villa-Ramiro is beautiful, and you and some other boys spend whole days at the edges, and once, when you really do walk down to the water, your grandmother finds out, and she beats you with a heavy belt. Your grandfather never says much. He smokes, he watches bullfights. He dies shortly after you move to Madrid, but you're indifferent to this. When your grandmother dies shortly thereafter, you have to lock yourself in the bathroom so that the others won't see you laughing, and you laugh until tears run down your cheeks. Your mother's sister, your aunt Clara, leads you into the world of sex. You are fourteen years old when she calls you into her room. She takes off her clothes, and lies down on her stomach. While she is on the bed, she asks you to beat her with a heavy belt, to beat her until she bleeds, because she's a sinner. She never puts it into so many words, but this is her way of repenting. This becomes a habit, but your mother never finds out. She's at the office, and you never tell her. Most afternoons, after you return from school, you beat your aunt Clara with a heavy belt until she bleeds, but you don't think much of it. But one day she turns the belt on you. She ties you to the bed with string, and beats you until you scream. You are crying, but she doesn't stop. For her, sexual things are synonymous with acts of violence. For the rest of your life, you confuse sex with violence. You don't distinguish yourself in the military academy where your mother has sent you; she wants you to be an officer in the Spanish Air Force. Every week, your instructors write to your mother and tell her how poorly you are doing in all of your subjects, and each time they inform her of your failings, she beats you with a heavy belt. She wants you to believe that she is only doing these things in your best interest, that she has only ever done these things because she thought they would be in your best interest. But later on, when she is old, and you decide to visit her, she refuses to look at you. She is playing solitaire, and she stares down at the rows of cards. Her apartment is very dark, but when you leave she kisses you. She represents modern Spain. At least that's what Arrabal wants you to believe.