Sarah's story
Why does nobody like Pablo? 2
(24.06.2023)
Why does nobody like Pablo? He's such a lovable dog. As soon as anyone comes to the house he jumps all over them trying to hug and kiss them. He kisses by licking them all over, it's so adorable. His hugs tend to scratch people's clothes, it's true, but what are clothes, compared to expressions of love?
My sister Milly doesn't see it this way. Her boyfriend, she says, doesn't like Pablo at all. He hates being slobbered over, she says. What a way to talk about one's family's dog!
And so clever! I doubt if anyone else's dog can open a door the way he does. I know my friend Elsa's cat can open their fridge but then cats are known to be sly. I've never seen a dog who could nuzzle his way into a fridge like that. Except for Pablo.
We have a childproof latch on our fridge, of course, because he loves red meat, as we all do. But you have no idea how funny it was when we were all at Aunt Gertrude's, sitting around on her stiff old chairs having what she calls drinks before dinner. Aunt Gertrude is a terrible cook. Do you know a single person who can ruin a good steak? I do: Aunt Gertrude. She can take a perfectly good sirloin and dish it up as if it were an old boot. And she doesn't even have the proper knives to cut the thing up with. We were eating those fennel sticks and peanuts and drinking our lemonade (booze-less, of course, with Aunt Gertrude, though generally Milly and I don't get alcohol anyway, but the boys do—they're over 18), wondering at what time we were going to be able to get out of there, when all of a sudden there was quite a ruckus.
In came Aunt Gertrude's two cats, snarling and scratching, pursuing poor Pablo. Those two cats are really mean, greedy, self-seeking creatures. They were after him, it soon transpired, because of what he had in between his teeth and was trying to enjoy peacefully on his own.
"The steak!" shrieked Aunt Gertrude.
My two brothers, who have no sense of loyalty to the family pet, ran after him to try and get the meat away from him. "Stop!" I cried. "Why should the cats have it?"
"Why should the cats have it, indeed?" cried Aunt Gertrude in turn. "It's your dinner!"
By this time the boys had got the piece out of Pablo's iron jaws, but it was in a sorry state. Not too big to begin with it was now reduced to half its size and quite mangled.
"I'm afraid it's done for," said Douglas, apologetically, looking at Aunt Gertrude, who looked daggers at all of us. Mother, who has like me a soft spot for the dog, tried to smooth things over.
"At least he only got one," she said, smiling at Aunt Gertrude in a pacifying way.
But Aunt Gertrude was not to be pacified. "There was only one!" she said stonily.
After our first gasp of surprise, my sister and I began to laugh.
"Stop that," said our father sternly, but then he turned to Aunt Gertrude and began to apologize.
"The only thing we can do, Gertrude," he said, "after ruining your dinner like this is to take you out to a good restaurant." My sister nudged me in the ribs and winked.
We gathered up our things while Pablo finished off his meal in a corner of the front hall. Luckily Aunt Agatha has a housekeeper who started to clean it all up, but she too looked as if she didn't care much for our pet.
And as we were going out, (to a great steakhouse, I can say, after the fact), Father said, "And I think we are going to have to do something about that dog."
Why does nobody like Pablo? We should never have had such a good dinner without him!
+ 665 wds
Geraldine's story
Why does nobody like Pablo?
Or, the unlikely dialogue between two ghosts named Pablo…
PE : Hi Pablo ! We could have met before, but it would have been very strange, this encounter between a young gangster like me and an old painter like you !
PP : Oh yes, very difficult to imagine. But it’s not too late to try and find out why, although popular, nobody really liked us when we were alive ! Let’s try and answer this one…
PE : Well, you know, when I was a little boy, I lived in a poor peasant’s family and we were 7 children to be brought up which gave my mother loads of work, as she also was a schoolteacher.
PP : For my account, we were three children, and I was the oldest, but my father had planned my life to be what it became, so I had to move on to feel a bit of freedom.
PE : I managed to get into University after my schooling, but I didn’t stay there for long and never got a degree.
PP : We do have some similar paths in our lifes : I got into a Royal Academy of Arts in 1900, but I also abandonned the training very quickly. Didn’t like the lack of freedom and the formatting. Wanted to espress myself and became one of the founding members of the cubism movement with my friend Braque. And as you know, anything new is rejected at first.
PE : Well, as for me, I wanted to make money, lots and lots of money and the easiest way was to work in traffick and started a criminal carreer selling contraband cigarettes, false lotery tickets and managing a stolen vehicle network. Then I went in on export, but not ordinary export : my product happened to be cocaine, very appreciated in the United-States in the 1980’s. I founded a Cartel in Medellin and 4 years later, had enough money to buy the « Hacienda Napoles » and add to it a zoo, a lake and an Attraction Park. I was only 30 years old and very proud of my ascencion.
PP : I must admit I also wanted to make money, but with my skill. By 1901, I started a series of paintings that became called the Blue Period. It was shortly after the suicide of one of my friends and is known for the melancholy it raised. I was only 20 years old and had decided to go and live in Paris.
PE : Maybe our quick success made people jealous and envious and that’s when they started not liking us ? What do you think ?
PP : Well, I rapidly became famous and opened the Pink period, pink because I had just met my first feminine companion, Fernande Olivier and got established in Paris at the Bateau-lavoir , an artist’s residence where I stayed until 1912. I was very prolific during this period with drawings, paintings, sculptures, ceramics etc… I liked it.
PE : I also had a very prolific period, between 30 and 40 years old, developping the cocaïne traffic at a terrific speed. I developped a huge trafficking network and became very unpopular, because I had ennemies and that’s when I became a gangster, having to blackmail, take hostages and kill people. The money from the intermediates had to get back to me at whatever cost. But, I was also becoming, at the same time, a « Robin Hood » in Columbia and mainly in Medellin, above all in the poorest quarters, giving money for sportive equipments for the young, helping on schools, rehabilitation of poor housing etc…
PP : At one point, when I was around 56 years old,…
PE : I never reached that age, I died at 44 years old, but I’ll tell you later…
PP : Yes, in 1937, I was aked to commit a painting called »Guernica », the famous battle during the Spanish Civil War, because I was a pacifist, still living in France. Then, during the 1940-1945 World War, I remained a pacifist and didn’t take part either side, which didn’t make me popular. But I was against the Nazis’ and so in 1944 I joined the French Communist Party where I was never strongly liked either…. Too independant, too rich, not involved enough. And I also had four children from 3 different mothers, which wasn’t current in those days. There was a lot of talking over my relation with women….Did you have children ?
PE : Yes, I had 2 children, Sebastian and Manuela from my wife whom I met early. But I made sure she didn’t interfere with my business and had loads of mistresses at the same time. After about 10 years of the fabulous life, I had to surrender in 1991, to avoid a formal extradition procedure to the United States who didn’t want my Cartel to continue it’s business. So, I was put in jail. They called my place « The Cathedral » because I had a football field, a giant doll’s house, a bar, a jaccuzi, a cascade…. Very good conditions. And the place also became the clan’s General Headquartes. So I escaped and a year later with 30 accomplices, we kidnapped a group of Managers against a 300.000$ ransom. And this initiated a massive manhunt.
PP : In 1949 I got and award for painting « La Colombe de la Paix ». It was just after I settled in Vallauris with Françoise Gilot and my baby son Claude, born the previous year. I did kind of live a much calmer life as from then, as an artist. Was alrready very famous and needed the climate and the beautiful environment to carry on my carreer ! No prison for me…
PE : And then came downfall time for me : The National Police finally rounded me and killed me as public ennemi nr.1. I never knew if my popularity was greater than the hate towards me. I died at 44 years old, having been, to my eyes, a hero, a criminal, a father, a lover and even an elected member for the Colombian Liberal Party at 33 years old.
PP : Whereas I lived quite old, and died of a pulmonary embolism at the age of 91. And according to the trouble my children went through after my death and there inheritance problems, I doubt they really liked Pablo !
Jackie's story
He was stuck, upside down like a fly in a freshly baked custard tart. Helpless, struggling to get upright , waggling his legs in a very undignified manner. She almost put her foot on him and squashed him to oblivion, but her sandal strap got stuck on an earth clump and stopped her foot just in time . She bent down to pick up what she thought was her mothers metallic jewel necklace lost months before.
The shining carapace glinted and shimmered brilliantly in the sun like a upside down oyster shell at the seaside and as she stooped saw that it was a beautiful beetle. She bent down to rescue him from an almost fateful plight
Her 6 year old self spent summer vacations in the family garden. Her mum grew vegetables and flowers and there were lots of trees to climb. But her favorite thing to do was lie in the grass and daydream. This is where she came across the flailing beetle and decided to name him Pablo as he was small and dainty. She lifted him up carefully put him in a matchbox with a few dead ants, grass and other green things to eat.
After a few days she opened the box and to let him fly away …he did so tentatively at first and but always stayed around his new home coming back for some dried leaves, fresh seeds and fruit.
One day she was lying on her stomach on the uncut lawn. Pulling up some weeds, scraping off the tops and organising little piles of grains, flowers and searching for dead ants to give Pablo. A fluffy black and yellow bee with stripes on his back was hovering over her, a honey bee only interested in the lavender flowers which grew in her garden that produced a delectable honey that she devoured every morning for breakfast. Her school studied how vital bees are for our planet and she studied his wings which were like cathedral windows – fine lines defined into delicate sections and he buzzed and droned, she was mesmerized by the sound.
Pablo the rescued beetle spied the little person who had saved him lying on the ground and the busy bee who was suspended near by; he swooped down to take a closer look.
Protecting this little being who had been so kind to him. He landed on the back of the what he thought was a threatening bee and bit him so hard that the bee was cut in half and dropped dead instantly.
Immediately other bees in the area collected together – swarmed around Pablo the beetle and shouted out in bee language their hate for Pablo and he became the most hated beetle in the garden. This is why nobody likes Pablo.
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Paula's story
‘Tante Amelie,” Susanna asked. ‘Why does no one like Pablo?”
The old woman hesitated. She settled herself deeper into her armchair near the fire, and gathered her young niece to her. Susanna sat at her aunt’s knee, sinking into the deep-pile rug with a satisfied sigh.
The story of Pablo Lorenzo Carlos Santiago was as troubling as it was interesting. Amelie looked down at the 14-year-old at her feet and struggled with exactly how much to tell her. But it was in her nature to answer honestly any question her young relatives asked her, because she was a staunch believer in truth in all things.
‘It’s a long story,” she began. ‘Once, there was a very popular television show called ‘Everyone Loves Pablo.” It ran for 10 seasons on American television, and it made Pablo a very rich and a very famous man. In the show, he played a lovable but bumbling fool of a man who made friends wherever he went. His character might not have been the most intelligent man, but he was kind, and he was happy, and everyone he came in contact with loved him.
“But in reality, off camera, Pablo was a horrid man. In those 10 seasons of the television show, behind the scenes he ruled by terror and intimidation. When he deigned to speak to the women who worked with him, he spoke to their breasts, not to their faces, and he extracted sexual favors from them on the insinuation that only if they submitted to him, would they keep their jobs in a very cutthroat industry. The men who worked for him feared him and hated him for his arrogance and his superiority and the way he stabbed anyone in the back who would not do his bidding. The network executives felt powerless to reign him in because his show brought in millions of advertising dollars, and they were not about to rock the boat.”
Amelie looked at Susanna’s puzzled face, and sighed. She decided to continue, to tell her young niece the truth as she knew it.
“Pablo was abused as a child, by his mother,” she said gently. “He was physically battered, emotionally harmed — his mother was a disturbed woman, and she was not happy to be bringing up a son by herself after her husband deserted the family. None of us knew what was going on until one night, when Pablo left home, and left a note behind that detailed everything he had suffered at the hands of his mother.
“We were all horrified,’ Susanna’s aunt continued. “We really had no idea what horrors he had been subjected to. His mother hid her demons from the rest of the family very well. And so we reached out to him, with offers of help. But it was too late.”
Amelie shook her head sadly. ‘Pablo had decided the whole family was against him, and who could blame him? No one had come to his aid, because we just didn’t know. And so he became a truly embittered man, and he took that bitterness and anger out on everyone he came into contact with, especially women. Eventually, he channeled all that energy into a soaring career as a stand-up comedian, which led to a successful acting career.
‘Yet, in the end, his television show was canceled. Two women who worked for the network filed charges of rape against him, and once that became public, accusations from more women followed. As a family, it was so hard for us, but all we could do was watch from the sidelines as he was finally sentenced to prison. He is there, still.”
Amelie sighed, bent down and whispered to her young niece that sometimes you learn that there are some family members you just cannot save. There are some people you are related to by birth, but not by affinity, not by friendship, not by love, not by choice.
Susanna was still, her wide eyes fixed on her aunt’s face. Tante Amelie hugged her, and said, “This was all so long ago. Dear, dear child, how did you hear about Pablo?”
“Oh,”
Susanna said. ‘I heard cook calling from the back door for Pablo to
come get the scraps from lunch. But no one likes him! And I don’t
understand why. He’s such a lovely ginger cat.”
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