Tender Is the Flesh

Driving home with Armando’s ashes, Tejo ignores repeated calls from Marisa, whom he suspects of planning a farewell service to comply with social customs. Stopping at the zoo, he carries his father’s ashes to a hanging bridge in the aviary. He recalls visiting the zoo with his father following his mother’s death. His father taught him about birds and explained the significance of a stained-glass image of Icarus, saying it was enough for him to fly like a bird, if only for a short time before his wings melted in the heat of the sun.

Tejo also remembers seeing his mother and father dance to jazz music and recalls his father teaching him to whistle. He scatters his father’s ashes over the bridge. On the way back to the car, he refills the urn with sand.

Back in the car, Tejo accepts a call from Marisa. She asks him to bring the urn to her house within a day or two so she can hold the farewell service soon. He refuses, saying that he’ll bring it when he wants to, not before. As she responds, he hangs up.