Estrella Alfon
I. SUMMARY
Magnificence is basically a story about a bus conductor who has taken interest in a little girl of seven. The little girl and her brother, who is of eight years old, find delight in spending time with the man because he gives them pencils – a ‘rage,’ or something that is popular; a fad – besides spending time when they would do their homework. But shortly afterwards, the action of the bus conductor, Vicente shows that he has taken a different kind of interest towards the little girl. When he gave the siblings pencils, there was a bonus for the girl, a jumbo one, because he said that “she was very bright, and deserved more…” When Vicente, the man, asked for a reward in return, the children kiss him but he jokingly said to Oscar, the girl’s older brother, that boys don’t kiss boys. When the girl kissed the bus conductor on the cheek, she embraced him, and he did so as well. His hold tightened which gave the girl an uneasy feeling. The third time the man showed his desire towards the little girl was when he asked the brother to fetch him a glass of water. As the two of them were left alone, he took her to his lap. Knowing that she was tall and quite heavy for her age, the girl asked him to put her down. The man did not say anything, except when she looked at him, his face was sweaty, and there was a strange look in his eyes. He told her to turn around and do her homework. When she suddenly felt very uncomfortable, she jumped from Vicente’s lap. Just in time, the little boy arrived with his mother who was holding a glass of zarzaparilla. Unknowingly, she had been watching in the shadows of the room. The mother asked Vicente to stay where he was. She then bade her son to do his homework, and her daughter to go upstairs to her room. She was about to reprimand Vicente, who had her daughter’s papers of homework held onto his stomach, but saw that Oscar was still in the room. She asked him also to go to his room before telling