Reader's response - "One of These Days"

SUMMARY:
Aurelio Escobar, a skinny dentist without degree, has a poor office with crumbling ceiling and a dusty spider web with spider’s eggs and dead insects, where he opens at six o’clock. He has an eleven year old son, who interrupts his father’s concentration saying the Mayor wants to see him. At first, the dentist lies saying he is not there, but the Mayor says to Aurelio’s son he knows the dentist is there because he can hear Aurelio in the office. The Mayor threats the dentist saying if he doesn’t help him, he is going to shoot the dentist. Without hurrying, Aurelio prepares all the instruments to remove the Mayor’s lower wisdom tooth; without anesthesia because the Mayor has an abscess. After the procedure is done, Mayor says to send the bill and Aurelio asks if he should send to him or to the town. Mayor leaves without answering the dentist’s question. So after closing the door, through the screen the Mayor answers the question saying it is the same thing if Aurelio sends the bill to him or to the town.

PART I LIKED:
When the dentist, Aurelio Escovar, says, “Tell him to come and shoot me,” referring to the Mayor’s threat; if Aurelio doesn’t take the Mayor’s tooth out the Mayor is going to shoot him. First, it sounds funny for me; almost like if they were in the school, and the Mayor is the big boy who likes to bully the weak and skinny boys, like Aurelio. However, the dentist is not scared of the Mayor’s threat because he has a revolver in one of the table drawers. Plus, it also seems that Aurelio is not afraid of the fact it is the Mayor who is threatening him; for example, “Without hurrying, with an extremely tranquil movement…”

PART I FOUND CONFUSING:
I couldn’t find a part that was confusing, but I think there are many different interpretations in this story. I think the fact it is a short story, the writer just present us some ideas that, probably, he wants us to discuss. He doesn’t give us the full idea or the reason he wrote the story, so it is up to us to give our own interpretation.

QUESTIONS:
First, Aurelio tried to tell the Mayor he wasn’t in the office, but the Mayor tells to Aurelio’s son he can hear the dentist. Why did the dentist lie?
Aurelio seems not to be afraid of the Mayor, a military man who seems to be violent and unethical. Why is Aurelio not afraid of the Mayor?

INTERPRETATION:
I think Gabriel Garcia Marquez wrote this story to show us that even living in an authoritative government, where the citizens are constantly afraid to express their opinions, a simple man from work class can have his revenge. The Mayor is a military man, who thinks he can get anything he wants at anytime; he uses his power to get respect from the citizens. However, Aurelio is not like the rest of the people, he is not afraid to say No to the Mayor. Even though, at first he lies to the Mayor saying he is not in the office, I think at the moment Aurelio sees the Mayor needs him, he sees a chance to revenge. It is not only a personal revenge, when the Mayor threats to shoot the dentist, but it is also revenge from the dead ones; Aurelio says “Now you [Mayor] will pay for our twenty dead men.” Although, the dentist cannot bring back the dead men, at least, he can make the Mayor suffer; feel the terrible pain of extracting a wisdom tooth without any anesthesia. I think if we follow this interpretation, it also would explain the title of the story; one of these days the tyrant will pay for the injustices, one of these days the citizens who have been suffering for years will have a change to revenge. Aurelio knows the Mayor doesn’t care about being a good leader, but he still asks to the Mayor who he should send the bill to; the Mayor says it doesn’t matter if it is to him or to the town, proving he is unethical man who uses the town’s money for personal expenses.