Eleven Minutes

Chapter two begins three years later. In addition to geography and mathematics, Maria has expanded her horizons to include erotic magazines. At 15, she falls in love with a boy she met during Holy Week. He kisses her and she kisses back to the best of her ability. For some reason, he decides to stop their adventure. She writes about it in her diary in very grown-up terms, saying, “Life moves very fast. It rushes us from heaven to hell in a matter of seconds” (9).

She talks to her girlfriends about the experience, and they tease her because she is so innocent in the way she kisses. Days later, she sees the boy at a party holding hands with a girl whom Maria told about their time walking together. She’s crushed by this. She toys with the idea that she is going to become a nun in a convent “and devoting the rest of her life to the kind of love that didn’t hurt and didn’t leave painful scars on the heart—love for Jesus” (10-11).

Coelho writes, “However, her fifteenth birthday brought with it not only the discovery that you were supposed to kiss with your mouth open, and that love is, above all, a cause of suffering. She discovered a third thing: masturbation” (11). Ever curious, Maria begins to study the experience of orgasm and masturbation. Talking about it with her friends, she discusses the different ways a person can pleasure oneself and heard many myths from her girlfriends about the whole process. She also learns “the church seemed to imply that sex was the greatest of sins” (13).

Maria fell in love a third time and a fourth time and got close to them sometimes physically:

but something always went wrong, and the relationship would end precisely at the moment when she was sure this was the person with whom she wanted to spend the rest of her life […] One afternoon, watching a mother play with her two-year-old son, she decided that she could still think about a husband, children and a house with a sea view, but that she would never fall in love again, because love spoiled everything (13).

This brief chapter is devoted to Maria’s experience with having sex with a boy for the first time. To her, the experience is not at all like masturbation, which she finds completely pleasurable. The author writes, “She couldn’t understand it; masturbation was much less trouble and far more rewarding” (15). Because she is not enjoying sex with a boy, she begins to think she must have something wrong with her sexually. She writes in her diary, “Love is a terrible thing: I’ve seen my girlfriend suffer and I don’t want the same thing to happen to me” (16).

By age 19, Maria has graduated from secondary school and taken a job at a drapery store, where the manager falls in love with her. She has developed into a real beauty who has become extremely cynical about the notion of true love. Maria is quite able to maneuver men so they think she might be interested in them and might become sexually available while holding them at arms’ length. She has also become quite independent, continuing to live with her parents while also paying them for the privilege. About her relationship to her mother, Coelho writes, “She knew how attractive she was, and although she rarely listened to her mother, there was one thing her mother said that she never forgot: ‘Beauty, my dear, doesn’t last’” (17).

Eager to escape her boring little hometown, Maria saves up enough money to take her first trip, a one-week vacation, to the wider world, to the “city of her dreams” (18), Rio de Janeiro. She is 22 years old when she accomplishes this. Her boss wants to go with her, offering to pay her way. She talks him out of it, realizing his plan is to ask her to marry him when she returns.

Her first action, after the 48-hour bus trip to Rio, is to check into her hotel, put on her bikini, and head to the beach. She attracts a lot of attention, including that of a Swiss businessman, who gives her coconut water. He summons an interpreter, a security officer from the hotel named Maílson, who explains to Maria he wants to buy her supper that evening. The Swiss man conveys that he wants to talk to her about coming to Europe and working for him. Maria believes this is divine intervention on her behalf by the Virgin Mary. Though the interpreter does not accompany her to the meal, he gives her some advice, including telling her that if she decides to sell her body to the Swiss man, “the normal price is three hundred dollars a night. Don’t accept any less” (24).

Maria eats and drinks with the businessman, who manages to convey to her that he wants to offer her a job dancing the samba in Switzerland. Vaguely aware she is likely making a mistake, Maria finds herself inclined to accept his offer and writes down both her misgivings and her joyful dreams in her diary.

Maria, with the help of Maílson, signs a contract with the Swiss club owner, whose name is Roger. They apply to the Swiss consulate for a work permit and a passport. Maria will earn $500 a week. She is given $350 in advance with Maílson, now her agent, receiving the other $150 for his help. Even after signing the contract, Maria is uncertain about going to Switzerland. She wants to discuss it with her family, so the club owner flies with her to her home, where she explains the situation to her parents. Her mother counsels her to fly to Europe, saying, “My dear, it’s better to be unhappy with rich man that happy with the poor man, and over there you’ll have far more chance of becoming an unhappy rich woman. Besides, if it doesn’t work out, you can just get on the bus and come home” (32).

Flying back to Rio, Maria finds everything is ready for her trip. She goes to a nightclub with her new boss, who is delighted when he sees her dancing the samba. The next day, they fly to Switzerland.