It would be fair for the cart on the corner of Catete and Corrêa Dutra streets to carry the following sign: “Only strike up a conversation if you have plenty of time.” Jorge doesn’t mind being lengthy when he starts telling one of his stories. And they are such delicious adventures that it becomes difficult to go back to routine – the latter seems completely uninteresting afterward. Jorge Gabriel de Melo Marçal de Albuquerque Torres’s journey begins in Nepal. “I came to Brazil when I was one year old.” His father was French, a member of the Foreign Legion, and his mother was a pygmy from the Kalahari. “She’s almost 1.28 meters tall and still alive at 106,” assures the octogenarian. Reinaldo, his father, would have lived to be 120. “When I was born, he was already over 60 and had 22 other children from previous marriages.” In Brazil, the family’s wealthy life was in Itaguaí, seventy kilometers from Rio. There, Jorge allegedly married a Japanese girl when he was fifteen years old, and she was only 12, newly arrived in the country, in an arranged marriage. “Neither of us spoke each other’s language.” The woman became pregnant three times, with triplets, in three years. “We are a family that has existed for over two thousand years, and in each century, only one of our lineage is born.” Being “of the Torres lineage” means “being diligent, studious, and courageous.” And that’s how he goes about his life and the cart selling boiled corn for 23 years. While dipping the corn cob in salted water, he tells how he abandoned a millionaire inheritance when he decided to leave the family: “Daddy said that if I left home, I wouldn’t be his son anymore.” But at that time, life was good: as an Air Force lieutenant, he traveled up and down. The downfall came when he was expelled from the Armed Forces for disobedience. “So I bought the corn cart. There are no jobs for us in old age.” Today, he is a regular at Catete. If he’s not there, it’s because he’s teaching kung fu. “But it’s possible that I’m out of the country. At the end of this year, I should be working on a project in Africa.” Yes, Jorge really enjoys traveling – and telling stories.