Dagoberto went out and one of the three guys said to Ramón, oh brother, you’re really in the shit now and all because you’ve been mean, meanness never pays, here you are, in this shithole, instead of banging your woman at the Llano Grande, nice and hard, you must be very stupid and a real snitch. Ramón spat in his face and the guy punched him, twice, three times, threw him to the ground, still tied up, and kept kicking him and shouting, you’re a dead man, we’re going to kill you, understand? take this scum away before I kill him.
After two weeks, Ramón looked really haggard. They had hit him with rifle butts and tortured him and showed him photographs of the way they cut up FARC members into pieces to avoid making a noise shooting them. That’s the way we’re going to leave you for being a snitch. We’re going to cut you in little pieces so even your mother wouldn’t recognize you, we’re going to tear off your dick and send it to your girlfriend to eat.
After about a month, they arrived with some papers and Dagoberto appeared again and said, how have they been treating you, Ramoncho? well? Now the time has come to behave like a man because the deeds are ready to transfer your three shops, you see, here are the papers from the new owner, all you have to do is sign here, and here, and here, and the notary will do the rest.
Do you really think I’m going to give up the fruits of my labors, the only thing I can leave my children, to you people, no way, it isn’t fair, maybe I could give up one shop, but not all three, you’d be leaving me with nothing. The thing is, Ramoncho, debts have to be paid, and if a person doesn’t pay his debts he’s punished, haven’t you read the Bible? the man who does something pays, and the man who snitches gets fucked, that’s in the Bible, yes or no? and they all said, yes, chief, of course, the snitch dies squashed, the scum dies disemboweled, and Ramón said, no, you’re going to kill me anyway, so go ahead and kill me, but I’m not signing that thing, and so they hit him with their rifle butts in the balls and the penis, making him throw up several times because of the pain and because the air was sucked out of him. Take him away and let him think it over. Think about it, Ramoncho, sign this thing and you can go, of course you’ll have to leave La Cascada because nobody in the town likes snitches, that’s worse than being in the FARC, but I’ll let you go, I give you my word. There’s no hurry, man, in town they’re saying you went to Villavicencio to sell what you had in order to move to Antioquia, and there’s the testimony of Gil the guy at the gas pump who says you filled the tank of the Land Rover because you were going to Villavicencio. Nobody’s looking for you in La Cascada. There’s no hurry, Ramoncho, go back to your cell and think over what I just said.
A couple of days went by and Ramón said, what I have to do is see how I can get out of here. With a knife, he started to file around one of the stones in the wall, and he could see that the earth was falling and that it was more or less easy to open. When he hit it, it sounded hollow, which he thought was strange, because this was a cellar, so after his meal he continued using the knife on the stone until he felt it move. Am I dreaming? The stone moved until he was able to remove it from the wall, and much to his surprise, instead of more wall what he found was a kind of tunnel, a very narrow passage that a man could only just fit into, so he said to himself, this is for me, and he stuck himself into it, and moved like a snake through the passage until he found another stone that was loose. Light could be seen around the edges and he said, shit, I can’t shift it. He listened, but could not hear a thing, so he gave two little blows with the knife, to see what happened. After a while he heard, knock knock. Someone was answering him. So he said in a whisper, who’s there? There was a long silence. I’m Father Benito Cubillos, who’s that? Ramón Melo García, from La Cascada. He heard the stone move and the passage was filled with light. A hand pulled him through to the other side. Come on, man, come, nobody will look in at this hour.
When he saw the man, he was almost scared. His hair and beard came down to his belly, he had no teeth, and he was deathly pale. His eye sockets revealed the skull beneath the skin and his eyes themselves were the color of bone. I’m Benito Cubillos, parish priest of Usiacurí. Where’s that? Near Barranquilla. The paras took me four years ago and have been keeping me ever since, for helping the guerrillas, they say, but that’s not true, I was helping the Indians, which is different, I tried to protect them but I was kidnapped, are you from the police, Ramón? have you come to get me out? No, Father, if only! They had their eye on me, too, they want to steal my auto repair shops and my money, I’m from La Cascada. And where is that? Here in Meta, Father, don’t tell me you don’t know we’re in the Plains! How should I know that, they drugged me before they brought me here, they gave me burundanga.
Can I ask you something, Father, did you make this tunnel? Yes, of course, only when I saw it led to another cell I thought I’d leave it open to see if there was a way to escape, but it’s very difficult, I hollowed out a bit of space on the other sides, too, but there’s only gravel there, no way out. They heard a noise and Ramón rushed back to the tunnel, crawled to his cell and put the stone back in its place, smoothing the earth in such a way that nothing was visible. After a while one of the paramilitaries came in and threw him a bag. These things are yours, aren’t they? There was a photograph of Soraya in a picture frame, a notebook, a memory stick, a digital camera, a white iPod, the earphones for the iPod, a pack of Pielroja with two twisted cigarettes, a credit card wallet, a box with his own business cards that said, Ramón Melo García, Mechanic, La Mariposa, The repair shop you can trust. It was all the things he had had in the desk drawer in his office. Had they already taken over the shop? The paramilitary stood there looking at him and said, don’t be ungrateful, I brought you this without my partner knowing, to keep you amused, but if you like, I can take it away. No, leave it, leave it. Thanks, man, very kind of you. .
The guy left and Ramón started thinking. These bastards are clever, what they want to do is wear me down, they think I’ll see the photos and be even more determined to get out of here, but as soon as I sign those papers, bang bang, they’ll kill me, you can’t believe a word these people say. The noises had stopped, so he went back along the tunnel. He showed Father Cubillos the photographs of Soraya, Jacinto, his mother, a stroll along the banks of the Ariari, a trip to Bogotá. Then he told his story, in minute detail, and said, Father, you know people, who betrayed me? was it Soraya or Jacinto? it had to be one of the two, only they knew. Don’t torment yourself thinking about that now, Ramón, you mustn’t let yourself be consumed with hate, that’s the worst thing you could do. Think deeply about life and you won’t lose it, the Lord is not going to leave you in this hole, not if you’re good, that’s why it’s better not to be filled with hate. The thing is, Father, I’ve never been a believer, I have to admit that. They killed my father by mistake in Villavicencio. Then they apologized and tried to give money to my mother, but I said, there can’t be a God if such things happen. I used to go to church before that, Father, I’d always take communion with my mother. She also stopped believing for the same reason. My father was the most devout. He gave a tenth of what the shop made to the Church, and look what happened, they killed him, they thought he was someone else, someone who was giving money to a Mafioso, they shot him seven times in the back of the head. He was just coming out of the bank where he’d paid in the weekend’s takings, because he was a good man and didn’t spend his money on drink or women, nobody could have been more sensible than him, and look how God repaid him.