The footsteps move back toward the front door.
“May God be with you, Sergeant. And rest assured. if I hear of any strangers in the vicinity, you will be the first to know. ”
“Not all of them are strangers, Father,” he says, lowering his voice, as if he were telling him a secret. “My lieutenant suspects that one of the colonel’s grandsons, the one who insulted the general on the radio, came here to hide out. ”
Clemen tries to make himself even smaller and opens his eyes big and round like two saucers; Jimmy gestures with his hand for him to calm down.
“If that happened, the colonel himself would turn him in,” the priest says, with a slightly indignant, disapproving tone. “The colonel is more loyal to the general than all the rest of you put together. And don’t you forget that.”
Now out on the sidewalk, the priest issues a warning:
“Be careful with that truck, don’t go destroying the carpet of petals the congregation has made such an effort to spread around the streets.”
They hear the sergeant shout out orders, some running steps, the truck door slamming, then the engine revving up. The truck pulls away; the priest stays at the door.
“Good night, Father Dionisio.,” a voice sounds, from afar, not the sergeant’s.
“It’s the neighbor across the street,” Jimmy whispers.
“Good night, son. Go back to bed. ”
When the priest closes the door, Clemen lets out a loud fart.
“Sorry,” he mumbles.
Jimmy looks at him with disgust and brings his hand to his nose.
The priest has crossed his room; his bed creaks, the ray of light shining through the crack in the floor disappears; after clearing his throat, he sighs:
“Thank the Lord!”
In the darkness, Jimmy’s eyes shine with the desire to strike Clemen down.
“You’re disgusting,” he whispers, without removing his hand from his nose.
Clemen moves very carefully back to his mat; then he whispers:
“Fuck, what a nightmare. You think they’ll come back?”
“I hope not.”
“How could that lieutenant have found out I came here?”
“The sergeant said his lieutenant suspected, he didn’t say he’d found anything out,” Jimmy whispers as he straightens out his mat. “And the priest warned us about this lieutenant, that he has it in for your grandfather, though he can’t do anything because of his rank.”
“So, why did they come precisely to this house?”
“They were scoping out the area. You heard him.”
“Too many coincidences. ”
“Maybe the sergeant made such a big to-do because he likes one of the priest’s girls,” Jimmy wonders out loud.
Clemen keeps staring at him with astonishment, as if suddenly he too understood.
“It’s true. He asked about them. ” he whispers, and then, in a mischievous tone and bringing his hands to his genitals, he adds, “The one who served us dinner is just about ripe for the plucking. You think the priest has had her?”
“Shhh. He’s going to hear you. The things you think of. ”
“She would feel so good.,” he sighs, without letting go of his crotch.
They grow quiet. The night is cooler. A cricket begins to sing inside the attic, near the piles of junk.
“I’m not tired anymore,” Jimmy mutters.
The priest is snoring again.
“She’s going to turn us in.,” Clemen whispers, suddenly quite agitated.
“Who?”
“The little Indian girl who served us our dinner, the one who’s ready to be plucked. ”
“She doesn’t even know we’re here.”
“I bet the sergeant will come to court her when the priest isn’t here, and she’ll tell him that two strangers had dinner here.”
“I’ll warn the priest, but he said they were completely under his control.”
“Nobody controls women, least of all when the priest is out of the house at the processions all week.”
“You’re right.”
“If that sergeant starts sniffing around the house,” Clemen whispers, anxious, “it won’t take him long to find us.”
“We’ve got to leave here as soon as possible.”
“But, where?” Clemen moans.
“The colonel and the priest will find you someplace more remote, further up in the mountains. And I should continue with my own plans. ”
“What plans? You don’t have any plans. Go out there and let them find you? Get on a train so the National Guard can nab you? Stop pretending to be some kind of hero. ”
Jimmy turns to look at him, at first in disbelief, then with disdain.
“I’m not going to bother explaining it to you. Of course, I have a plan. What I need is fake ID or a disguise so I can ride the train without being recognized, just like you got out of the capital dressed as a housemaid.”
“Even if you dress up as a whore, they’ll find you.”
Jimmy sits up; he picks up his glass and takes a sip of water.
Suddenly Clemen stares at him with astonishment.
“I have an idea,” he mutters.
Jimmy lies down with his back to him, annoyed, as if he weren’t listening.
“I have a great idea.,” Clemen repeats, sitting up, increasingly excited.
Jimmy remains quiet.
“Did you hear me? I have a great idea for how you can ride the train without anybody recognizing you and I can get to a different hiding place, no problem. ”
“Wow.,” he mumbles peevishly.
The priest coughs; his bed creaks.
Haydée’s Diary
Ash Wednesday, April 5
Clemen has not been captured, and I pray to God he manages to escape altogether. As to his whereabouts, all we know is that he left the radio station on Monday, moments after he spoke to me, a few hours before the rebel officers surrendered; since then, nothing. My whole being trembles just imagining that they might capture him. The rumors are gruesome. They say officers are being savagely tortured to get them to reveal the names of everybody who collaborated with them, the general himself is in the Black Palace overseeing the interrogations, they’ve already begun to prepare for the war council, and soon they will begin ordering executions. There’s a desperate stampede. They also say the Peruvian embassy is full of people requesting asylum; apparently things didn’t go well for those who sought refuge in the Mexican embassy, they didn’t know that Ambassador Méndez Plancarte is a fervent admirer of the general — he has boasted of it more than once right in front of Pericles — and he would never open the doors to any rebel officer. They also say Colonel Tito Calvo arrived at the American Embassy in a tank, certain that the United States would give him political asylum, but when he descended from the tank to enter the compound, the Marines blocked his way; the colonel had a shouting match with them, rained curses down on them, then returned to the tank to go to another embassy, and that’s when the general’s troops fell upon him and took him away.
I went to the Central Prison twice today, demanding that they let me see my husband, but I had no luck. Colonel Palma refused to see me, and Sergeant Flores didn’t even come out so I could give him the provisions I’d brought for Pericles. Outside the Central Prison, I met up with the mothers of Merlos and Cabezas; we shared our concerns and fears. Thank God my mother-in-law called me before dinnertime to tell me we must pray for Clemen but that nothing will happen to Pericles, the general will not retaliate against those who did not participate in the coup, the colonel is certain of that — the president himself knows that General Marroquín and Colonel Tito Calvo have always had grudges against my husband. I felt greatly relieved. I called Doña Chayito, Merlos’s mother, right away to tell her what my mother-in-law had just told me; she promised to tell Doña Julita, Cabezas’s mother, tonight. We agreed to meet tomorrow at nine o’clock in front of the Central Prison.