“May I pour myself another one, Father?” Clemen asks; from the look on his face it’s clear he is undergoing a panic attack.
“Last one. Otherwise you’ll have to relieve yourself in the middle of the night.”
“We have to find a way for me to leave,” Jimmy says.
“For you to leave together,” the priest says, still with his mouth full.
Jimmy and Clemen look at each other in surprise.
“I don’t want to leave, Father,” Clemen says.
“And I don’t want him coming with me,” Jimmy adds.
“You won’t be able to be up there for long without being discovered, son,” the priest warns Clemen, as if he hadn’t heard what Jimmy said. “This house receives many visitors. Then we’d all be in trouble, even your grandfather. We must find a way for you to leave together.”
Jimmy takes a sip of rum.
“With all due respect, Father, I think the military should go one way and civilians another. It would be best if Clemen found a new hiding place and I continued on my way. It won’t be easy to reach the gulf, I might encounter dangerous situations, and my cousin here simply isn’t prepared. ”
One of the girls enters with more tortillas. They stop talking. She asks the priest if she should bring three cups of coffee. He nods, without looking at her, and keeps chewing.
She leaves quickly, her sandals making the same slapping sound as she walks away.
“Maybe you know a guide you trust, Father, someone who could take back roads to the train tracks in the middle of the night?” Jimmy asks in a low voice, sidling up to the priest, as if he fears the girl has stayed behind the door listening.
The priest wipes the plate with a piece of tortilla, sopping up the remains of the beans and the cream; he scrunches up his face, as if mentally searching through the roster of his congregants to find the man Jimmy needs, then he places the piece of tortilla in his mouth and shakes his head.
“Wouldn’t do you any good,” he says, once he finishes swallowing. “There’s a pair of soldiers on every train, and they inspect every car.”
Clemen nods in agreement with what the priest has said, throws Jimmy an I-told-you-so look, then takes a tiny sip of rum, hoping this way it will last all night.
“What’s up with you?” Jimmy says irritably. “The rum already went to your head, didn’t it?”
“No, I just think you’ve got to be nuts to want to go out in the middle of the night and get caught by a patrol.”
“If I want your opinion, I’ll ask for it, you hear?”
“Well, just in case you wanted it. ”
“Boys,” the priest interrupts them, having heard quite enough. “Right now it would be best for you to finish eating, take care of your business, and climb back up to the loft. There’s nothing like a good night’s sleep for the Lord to enlighten us with new ideas.”
At that moment the girl comes in, her head still down, carrying three steaming cups of coffee; Clemen watches her carefully, and as she leaves, he checks her out from behind.
2
“Jimmy, are you awake?. What was that?” Clemen whispers.
The other keeps snoring.
“Jimmy. ”
Clemen gropes around in the darkness until he touches Jimmy’s shoulder; he gives him a few pokes.
“Jimmy. ”
Jimmy opens his eyes like a frightened animal; it takes him three seconds to realize where he is and with whom.
“What’s going on?” he whispers.
The darkness is almost totaclass="underline" the filthy skylight lets in barely a trace of the night’s glow.
“Did you hear that noise outside?”
“No.”
“Sounded like soldiers marching.”
They are lying next to each other on the mats, a few feet apart.
“I don’t hear anything.”
“They went by while you were snoring, that’s why I woke you,” Clemen whispers.
“Have you been up for a while?”
“I had a nightmare.”
“You sure you heard troops marching by or was it part of your nightmare?”
“The nightmare woke me up a while ago, and the marching happened just a minute ago.”
“Strange. ” Jimmy whispers.
“Yeah, it is. I’m not imagining it.”
Downstairs they can hear Father Dionisio’s rhythmic snores; above, the wind is whistling through the trees.
“What time is it about?”
“I don’t think I’ll be able to see in this darkness,” Jimmy whispers, and he takes his pocket watch out of this trousers.
“I’ve got matches.”
“Are you crazy? The reflection will show through the skylight.”
“You think?”
“We shouldn’t risk it.”
Jimmy sits up and holds the watch face up to the skylight.
“I could light a match close to the floor and shield it with my hands so nobody can see it outside,” Clemen whispers.
“It’s midnight. Twelve fifteen.”
“I thought it was later. We came up here really early.”
Jimmy has lain down again; he yawns and turns over to go back to sleep.
“The priest is right,” Clemen whispers. “Anybody would lose their mind stuck too long up here in this attic.”
“You’d better get used to it. It’s not going to be easy to find somewhere else.”
Clemen sighs.
“This is fucked,” he complains. “How could everything have gone so wrong?”
“Complaining won’t do you any good. Let’s just thank God they haven’t caught us.”
“You aren’t married and you don’t have kids, so what do you care? Poor Mila must be having a really hard time. ”
“I don’t think they’ll do anything to her,” Jimmy tries to comfort him. “They’re not going to involve either her or the kids.”
“And my poor old man, a prisoner. Who knows what they’ll do to him. ”
“He was in jail, so he couldn’t have known anything about the coup. The general wants us, the rebel officers. He’ll never forgive us for betraying him.”
“That damned motherfucking warlock has made a pact with the Devil,” Clemen says angrily, raising his voice.
“Shh. quiet down, you’re going to wake up the priest.”
Clemen tosses and turns on the mat, restless.
Jimmy feels around on the floor to make sure his gun is by his side. Then he whispers, talking to himself, as if trying to convince himself of something:
“If they catch me, I’m a dead man.”
“Are you really going to go off on your own?”
“I’m going to rest tonight, recover a little. I’ll ask the priest for detailed information about ways to get to the train tracks. And tomorrow at this time I’ll start off. ”
“You’re nuts. What if you meet up with a patrol?”
“That’s why I have this gun and why I’m a military man. I still have two clips.”
“They’re going to kill you. ”
“That’s the risk I’ll have to take,” Jimmy whispers. “When you get involved in the affairs of men, you’ve got to have balls. I told you Lieutenant Peña and I were surrounded, and we shot our way out. I’m not going to let them capture me.”
“You should stay here a few days until the situation clears up,” Clemen whispers, cautiously.
“The situation is already very clear. I’d rather take my chances on the move than holed up here like a rat.”
They hear noises in the street; heavy footsteps approach the house.
“Listen. They’re coming back.”
Jimmy has now sat up, wide awake, clutching his gun on his lap.
They remain silent while the marchers pass by; then they hear the voice of the commanding officer repeating as they march away: “One, two, one, two. ”