“You explain them very well, Fonchito,” Father O’Donovan said. “Don’t worry about that.”
“But then, what should we do?” asked Lucrecia.
“Advise us, Pepín,” Rigoberto added. “I’m completely paralyzed. If it’s as you say, then the boy has a kind of gift, a hypersensibility, and sees what no one else sees. It’s that, isn’t it? Should I talk to him about it? Should I say nothing? It worries me, it frightens me. I don’t know what to do.”
“Love him and leave him in peace,” said Father O’Donovan. “What’s certain is that this individual, whether or not he exists, is no pervert and doesn’t wish to hurt your son in the slightest. Whether or not he exists, he has more to do with Fonchito’s soul, well, with his spirit, if you prefer, than with his body.”
“Something mystical?” Lucrecia interjected. “Could that be it? But Fonchito was never very religious. Just the opposite, I’d say.”
“I’d like to be more precise, but I can’t,” Father O’Donovan confessed again; he looked defeated. “Something’s happening to the boy that has no rational explanation. We don’t know everything that’s in us, Ears. Human beings, each of us, are chasms filled with shadows. Some men, some women, are more intensely sensitive than others, they feel and perceive things that the rest of us don’t. Could this be purely a product of his imagination? Yes, perhaps. But it could also be something else I don’t dare give a name to, Rigoberto. Your son is experiencing this so powerfully, so authentically, that I resist thinking it’s purely imaginary. And I don’t want to and won’t say more than that.”
He fell silent and sat looking at the plate of corvina and rice with a kind of hybrid feeling that was both stupefaction and tenderness. Lucrecia and Rigoberto had not tasted a mouthful.
“I’m sorry I haven’t been much help to you,” the priest added sadly. “Instead of helping you out of this tangled situation, I’ve become entangled in it too.”
He was silent for a long time and looked at them both with concern.
“I’m not exaggerating if I tell you that this is the first time in my life I’ve confronted something I wasn’t prepared for,” he murmured very seriously. “Something that, for me, has no rational explanation. I already told you I don’t discount the possibility that the boy is exceptionally good at deception and has made me swallow a huge fabrication. It’s not impossible. I’ve thought about that a great deal. But no, I don’t believe it. I think he’s very sincere.”
“You’re not going to leave us very reassured knowing my son has daily communication with the beyond,” said Rigoberto with a shrug, “and that Fonchito is a bit like the little shepherdess of Lourdes. She was a shepherdess, wasn’t she?”
“You’re going to laugh, the two of you are going to laugh,” said Father O’Donovan, toying with his fork and not touching the corvina. “But I haven’t stopped thinking about the boy for a moment. Of all the people I’ve known in my life, and there are many, I believe that Fonchito is closest to what we believers call a pure being. And not only because of how beautiful he is.”
“Now the priest is showing, Pepín.” Rigoberto was indignant. “Are you suggesting my son might be an angel?”
“An angel without wings in any case,” Lucrecia said with a laugh, openly happy now, her eyes burning with mischief.
“I’ll say it and repeat it even though it makes you both laugh,” declared Father O’Donovan, laughing as well. “Yes, Ears, yes, Lucrecia, I mean it literally. And even though it amuses you. A little angel, why not?”
XI
When they reached the house in Castilla where Mabel lived, on the other side of the river, Sergeant Lituma and Captain Silva were dripping with sweat. The sun beat down mercilessly from a cloudless sky where turkey buzzards were circling, and there wasn’t the slightest breeze to alleviate the heat. During the trip from the station, Lituma had been asking himself questions. In what condition would they find the cute brunette? Had those bastards mistreated Felícito Yanaqué’s mistress? Had they beaten her? Raped her? Very possibly. Given how good-looking she was, why wouldn’t they take advantage of having her at their mercy day and night.
Felícito himself opened the door of Mabel’s house. He was euphoric, relieved, happy. The grim face that Lituma had always seen had changed, his recent tragicomic expression had disappeared. Now he grinned from ear to ear and his eyes gleamed with happiness. He looked rejuvenated. He wasn’t wearing a jacket, and his vest was unbuttoned. He was so skinny, his chest and back almost touched, and he was really a runt, he almost looked like a midget to Lituma. As soon as he saw the two policemen he did something unheard-of for a man so little given to emotional displays: He opened his arms and embraced Captain Silva.
“It happened just as you said, Captain,” he said effusively, patting him on the back. “They let her go, they let her go. You were right, Chief. I don’t have the words to thank you. I’m alive again, thanks to you. And to you too, Sergeant. Many thanks, many thanks to you both.”
His eyes were wet with emotion. Mabel was showering, she’d be with them right away. He had them sit in the living room, beneath the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, facing the small table that held a papier-mâché llama and a Peruvian flag. The electric fan twanged rhythmically and the current of air made the plastic flowers sway. The trucker, effusive and happy, nodded to all of the officers’ questions: Yes, yes, she was fine, it had been terrifying, of course, but luckily they hadn’t hit or abused her, thank God. All that time they’d kept her blindfolded, with her hands tied, what heartless, cruel people. Mabel would give them all the details herself as soon as she came out. And from time to time, Felícito would lift his hands to heaven: “If anything had happened to her, I would never have forgiven myself. Poor thing! All this via crucis on my account. I’ve never been very devout, but I promised God that from now on I’d go to Mass every Sunday without fail.”
“He’s head over heels in love with her,” thought Lituma. You could be sure he’d have a great fuck. This reminded him of his own solitude, how long it had been since he’d had a woman. He envied Don Felícito and was furious with himself.
Mabel came out to greet them in a flowered robe, sandals, and a towel wrapped like a turban around her head. Like this, without makeup, wan, her eyes still frightened, she seemed less attractive to Lituma than on the day she came to the station to make her statement. But he liked her turned-up nose and the way her nostrils quivered, her slim ankles, the curve of her instep. Her skin was lighter on her legs than on her hands and arms.
“I’m sorry I can’t offer you anything,” she said, indicating that they should sit down. And still she tried to make a joke: “As you can imagine, I haven’t been shopping for a few days and there’s not even a Coke in the fridge.”
“We’re very sorry for what happened to you, señora.” A very formal Captain Silva made a slight bow. “Señor Yanaqué was saying they didn’t mistreat you. Is that true?”
Mabel made a strange face, half smile and half pout.
“Well, up to a point. Luckily they didn’t beat me or rape me. But I wouldn’t say they didn’t mistreat me. I’ve never been so terrified in my life, señor. I’d never slept so many nights on the floor with no mattress and no pillow. And blindfolded and with my hands tied up like an Ekeko doll. I think my bones will ache for the rest of my life. Isn’t that mistreatment? All right, I’m alive at least, that’s true.”
Her voice trembled and at moments a profound fear could be seen in the depths of her black eyes, which she made an effort to control.
“Damn motherfuckers,” Lituma thought. He felt sorry and angry about what Mabel had endured. “Shit, they’ll pay for this.”
“You have no idea how much we regret bothering you now when you must want to rest.” Captain Silva apologized, toying with his kepi. “But I hope you understand. We can’t lose any time, señora. Would you mind if we asked you a few questions? It’s essential before the guilty parties get away.”
“Of co
urse, sure, I understand,” Mabel agreed, putting on a good face but unable to completely hide her annoyance. “Ask your questions, señor.”
Lituma was impressed with how affectionate Felícito Yanaqué was with his little woman. Gently he passed his hand along her face, as if she were his pampered lapdog, moved stray locks of hair from her forehead and tucked them under the towel, brushed away the blowflies that came near her. He looked at her tenderly; he couldn’t take his eyes off her. He held one of her hands in both of his.
“Did you ever see their faces?” the captain asked. “Would you recognize them if you saw them again?”
“I don’t think so.” Mabel shook her head but didn’t seem very sure of what she was saying. “I only saw one of them, and that was hardly at all. The one standing beside the tree, the poinciana with the red flowers, when I came home that night. I hardly noticed him. He was standing sideways, and it was dark. Just when he turned to say something to me and I was about to get a look at him, they threw a blanket over my head. I was choking. And I didn’t see anything else until this morning, when—”
She stopped, her face agitated, and Lituma realized she was making a great effort not to burst into tears. She tried to go on talking but made no sound. Felícito implored them with his eyes to have compassion for Mabel.
“Easy, easy does it,” Captain Silva consoled her. “You’re very brave, señora. You’ve had a terrible experience and they haven’t broken you. I’ll just ask you for one last little effort, please. Of course we’d prefer not to talk about this, we’d prefer to help you bury those bad memories. But the thugs who kidnapped you have to be put behind bars, have to be punished for what they did to you. You’re the only one who can help us get to them.”
Mabel agreed, with a mournful smile. Pulling herself together, she continued. Lituma thought her account was coherent and fluent, though at times she was shaken by whiplashes of fear and had to be quiet for a few seconds, trembling, turning pale, her teeth chattering. Was she reliving the moments of the nightmare, the tremendous fear she must have felt day and night for an entire week while she was held by the gang? But then, she resumed her story again, interrupted occasionally by Captain Silva (“What refined manners,” thought Lituma, surprised), who would ask for more details.
The kidnapping had taken place seven days earlier, after a concert by a Marist choir in the Church of San Francisco on Calle Lima, which Mabel attended with her friend Flora Díaz, who owned a clothing store on Calle Junín called Creaciones Florita. They’d been friends for a long time and sometimes went out together to the movies, to have lunch, and to go shopping. Friday afternoons they usually went to the Church of San Francisco, where the independence of Piura had been proclaimed, since it presented music programs, concerts, choirs, dance, and professional groups. That Friday the Marist choir sang religious hymns, many of them in Latin, or that’s what it sounded like. Flora and Mabel were bored and left before the program was over. They said goodbye at the entrance to the Puente Colgante and Mabel walked back to her house since it was so close. She didn’t notice anything unusual during her walk, no pedestrian or car following her, nothing at all. Just stray dogs, swarms of kids getting into trouble, people enjoying the cool air and chatting in chairs and rockers they’d brought out to the doorways of houses, the bars, shops, and restaurants already full of customers and their jukeboxes playing different pieces of music at top volume, which mixed and filled the air with a deafening noise. (“Was there a moon?” asked Captain Silva, and for a moment Mabel was disconcerted: “Was there? I’m sorry, I don’t remember.”)
Her street was deserted, she thought she remembered. She barely noticed the male figure half leaning against the poinciana. She had the key in her hand, and if he’d tried to approach her she’d have become alarmed, called for help, started to run. But she didn’t notice him making the slightest movement. She put the key in the lock and had to force it slightly—“Felícito must have told you it always sticks a little”—when she sensed somebody approaching. She didn’t have time to react. She felt a blanket thrown over her head and several arms grabbing her, all at the same time. (“How many arms?” “Four, six, who knows?”) They lifted her up and covered her mouth to stifle her screams. It seemed to her that everything happened in a second, there was an earthquake and she was in the middle of it. In spite of her tremendous panic she tried to kick and move her arms, until she felt them throwing her into a van, a car, or a truck and immobilizing her, securing her feet, hands, and head. Then she heard the words that still resounded in her ears: “Nice and quiet if you want to keep on living.” She felt them pass something cold across her face, maybe a knife, maybe the butt or barrel of a revolver. The vehicle took off, shaking and bouncing her against the floor. She curled up and was silent, thinking: “I’m going to die.” She didn’t even have the strength to pray. Without complaining or resisting, she let them blindfold her, put a hood over her head, and tie her hands. She didn’t see their faces because they did everything in the dark, probably while they were driving on the highway. There were no electric lights and it was pitch-black outside. Then it must have been cloudy, with no moon. They kept driving for a time that seemed to her like hours, centuries, but might have only been a few minutes. With her face covered, her hands tied, and her fear, she lost all sense of time. From then on she could never tell what day it was, if it was night, if people were watching her or had left her alone in the room. The floor where she lay was very hard. Sometimes she felt insects walking along her legs, maybe those horrible cockroaches she detested more than spiders and rats. Holding her by the arms, they made her get out of the van, grope her way in the darkness, stumbling; they pushed her into a house where a radio was playing Peruvian music, made her go down some stairs. After putting her on the floor on a rush mat, they left. She lay in the dark, trembling. Now she could pray. She pleaded with the Virgin and all the saints she could think of, Santa Rosa de Lima and the Captive Lord of Ayabaca of course, to help her. Not to let her die like this, to end her torture.
During the seven days she was held captive she didn’t have a single conversation with her kidnappers. They never took her out of that room. She never saw the light again because they never removed her blindfold. There was a container or bucket where she could take care of her needs, in the dark, twice a day. Somebody took it away and brought it back clean, never saying a word to her. Twice a day, the same person or somebody else, always mute, brought her a plate of rice and vegetables and some soup, a lukewarm soda or a small bottle of mineral water. They removed the hood and untied her hands so she could eat, but they never took off the blindfold. Each time Mabel begged them, implored them to tell her what they were going to do with her, why they had abducted her, the same strong, commanding voice always replied: “Be quiet! You’re risking your life by asking questions.” She wasn’t allowed to bathe, or even wash herself. That’s why the first thing she did when she was free was take a long shower and scrub herself with the sponge until she had welts. And then get rid of all the clothes, even the shoes, that she’d been wearing for those horrible seven days. She would make up a parcel and give it to the poor of San Juan de Dios.
This morning, without warning, several of them, to judge by their footsteps, had come into her room-prison. Without a word, they lifted her, made her walk, climb some steps, and lie down again in a vehicle that must have been the same van, car, or truck they’d used to kidnap her. They kept driving and driving for a very long time, and the shaking bruised all the bones in her body until the vehicle finally stopped. They untied her hands and ordered: “Count to a hundred before you take off the blindfold. If you take it off before then, we’ll shoot you.” When she removed the blindfold, she discovered that they’d left her in the middle of the sandy tract, near La Legua. She’d walked for more than an hour before reaching the first houses in Castilla, where she caught a taxi that took her home.
As Mabel recounted her odyssey, Lituma continued to pay careful attention to her story b
ut couldn’t ignore Don Felícito’s demonstrations of affection to his mistress. There was something childish, adolescent, angelic in the way the trucker smoothed her forehead with his hand, looking at her with a religious devotion, murmuring, “Poor thing, poor thing, my love.” At times the way he fawned over her made Lituma uncomfortable—it seemed exaggerated and a little ridiculous at the trucker’s age. “He must be thirty years older than she is,” he thought. “This girl could be his daughter.” The old guy was head over heels in love. Was Mabelita one of the fiery ones or was she cold? Fiery, no doubt about it.
“I told her she should go away from here for a while,” Felícito Yanaqué said to the policemen. “To Chiclayo, Trujillo, Lima, anywhere. Until this case is closed. I don’t want anything to happen to her again. Don’t you think that’s a good idea, Captain?”
The officer shrugged. “I don’t think anything will happen to her if she stays here,” he said, mulling it over. “The bandits know she’s protected now and wouldn’t be crazy enough to come near her, knowing the chance they’d be taking. I’m very grateful for your statement, señora. It will be very useful to us, I assure you. Would you mind my asking you just a few more questions?”
“She’s very tired,” Don Felícito protested. “Why don’t you leave her alone for now, Captain? Question her tomorrow, or the day after. I want to take her to the doctor and have her spend the day in the hospital so she can have a complete checkup.”
“Don’t worry, old man, I’ll rest later,” Mabel interjected. “Go ahead and ask me whatever you’d like, señor.”
Ten minutes later, Lituma said to himself that his superior had gone too far. The trucker was right; the poor woman had suffered a terrible experience, had expected to die; those seven days had been a calvary for her. How could the captain expect Mabel to remember all the insignificant, stupid details he was harassing her with? He didn’t understand. Why did his boss want to know whether from her prison she’d heard roosters crowing, hens cackling, cats meowing, or dogs barking? And how could Mabel estimate by their voices how many kidnappers there were and if they were all Piurans or whether one of them talked like he was from Lima, the sierra, or the jungle? Mabel did what she could, she wrung her hands, hesitated, it was only normal that sometimes she became confused or seemed astonished. She didn’t remember that, señor, she hadn’t paid attention to that, oh what a shame. And she apologized, shrugging, wringing her hands: “I was so stupid, I should have thought about those things, tried to be aware and remember. But I was so confused, señor.”