A Flag for Sunrise by Robert Stone

Author:Robert Stone [Stone, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General Fiction
ISBN: 9780307814180
Publisher: Vintage
Published: 1981-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

She felt overthrown. Why was there so much suffering? How was it she could never do anything? Tecan. It was an evil place. Accursed.

In his quarters Egan had finished with his wash and was dressing. Justin walked in on him, took a swig of Flor de Cana and sat down in his desk chair.

“I’m going crazy, Charlie. Like you. I think we’ll have to send up a rocket.”

Egan tucked the tails of a clean white shirt under his belt.

“You’re just afraid, dear. I know all about that, I can assure you. Remember how afraid I was?”

“I don’t scare easy, do I, Charles?”

“You certainly don’t.”

“What am I scared of?”

The priest went to the mirror and began combing his hair.

“There’s a great deal to be scared of here. I suppose mainly you’re scared of Campos. He’s after you, you know.”

Justin looked at him in the mirror. “Charles,” she said, “is he killing those children?”

Egan did not answer her. He finished combing and took a net shopping bag from beneath his bed in which there was a Bible. Then he took the rum from where Justin had laid it and put it in the bag.

She followed him out into the office.

“Is Campos killing those children, Charles?”

“I thought,” Egan said, “you suspected me of it.”

“No,” she said. “Campos.”

“Well, it isn’t me,” he said. “You’re right about that. I don’t kill. I can’t imagine any circumstances in which I’d kill anyone ever.”

She watched him look off toward the hillside until she thought he had forgotten where he was.

“I thought it was Campos,” he said after a while. “I was fairly sure it was. But it’s not.”

She felt weak, almost unable to breathe.

“Then I know who it is,” she said. “It’s that …”

“It’s the Mennonite kid,” Egan said. “He came in over the border from Nicaragua. The police are looking for him there. Grew up on one of their farmsteads down there and lost his mind. Religious. Hears voices.”

“You’re hiding him.”

“That’s about it.”

She walked up to him and seized him by the arm, trying to keep calm.

“You can’t do that, you fool! He’s killing little children.” She was crying unawares, tears spilled down her cheeks, gathering at her chin.

“Not since he came to me. I’m talking him down. When I give him the pills Mary Joe gave me he doesn’t hear the voices. And I’m going to replace his voices with mine.”

Justin wiped her face with a handkerchief. “I was sure it was Campos.”

“I was too,” Egan said. “But no.”

“What fools we are,” Justin said. “This place just beat the shit out of us.”

“They all will,” Egan said. “All of ’em. Every time.”

“The thing about that boy,” she said, “he doesn’t look real to me. He doesn’t look human.”

“You’re getting the idea now, aren’t you? Well, he’s as real as it gets, Justin. Here or anywhere else.”

“All right,” she said. “All right.” She began to pace up and down. Egan sat down at the desk beside the transmitter and looked at the matted floor.

“We’re getting out in a hurry,” Justin said.

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