Guernica by Dave Boling

Author:Dave Boling [Boling, Dave]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: General Fiction
ISBN: 9781847827999
Publisher: Picador
Published: 2008-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

PART 4

( April 26, 1937)

CHAPTER 16

Miren slept without stirring, but Miguel hardly dozed, passing the heart of the night making plans while studying his wife’s outline in the darkness. He feared there were still angles and shapes he had not yet memorized. He mentally sketched in the scenarios for the upcoming days and plotted the appropriate responses to each, with the protection of Miren and Catalina as the sole objective. He would take on any man or group of men who neared his home or threatened his family.

But he kept losing focus. (Her hair has more waves since it was cut, he thought, as if its weight had caused it to stretch and straighten, and it was now allowed to recoil and contract. Her braid used to rest across the pillow like a thick, dark cable. Now it is fuller and frames her face as she sleeps.)

If troops came to his home, he would fight—Nationalists, Germans, Italians, Moors, all of them, it didn’t matter.

(She breathes so easily she hardly makes a sound, and she’s completely still except for her feet, which twitch at times, like a puppy running in its sleep.)

If forces approached before they left for Bilbao, he would take the girls into the mountains, having already scouted caves and the thickest forests to protect them. But troops were said to be thirty miles away; even with steady advancement, they could not reach the outskirts of Guernica until the end of the week.

(She always sleeps on her left side, facing Cat’s crib, with both hands tucked up under her left cheek and her knees bent like a mitered right angle.)

Options covered, he concentrated on storing the images of Miren. She would be there only one more night. His throat tightened.

More than a year old, Catalina called for only one feeding in the night; now, as she stirred in the predawn hours, Miguel retrieved her and took her to Miren.

“Kuttuna, she’s ready,” he whispered, hoping to ease his wife into wakefulness. “Miren . . .”

Without actually wakening, Miren moved her pillow behind her shoulders and sat up to create a basket with her arms to hold Catalina, who immediately went to work. She was a dainty diner; at times, when stopping to catch her breath, she would look up at her mother and smile in gratitude. Miren dozed, feeling the comfort of the milk release, the closeness of her daughter, and the relaxing sensation of Miguel rubbing the back of her neck in the dim night. Miren fell back into her peaceful sleep as soon as Catalina was full and taken away by Miguel. But as was often the case when Miguel took hold of her, Catalina began kicking and squirming, eager to play.

Miguel placed her back in the crib while he went to stir the fire in the main room, where they could play without disturbing Miren.

“I shouldn’t be doing this, you know,” Miguel said directly into her face as she sat up on his leg. “You’ll think that it’s time to play every night after feeding.

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