News of A Kidnapping by Garcia Marquez Gabriel

Author:Garcia Marquez, Gabriel [Garcia Marquez, Gabriel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-10-17T22:32:39+00:00

"Take it easy, Alberto," he said. "It’s a matter of a week."

7

MARUJA AND BEATHIZ had not heard about the deaths. With no television or radio, and the enemy their only source of information, it was impossible to guess the truth. The guards’ contradictions undermined the story that they had taken Marina to a farm, and any other conjecture led to the same impasse: She was free, or she was dead. In other words, they had once been the only people who knew she was alive, and now they were the only people not to know she was dead.

Uncertainty about what they had done with Marina turned the empty bed into a phantom. The Monk had returned half an hour after she was taken away. He came in like a ghost and huddled in a corner. Beatriz asked him point-blank:

"What did you do with Marina?"

The Monk said that when he walked outside with her, two new bosses who had not come to the room were waiting for him in the garage. That he asked where they were taking her, and one of them answered in a rage: "You don’t ask questions here, you son of a bitch." And that then they told him to get back in the house and leave Marina with Barrabás, the other guard on duty.

At first hearing the story seemed credible. It would not have been easy for the Monk to go away and come back so soon if he had taken part in the crime, or for him to have the heart to kill a ruin of a woman, whom he seemed to love as if she were his grandmother, and who doted on him as if he were her grandson. Barrabás, however, had a reputation as a heartless killer who even bragged about his crimes. The uncertainty became even more disquieting in the middle of the night, when Maruja and Beatriz were awakened by the moans of a wounded animal, and it was the Monk sobbing. He did not want breakfast, and they heard him sigh several times and say: "How sad that they took Granny away!" But he never said outright that she was dead. Even the majordomo’s stubborn refusal to return the television and the radio increased their suspicion that she had been killed.

Damaris, after several days away from the house, returned in a frame of mind that only added to the confusion. During one of their night walks, Maruja asked her where she had gone, and Damaris answered in the same voice she would have used to tell the truth: "I’m taking care of doña Marina." And without giving Maruja time to think about it, she added: "She always thinks of you and sends you both her best." And then, in an even more casual tone, she said that Barrabás had not come back because he was in charge of her security. From then on, every time Damaris went out, she came back with news that grew less believable the more enthusiastic she became.

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