7. Warnings and Premonitions
There is one man, at least, who seems to see it coming. He will pass by Lizaso’s house once, twice, three times, to look for him, to take him away, to steal him from death, even though the latter extreme hasn’t yet crossed anybody’s mind. And it will all be futile.
This man—who will later turn to terrorism and go by the name “Marcelo”—plays a curious role in the events. He is a friend of both the Lizaso family and some of the other main characters. He feels like a father to Carlitos, an affection that time and misfortune will turn sour. This man knows what’s going on. That is why he’s afraid and why he wants to take the young man with him. But he will keep finding him entertained, engaged, chatting, and he’ll let himself be deterred by the same promise again and again:
—I’ll leave in ten minutes . . .
“Marcelo” isn’t happy with this. Before leaving for the last time, he turns to the man who he considers responsible for the confusing situation that seems to be developing in the apartment. He knows him. He takes him aside and they speak softly.
—Do any of these people know anything?
—No. Most of them don’t know anything.
—So what are they doing here?
—What do I know . . . They’re going to listen to the fight.
—But you, sir —“Marcelo” insists, now irritated— why are you letting them stay here?
—You want me to throw them out? I’m not the owner here.
The conversation becomes unpleasant. “Marcelo” sharply interrupts it.
—Do what you want. But that guy there —he tilts his head towards Lizaso, who is standing a ways away, talking with a group of people— you don’t take him anywhere, you hear me?
The man shrugs his shoulders.
—Don’t worry. I’m not going to take him anywhere. And besides, at this point, nothing’s going to happen tonight.
8. Gavino
“At this point, nothing’s going to happen tonight,” Norberto Gavino tells himself again. That piece of news should have been broadcast on the radio a while ago already. For a moment, he thinks “Marcelo” is right. But then he brushes it off. If nothing’s happening, then no one’s in danger. Many of them have simply stopped by, people he doesn’t even know; it’d be ridiculous to say: “Get out, I’m about to start a revolution.”
Because there’s no question that Gavino, despite being out of the loop and not knowing what to expect, is a part of the uprising.
Gavino is about forty years old and has an average but athletic build. He was once an NCO of the National Gendarmerie and later started selling plots of land. Sharp, short-tempered, and prone to bragging (as well as to the dangerous missteps that it can lead to in a life like his), Gavino has been conspiring for some time now, and at the beginning of May, an upsetting incident sealed him on this path. His wife, completely unaware of what her husband was up to, was thrown in jail as a hostage. Gavino found out that they would only set her free when he turned himself in. From that moment on, he thought only of revolution.
He had been on the run ever since, and believed military authorities and the police were after him. With very good reason. Everything that happened that night, the press that came out about it in the days that followed, and other pieces of evidence confirm this.11 He couldn’t come up with a better way to avoid the siege than to take refuge in his friend Torres’s apartment.
And that’s where he was now waiting, nervously, for the news that he would never hear.
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