Carlos Fuentes: Vlad

Then, from a side tower, they flew clumsily away, clumsily because they were like monstrous rats endowed with varicose wings, the blind Vespertilios , the bats guided by the power of their filthy, long, hairy ears, emigrating to a new sepulcher.

Were Asunción, my wife, and Magda, my daughter, among the flock of blind rats?

I approached my parked car.

Something was moving inside the vehicle.

Someone.

A blurred figure.

When I could finally make it out, I screamed in a mixture of horror and joy.

I raised my hands to my eyes, I hid my gaze, and I could only mutter:

“No, no, no. .”

The author of more than a dozen novels and collections of stories and essays, CARLOS FUENTES (1928–2012) was Mexico’s most celebrated novelist and critic. He received numerous honors and awards throughout his lifetime, including the Miguel de Cervantes Prize and the Latin Literary Prize.

E. SHASKAN BUMAS wrote the story collection The Price of Tea in China , a finalist for PEN America West Fiction Book of the Year. He teaches at New Jersey City University.

ALEJANDRO BRANGER is a writer and filmmaker. He lives in New York City.