Horacio Castellanos Moya - Tyrant Memory

“There’s no reasoning with you.”

“Shut up!”

“We still have one oar. ”

“Shut your damn trap. ”

“We can go near the hamlet and look for the guide’s house, or one of the oarsmen. I’m sure they’ll give us water and food. ”

“Do you not understand? Silence!”

“The more time passes, the more desperate we get. ”

“If you weren’t my cousin, I would have already drowned you. ”

“You would be capable of killing me, Jimmy?”

“I’m never going to forgive you. Because of you I lost my gun.”

“It wasn’t only my fault, we both. ”

“You are a total moron.”

“It wasn’t your gun, anyway, it was Mono Harris’s. And it’s right there, in the water, nobody’s going to get it. Mono Harris can come back with some fishermen and bring it up in a net.”

“Don’t start again, Clemen, this time I’m not going to be able to control myself, and you’re going to end up getting very badly hurt. ”

“There you are, worried about the gun. The worst thing is that we lost our drinking water and the sardines.”

“It’s your fault we have no way to defend ourselves and nothing to eat or drink. It’s also your fault we lost the lamp and the other oar. You’ve worn out my patience.”

“If you don’t want to row, I could start rowing with this.”

“You’re completely useless. You don’t know how to row. You don’t know how to do anything. You don’t deserve to live. Any one of my comrades shot by the firing squad is worth a hundred of you. ”

“You’re just cross. ”

“How could I not be?”

“It doesn’t do any good to be angry.”

“Shut your big fat mouth!”

“What are you doing, Jimmy?”

“I’m starting to row, can’t you see?”

“We’re going to San Nicolás then? How great, you finally decided! Bravo!”

“Don’t get your hopes up. ”

“What are you doing? Why are you going deeper into the swamp? It’s dangerous, Jimmy! It’s totally dark!”

“Here’s the mangrove I was looking for. ”

“What for? What are you doing?”

“Me, nothing. You see that thick branch on your right?”

“Uh-huh. ”

“Climb onto it!”

“You’re crazy!”

“Climb onto that branch right now, or I’ll bash your head in with this oar!”

“You’ve gone mad, Jimmy! Calm down!”

“Climb onto the fucking branch, you bastard!

“You’re hitting me, Jimmy!?”

“I’m going to smash you to pieces, you sonofabitch, climb onto it now!”

“Why do you want me to climb onto it?!”

“Now!”

“Stop hitting me, you crazy bastard!”

“That’s it! Good! Up a tree, you bastard!

“You’ve gone crazy. ”

“You are going to stay right there. ”

“What are you saying?! Have you lost your mind?!”

“There, now you won’t bother anybody.”

“Come back, Jimmy! Don’t leave me here!”

“I’ll come back tomorrow with Mono Harris to get you. ”

“Jimmy! Don’t be so mean! Come back! I beg you! Jimmy.!”

6:15 a.m.

“All these canals look alike. ”

“Jimmy, are you sure we’re going in the right direction?”

“I hope so. We’ve got to take advantage of this early morning light.”

“We’ve been going around in circles for half an hour, and I don’t see we’ve gotten anywhere. Just more mangroves. ”

“That’s what I said, they all look alike.”

“I remember when Mono Harris brought us here from near San Nicolás, it took about twenty minutes.”

“Because the motorboat was towing the canoe.”

“You’re right. ”

“That’s why I think we’ll get out of this bay soon.”

“I hope, because the sun is rising. My mouth is dry.”

“Mine is, too. And rowing is making me even thirstier.”

“You want me to help row?”

“No. We’ll be out of here in no time. ”

“Listen to my guts churning from hunger.”

“Must be here to the right. ”

“Everything looks the same to me, Jimmy. How will Mono Harris find his way?”

“He said he knows it by heart, and if he didn’t he’d get lost, he said even some fishermen prefer not go into these swamps because they’re afraid of getting lost, they say they’re haunted. ”

“I thought he was just boasting to scare us.”

“Now this way. ”

“I don’t see any way out, Jimmy. It all looks the same. Mangroves and more mangroves.”

“I’m even starting to worry now.”

“We should have made some exploratory outings a few days ago.”

“Mono Harris warned us not to budge from that canal or we’d get hopelessly lost. That’s why we didn’t.”

“Isn’t this the canal we were in for ten days?”

“What are you talking about. ”

“I’m sure it is, Jimmy!”

“You’re kidding. It can’t be. ”

“Bring us around to this side!”

“It looks different to me.”

“Because the tide has risen. Come up close. That’s the tree you left me on!”

“How do you recognize it?”

“Because you left me there for more than an hour, you bastard. The worst hour of my life.”

“But it was night, it was dark, how can you possibly recognize it now?”

“Here, underneath, look, level with the water. ”

“I think you’re wrong.”

“No. I pulled off those twigs and shoots so I could lean against the trunk!”

“I don’t see anything. ”

“Right here: look carefully! That part’s underwater now! This is the mangrove! We’ve gone in a circle, Jimmy! We’re right back where we started!”

“It can’t be!”

“But it is! What are we going to do now?”

“We’re going to try again.”

“We’re lost! We’re in a labyrinth!”

“It’s okay, we’ll get out of here. ”

“How?!”

“You row now. Maybe that’s why I got lost. I was rowing so I wasn’t paying enough attention.”

“Let me sit there. Give me the oar.”

“Don’t capsize us, Clemen, or we’ll really be lost. ”

“Not a chance in the world.”

“With you rowing, I’ll be able to focus better, try to remember how we got here with Mono Harris. Go this way. ”

“Okay. How do you change direction?”

“You move the oar that way. That’s right. ”

“It’s hard.”

“Come on.”

“. ”

“. ”

“My hands are burning, Jimmy. I’m going to get blisters.”

“You really are useless.”

“I don’t see that we’re getting anywhere.”

“Let me row. My turn. ”

“Now what?”

“We keep trying. We’ve got no choice.”

“I’m dying of thirst, Jimmy. ”

“Try not to think about it. ”

“How can I not think about being thirsty?! My throat is so dry. The sun is already up. If we don’t get out of this labyrinth soon, we’re going to die of sunstroke and dehydration!”

“Don’t say that.”

“But it’s the truth!”

“I’m also extremely thirsty. Let’s rest for a while in the shade. The worst thing is for us to get desperate.”

“All these mangrove trees look alike.”

“They look alike to us, but they aren’t all alike.”

“I hate being here! This is like a nightmare, Jimmy!”

“It is a nightmare.”

“We have such bad luck!”

“I wish we could wake up. ”

“We’ve been wandering around now for about two hours in these canals and we haven’t seen a trace of a fisherman. Nothing, zilch. ”

“We can’t lose faith.”

“There’s not even a current, look. The boat barely sways.”

“Maybe the tide is changing, maybe it’s peaked and soon it will start going down.”