Chapter 9

You're very bold. You're a professional. I honestly don't know what candles you were given at this funeral.

--Ask my Cadillac. I'll tell you the insurance company wasn't too happy.

-Is that right, sir? -Sir?

--Mr. Hispanic ape, who's after the white women of this country, to take them to bed and madly do them dirty in front and behind... Mr. Hispanic ape?.y

--He doesn't hide it. He's very sincere. We know why he stays at the Jew's house.... In this town we know how to take away those sinful influences and bring them to be equal to human beings. Discipline. Obedience to the law.

-In spite of my years, I understand that there are a lot of inverts around here. I have not the slightest objection to that. What I criticized is that they don't say it publicly. That of a group of men up and down at all hours is sobering. ..... A lady as beautiful as Edali should not walk alone. When the first man is born in this town, I'm sure I'll be out of the way," --he replied. --By the way, I don't know why I have something of hers. I'm going to give it back to you. Because I see that what I've given you hasn't been enough.

The other looked at him with blue eyes full of cold anger.

--It must be that we got tired of servicing the Hispanic bitches. Everyone knows that's all they know how to do.

-- It doesn't bite," --he said, handing her several sheets of paper. They were carbon copies of a writing stamped with fingerprints.

--Look at the things you find out. - he expressed with a face of the utmost naivety, looking at him scrutinizingly to see his reaction while the other read.

Gunther overhead read and furiously tore up the document. He was pale and sweaty.

--I understand there are several copies rolling around,--said Sanchez professorially.

--You. You're really sticking your nose where it doesn't belong,"-- he pointed to his face, full of anger.

--I want my Cadillac back,"-- he said with absolute sincerity. He'd be quite capable of leaving things alone if he got his Cadillac back.

--That's all? All for a shoddy car,"-- said the other in a voice trembling with rage.

--You don't have it," --he said, opened the right door of the Chevrolet Holden and the young woman got into the car.

Then, without any disguise, she reached into the bed of the truck, pulled out the automatic and unlocked it.

--Hey Gunter. You're really not very good at this,"-- finished Zacharias by way of farewell.

The group was bewildered, without ideas. They didn't know how to act against someone who knew how to defend himself.

Looking at each other, the Holden Chevrolet drove off into the darkness of the 7:00 p.m. hour.

--I could never give work to those who have done me so much harm,"-- she said bitterly through the gap where a glass had previously stood.

--It's your business. I just think that the circle of revenge and hatred must be broken at some point.

--Well, I'm going to give him the Cadillac--," she said, inwardly angry.

Zacharias made a gesture. He wasn't that mean either. He was having fun at the expense of those useless

They arrived at the house and ate a frugal supper under the light of a packet coleman that came in one of the backpacks....

Edali felt familiar, safe, next to the man it was as if she was next to a protective father, and she was.

...... They assumed the night would be quiet. They hid in the shed, alternately keeping vigil, until Gunther's thugs arrived in the early hours of the morning, and they both heard the braking of the two pick-up trucks at the front gate of the house.

--Oh, they're coming. It's going to be tough," he said to the young woman. Pulling out under a cover the Thompson machine gun, leaving the automatic in his lap, he said to the young woman, "It's going to be tough.

Without further ado, a volley of shots from shotguns, rifles and pistols swept the house from top to bottom.

Making Edali scream.

--Don't raise your head. It will pass. -- He said, covering her mouth with his free hand, "They won't dare enter, they know we are prepared to defend ourselves.

Then silence. He looked and saw how they withdrew.

--These fools haven't learned their lesson. Let's put an end to all this. You need to be calm. You need to make a life. That one day a guy comes along with a bouquet of roses and tells you he is crazy about you, gives you a beautiful dinner and kisses you on the ankles to start with... You don't deserve this life,"-- Sanchez said with regret.

As best he could, he calmed the young woman down and immediately went to the pick-up truck. He filled the gas tank with a gallon of gas from the several gallons he had in reserve and left behind the pickup.

He arrived in town, practically on the heels of the trucks in front of him.

--"De tin marin, de dos parihuelas, tanto salta la cucaracha". Two elephants swayed on the web of a spider, three elephants, four elephants. Here. This is it.

He braked the truck, after turning around to be in position to return to Diamonds of Water, calmly descended, leaving the door open and from the drawer of the same he extracted an old bazooka, a souvenir of the second world war. He loaded it and aimed it at the furniture store. He saw the grenade go out in a halo of light and crash against the window, pass through it and explode in the middle of the furniture display. Then in the same darkness it came back.

--An eye for an eye. See who it hurts more--," he said, indifferent to the boom of the explosion and the distant shouting of the villagers.

He retreated, quickly retracing his steps to mark an advantageous distance.

He saw in the rearview mirror the lights of speeding cars in the distance. It was them. With the same calmness he braked the Chevrolet Holden again, turning off the lights, and with professional slowness, extracted a long chain with spikes from the crate and crossed it along the road. He drove the pickup forward a hundred yards and stopped again. He took the Thompson and unlocked it, walking down the road.

There were three pickups full of men. The first pickup ran over the chain and its tires exploded, going into the bush on the left side. The second one couldn't brake and its tires exploded and went into the right side of the road and the last one went over the chain and stayed right there.

It began to walk towards them. He immediately started a heavy fire with the Thompson. To the left, to the center, to the right. He fired until the silence was total. He reloaded and fired another round, reaching the spiked chain. He heard something. He turned and fired 2 additional bursts. Now there was silence, but not before reloading with 2 pans and spraying the area again.

He parsimoniously picked up his spiked chain and continued his return. He saw NO more lights in his rearview mirror.