Corner of the Dead

Chapter 14

[ 68 ] C H A P T E R 14 K A R L A S K S if I know what day it is. I’ve been sick since you left. Thanksgiving. How do you know? A mountain climber from Wyoming. Can’t be true, no one lives in Wyoming. There were snowstorms both days. We finish our chicken and quinoa. He takes the flashlight and his knapsack, let’s go to the hammock to finish the wine. It’s too late. It’s a beautiful night, perfectly clear. We’ll only go as far as the stone marker. I’ll bring a blanket for us to sit on. No. It’s not safe. It’s our backyard. It’s too far. Lisette, they don’t need night. If they are going to come, it can be at any time and it won’t matter if we are inside or out. I follow him into the night. We go all the way to the hammock . It hangs between two pine trees; it is my favorite spot. Karl lies on the side that is red. I am on the green. He bought the hammock in the jungle the week I stayed in Lima. The [ 69 ] jungle did not interest me, not like the mountains. I prefer the cold and I need to see the sky. He passes me the wineskin he bought in Spain. I was in Spain that year too, but we didn’t know each other then. There are other places I want to see. He says, Machu Picchu. Lake Titicaca. Karl, I wonder if the reeds along Lake Titicaca are like the reeds in the next village. But it’s Machu Picchu I want to see. The trains in this country are crammed with pigs and vendors of choclo. Atacama, I say. I want to go where they have found mummies preserved by the sun, the dust and the dry heat, even though the bodies were not wrapped, the way they were in Egypt. ...