Corner of the Dead

Chapter 2

[ 135 ] C H A P T E R 2 K A R L S TAY E D in our village for many years after I left. This letter is from five years later. I was married, I think he knew but I’m not sure, maybe not. Dear Lisette, It is safer now. Something happened yesterday I think you should know. I want to tell you even though I don’t expect you will come back. But what happened last night should bring you some peace that those who have survived may be able to go about their lives less frightened. There is a sense of order returning. Nothing monumental. Perú has learned there is no such thing as monumental change, not even with the most extreme violence. What I mean is maybe it will be better than it was during the years of violence. It pains me to think that after all this agony we are not yet back to the place before it started. Amparo never gave up looking for Enrique. Last night three men came to the village and asked to speak with her. The men said they had seen Enrique being murdered. They are Senderistas. They were encamped fifteen miles north of here almost exactly in the area where we speculated the military had been. That night the Senderistas separated into [ 136 ] two groups because they knew the military was closing in. One group stayed behind at the camp and was wiped out. The other walked down the mountain. The man who took us last night said Enrique was hooded and tied up in the back of a pickup truck. He recognized him not just because he was head of the cabildo but because he knew his voice. He said Enrique was well respected. The military made the prisoners get out and stand in the ravine that runs parallel to the Pan American. It was late. That is where they killed them, on the side of the road. The men argued it wasn’t safe to leave the bodies even if they buried them. Maybe they were lazy or scared but they decided not to move them. They buried them right where they had fallen. They came because they knew Amparo was still looking. They couldn’t come before because it wasn’t safe. And in the grave, right where they remembered, we found a piece of his poncho, the one he was wearing that night. The red one. We found the rest of him. We will bury him in the apple orchard. The one you and I helped to plant. I think you should know this even though I do not understand what has happened to you. Why it is that you do not want to know. It is the knowing that will free you. Blanca asks about you. I told her we are no longer in touch. Then she asked if you were dead. If you want you can write to her through me. Karlos ...