Dos Palabras (‘Two Words’) by Isabel Allende – English Translation - Page Three

 

‘I was looking for you’, he shouted signalling with his coiled-up whip and before finishing what he was saying, two men pounced on top of the women knocking over the tent and breaking the inkpot, they attacked her with their feet and hands and shoved her like a sailor’s bag on the brute Mulato. They began to gallop towards the hills. Hours later, when Belisa Crepusculario was on the verge of dying with her heart becoming rice with the jolts of the horse, they came to a halt and four strong hands threw her to the ground. She tried to get onto her feet and lift her head with dignity, but her energy failed her and she collapsed with a sigh, falling into a foggy dream.

She awoke several hours later with the whisper of the night in the camp, but she didn’t have time to decipher these sounds, because on opening her eyes she was met with the sight of Mulato, kneeling down at her side. ‘You are finally awake, he said whilst reaching for his canteen so she could drink a sip of aguardiente con pólvora [1] and begin to come round. She wanted to find out the cause of such mistreatment and he explained to her that the Colonel needed her help. He allowed her to clean her face and then took her across the camp, where the most feared man in the country lay in a hammock positioned between two trees. She couldn’t see his face, because the foliage above cast a shadow  and the permanent shadow of many years living as a bandit, but she imagined that his face would hold a careless expression if his gigantic helper could oversee her with such humbleness.

His voice surprised her, soft and well-adjusted like that of a teacher. ‘You are the woman who sells words?’ he asked.

‘To serve you’, she stammered scanning the semi-darkness so she could see him better.

The colonel got to his feet and the light of the torch held by Mulato uncovered him. The woman saw his dark skin and his fiery eyes like that of a puma and she knew at this point that she was standing in front of the loneliest man in this world. ‘I want to be President,’ he said. He was tired of trekking this damned earth for useless wars and defeats in which trickery could never turn into victory. He spent many years, sleeping in the elements, bitten by mosquitos, feeding himself iguanas and snake soup, but these minor inconveniences didn’t provide a sufficient reason for changing his fate. In truth, what annoyed him was the terror in other people’s eyes. He wanted to enter villages under arches of triumph, between flags decorated with color and flowers, applauded and given gifts of fresh eggs and freshly-baked bread. He was sick of seeing men fleeing wherever he went, women frightened away from him and creatures trembling, so he had decided to become the President.

Mulato suggested that he go to the capital and enter galloping into the Palace to overthrow the government, just like they took so many other things without asking for permission, but the Colonel wasn’t interested in becoming another tyrant, they had already had enough of those here and, also, this way wouldn’t be popular with the people. His idea was to be chosen by popular vote in the December elections.

 

By Katie-may Bridges


[1] A strong liquor common in the American continent, made from sugarcane.



Reference Text: 

https://www.bbns.org/uploaded/PDFs/Upper_School/Summer_Reading_2019/AP_Spanish-_Isabel_Allende.pdf?1560446283370

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