Subject: Book 3 Chapter 9 Part 1 Author: Nancy (63.10.127.247) Date: 11-04-1999 01:20 Scene 1 ¡Bautista! ¡Bautista! ¡Un caballo, en el acto! ¿Estas dormido, estupido? That´s how chapter 9 begins. Renato is anxiously calling for Bautista After Juan has whisked Monica away Renato is determined to hunt him down. Renato calls for Bautista and as Bautista trails behind him Renato quickly enters the library. Bautista is humbly protesting that he has been looking for him for the past hour. Sofia sent him to look for Renato. Renato replies to tell her that he did not find him. Bautista begins to explain that there is a municipal judge and his secreatry waiting for him to take his testimony but he replies in alarm when he sees Renato take out two guns… ¡ Oh, Señor Renato! ¡Cuidado!… Esas eran las pistolas de duelo de don Francisco, y… Renato replies that he knows well what they are and he sends Bautista to fetch him a horse. He quickly removes the guns from their case, pauses to look at them for a moment and then shoves them into his pockets. Renato is highly irritated and tells Bautista that the only thing he has to worry about is getting him his horse, that he has wasted enough time already. Renato tells Bautista to hurry up and bring his horse by the side stairs without making a sound. Bautista leaves the room with his tail between his legs. As he waits for Bautista, Renato anxiously paces the library floor. Then he turns and looks for something that he had left there… a glass in which he pours himself rum. And as he drinks its as if he were drinking in more hatred. The alcohol changes him and his hate for Juan grows stronger. The alcohol in his blood metamorphoses his pain and humiliation into a deep seeded desire for revenge that is even stronger than what he says is love for Monica: Solo, Renato ha medido con sus pasos nerviosos la amplia biblioteca, ahora casi en penumbra, y rebusca en el estante, hasta encontrar algo que dejo olvidado… Una y otra vez ha llenado el pequeño vaso, de aquel aguardiente ron añejo que hace famosa a Campo Real, y sus labios sedientos lo sorben con ansia, encendiendose en ellos mas sed mientras mas bebe… Una ira violents le sacude, quemandole como una llamarada, al pensar en Juan… Tiene que ir a su encuentro, tiene que cobrarle en sangre, la humillacion que le ha hecho sufrir… Cada minute que pasa le hace medir y calcular la ventaja que le lleva. ¿ Hasta donde llegaran Monica en su locura y Juan en su audacia? Mientras bebe, apurando hasta el fondo la botella, sus nervios se han templado, su furia se hace mas profunda y fria, y en ella van asomando los mas crueles instintos como puntas de lanzas… Ya su corazon es un mar de despecho; ya mas que el amor de Monica, le atrae la venganza contra Juan… In the moment Bautista comes in and before he can protest, Renato pushes him aside and jumps onto the horse and races away. As he crosses through his plantation he hears the loud laments of the slaves. He sees two forms that twist in epileptic convulsions to the sound of funeral drums. They dance in morning for Aimee. But more than just praying for her, they seem to be summoning her spirit for a possible revenge, that has been like a shadow of desth hanging over the valley. Renato tries to flee from this sight. He digs his heels into the side of the horse trying to make the poor beast go faster. The horse loses its footing and falls down with Renato. However he seems undainted from the bruises and when he gets up he realizes he is in front of a shack. There is a dark figure in the doorway that steps away into the interior of the shack when it seems him. Without knowing why Renato follows the figure inside: --Tu eres Kuma, ¿verdad? Kuma is terrified. She cannot respond and only makes a vague gesture in response to his questions. She falls to her knees and looks at him in fright. Renato experiences a horrifying pleasure at seeing Kuma tremble and sweat before him. --Tu eres Kuma, la que esquilma y explotas a todo Campo Real con tus brebajes, tus ungüentos y tus mentiras… Tu eres la que ayudas a embrutecer y a envenenar a los imbeciles de los barracones, y hasta a los propoios criados de mi casa… Kuma tries to reply that she does not sell posion but only medices made from herbs found in nature; that she makes medicine for the poor, heals bones, cures indigestion, and helps to free those with guilt on their conscience from the evil shadow of their deceased. Kuma has made this indirect remark at Renato while looking to see what his reaction will be; she knows that she risks everything in that one move. She sees Renato grow pale and knowing that she has hit the bull's eye, she proceeds to tell Renato that if Aimee torments him in his sleep that she can help. But Kuma has not realized that her bold move will soon back fire: --í el alma del ama Aimee te persigue mi amo, si se te asoma al sueño para recordarte lo que hiciste, si la oyes como si te hablara en el oido, y la sientes detras como un escalofrio… -- ¡Calla, imbecil, embaucadora, embustera!… ¡No me persigue ningun fantasma ni me habla ninguna voz al oido! La sombra de Aimee no tiene nada que reclamarme, pues no la mate. ¡No tengo la culpa de que se matara! ¡Pero a ti si voy a matarte! Renato begins to hit Kuma who in her fear cries out to make him stop. Renato is shocked back into his senses as he realizes that he is hitting a woman. Dizzy from the alcohol, Renato steps back and at that moment Bautista runs in. Bautista is relieved to see him. He exclaims that he was worried when Renato's horse returned to the house without him. Bautista set off in search of him to make sure her was fine. Then he asks Renato if that was his destination and Renato says no, that he is going on from there and then quickly claims Bautista's horse. As he leaves he commands Bautista to force Kuma off of his lands. Scene 2 Juan is silently and thoughtfully sitting in Don Noel's house. Don Noel comes in and his surprised to find him there after he has been searching for him so arduously. Juan sits there, with a pipe in his mouth, sunk in dark thoughts since he left Monica at the convent and he let Colibri take the reigns of the carriage. Don Noel does his best to make Juan talk about what is going through his mind: ---¿Quieres contarme lo que te ha sucedido? ¿En que piensas, Juan? -- Solo estaba pensando que Monica muy pronto sera libre; que ya lo es Renato, puesto que Aimee esta bajo tierra; y que ella le quiere, Noel, le quiere todavia… (He sure does like to torture himself doesn't he?) Don Noel asks him if that is what he concluded from his trip. He asks Juan if Monica did not come with him. Juan tells him that she did and Don Noel supposes that he brought her by force. Juan corrects him and tells him that Monica chose to come with him, but that the victory is not his because it was only something she resorted to at that moment to prevent his violence upon Renato's sacred person. (Poor Juan. I wish I could console him. Sniff.) Don Noel, being the pragmatic that he is, asks Juan if Monica told him that she loved Renato. Juan replies (in what I can only imagine is one of his bitterest tones) and gives a, though mistaken, but (what I consider) accurate description of Monica: --Naturalmente que no me lo dijo. Tiene usted un primer premio de candidez, Noel. ¿Como iba a decirmelo? Era el esposo de su hermana… Renuncio a el voluntariamente, y renuncio para toda la vida. Todo el orgullo, toda la dignidad de Monica, esta en ocultar ese amor, en esconderlo dentro de si misma… Es probable que hasta el mismo se lo niegue… Don Noel tells him that perhaps everything that glitters is not gold. Juan tells him it doesn't shine, that it is hidden, and it's her efforts to hide it that give him the assurance. Then he tries to shake it off and leaves saying that he is going to see how things are at El Peñon del Diablo. Scene 3 Ana is calmly passing the time in the main room of Don Noel's house. It's as if all memory of recent events had been erased from her mind. She asks Colibri why he hasn't bought her something to eat. She reminds him that Juan told him to take care of her and that if she is hidden in that house it's because Juan is giving her asylum. Colibri tells her to be quite. He has heard the arrival of a horse and asks Ana if she heard it. Ana reacts in fear and tells him not to open the door. --¡Ay que miedo! No abras Colibri, ponle tranca a la puerta, pasa el pestillo, grita que los amos no estan…-- Loca de espanto, Ana ha corrido imprudentemente hacia la ventana, abriendola de par en par, y la figura que devisa le hiela la sangre en las venas--.¡El amo Renato! ¡No abras, Colibri! But Ana's foolish move has caused her to be seen by Renato and her warning to Colibri comes too late. Renato has spotted her as well and he quickly and violently pushes the door open just as Colibri is trying to secure it closed. Renato bursts in asking Ana if this is indeed the place she has been hiding. Then he asks for Juan and Monica. Poor Colibri is barely able to reply that Juan is not there, he swears that Juan has just left, but before he is done Renato's attention has already turned to Ana. Ana is shaking and in her fear falls to the ground on her knees. She begs for her life: --¡No me mate, señor Renato, no vaya a matarme! ¡Yo le digo todo lo que quiera usted saber! ¡Yo se lo digo, pero no me mate, mi amo! --¿Por que huiste como huiste?¡Habla… empieza a hablar! Mucha culpa has de tener para que tu miedo sea tanto… Tu eras su complice ¿verdad? Renato confronts Ana about her role in Aimee's intrigues. Ana confesses everything without holding back any details: --Yo no hacia nada…Solo lo que la señora me mandaba… Yo siempre tenia miedo… A casa de Kuma iba yo temblando… -- ¿Para que ibas a casa de Kuma? ¿Para que iba ella? -- Para que le ayudara. La señora Aimee iba a hacer como que se caia del caballo, y entonces Kuma tenia que recogerla y llevarla a su casa, y decirle a todo el mundo que la señora se habia caido del caballo y que por eso se habia perdido el niño…¡Ay, señor, no ponga esa cara! ¡Yo no lo invente! Renato furiously asks Ana if Aimee made it up. Suddenly he understands why Aimee exited that day the way she did, and just as he is about to piece together Ana's role in the whole farse, she volunteers the information herself: -- La señora me mando que le avisara, que le dijera con mucho alboroto que ella se iba a caballo… Ella queria que usted pensara que por su culpa se habia perdido el niño… para que la quisiera mas…no por nada malo. Y para que la perdonara… y no averiguara demasiado… Renato wants to know what it is that Aimee was afraid he would find out. And Ana continues digging a bigger hole around herself, not knowing when to shut up: --Pues nada, mi amo… Todo le salia mal ahora a la señora Aimee… no hizo sino pasear, porque aquel oficial tan guapo se fue en el barco. Para mi que el señor Juan se le atraveso… -- El señor Juan, ¿que? -- Ya usted lo sabe… la señora Aimee estaba loca por el señor Juan. Pero no la tome con el… el no la queria, por eso estaba loca la señora, loca buscandolo, y el nada… nada… --¿Buscandolo? ¿Buscaba Aimee a Juan? -- No se ponga bravo, mi amo.. no podia remediarlo… La primera vez que el fue a Campo Real para llevarsela… --¿Llevarsela? Entonces ¿fue por ella… fue por ella…? And without any further Ana lets Renato know the truth. Childishly, almost innocently, Ana has let Renato know that Aimee had cast her blame upon Monica at Campo Real. Renato bursts out, asking her to continue, to finish sinking him deeper in shame. He asks her if Aimee was Juan's lover. Ana denies that Aimee was Juan's lover. She tells Renato that Juan rejected Aimee since she got married and that is what drove her crazy. She tells Renato that Aimee always yearned for Juan, that after she married she hoped that things with Juan would go back to how they used to be when he would bring her back gifts from his trips and she would wait for him on the beach. Ana tells Renato that that was when Aimee claimed she was truly happy. --¡Basta! ¡Callate o no podre contenerme para pisotearte! Renato has shouted out in his frustration and pain. He wants Ana to be silent and Ana foolishly continues to name Aimee. Renato shouts that she should not name Aimee any more, that Aimee is dead and buried, and that he has to look for Juan now. He asks for Juan. Ana says that she doesn't know and asks Renato to not twist her arm. She tells him that Juan went to check on a house he is building but that she is not sure the name of the place… "Casa del Diablo, Piedra del Diablo, o algo asi…" Ana tries to tell Renato not to go there but before she has the chance to Renato lets her go and pushes her to the floor. He retreats through the doorway and jumps on the horse he hurriedly tied to the bars of the windows and races down the street. Scene 4 --Colibri… Pero ¿eres tu realmente? Colibri has gone looking for Monica. He tells her that he came for her because she needs to know what is going on, that she need to do something because they are going to kill each other… ---¿Que? ¿Quienes? Juan ¿verdad? Juan y Renato… Monica has hit on the mark without the need for Colibri to answer her question. She can read it all in his eyes filled with fear. Colibri quickly tells her of the previous events with Renato. He recounts how Renato arrived at Don Noel's house looking for Juan. He tells her that since Renato found Ana instead of Juan he questioned her until she told him everything and that after that she went after Juan. Monica asks where Juan is and Colibri tell her that Juan did not want her to know that he is building a house where he grew up. Monica asks Colibri if that is where Renato was headed and Colibri confirms it. He also tells her that as Renato was getting on the horse, his jacket fluttered and Colibri noticed two guns in his waist that he is surely going to use to kill Juan. Monica says that Renato will not do anything because she will prevent it. She says that the blood cannot run between them. Colibri offers to get a coach for her and as she hurries him after one she proclaims that she will prevent such a tragedy no matter what price she has to pay to do it.