No One Writes To The Colonel

A 12-year-old girl and her mother ride on a train as the only passengers in the "lone third-class car" (65). The train heads through the stretches of "interminable banana plantations" (65) and tiny rural seaside towns. With them, the girl and her mother have a plastic sack with some food and a bouquet wrapped in newspaper. The two eat lunch and the mother dozes as the train rolls on through the heat of the day. As the train pulls to a stop at a small town, the girl's mother tells her to comb her hair and not to do anything, especially not to cry, once they get off the train.

The two walk from the station to the small town "almost floating in the heat" (67). It's siesta hour and all the townspeople lounge, dozing or eating. The girl and her mother approach the parish house. The mother scratches at the metal door and a woman's voice answers through the door's metal grating. The mother says they need to see the priest. The woman tells the mother that the priest is sleeping now but the mother says it's an "emergency" (68). The woman lets the girl and her mother inside the parish then goes to rouse the priest. When she returns, she tells them to come back at three. The mother says their train leaves at three-thirty. The woman goes to rouse the priest again.

The priest, whom the mother assumes is the woman's brother, comes into the room and asks how he can help them. The mother asks him for the keys to the cemetery. The priest tells her she could have waited until the sun went down. The mother shakes her head and the priest moves to take a notebook, penholder, and inkwell out of a nearby cabinet. He sits down at the table and asks the mother which grave she's going to visit. "Carlos Centeno's," (69) she says. The priest doesn't understand. Carlos Centeno is the "thief who was killed here last week" (69), the mother explains. She also says she is Carlos' mother. The priest, blushing, writes down the woman's information in his notebook. The girl takes off her shoes and rests them on the bench rail.

One night, a week before the mother's visit, a local widow named Rebecca heard "someone trying to force the front door from outside" (70) her house. She took up "an ancient revolver" (70), aimed it at her front door's lock, and fired. Afterward, she heard a man's voice, "pleasant but terribly exhausted" (70) say, "Ah, Mother" (70), then nothing. In the morning, they found Carlos Centeno dead at the widow's front door, with "his nose blown to bits" (70).

The mother explains to the priest that Carlos was her only son. The priest retrieves the cemetery keys from a cabinet, which the young girl believes belong to Saint Peter's keys to heaven. The priest has the mother sign her name in his notebook then gives them the keys. The priest asks the mother if she ever tried to get Carlos "on the right track" (71). The mother answers that Carlos was "a very good man" (71). She explains that she always told him not to "steal anything that anyone needed to eat" (71). She says that Carlos was a boxer and sometimes had to spend days at a time in bed, recovering from a fight. The girl interrupts to say Carlos' teeth had to "be pulled out" (71). The priest says God's will is "inscrutable" (71), though without much conviction.

Yawning, the priest tells the mother and daughter to cover their heads to spare them from sunstroke. He gives them directions to Carlos' grave and tells them to put the key under the door when they come back to the parish. The priest says they should also "put an offering for the Church" (71). The mother thanks him without smiling.

The priest notices that a group of children have gathered outside the parish. When he opens the metal door, he sees not just children but many people gathered in the shade of some almond trees. The priest tells the mother and daughter to wait. The priest's sister tells the priest that "people have noticed" (72). The mother does not care and begins to leave the parish. The priest tells her to wait until the sun goes down and his sister offers a parasol so they don't "melt" (72). The mother says they're "all right this way" (72) and walks out onto the street.