In The Time Of The Butterflies Part 26

Neither of them said a word.

"Well, if there's nothing else, good night then, companeros." companeros."

I had turned back towards the door when one of them called out, "iViva Trujillo!" the "patriotic" way of beginning and closing the day. But I wasn't going to invoke the devil's name in my own yard. the "patriotic" way of beginning and closing the day. But I wasn't going to invoke the devil's name in my own yard.

After a short pause in which she was probably waiting to see if I'd answer, Dede called from inside the house, "Viva "Viva Trujillo!" Trujillo!"

"Viva Trujillo!" Mate took it up. Mate took it up.

And then a couple of more voices added their good wishes to our dictator, until what had been a scared compliance became, by the exaggeration of repet.i.tion, a joke. But I could feel the men listening specifically for my loyalty call.

"Viva-" I began and felt ashamed as I took a deep breath and p.r.o.nounced the hated name.

Just in case I should go on a rampage again, Mama confiscated the old radio. "What we need to know, we'll know soon enough!" And she was right, too. Little bits of news leaked in, sometimes from the least likely people.

My old friend Elsa. She had married the journalist Roberto Suarez, who was a.s.signed to the National Palace and, though critical of the regime, wrote the flowery feature articles required of him. One night long ago, he had kept Manolo and me, as well as Elsa, in st.i.tches with tales of his journalistic escapades. He had been held in prison once for three days for printing a picture in which Trujillo's bare leg showed between the cuff of his pants and the top of his sock. Another time, in a misprint he hadn't caught, Roberto's article had stated that Senator Smathers had delivered an elegy, instead of a eulogy, of Trujillo before the joint members of the United States Congress. That time Roberto was put in jail for a month.

I had thought for sure the Suarezes would join our movement. So when Leandro moved to the capital to coordinate the cells there, I mentioned the Suarezes to him as a likely couple. Elsa and Roberto were contacted and declared themselves "friendly," but did not want to join.

Now, in my hard times, my old friend sprang to my side. Every week since our release in August, Elsa had driven up from the capital to visit her elderly grandfather in La Vega. She would then swing up to Santiago, b.u.t.ter up Pena (she was good at this), and get a pa.s.s to come see me. Knowing we were in straitened circ.u.mstances, she brought bags of "old" clothes that looked fairly new to me. She claimed she couldn't fit into anything after her babies had been born and she'd gotten big as a cow.

Elsa... always exaggerating. She had the same good figure as always-as far as I could tell. "But look at these hips, please, just look at these legs!" she'd remind me.

Once she asked me, "How do you stay so trim?" Her eyes ran over my figure in an appraising way.

"Prison," I said flatly. She didn't mention my figure again.

Elsa and Roberto owned a boat, and every weekend they took it out. "To fish." Elsa winked. At sea they picked up Swan broadcasts from a little island south of Cuba as well as Radio Rebelde in Cuba and Radio Rumbos from Venezuela. "It's a regular newsroom out there," said Elsa, every visit catching me up on the latest news.

One day Elsa appeared, her face flushed with excitement. She couldn't sit down for a minute, not even for her favorite pastelito pastelito snack. She had news to tell me that required an immediate walk in the garden. "What is it?" I said, clutching her arm when we were halfway down the anthuriums. snack. She had news to tell me that required an immediate walk in the garden. "What is it?" I said, clutching her arm when we were halfway down the anthuriums.

"The OAS has imposed sanctions! Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Venezuela," Elsa counted them off with her fingers, "even the gringos. They've all broken relations!" She and Roberto had been out on the boat Sunday and seen an American wars.h.i.+p on the horizon.

"The capital is like this!" Elsa rubbed her fingers together. "Roberto says by next year-"

"Next year!" I was alarmed. "By then, who knows what can happen."

We walked a little while in silence. Far off, I could hear the shouts of the children playing with the big, bright beach ball their Tia Elsa had brought them from the capital. "Dede tells me I shouldn't talk to you about all this. But I said to her, Dede, it's in Minerva's blood. I told her about that time you almost shot Trujillo with a toy arrow, remember? I had to step in and pretend it was part of our play."

I wondered which of us had revised the past to suit the lives we were living now. "Ay, Elsa, that's not how it happened."

"Well, anyhow, she told me about the time you freed your father's rabbits because you didn't think it was right to have them caged."

That story was remembered my way, but I felt diminished hearing it. "And look at me now."

"What do you mean? You've gained a little weight. You're looking great!" She ran her eyes over me, nodding in approval. "Minerva, Minerva, I am so proud of you!"

How much I wanted at that moment to unburden myself to my old friend. To confess that I didn't feel the same as before prison. That I wanted my own life back again.

But before I could say a thing, she grabbed my hands. "Viva la Mariposa!" "Viva la Mariposa!" she whispered with feeling. she whispered with feeling.

I gave her the bright brave smile she also required of me.

Our spirits were so high with the good news we couldn't wait for Thursday to tell the men. The night before, we were almost festive as we rolled our hair in the bedroom so it would curl for our men the next day. We always did this, no matter how gloomy we were feeling. And they noticed it, too. It was a fact-we had all compared notes-that our men got more romantic the longer they were in prison. Patria claimed that Pedrito, a man of few words if there ever was one, was composing love poems for her and reciting them during visiting hours. The most embarra.s.sing part, she admitted, was that this made her start feeling that way right there in the middle of the prison hall surrounded by guards.

Dede sat by, watching our preparations with displeasure. She had gotten into the habit of staying over the nights before our visits. She said she had to be at Mama's early the next day anyhow to help with all the children once we left. But really, she was there to convince us not to go.

"You're exposing yourselves to an accident by going down all together," Dede began, "that's what you're doing."

We all knew what kind of accident she meant. Just a month ago Mar rero had been found at the foot of a cliff, having supposedly lost control of his car.

"Bournigal's drivers are very reliable," Patria rea.s.sured her.

"Think of how many orphans you'd be leaving behind, how many widowers, a mother de luto luto for the rest of her life." Dede could really pour on the tragedy. for the rest of her life." Dede could really pour on the tragedy.

I don't know if it was nerves or what, but all three of us burst out laughing. Dede stood up and announced she was going home. "Come on, Dede," I called as she headed out the door. "There's a curfew. Be reasonable."

"Reasonable!" Her voice was seething with anger. "If you think I'm going to sit by and watch you all commit suicide, you're wrong."

She didn't make it past the front gate. The SIM sent her back. She slept on the couch and the next morning wouldn't talk to us all through breakfast. When she turned away as we went to kiss her goodbye, I decided to use her own fears on her. "Come on, Dede. Think how sorry you'd be if something should happen to us and you didn't say goodbye." She stiffened with resistance. But the second the driver turned on the engine, she ran to the car, sobbing. She blurted out the one loss she hadn't mentioned the night before, "I don't want to have to live without you."

The atmosphere in prison was bright with hope. The voices in the visitors' hall had a lift to them, now and then there was laughter. The news had spread there already: sanctions had been imposed, the gringos were closing down their emba.s.sy.

Only Manolo, like Dede, was not convinced. He seemed gloomier than ever.

"What is it?" I asked between pa.s.sings of the guard. "Isn't it good news?"

He shrugged. Then seeing my worried face, he smiled, but it was a smile for my benefit, I could tell. I noticed for the first time that some of his front teeth were broken off.

"We'll be home soon!" I always tried to raise his spirits with the thought of our little nest in Monte Cristi. The owners, old friends of Manolo's parents, were allowing us to keep our things there until the day they should find a new tenant. Strangely enough, it gave me hope to know our little house, the only home we'd ever shared, was still intact.

Manolo leaned towards me, his lips grazing my cheek. A kiss to mask what he had to say. "Our cells, are they ready?"

So that's what was worrying him. He didn't know that the revolution was out of our hands. Others were now in charge.

"Who?" he persisted.

I hated to tell him I didn't know. That we were totally disconnected at Mama's. The guard was pa.s.sing by, so I remarked instead about the plantain fritters we'd eaten the night before. "n.o.body knows who they are," I mouthed when the guard was safely down the row.

Manolo eyes grew big in his pale face. "This could be a plant. Find out who's left." His grip tightened until my hands felt numb, but I would never tell him to let go.

We were watched around the clock, our visits supervised, even food vendors had their baskets checked at the gate. When and how and whom was I to contact? And if I tried, I'd only be risking more lives.

But it was more than that. I had put on too good a show for Manolo as well. He didn't know the double life I was leading. Outwardly, I was still his calm, courageous companera. companera. Inside, the woman had got the upper hand. Inside, the woman had got the upper hand.

And so the struggle with her began. The struggle to get my old self back from her. Late in the night, I'd lie in bed, thinking, You must gather up the broken threads and tie them together.

Secretly, I hoped that events would settle the matter for me and, along with everyone else, I honestly believed we were seeing the last days of the regime. Shortages were everywhere. Trujillo was doing all the crazy things of a trapped animal. In church in a drunken stupor, he had seized the chalice and dispensed communion to his frightened attendants. The pope was talking about excommunication.

But with everyone against him and no one left to impress, Trujillo didn't have to hold himself back anymore. One morning, soon after sanctions went into effect, we woke up to the sound of sirens on the road. Trucks were roaring by, full of soldiers. Dede did not appear that morning, and since that one was like clockwork, we knew something was wrong.

The next day Elsa brought the very news we'd been waiting for, with the conclusion we had dreaded. Two nights ago after dark, a group of young men had run through Santiago, distributing leaflets under doors, urging an uprising. Every last one of them had been caught.

"'They will find out what it is to run a comb through tangled hair,' " Elsa quoted Trujillo's reaction to the young rebels' capture.

Pena came by late that afternoon. All further visits to La Victoria were cancelled.

"But why?" I blurted out. And then bitterly I added, "We wrote the letter!"

Pena narrowed his eyes at me. He hated to be asked questions that implied he wasn't in charge of things. "Why don't you write another letter to El Jefe and ask him to explain himself to you!"

"She's just upset. We all are," Patria explained. She made a pleading face for me to be nice. "Aren't you just upset, Minerva?"

"I'm very upset," I said, folding my arms.

It was the end of September before visiting days were reinstated at La Victoria, and we got to see the men. That morning when we picked up our pa.s.ses, Pena gave us a warning look, but we were all so relieved, we answered him with smiles and too many thank-yous. All the way down in the car we rented with a driver, we were giddy with antic.i.p.ation. Mate told some of her favorite riddles we all pretended not to know so she could have the pleasure of answering them herself. The thing Adam had in front that Eva had in back was the letter A. The thing that's put in hard and comes out soft were the beans in the boiling water. That one had gotten a taste for spicy humor in prison.

Our mood changed considerably when we were finally ushered into that dim, familiar hall. The men looked thinner, their eyes desperate in their pale faces. Between pa.s.sings of the increased guardia patrol, I tried to find out from Manolo what was going on.

"It's over for us." Manolo clutched my hands.

"You can't think like that. We'll be back in our little house before the year is up."

But he insisted on goodbyes. He wanted me to know how deep was his love for me. What to say to the children. What kind of burial he wanted if I got a body, what kind of memorial service if I didn't.

"Stop this!" I said in an annoyed voice. My heart was in my mouth.

On the drive home, we all wept, unable to console each other, for my sisters had heard the same grim news from Pedrito and Leandro. The men in their cells were being taken out at night in small groups and killed.

The driver, a man about our age who had already driven us down twice, looked in his rearview mirror. "The b.u.t.terflies are sad today," he noted.

That made me sit up and dry my tears. The b.u.t.terflies were not about to give up! We had suffered a setback but we had not been beaten.

In the long days that followed, we expected Pena to appear every morning with the horrible news. Now I was the one waiting out on the galeria galeria to intercept him if he came. I did not want anyone else to have to bear the first blow. to intercept him if he came. I did not want anyone else to have to bear the first blow.

Clearly, the tide had turned. The failed uprising plunged the whole country into despair again. At home, everyone walked around with the look of people at a funeral. "We cannot give up," I kept saying.

They marveled at my self-control-and so did I. But by now in my life I should have known. Adversity was like a key in the lock for me. As I began to work to get our men out of prison, it was the old Minerva I set free.

Saving the Men October We could see them, chugging along behind us in their little Volkswagen. They would have a heyday reporting to Pena that we had visited another political. "Rufino," I said, "turn down Pasteur, quick."

Rufino had become our favorite driver. Every time we rented from Boumigal, we asked for him. Ever since the trip home from our last visit to the prison, we had felt his unspoken allegiance to us. Just this morning, when Dede had worried about us leaving the house, Rufino had spoken up. "A Dio', Dio', Dona Dede, you think I'll let anything happen to the b.u.t.terflies? They'll have to kill me first." Dona Dede, you think I'll let anything happen to the b.u.t.terflies? They'll have to kill me first."

"And they will, too!" she had muttered.

He was peering into the rearview mirror. "We've lost them."

I checked out the back window myself. Then I turned to my sisters as if to say, See, you didn't believe me.

"Maybe this'll be just the excuse they need." Mate was tearful. We had just come from seeing the men. Leandro and Manolo had been told they would be going on a little trip-what all the prisoners were told before they were killed. They were desperate, grim, taking the Miltown we had smuggled in to them, and still not sleeping.

"They're in G.o.d's hands." Patria made the sign of the cross.

"Now listen to me, you two. We have a good excuse," I reminded them. "Delia is a female doctor and we have plenty of reason to see her." Neither Mate nor I had had a period for months.

Delia was nervous as she let us into her small office, her eyes full of signals. Before I could say a thing, she held up her hand to her lips and gestured towards the wall where her diplomas hung. We cannot talk here.

"We came about our cycles," I began, searching the wall for the telltale little rod. Wherever it was, all the SIM got at first was an earful about our women problems. Delia relaxed, thinking that was truly why we were here. Until I concluded a little too unmetaphorically, "So is there any activity in our old cells?"

Delia gave me a piercing look. "The cells in your systems have atro phied and are dead," she said sharply.

I must have looked stricken, for Delia's manner softened, "A few of them are still active, to be sure. But most importantly, new cells are filling in all the time. You need to give your bodies a rest. You should see menstrual activity by the beginning of next year."

Next year! I reached for the prescription pad on her desk and wrote down Sina's name with a big question mark.

"Gone. Asylum," she wrote back.

So Sina had abandoned our struggle. But then, I reminded myself, I had too, in effect, under house arrest for the last two months.

I listed six more names of members I knew had been released. Then I watched Delia draw a line through each one.

Finally I wrote, Who's left in our area?

Delia bit her lip. Throughout our meeting her manner had been guarded, as if we were being watched as well as bugged. Now she wrote down a name hurriedly, held it up for us to read, then tore all the used pages in half, over and over again. She stood, eager to have us gone.

The name Delia held up for us to see was unknown to us, a Dr. Pedro Vinas. When we got home, we asked Mama, who went through a whole family tree of Vinas, only to declare she didn't know this particular one. We grew suspicious, for a stranger in our midst probably meant a SIM plant with a fabricated name. But Don Bernardo banished our doubts. Dr. Pedro Vinas was a urologist in Santiago, a very good one, who had attended Dona Belen several times. I called up and made an appointment for early next week. The woman's voice on the other end spoke to me as if I were a young child. "What is the little problem we're having?"

I had to think what a urologist was for. The only doctors I knew were Delia, Dr. Lavandier, and the doctor in Monte Cristi who had delivered my babies. "Just a little problem," I said, stalling.

"Oh, that," she said. And gave me a time.

Permission from Pena was next. That was not going to be easy. The morning after our unauthorized detour, he appeared at the house. We could tell by the bang of his car door that we were in for it.

For a full minute he shouted threats and obscenities at us. I sat on my hands as if they were extensions of my mouth. It took all my self-control not to order him and his filthy mouth out of our house.

Finally Pena calmed down enough to ask us what we had been up to. He was looking straight at me, for I was usually the one to do the talking.

But we had already settled it among us. I was to keep my mouth shut, and Patria, his favorite, was to do the explaining. "We had to see the doctor about a private matter."

"Que mierda privado?" Pena's face was so red, it looked ready to explode. Pena's face was so red, it looked ready to explode.

Patria blushed at the obscenity. "We had to consult about some women's problems."

"Why didn't you just ask my permission?" Pena was softening. By now, Patria had got him to sit down in a rocker and at least accept a gla.s.s of guanabana juice-good for the nerves, Mama always said. "I wouldn't keep you from medical care. But you know very well"-he looked straight at me-"that Delia Santos is on the political list. The rules clearly state, no contact with politicals."

"We weren't seeing her in her political capacity," I protested. Patria coughed a reminder of our agreement. But once I got started, it was hard to shut me up. "In fact, Captain, I'm glad to hear that you wouldn't stand in the way of our medical care-"

"Yes," Patria swiftly cut in. "You have been very kind to us." I could feel her eyes scouring me.