The Revolutionaries Try Again (25 page)

(how many ribs does the lord

          
the motion sickness on the bus to Quito

          
children selling corn on the cob

              
a feisty heretic type look

                  
–What are these horrible people doing on Victor Emilio Estrada anyway

          
the serpentine road on our way up to

                  
–Call the bouncer at Opera this trash here's blocking the sidewalk

          
the bus driver slowing down because of the fog and holding

          
his lighter in front of the windshield

              
Quito Light of America

                      
why did you listen to the radio from the other room Mama?

              
quiet down children

                      
riot tanks surrounding the Plaza Mayor

                          
reading about Luz Elena the mother of the brothers Restrepo and how in her desperation to find her sons she had consulted soothsayers

                      
the fourth anniversary of the Restrepo's disappearance

                          
if the candle is still lit tomorrow morning your sons are still alive

                                    
don't make a nuisance of yourself President Sixto Duran Ballen says to the young Restrepo sister after she asked him about her brothers

                      
policemen with plastic shields barricading the Plaza Mayor

                      
the fifth anniversary of Arsenio's disappearance

              
corn grains sliding up and down the floor whenever the bus driver speeds up or

                      
I have orders to shoot if I want to

                              
Han Solo inside a wall of lava

                                
Nosotros / que nos queremos tanto / que desde que nos

                      
policemen armed with tear gas launchers

                                
I haven't come here to recite you poetry

                                
me gustas cuando callas / porque estás como

              
children climbing on the bus and selling corn on the

                                
I haven't come here to serenade you

                              
Agent Chocolate ha ha

                      
trained Dobermans

                                    
Eva's mother sending her to her aunt's house by the Salado the week after her brother

                      
two hundred policemen barricading the

                                    
untying a canoe on the Salado and searching for her brother

              
the seams of the goat brown bus on our way to

                          
Luz Elena visiting the hut of an indigenous clairvoyant who filled a pearl shell with aguardiente
and said he saw the boys alive and crossing the border

                                    
the branch of a palm tree floating on the Salado like a gnarled hand

                      
–Out of the way she needs help someone

                          
let me through I'm here to bring Doña Restrepo her medicine

                                    
my aunt standing on the makeshift port by the Salado desperately waving her hands don't reprimand our Eva please

                      
–Call an ambulance you

                                    
please don't send me away again Mama

                          
trucutus

                                    
mi chiquitolina

              
children selling ciruelas

                                    
a bloated liter bottle with a trickle of spiders floating on the

                          
mothers of the Plaza Mayor

                                        
a secret meeting between the police chief and the minister of the interior to decide what to do with the Restrepo brother who hadn't died

                      
–We can't let this woman in the hospital she doesn't have an
ID

                          
my mother had brought her own sign

                                        
shoot him

                          
it said simply:

              
you'll feel less sick if you stick your head out the window Eva

                          
For Our Children Until Life

              
the wind on my face

                          
Arsenio Marcos Calderón

              
waterfalls on every corner on our way to

                          
a sign with the lying newspaper headline There Was a Traffic Accident Involved in the Restrepo Case

                      
–What are you doing with that woman bring her back into the hospital

              
the patches of jungle on our way to

                          
the headline splattered with red paint

                  
Quito light of

                                    
Marranito Poco Rabo? Yes? Hi. Hello. Where to? Across the cathedral. The fire thrower's under the rock.

                                
I have come to tell you that I love you Eva

                              
a drawing on the newspaper of the Yambo lagoon where the dead bodies of the brothers Restrepo were never to be found

                      
–I'm sorry doctor we didn't know that you knew her we

                          
Policemen dragging Luz Elena away

                              
a stick figure with fins an oxygen tank inside the Yambo

                          
Eva's mother approaching Luz Elena at the Plaza Mayor

                              
sneaking inside her mother's room and sleeping by the foot of

                          
Eva's mother sharing with Luz Elena a photograph of Arsenio

                             
Agent Moran the policewoman in charge of investigating the brothers Restrepo's disappearance inventing an informant who knew where the brothers Restrepo were

                          
Eva's mother didn't speak

                                    
President Sixto Duran Ballen's daughter saying to Luz Elena that instead of protesting at the Plaza
Mayor they should play the classical music her father likes

                          
Luz Elena didn't speak

                      
–Page Doctor Rodriguez the anesthesiologist not the heart surgeon

                          
Luz Elena holding my mother's hand

                              
Agent Moran asking the Restrepo family for money taking more than sixty trips across the country to track invented leads

                          
Luz Elena and my mother embracing

                      
–She's waking up that's good let her rest for a while)

does Rolando think that I'm his

clanging the metal telephone poles along Victor Emilio Estrada with her hammer and listening in for

what were you listening in for?

the submarines Mama — posters slimed atop posters — the rusted staples like robot ants swarming the surface of the telephone poles along Victor Emilio Estrada — my Aunt Felicia had a French poodle named Felicia that followed her everywhere — Jaime Roldós Aguilera slimed atop Jaime Nebot Saadi — not like submarines like sonars in movies about radioactive submarines — the manta rays in the Yambo — Radio Río y Mar — the scuba divers gliding along giant fishes with names she didn't know — there's a salmon in your lagoon ma'am — and whenever Felicia was calm she would doze by her feet — whenever I would smear flour on my face I would think of you Arsenio — El Loco Bucaram slimed atop of El Loco Bucaram — if I hadn't been holding these posters in my hand I would have been embarrassed to have been seen staring at the posters on the telephone poles along Victor Emilio Estrada Rolando — look at that scarecrow she has nothing better to do than ogle at telephone poles — La Sonora Dinamita slimed atop Assad Bucaram — pouring sacks of flour and cement in the Yambo so no one else would be thrown in there anymore — the wooden handle of my brother's favorite hammer worn out by his millions of clutchings — what did those hands look like then? — beware of splinters Arsno — I'm not building your
hamster a house or wheel or nothing Evarista — a diving plank? — and whenever Felicia wasn't calm she would bark at everything — Radio Romance — no barking at the chairs Felicia — giant chairs tilting atop Felicia — I didn't come here to stencil your eyebrows Eva — white walls white roofs white vistas of nothing — climbing the walls of a tower that's also a skyscraper that's rising up to the clouds — everybody speaks in tongues because without a tongue who can speak eh? — ugh — let's inflate your pamphlets with ketchup and hurl them at the — what was inside your purse Aunt Felicia? — who wants ketchup for dinner? — ewww — forgive me tomatoes — don't eat me please eat the potatoes instead — forgive me potatoes — whenever it was dark Felicia would power the headlight on her forehead — my dog has mining experience how about yours? — what's this we have us a caller folks — hello? — hi I would like to dedicate a — what's your name Son? — my name's Rolando I would like to dedicate With You at a Distance to Eva Calderón — is Eva your sweetheart? — I wouldn't call her that yes she's my are we on the air? — we're always on the air but no one listens — Doña Leonor? — call me Aurorora — Leonor's trying to be funny here's a laugh track for you — I can't hear anything — Aurora La Deaf — do you think your Eva's listening? — I hope so — even if she isn't listening she is listening right? — nothing consoles me / if you aren't here with me — in the news today a cadre of scientists has gathered around a lamppost on Victor Emilio Estrada — Radio Nada de Nada — what's your request? — the song about the red robins who sing about the red robins who — so many songs here can you hear all the radios along Victor Emilio Estrada? — in recent declarations scientists have concluded the lamppost on Victor Emilio Estrada isn't switching on and off at random yes thank you for the opportunity at first we thought it was Morse code which didn't make any sense so then we thought it was some kind of Indian signal which didn't make any sense either so then we connected electrodes to the base of the lamp and concluded the lamp wasn't asking for help because what's the use of asking for help right? — You found me — We drove all over and then we — I knew you would find me and then I thought how melodramatic my
thoughts — Don't melodramatize yourself Auroris — Don't make me laugh these exhalations hurt me — Rolando talking to Eva and Eva trying to calm him as much as he's trying to calm her connecting electrodes to Eva Calderón's head and — Did Eva just fall asleep? — Mom? — yes? — I thought it was you what are you doing on Victor Emilio Estrada? — I'm sorry I didn't have more change to give you please forgive me I'll give you everything I have — the houses and rivers — how are we to be anything in a world of — Radio Los Peces — constellations with names we didn't — and one day the dead will rise against the