Subject: Chapter 18: The Search
Author: Robin N (38.31.125.143)
Date: 01-19-2000 22:45
Chapter 18
On the morning of August 20th, Mt. Pelee erupted, leaving the island
in ruins. Few houses were left standing—those some distance from the
capital. Others were reduced to ash, set afire by the burning embers
carried on the winds. Earthquakes shook all of the islands in the
area: the smaller Antilles, the Virgin Islands, St. George and
Tobago. The greatest of the earthquakes were near Fort de France and
cove of the Fuerte de San Luis, where the last of the d’Autremonts
is fighting for his life.
“I’m thirsty, thirsty… water…”
Juan tells Colibri to bring him water, but the boy tells him that
there’s only one jar of clean water left. “Well give it to him!
Can’t you see that he’s thirsty?”
Juan moistens Renato’s lips which are burning with fever. His blonde
hair is sweat-darkened and falls over the rough bed. The face is
pale and motionless.
Juan notes that he’s fallen unconscious and says, “Now you’ll sleep
for a few hours.” He checks him and sees that the fever has
lessened, but he’s still worried how to best help him. He comments
to Colibri that Renato, at first glance, seems almost fragile, but
he’s not. “He has much of the d’Autremont in him, and little of the
Valois.”
Colibri’s confused. “Do you want him healthy? That he should get
better and return to the hacienda and treat the workers like
slaves?”
“There aren’t any grand haciendas in Martinique anymore. The only
thing left are ruins and death, and the monster of a volcano… our
only master.” replies Juan.
Colibri’s afraid and begins to cry, but Juan tells him that he’ll
find a way to take them from this hell soon. “It would be easier if
we could get on one of those boats on which Renato came. I’ll ask
him to take you with them. I’m sure that he won’t refuse to save
you.”
“And you, patron?”
“Me, no, Colibri. There are things I still have to do here.” He’s
heard that some of the nuns from the convent of the Incarnate Word
have taken refuge in Riviere Salee, and some in other places. He’s
going there in the morning.
Colibri tells him that he’s going to kill himself with running one
place to the next. “Someone tells you that a nun is somewhere and
off you go! And they all say the same: that the poor señora Monica…”
“Quiet! What do you know? What does anyone know!”
Colibri suggests that if Renato were well he’d offer Juan a place in
the boat as well, but Juan tells him that he’s not looking for one,
nor would he accept one. “I won’t leave Martinique. I won’t renounce
my last hope! I will be the last to leave!”
Juan moves to the strange doorway of the rough shelter of palms and
canes that serves as their hut. The sun is dark and cold behind the
ash in the sky and the lava has formed a type of wall around the
cove. If the woman he searches for so anxiously were close…
¡Que jugarreta inexplicable, que burla inconcebible de la suerte, le
hace correr hacia los mas lejanos lugares de la isla, cuando le
bastaria salvar poco mas de un kilometro para encontrarla!
Juan leaves. Colibri creeps closer to Renato, fearful of being
alone. Renato murmurs for water agitatedly, but Colibri tells him
there is none. The river waters are sulfurous. Renato opens his eyes
for the first time in days. He’s no longer delirious with fever—his
eyes shine clearly. He struggles to remember what happened, where he
is and Colibri asks him if he hurts.
“My patron told me to care for you. I’m Colibri, and my patron is
don Juan del Diablo.”
Renato slowly takes in the rocks and rough shelter and the black boy
in front of him. He smiles a brief, and bitter smile. “You are
Colibri. Yes, I remember you. And what country are we in that your
master is a ‘don’? To which island have the winds brought us? To
what savage coast did the boat carry us? Where are we?”
“Where should we be? We’re in Martinique, near Fort de France. Don’t
you remember what happened? You came alongside the Luzbel shooting
cannon fire.”
Renato starts to remember this, and the Coastguard. Colibri reminds
him that the volcano erupted and his master saved them, pulling them
onto a boat. “A mi, que soy como un perro; y a usted… a usted, que
andaba detras de el para matarlo… ¿Se acuerda ahora?”
Renato recalls the boat and the pain of his wound. Colibri tells him
that Juan carried him over his shoulder to bring him to a doctor to
treat him. They were all burned and needed treatment. Juan’s feet
were very burnt, and he had lost blood from the bullet wound. “But
he didn’t complain about anything. The patron is macho, señor
Renato.”
Renato closed his eyes and wished that he could return anew to the
mental clouds of the past few days. A tremor startles him and
Colibri explains that they’ve been experiencing earthquakes after
the volcano’s eruption. Renato tries to get to his feet, but he’s
too weak. Some vestige of his pride remains. “I don’t understand
anything. Why am I here with you, like this? What’s the meaning of
this cave? Am a prisoner of Juan’s people? where are my clothes and
papers? What have you done with them? Where are they?”
Colibri doesn’t understand him and tells him so quite calmly. He
suggests that he shouldn’t abuse his strength so much on his first
day conscious. Besides, unpleasant news waits for you. He tells him
to drink some water.
Renato waits before drinking the water Colibri offers. Juan appears.
He appears changed: he’s slimmer, looks taller, a beard has started
and his hair is long and curling wildly; he’s dressed like a sailor,
resembling a pirate chief.
“He drank all the water!” colibri is upset.
“No, a little remains. Take it and leave us.” Juan wants to speak
with Renato after he’s rested. Two hours later, Renato wakes to see
Juan: questioning, disconcerting Juan, in who’s eyes burn a desire
to know and the fear of a terrible truth.
“You don’t need to tell me that I’m in your power,” Renato says.
“Look at me, I’m wounded and indefensible. And, if that boy is to be
believed, I owe you my life.”
”La vida se la estamos debiendo todos a un milagro que acaso no se
prolongue demasiado,” explica Juan con pasmosa serenidad.
Renato hasn’t a clue what Juan means by this. He wants to believe
that all that has happened is some nightmare, but Juan tells him to
remember the reality. Very little remains of the land to which they
were born. For three months day and night the volcano has belched;
rivers of lava have flown over all. The cities are in ruins and the
rivers infected. The countryside is calcified. Every day, people
flee on boats from the one port that remains open. Renato is stunned
that only one port is open. Juan confirms this: it is Fort de
France. Renato immediately asks about Saint-Pierre.
“It no longer exists.”
“It can’t be! My mother! Has she died? Is my mother dead?”
Juan tells Renato to calm himself.
”Calmate… calmate, Renato. No eres tu solo el que tienes que llorar
un dolor tan grande. Cuarenta mil cadavers quedaron bajo las cenizas
del que fue Saint-Pierre. Luego, se han ido sumando cientos, miles
de victimas mas…”
Renato is stunned. Juan tells him that the island is slowly being
evacuated. Perhaps the d’Autremont name will win him a spot on one
of the ships leaving. Renato asks him what he’s talking about. Juan
tells him that most people think that their only hope is to flee;
besides, there’s no one for him to take care of other than himself.
“I have no one! I have nothing! My house, my lands, my fortune in
the banks of the city that… And my mother, Juan, my mother!” cries
Renato. He desperately grabs Juan’s hands that have reached out to
him in a brotherly gesture. His tears fall silently for a while. A
new, desperate thought fills him, driving him mad anew. “And Monica?
What has happened to her? Where is she? Do you have her on board the
Luzbel? Where have you taken her? Where have you sent her? Is she on
a course for Dominica or Guadeloupe?”
”¡Rumbo a Saint-Pierre!” confiesa Juan con infinita desesperacion.
“Yo mismo la deje en la playa, frente al Monte Parnaso… No se nada
mas…¡No se absolutamente nada mas!”
Renato asks him if she’s died as well. Juan replies that it’s
logical to think so. He tells him that he’s searched for her like a
lunatic. While Renato was unconscious with a fever, he’s been out
searching for her for the past three months.
Renato can’t believe his ears. “Three months, did you say three
months?” Juan tells him aobut his search among all the survivors
from the various convents, to no avail. Renato obsessively exclaims,
“Monica has died! Monica has died!”
Juan refuses to believe this. “¡Pero no me resigno a aceptarlo! No
se si es una inspiracion del cielo, no se si es un loco rayo de
esperanza, no se si mi voluntad enferma se aferra a una mentira, si
una intuicion clarividente me sostiene sin desmayar en una verdad
increible… ¡Pero mientras me quede un soplo de vida, seguire
buscandola!”
Juan’s gotten up to leave during this speech, but Renato detains
him. His eyes burn with jealousy and he demands to know why Juan
searches for her. “Do you love her? Do you love her?”
“Naturally I love her! Well what did you think?”
“I… I… don’t know. You love her? You said you love her?”
“A thousand times more than my own life! haven’t I told you? What
does life matter to me if I can’t find her? She is my whole life,
was her, even when I thought she didn’t love me, even when I looked
upon her from afar as with the stars, as she guided our course, her
gaze to the heavens, her hands on the rudder of the boat… Crazily,
desperately I have loved her since something stronger than my pride
obliged me to respect her; since she came defenseless to my arms,
weak and ill, I felt the desires quenched, that vanity lowered its
flag, because the strength of her purity transformed me into a
different man, because her life and her happiness began to be, for
me, more important than anything else… than anyone else… What if I
have loved her? What if I love her? ¡One hundred times more, one
thousand times more than you could have loved her!”
“Liar!” Renato shouted violently. “More than I? No one! No one! And
she…”
“She loved me too!” Juan responded vigorously. “Against all that you
may suppose, against all that you thnk, against all that you had the
right to hope, Monica loved me, wanted to die with me. By strength
you had to tear her from these arms, so as not to drag her to my sad
luck (fate).”
Renato denies this vehemently, but Juan counters. “She couldn’t love
me, in truth? Well you’re mistaken! She loved me! She loved me; the
sailor, the pirate, the bastard! And she preferred the dangers, even
death at my side to the comfort of your palace! That is the only
truth! She was mine! …is mine …and I will search for her until I
find her!”
Renato shouts that Monica isn’t Juan’s. He’s trembling and falls
upon his bed. Juan tells him that his papers are in a box, that he
can see that they’re more precious to him than his own life. He
tells him that he can take them, but they’re useless. Renato wants
to go with Juan but cannot and faints again. He is pummeled by
ideas: his mother is dead; what has happened to Monica… and he owes
his life to Juan.
On the 26th of August, 1902, everything was once again calm. Rain
fell and washed the ash from the sky. The streets of Fort de France
were returning to life. In an inn almost in ruins the Molnars took
refuge. “Here is don Noel,” called Ana. Don Noel greets Catalina and
asks after Monica. She tells him that she’s at the hospital, where
she has been. She’s been there since dawn, as she has been every
morning. Catalina tells him that her sorrow appears to grow more
each day as Monica has less hope remaining. Noel has come to tell
Monica that the governor wishes to commend her for her efforts. He
goes in search of her.
Colibri tells a concerned Renato that the cannons he hears aren’t
the volcano reerupting, but cannons anouncing the governor’s
arrival. Things have come from France to help the people on the
island. With effort Renato rises and asks after Juan. Colibri tells
him that he’s sure he’ll return this afternoon. Perhaps he’ll bring…
Renato’s cheeks flame, but with a variety of sentiments. He has to
deal with the fact that this stranger/enemy/brother has cared for
him and brought him food every day. For three months he’s been fed
by the hands of Juan del Diablo! He moves to go and Colibri asks if
he’s leaving, then suggests he’s too weak. Renato tells him he
should make the effort. He tells him to bring him the jacket he’ll
find in the box. In the box are other personal items and as well,
the annulment papers of Monica just waiting for an official
signature. Renato tells him that he has to see the governor.
Juan returns and Colibri tells him of Renato’s taking everything in
the box. It was his, replies Juan. Colibri tells him that he even
took the paper needing the seal. Juan understands what he’s getting
at and knew that Renato would do so. Besides, why wouldn’t Renato
want to be the first to greet the governor? Colibri doesn’t
understand the ingratitude. Juan sits down with great fatigue and
Colibri asks if he’s had any luck finding Monica. Juan tells him of
his search, but then asks him to let him rest awhile.
Ha hundido la frente entre las manos, y mientras el muchacho se
aleja muy despacio, la eterna y dolorosa pregunta acude incontenible
a sus tremulos labios: “Monica, ¿donde estas?”
Noel finds Monica and tells her how hard it’s been to find her.
She’s been busy with things, but she hears that the new governor has
brought supplies. Noel tells her that she’s heard right, and that
the governor wants to see her and commend her for her actions.
Monica is disbelieving. Noel tells her that many people have heard
of her efforts and by her example others have helped out. The
governor is amazed by this. He wants her to come with him, but
Monica doesn’t wish to. Noel thinks she’s crazy and forces her to
come with him. She denies that she’s worth any prize. She’s just
fought with all her effort against the tragedies around them.She’s
worked with only one wish in her heart… Just then, Renato sees them
and calls to them. they’re stunned to see him and he is as well.
They hug each other tightly. “It’s true! You’re alive!” cries
Renato.
Monica and Noel look him over and see the horrible scar on his
chest. They know he’s been thru much, and Monica breaks into tears.
Renato tells her that when he saw her name on the list of those
alive, he almost went crazy. He couldn’t believe it. He wouldn’t
believe it until he saw her with his own eyes. “And he has searched
for you so much!”
“He?” Monica replies, her heart doing a flip, and almost shouting
asked, “Who are you talking about?”
“Of the man I owe my life. I've sent them running to find him. I owe
it to him, Monica.”
“But who are you talking about?”
“And who else could I be talking about?”
“Juan! Juan! Juan!” shouted Monica, crazy with joy. “He’s alive!
Alive! Where is he? Where is he?”
“They went for him. I sent someone running for him. He can’t be much
longer… He’s very close… just by the Fuerte de San Luis, and…
Monica!”
But Monica is running along the road between the ruins.