El Mono, page 45
Daniel came out of shock and instinctively reached to kiss and caress her. He was still amazed at what was happening and tried now to examine his own feelings. The speed and passion of the advance that had overwhelmed him at last gave him time and space to respond.
‘Natalia, Natalia, look at me!’ He tried to turn her face towards his.
She shook her head away from his grasp at first and then, free to move her head as only she wished, she glared at him: all fire and flames and fury. She knew he’d given himself to her mother and not to her. She was insanely jealous.
Good God! thought Daniel. What a woman! He kissed her eyes, first one then the other. Something of the fire subsided, then flared up again.
‘Tell me you love me!’ she demanded.
Daniel smiled. He did as he was told: ‘I love you,’ he said.
‘Do you mean it?’ she asked fiercely.
Daniel smiled even more and kissed her lips, slowly, letting her feel him.
‘Natalia, you don’t have to demand it, you don’t have to cut me open and drag my love out of me … You are a lovely girl; a beautiful woman. You do not have to do anything. Just be yourself, relax and let love come to you.’
He gently rolled her over on to her back and came on top of her. He looked into her big round eyes. The fire was still there, so he kissed her again and again until she began to relax. Then he entered her and loved her and held her as she moved and moaned and cried out her feelings and all her aching emotion.
She shook her head violently again and then clung to him once more, pulling him down, holding him inside her and glaring up fiercely into his eyes. ‘Do you know that there have been lots of men that have been looking at me, following me, trying to get me for themselves … and I haven’t let anyone near. Not one of them. I wouldn’t let anyone so much as touch me. Do you know that?’
Daniel shook his head.
‘Do you know that I’ve got friends my age already married. Some already with babies. And men, some of them husbands, are chasing after me trying to bed me, do you know that?’
Daniel shook his head again. He could imagine that, at her age, with the figure she had, with her mother’s eyes and her father’s passion, she must have half the men of Cauca desiring her.
‘All this time, even when they told me you were dead, trying to catch me, I wouldn’t let them near me. I knew you were alive somewhere. I kept coming here, looking after this place, keeping it clean, preparing this bed, waiting for you to reappear, to find me. Did you know that?’
Daniel shook his head.
‘I love you! Only you. All this time it’s been driving me crazy. And now you are mine and I want you always!’
Daniel kissed her again. She was only nineteen.
‘Natalia … you’ve got me. Here and now. I love you. Here and now. But don’t talk about always. You are a beautiful woman with a whole world out there waiting for you that you don’t know about. Don’t limit yourself to me. Don’t deny yourself all the wonderful experiences that are out there beyond me that others can give you, not me. You don’t need me and I could never give you what you deserve.’
He rolled off her, trying to put space between them, but she wasn’t having any of that. She swung round, flinging her arms around his middle, throwing a naked leg over his.
‘Don’t try to get away from me, do you hear? Don’t try and tell me all sorts of rubbish and slyly refuse me? OK? I’m not stupid. I know what I want and I won’t listen to your rubbish, your lies.’
Daniel looked at her and marvelled at her wild temper.
‘I don’t lie. Understand? I won’t lie to you and I would never treat you like you were stupid, not you, never. But I’m not talking rubbish!’ He kissed her, trying to disentangle himself from her at the same time.
‘Natalia – you can’t have me. You shouldn’t want to have me. Really!’
Daniel got up on his knees and pulled the bedclothes over her naked body, between them, so that he couldn’t look at her beautiful figure and distract his thoughts. Heavens above, he thought. It would be so easy to stay with her: I need all my will-power to resist her!
‘Natalia – I have to push you away from me. Not just for your good but for mine also. Glorious and desirable that you are, I can’t love you for always. I can’t give you what you want. I have to refuse you, do you hear? Listen to me!’
Natalia was shaking her head, putting her hands over her ears, glaring at him. ‘No, no, no. Daniel. NO!’
She leapt up like a puma and flung her arms around his neck and dragged him down on top of her. Daniel had to use all his strength to untie her hands, haul them round and force them back above her head, trapping her beneath him. He looked into her face. She suddenly grinned and wickedly moved her body beneath his. Although the bedclothes were now between them, she writhed under him, opening her legs and pushed herself up at him, trying to entice him to return to her.
Daniel went red in the face. ‘Behave yourself,’ he told her.
There was no talking to her, Daniel realised. He had to go. He jumped up and started pulling his clothes back on. Natalia tried to stop him but he was now determined and annoyed. With his clothes half-on, half-off, he made for the door. Natalia panicked: she was driving him away.
‘Daniel, don’t go!’ she cried out. ‘I love you: don’t leave me!’
Daniel paused in the doorway. ‘If you really love someone, Natalia, you give them room to grow. Allow them space to be what they want to be, not what you want them to be. That’s why I know that your mother loves me!’
Natalia was left howling after him. That hurt her deeply.
Striding off as rapidly as he could, heading up slope to circle round and above the pueblo, Daniel was heading for the access road that would take him to the old TMG, now Triple F, mine. Anger had built up again inside him, though unlike before this was directed at Natalia, and especially at himself for being so stupid as to try to love her as the mature woman she had not yet become. Worst of all, what had just happened made his relationship with that family impossibly complicated. How could he ever resolve all the issues that now existed between them? He felt he could not visit them again. Why did he not stop her? Why did he not stop himself? Well, of course the answer was obvious – Natalia’s sexual energy and appeal had been irresistible. Now he had to pay the consequences.
Daniel’s mind was reeling. So many images and thoughts competed for his attention – two lovely women, each beautiful in their own way – and all the time he was punishing himself for the way he had behaved and the excessively complex situation he had got himself into with them. He stomped away uphill. A couple of hours or so of steady walking and directing his thoughts towards what might be going on way up in front led him eventually to calm down a little. It was not easy but he had now to concentrate on the business at hand and leave the turmoil in his head to another time.
The access road that he could see leading off towards the mine higher up the mountain looked a lot different to what he remembered: the valley that it followed was now badly eroded and it was very obvious that this was a recent development – there were swathes of mud, silt, pebbles and boulders that littered the meandering and braided river. Beside the road was a camp of rough dwellings made up of plastic, rags, scrap timber and whatever else could be scavenged and pressed into service. And alongside this collection of shacks were people, and even from a distance as Daniel approached he could see that the atmosphere in this gathering was confrontational. There was trouble brewing.
Two Triple F-marked jeeps were parked on the road a little higher up, manned with security personnel, but the trouble that Daniel could sense did not include them. They were there as mere observers, keeping an eye on what was going on in case the trouble came in their direction. No, the focus of attention was some rivalry between a group that had come together on the road and another group that was strung out along by the rough encampment.
There was an explosion of noise and a number of men from the dwellings darted forward in an aggressive stance towards the group on the road. Sticks were raised and then came down, raining blows: some people were clubbing others. The sound, travelling slower, came up to him with a delay – shouts and screams as fighting broke out.
Daniel started running. There was one particular thug in the middle of the road flailing a club around viciously – he didn’t like the look of that. Fast as he could run, however, he noticed something even quicker break cover and streak down towards the fight that was now spilling over the road: it was Mercury the puma.
Daniel was frightened – he had really little control over what Mercury was going to do. ‘Don’t kill him!’ he shouted out to the big cat just as it gained the road and launched into the air.
Pandemonium broke out. Mercury flew at the big thug in the middle and brought him crashing to the ground, fangs locked into the man’s shoulder. There were men, youths, women and a few children scattering in every direction. The puma had landed on all four feet, straddled across his victim. He released his fangs and snarled ferociously in the man’s face, ready to strike again. Daniel hollered out: ‘Don’t move!’
The fight had stopped. Fear and amazement had replaced it. A circle of people formed around the puma and his prey as individuals were caught between the desire to get as far away as possible and their fascination to see what was going to happen. Daniel broke through them to try and prevent any tragedy. He spoke first to the big cat.
‘Mercury, get off him!’
The puma didn’t budge. He turned his head to snarl at Daniel as if to say: This is my catch. You leave me alone!
The poor man, pinned down by the big cat, tried to move but as soon as he did so the puma opened his jaws and snapped forward as if to tear the man’s face to shreds.
‘Don’t move!’ said Daniel. ‘I’m trying to stop him killing you!’
Daniel summoned up all his will-power and told the big cat to let the man go and come to him. Mercury was clearly reluctant to do so. He shifted his paws one way, then another and snarled his discontent at all and sundry. But he eventually backed off his victim and slunk across to Daniel, growling with bad temper all the way. As he did so there was whoosh of air and a falcon zipped down from the skies to land on Daniel’s shoulder. The peregrine had returned to watch proceedings.
The circle of people grew bigger. A buzz of noise went round them – sounds of astonishment and incredulity. The evidence of a puma and a falcon by this man’s side needed some explanation. Someone shouted: ‘It’s Mono! He’s back’ – which prompted a ripple of applause from a few. Others expressed awe and delight that Mono had apparently reappeared from the dead and communicated this to others. Some doubted who he was, which only prompted more discussion.
Meanwhile, the man who had been floored by Mercury struggled to his knees. He was clearly in extreme pain – his shoulder had been savaged, and there were claw marks that had ripped down his back and front. The puma, now crouched low on his haunches beside Daniel, was still watching him and occasionally turning his head to snarl at others around.
Daniel looked at the growing numbers that gathered about him. He thought Mercury had better be gone now. Mercury thought the same and bounded off before he was encircled. Searching for faces he recognised, Daniel saw Pepe, one of Carlos’s steady companions when he was alive.
‘Pepe! What’s all the fighting about?’ he asked.
Pepe took his time to respond, a little shy at being addressed by this ghost from the mountains, but those by his side pushed him to answer.
‘It’s all about the water that’s been pouring down here,’ he said. ‘These people – they’ve come to pan for gold. They don’t care that the water is poisoning the earth; poisoning the living of all us farmers. So we want the waters stopped. We want them off this land. Go find some other place else to poison!’
One of the women in the encampment spoke out against this. ‘We don’t have some place else to go. We need to make a living as best we can and these waters from the mine – they’ve given us the best chance for ages! People here should not be so selfish, so greedy. They don’t own these mountains – they are for us all.’
‘You people are fighting each other when you should be uniting against those who are the cause of all these problems,’ said Daniel. He asked the name of the spokeswoman of the encampment who had spoken out. She called herself Manuela.
‘Manuela,’ Daniel asked, ‘do you really want to work these waters when they will poison you as well as the land? A friend of mine who spent years panning for gold in polluted streams is now nearly blind – is that what you want for you and your family? And Pepe – it is not these poor people who are your problem, it is the contamination from the mine. We need to work together and get them to clean it up. Can’t we agree to that?’
Argument followed. Some agreed and others disagreed as to what the parties really wanted. But at least discussion and disagreement was better than the fighting that threatened to become an outright pitched battle. Daniel let them keep talking and arguing, watching to see if there was some ground for a compromise, a joint action where they would all support each other. The potential for agreement seemed to be fizzling out, so he seized the initiative.
‘Look, if I organise a protest over pollution and demand that the mining company do a thorough clean-up, would you all support that? If we bring out cattle, horses and all manner of animals and people in a protest march, would you head it up with me? Both parties here?’
‘Yes, Mono! Do it! We will join in this time!’ Pepe explained to all the others that the animal protest that the famous Mono had organised the last time against TMG made news all over the country and even overseas. TMG had to clean up their act as a result. Triple F will have to do the same, he said. The waters that remained would not be poisonous.
The argument came at last to an agreement that contaminated waters were in neither party’s interest: a combined protest was the face-saving solution that both sides could support. A number from the encampment who had been panning for gold and had not before met Mono were persuaded that he was indeed the best leader they could hope for. Mono’s reputation among the local farmers was not questioned. If he guaranteed the safety of any livestock, they accepted it. They agreed therefore to return the following morning and bring what cattle and horses they could spare. Mono was asked about the puma.
‘Pumas will come if I need them but they are unpredictable,’ said Mono. ‘There are less dangerous creatures that might help us instead. We shall see.’
The crowd that had come together on the road eventually dispersed – farmers walking back towards the pueblo and various other homes in the district; the gold panners returning to their encampment. Two Triple F jeeps whose occupants had been observing from a distance backed up and turned on the road, heading off to the mine. They had seen enough and would eventually report back. That left only Daniel alone on the hillside – alone except for the falcon on his shoulder. He set off to go back to his old cattle shed, fervently hoping that there was no one there waiting for him.
11
Finale
Fields was to spend months in a bad temper over the loss of his son. Work, however, could not wait. The flushing out of the Puracé mines with cyanide solution had to proceed and Fields was anxious to hear if there was any payback yet. Things started well at first, he was pleased to hear – after weeks of preparation, the required solution had washed through the first mine for a month or so, and traces of gold had been recovered as the waste water had been filtered and discharged. But then he received a phone call that astonished and infuriated him.
Alejandro González called. The road up to Triple F’s deep mine had been blocked in a local protest. Cattle, horses, dogs and crowds of people had filled the access road and nothing could get through. A couple of trucks had tried to barge into the mêlée and knock anyone out of the way but they had to be abandoned. Apparently, a cloud of hornets had risen from the river bed and got into the truck drivers’ cabs. The drivers had got out.
González assured Fields that they had tried their best. Local Triple F employees had really given their all to reopen the road – even a bulldozer was brought into service, the driver swathed in netting and protective clothing, but a puma had appeared and dragged him off his machine. After that, González said, no one would go against the protest. El Mono was back, he said. Everyone thought he had been killed but now everyone was saying he had come back from the dead. None of his staff were willing to risk going up against him. And now the newspapers and television people were here, interviewing everyone.
Fields lost his temper. He ranted and raved down the phone. He never thought much of González anyway: the man was too weak.
‘What do you mean Mono is back from the dead! He’s not immortal! Don’t tell me he is resurrected like a Second Coming. He isn’t Jesus Christ, for Christ’s sake! What’s the matter with all you people? If no one down there, including yourself, can sort out this man and the problems he causes then I’m coming down myself. I’ll be there tomorrow! In the meantime, I want as much information as you’ve got on Mono and especially I want to know his whereabouts – where we can hit him. If you have only got myths and rumours, then do some proper research! Gettit? Find out something believable before I get to you or start looking for another job!’
Fields slammed down the phone in a rage. The fact that the media people were down there made it even more infuriating. He phoned Carolina in a foul mood and warned her that she would be called up soon, if it had not already happened, and she should prepare the standard response. He slammed the phone down a second time and paced the carpet, swearing out loud. Then he told his assistant to book a flight to Popayán for himself and his new bodyguards.
