Status Updates From Wolf Moon (Pushkin Press Cl...

He waits in vain for a response. I can’t utter a word, not one word. A frozen heart is a landscape with no wind and no feeling.

Now the silence is my strongest ally in this long struggle against death, and it comes out to greet me at the entrance of the cave, like a dog, when I return.

Because he knows these mountains like the back of his hand and because he spent two years in prison after the war building up a bitter hatred, he is the most loyal and the bravest go-between for the fugitives in the area.

Two dark trucks are parked in the square, waiting for the guardias, and inside their houses, huddled in their kitchens, the villagers will be waiting for the violent knock on the door any time now, ordering them to open up. It’s been like this for six years now, living in silence, terrified, torn between pity, which moves them to help us, and the everincreasing fear of reprisals.