Chapter 12

The people watched in tears and fear as the obese man, surrounded by plainclothes police, got into one of the Holdens and drove off in a silent motorcade. He was not the only one to leave. The town judge, the mayor and the preacher also accompanied him. The shocking statements of the deceased sheriff were forceful. He gave names of the murdered, of the way Günther Ferrer took over the businesses, coercing, blackmailing, threatening and finally murdering. Imposing a dictatorship with no possibility of progress on the people. Everything was for him. Abusing poor young girls. Beating defenseless parents, enslaving and prostituting undocumented foreigners. Cheating taxes and above all the crime of Edali Jimper's entire family. It was all publicly documented.

That same morning in his recovered Chevrolet Apache, Edali arrived and parked at the entrance of the town, for a moment he closed his eyes and looked for courage, then deciding to get out of the truck.

Edali walked down the middle of the street, the villagers silently watching her. One of them took off his hat when he saw her pass by. Then another and another. The village had a new leader. A new driver. They hoped that her actions would be more open, without suffocation or danger. That was a hope they all had. She was aware of it. She would not let them down.

II

The people had been victims and accomplices. They watched as Günther returned, along with the mayor and the pastor. They had not come to impose their law again. The scandal had been huge. The governor was up for reelection. He did not want clouds on the horizon. He turned a deaf ear to the pleas of those close to him. Besides. Gunther and his accomplices ratted on each other to get their convictions somewhat lessened. It was known that the rot was great. But there was no idea of the magnitude. The return of the three men was to indicate where the mass graves were with their victims murdered in all those years. To hand over the forged documents where he invented property titles, imaginary loans, debts that never existed. The white slavery network with undocumented children, brought here deceived with a promise of a better world, to be used and then discarded without consideration. Farms with undocumented immigrants treated as slaves. Stills where all kinds of liquors were adulterated. No one would give a finger to help them. Likewise, justice was done to Edali Jimper. The provincial government promised her funding to make her family's dream come true. Sharing free water with the small community. It was returning good for evil, aggressions, insults and humiliations received.

III

For the first time in a long time a green and beige bus arrived, a white Wayne diesel bus stopped in the small community square. There were 5 passengers. Brazilian immigrants looking for work. Surely they would find.

The driver. A nice old man got out to stretch his legs and looked around for possible passengers.

Edali arrived in his van. Clark was leaving.

--You called the bus," said the young woman with a lump in her throat. She had asked for him in the morning and the workers reported that he had left, shaved and in flux, leaving in the Mercury F100 driven by the red-haired man.

So at full speed she moved into town , running at full speed in the pick up ; she just arrived.

--I'm a retired retiree....

--Surviving a difficult divorce.You were thinking of leaving without saying goodbye to me.

The man smiled as she completed the sentence, he knew she would say it several more times.

--I'm not very good at goodbyes," he added, "I hope a Hispanic boy gets to you. I wouldn't want to see you with a white, Saxon, Protestant man. I would have dared to tell you something else.