The Empty Trap by John D. MacDonald Read Free Book Online Page A

falling water not far away. They used a coarse soap. Isabella sometimes wore her braids in coronet fashion. Other times the two long braids dangled. Sometimes when she bent over him, one of the coarse gleaming ropes would fall across his face, smelling of sun and freshness and the strong soap. There were goats that sometimes came and peered in at the door. When the wary scrawny chickens wandered in, Concha would flap her skirts and chase them out.
    For a long time he was aware only of such a complete weariness, such an utter exhaustion, that he could not do anything for himself, nor could he concentrate long on what went on around him. His attention span was as short as that of a small child, and he slept often. He did not try to speak. In sleep he did not dream.
    Then, when the days were very warm, he began to take an interest in things around him, and began to do more for himself. When he hitched himself up into a half-sitting position and reached for the bowl, Isabella let him feed himself until, half-way through, his hands and arms became too weary. It was then that he began toexercise as he lay there, working the muscles of arms and legs, shoulders, back and belly, bringing the strength slowly back. And he began to try to say some of the words he heard. Because of the tied jaw, his articulation was both guttural and hissing, but he could say “Gracias” to them so they could understand it and smile at him and beam very proudly. He listened when they talked, and though he began to understand a phrase here and there, he could not follow any conversation.
    It was Isabella during one day of rain who took the initiative. She sat crosslegged by his pallet, expression earnest, voice taking on the same flavor of authority she used when she taught the small boys. She pointed to her head and said, “Cabeza,” then waited until he repeated it in his curious voice. Then a heavy braid in her hand. “Pelo.” Then, “Pelo negro.” And then the words for hand, foot, arm, eye, nose, mouth, tongue, teeth, neck, fingers, knee, ear, stomach, heart. Then, mutely, she pointed at each object in turn. He missed two out of the list the first time, made a perfect score the second time. She smiled broadly and with pleasure at him.
    It was either that day or the next, when they were away that he managed to crawl through the doorway, and, shaking with the effort, brace his back against the adobe wall and soak up the sunlight. He looked at the hills, and down the slope of the valley. He saw the other huts with their thatched roofs. Each was built into the living hillside, so that they were half hut, half cave. He saw the sparkling fall of water, a stream that came from a cleft in the rock and fell ten feet, shining like silver, a column thick as a man’s body, sending up a mist that made a permanent rainbow. He looked at the wide blue of the sky and looked down at his outstretched legs. He guessed he could not weigh more than a hundred and twenty pounds. In full health he had carried a hundred and eighty pounds on his six-foot, two-inch frame, a man of heavy bone structure and quick lithe muscles. Tears of weakness ran from his eyes into the heavy mat of ginger beard.
    They made exclamations of wonder when they returned,and they helped him back to the pallet. After that there were lessons each day. As the words and ideas became more abstract, Isabella was forced to act them out. She would sit for a time, frowning at the wall, then leap up and, in pantomime, create the meaning for the word she taught him. He listened to them and could not understand them and thought he would never learn the language. It changed for him, suddenly and dramatically one evening. They sat outside in moonlight and they were talking and he was making no particular effort to understand them. And, as though some hidden switch in his mind had been turned on, he found that he could understand. They spoke of a Roberto and whether it was time for him to go to Talascatan