"TWILIGHT" "DR. ALEJANDRO MANGINO TWILIGHT" "It's 8:40, doctor." " Did you take the books to the car?" " The ones you requested." "Isn't today's operation at 9:00?" "Take this book, Sebastián." "Read it when you have time." "Do you think I can understand it?" "You have to understand it." "Everyone has to!" "You're leaving again without breakfast and you've hardly slept." "That can't be any good..." "for the steadiness of your hand." "What about my hand?" "!" "Look at it." "It's normal." "Close it." "Did you forget something, doctor?" "No, José." "I was just wondering if Sebastián brought down the books." "He did it a moment ago." "Yes." "Very well, doctor." "Good morning, Dr. Mangino." "Uh... tell Dr. Díaz González and the head nurse that I'm waiting for them in my office." "To Dr. Díaz González and the head nurse:" "Dr. Mangino is waiting for you in his office." "Doctor..." "What about the books?" "They're for my students at the university." "Doctor." " What a surprise to see you here at this hour." " Yes." "I've come to bring you these notes which have been in my hands since that day." "To be honest, it hurts to be reminded of it now." "I know, Alejandro." "Nothing is more painful than looking the truth in the face, but nothing is as fruitful as knowing how to look at it." "If I could at least know the truth in this case, doctor..." "Everything is ready for the operation, Dr. Mangino." "Okay." " Good morning." "You operate." "I don't feel up to it." "This is the second time this week you've told me that." "So what?" "So I should refuse." " But... you can't refuse." " You know why." " You know what I mean by that." " I assure you I don't." "I mean that all surgeons court failure, and the first failure always affects you the most." "Your failure, Dr. Mangino, was your first, but it won't be your last." "You're making it into an impassable barrier that will halt a career whose successes are recognized profession-wide and have justly earned you fame as a brilliant surgeon." "My operation wasn't a failure!" "It wasn't a failure!" "You know it wasn't, doctor!" "You understand, doctor, that I did it to make him operate." "Every time he resists, his psychosis grows stronger." "You must agree that he needs to be forced into it, and the sooner the better." "I'll replace him, but this is the last time." "One moment, doctor!" "I think it would be best to not try to force him for now." "Aren't you going against all of psychiatry...?" "I have my reasons, and forgive me for not discussing them with you now." "As Dr. Mangino's friend, you surely have your reasons..." "I'm not speaking as his friend, but as his doctor." "I didn't know that his case merited the intervention of an authority such as yourself." "From this moment on, it does, doctor." ""Twilight," ""by Dr. Alejandro Mangino," ""of the National Autonomous University of Mexico."" ""Contributions to the study of mental illness."" ""When Oedipus discovered the crime that fate made him commit..." ""...he put out his own eyes."" " Where is everyone?" " It's not time yet, professor." "We're 15 minutes early." "Yes, that's true... but I wanted to arrive early to give out the first copies of my book." "You can all come and get one." "I saw it in Robredo." "Nobody on the faculty knew you were writing it." "Why title it "Twilight", professor?" " When you read it, you'll find out." " Is it a scientific book?" "Perhaps not." "Have you ever read "Twilight of the Gods", professor?" " It's an extraordinary book." " But this is "The Twilight of Men"!" "De la Fuente is right but it's singular." "It's not "The Twilight of Men"." "It's that of one man." "Doctor, there's an urgent telephone call for you." " Is it the clinic?" " I don't know, doctor." " Excuse me." " Go ahead, doctor." " Who is it?" " It's me." "I've been trying to reach you to remind you that Ricardo died one month ago today." "Leave and close that door." "Are you there?" "Alejandro?" "Listen to me, Lucía." "There's something I must tell you." "If you ever found out that I was about to do something terrible, or perhaps that I'd already done it..." "If you found out that... that I'm a criminal, or perhaps a sick man, and that I live with the anguish of not knowing which..." "What would you do?" "What would you think of me?" "I don't judge you because I love you." "Now just tell me you'll come, Alejandro." "Tell me you will." "RICARDO MOLINA 1902-1944 REST IN PEACE" ""Rest in peace"." "You don't know how it happened." "I still don't know myself." "Was I a criminal or just sick?" "It's that uncertainty which fills me with terror." "We were like two brothers, and I have the right to be heard by you, even if you're dead and I'm alive." "All month long, I've struggled to reconstruct these painful years, to discover the truth, not matter how incredible it is." "That's all I want:" "the truth." "It all started on that rainy afternoon, a few hours before leaving for Europe." "I promised to meet you at the Academy of San Carlos, where you had an urgent meeting at the Center for Architects." "We had decided to spend the last two hours together, before taking a night train to New York, where I would board a ship." "Since the meeting went long," "I entertained myself with the sculptures that adorned the lovely courtyard." "I was drawn to Michelangelo's sculptures for Lorenzo de Medici's tomb." "There was Dusk and Dawn." "Looking at it," "I was suddenly tormented by the memory of Lucía, the only woman I had ever truly loved, who had one day disappeared from my life, without leaving a trace." "I partly closed my eyes." "When I opened them again, I felt drawn by the sound of a chisel and the light from a hall whose door was halfway open." "I went for a closer look." "The sculpture students were working." "I was transfixed by one of them who, without using models, was chiseling rock into the shape of a woman." "I stood there a moment, entranced by how the sculptor's hands were giving life to the rock." "I felt as though its rigid back..." "neck, and head were moving." "It was the same feeling I had as a student, which I was then recalling, when I first looked at a rigid corpse, and I thought that it had moved." "At that thought, I looked up... and I looked toward the center of the room." "There was Lucía." "The sudden realization that she was there left me mesmerized for a few seconds, motionless, like another statue before her." "Perhaps she felt my gaze brush against her neck and bare shoulders, and she turned her head, raised her eyelids, and pierced me with her deep gaze." "That indelible moment is, in my life, the moment when love was revealed to me by the torture of jealousy and incredible sorrow." "I remember that my back was to the students and I took a few steps to the side, with my gaze fixed, as if walking around a statue." "She followed me with her gaze and seemed to turn before my eyes, slowly and modestly covering herself with the blanket at her feet." "Then I felt her shiver with the same love she had shivered with when she was in my arms." "It was then that I saw the first shadow of that monster which would lead me to tragedy." "Staring at her, I felt as if suddenly everything faded into a strange shadow, from which later emerged, illuminated by a shifting twilight, the motionless head of Lucía." "With her mouth half-open and her eyes closed, she seemed like the statue of a sculptor who, in that gesture, had captured a supreme moment of voluptuousness." "The sound of the chisel deafened me, and it was your voice then which stopped my dizzying fall." "Alejandro." "Alejandro!" "Let's go." "I was like a machine, barely aware of my actions." "I didn't look back, despite sensing anguish in her." "It was as if she wanted to call out to stop me, but I followed you, and we exited to the corridor." "Your ticket." "Your ticket, please." " Why don't you give him the ticket?" " I've decided not to go." "What do you mean?" "That's a joke, right?" "It's not a joke, Ricardo." "I've decided to stay." "Do you realize what you're saying?" "A decision like this can't be made on a whim." "I feel as if this train were going to steal my life's destiny." "Stop joking already." "If this train steals your destiny, it'll give you another." "Let's go." "Are you boarding, sir?" "Lower bunk, number 3." "Mexican Airlines announces the arrival of their Flipper, arriving from Nuevo Laredo and Monterrey, Flight 555, which made connections with flights from New York," "Philadelphia, Washington, Atlanta, New Orleans, and San Antonio." "It can be seen from México and will land in five minutes." "It's Lucía my wife." "We got married three months after you left." "This is Dr. Mangino, Lucía." "The great friend I've told you so much about." "What's wrong?" " What's wrong, Alejandro?" " Huh?" "Nothing." "Maybe it's the flight." "When you suddenly descend from so high up..." "Attention:" "Dr. Mangino, please come to the immigration department." " Shall I serve coffee, ma'am?" " Later." "Here in the interview, Dr. Mangino goes on to say:" "My contact with more advanced nations has show me that it's necessary to break with the lament about what Mexico was before the revolution." "It's a past that was exhausted by the propaganda of a generation that variously staged or suffered the revolution." "For those of us now taking Mexico's leadership in our hands, the word revolution has a new meaning." "It means the industrialization of México, improved literacy, and public healthcare, in whose service we must employ the whole medical profession, ending that individualism which, day by day, makes medicine not a social service," "but a means of enriching the few." "Medicine, like teaching, must no longer be a covert industry, but an apostolate at the service of a Mexico in which tuberculosis and malaria are eradicated, and in which infant mortality is reduced to a minimum." "And what I claim about my profession must be applied to all fields, which must also be in service to the people, though self-interest has reduced them to a means of personal profit." "I'm speaking of the press and schools, and of politics and the leaders of social groups, and of banking and business, and of those formidable mediums of propaganda and information known as cinema and radio, which have now fallen into loathsome affectation and self-regard," "having forgotten the demands of the people and the responsibility that México's progress requires of them." "My contact with more advanced nations has show me that it's now necessary to break with the lament about what Mexico was before the revolution." "It's a past that was exhausted by the propaganda of the generation that variously staged or suffered the revolution." "You arrived late too?" "No, I came early." "That makes two of us." "I didn't want to miss physiology class because of Dr. Mangino, but I don't want to miss out on meeting him now either." "What are they reading?" "The interview with Mangino that the press published today." "I read it at school." "He says things everyone knows but nobody dares to say." "So out of all of them, which one is Dr. Mangino?" " Who do you think he is?" " I don't know." "But you at least imagine what he's like." "So look for someone similar and surely it'll be him." "I don't like charades." "Just tell me who he is." "You can't see him from here." "Do you study medicine too?" "A little." "...having forgotten the demands of the people and the responsibility that México's progress requires of them." "This is my sister Cristina, doctor." " It's a pleasure." " Nice to meet you, doctor." " Doctor...?" " Alejandro Mangino, at your service." "Excuse me." "Why are you all alone?" "Because I can't bear the torture of seeing you and of not seeing you." "I don't know which of the two is more intolerable." "Look at me." "The torture isn't yours alone." "I can't keep lying to myself." "I tremble just thinking about that night in the sculpture hall." "I had my back turned, and hadn't moved in ten minutes." "Suddenly, I felt a chill on my neck that I'd never felt before." "When I turned my gaze and saw you looking at me, the passion that had once bound me to you suddenly struck me with uncontrollable violence." "You're lying!" "I know it's hard to believe, and I wish..." "What I can't believe is that you fled from me that day." "I did it so that our love would be perfect after that perfect night." "You don't know that by losing you, I hoped to win you forever." "You destroyed my life!" "I destroyed myself as well." "Why did you agree to marry him?" "For the most unbelievable reason:" "Because at his side, I'd be doomed to see you again." " An abyss separates us now." " Which is?" " My friendship with Ricardo." " I'll ask for a divorce." "You won't get it, and I'll never allow it." "When he married you, he fell out with his family and his entire circle." "He's hopelessly bound to you." "If his marriage failed, it would drive him to suicide." "Thanks but it's getting a little late." "I was just saying that to Lucía." "I'm the one who should leave." "Thanks a lot for the party you threw me." "When your plans for the clinic are done, call me and we'll discuss them." "And..." " Goodbye, Lucía." " It's not goodbye." "It's see you later." "I'll go with you." "My idea is to capture the pure air coming from the forest." "Look at the view of the volcanoes!" "From here, your patients will enjoy some remarkable sunsets." "With the operating room, laboratories, and terrace facing this way," "I can make use of the sun with my system of large windows." "The clinic will extend toward this shore, dominating the landscape and city from this height." "Are you listening, Dr. Mangino?" "It's you who's talking, but at the same time, it's not you." "It's the other you, the one who emerged that night in the sculpture hall." "Look at Ricardo." "He's before the void." "You can get closer without him noticing you." "Put your hands on his shoulders, and gently push him into the abyss." "Do you agree?" "I want you to come this weekend to the house being built in the valley, so you can see our options with the materials I told you about." "Let's go." "I don't feel well." "I want to be alone." "Today, July 28th..." "I fell victim for a second time to the symptoms of this obsession which fills me with terror." "The first time was at the Academy of San Carlos, when Lucía appeared, which I can't..." "and never will forget." "My secretly cultivated passion, the craving to be fully possessed that I sensed in her, the indescribable jealousy, and the memory of that which I considered a betrayal of the most noble thing in my life, unleashed in my conscience unknown dark forces," "which today urged me to commit a crime." "Come in." "When I got your message, I thought:" ""Clearly, Dr. Mangino is returning from Europe." ""Italy and France have given him a taste for sculpture."" "México descends from a culture of sculptors." "Ah, México!" "One need only look through the museum's archaeology hall." "Not to mention Teotihuacán, Chichén Itzá..." "In this case, I'm here to see you for very different reasons." "I don't know if this statue is the one you're looking for." "I bought some stones a while ago, and from the looks of it, one of them appears to match the statue you described." " Could I see it?" " Mhm." "Over here, doctor." "Is it the one you're looking for?" "Yes." "Well... maybe." " But in this light, I can't be sure." " Let me open that curtain." "Hello?" "It's not Lucía, doctor." "It's me." "Ricardo just arrived." "Dr. Mangino." "We're waiting for you." "That's not possible!" "You've really upset me, but worst of all, you'll upset Lucía." "Don't you realize this is the third time you've cancelled dinner on us?" "Yes, that's a good excuse for a doctor:" "a patient who needs to be operated on immediately." "To be frank with you, I'm sure you're not at the clinic." "Fine." "Goodbye." "Sure, I'll apologize to Lucía for you." "We'll never invite Alejandro to dinner again." "If he doesn't come, he must have his reasons." "Let's eat." "Tell them to put the soup on the table, Cristina." "Dr. Mangino's house." "Hello?" "Hello?" "At the Racetrack of the Americas, there are more than 60,000 spectators to witness the margin of victory, to benefit the families of the many Mexicans who've died on the battlefields fighting for democracies." "We note the now-famous surgeon Dr. Alejandro Mangino among the crowd, who is returning from Europe, where he earned distinction in the medical centers of the Old World's top scientific institutions." "Dr. Mangino, considered a leading figure in medicine, is one of the most noteworthy candidates for the university's presidency." " Dr. Mangino." " Your name, ma'am?" "Tell him that Lucía is here." "Have a seat, ma'am." "It's incredible." "What's incredible?" "That you have me here all to yourself." " Your migraine didn't go away?" " No, Dad." " Where is everyone?" " Your mother's preparing dinner," "Ricardo's with the villagers from Paso de Ovejas, and Cristina's studying, perhaps." "What about Dr. Mangino?" "I think he went to take a look around the orchard." " Why are you all alone here?" " I like orchards." "Yes, because they have something in common with you." "They're like you silent and fresh." "That's what you think of me?" "That's what you are to me." "Maybe you don't understand what, for a middle-aged man seared by passions that burn his veins, it means to just be around a woman who's nearly a child." "It's like a sunburned face feeling the arrival of the first shadow, and the first gust of fresh air from an orchard." "Being around you is like being around a sister." "I feel as though you've already said those words to me." "It's because you, Cristina, have a sensitivity you don't suspect, and it makes you pick up on the slightest vibration." "The train!" "I'm going to watch it pass from the hill." "What about the doctor?" "He went to bed." "He told me to tell you all goodbye." " Where did he end up staying?" " In the cabin in the garden, he said." " Gin rummy." " I lose." "Come play, Cristina." "Are you going to bed?" "No." "It's still early." "Alejandro." "Don't move." "Don't speak." "Someone could be watching us." "Go away, Lucía." "Don't stay in the light." "Come into the shadow for a moment." "I'm already in it." "In the darkest of shadows!" "Think about how there's nothing sadder than a love that has to live in the shadows." "If something terrible has to happen I hope it happens tonight." "When the impulse comes," "I feel it approaching like a mysterious force that robs my conscience of its full light." "Everything grows cold and still, immersed in a shadow which puts them to sleep." "Like things in twilight when they enter into the mystery of that magical light, which is between day and night, between beauty and crime, between what is and what isn't." "I'm therefore a sick man who could become a criminal." "It's so easy to say it here, in these notes, but it's so hard to live it as a reality." "To what extremes must this painful fate lead me?" "And who could've suspected that the famous doctor, who has devoted his expertise to the alleviation of humanity's ills, is himself, by an irony of fate, the most incurable of all patients." "The doctor isn't here, ma'am." "Hello?" "Yes, it's the clinic." "I want to talk to Dr. Mangino." "He's not here." "No, I couldn't tell you when he'll arrive." "I don't know where you'd be able to find him." "Do you want to leave your name?" "As you wish." "Dr. Mangino's house." "No, the doctor isn't in." "This is Cristina speaking." "Would you pass the phone to my sister?" "Lucía isn't here, ma'am." "Why must she be here?" "Yes, indeed." "A moment ago, I took the liberty of playing a record." "The doctor gave me permission." "There's no need to thank me, ma'am." "Thank you, Sebastián." "May I tell you something, ma'am?" "What?" "Cristina didn't believe me." "You should leave right now." "It's not unreasonable to think that Cristina might come." "She wouldn't dare!" "Has she ever been here?" "Often in the mornings since the doctor decided to write his book." "They come together from the clinic, and work until lunchtime." "Do they eat here together?" "Never." "As I understand it, the doctor said he wants to be alone in the afternoons." "I already knew all that, Sebastián, but I wanted to confirm it." "I'll wait for the doctor." "As you wish." "You've no right to ask me anything." "I'm not asking you anything." "It's enough just to see you here." "Actually it's me who has the right to ask you:" "Why are you here now?" "I'll tell you why:" "To clear up something once and for all." "That night I was playing rummy with your husband," "I saw you talking to him, next to that tree they call "Man and Woman"." "I forbid you to judge us." "You're too young." "You sound like Alejandro." "No matter who says it, you're still too young to understand." "And if you think my conduct dishonors Ricardo, my parents, and myself, which is all anyone ever thinks to say then keep it to yourself." " I'm not here for that." "Judge your own acts." "It's not Ricardo or you or my parents that worries me." " What, then?" " Guess." " I haven't a clue." " It's him, his good name." "His integrity for the work he has undertaken, which is necessary for the faith of his students, and would suffer greatly from such a scandal." "Alejandro is now a candidate to head the medical school." "From there, he'll likely rise to university president." "You can imagine what an obstacle you are for that life, and for that work." "In any case, it's not your place to defend him from me." " Yes it is." " By what right?" "The right of my love." "But don't be alarmed." "You're the one Alejandro loves, and with a passion, you can be sure, that I myself didn't suspect." "Let me do the talking." "Don't try to explain anything." "We came to invite you to spend the weekend." "I tried the clinic first, then I thought to come here." "I brought Cristina to tell you I'm having her over this afternoon." "So will you come?" " I'm not sure I can, Lucía." " I won't accept excuses." "Talk things over with Ricardo." "Bye." "I hardly have time to buy creams and other things I need." "Come on, Cristina!" "Won't you need me at all, doctor?" "No." "See you Saturday, Cristina." "The man was going up the stairs, laughing loudly." "With each step, he laughed more." "A neighbor came out and asked:" ""What are you laughing at, friend?"" "And the man said: "Haven't you seen the sign in the hallway that says:" ""Subarriendo." (Sublease/Go up laughing)" "I see that nobody thought that was funny." "Oh, I forgot to tell you that the man from Paso de Ovejas was here." " What's his name?" " Raúl, Dad." " Raúl, that's right." "He came when you were fixing the water pump." "He said he'd return after dinner to set a departure time with you." "It's still sad that all this preparation is to kill a poor deer tomorrow." "You're right." "It's hard to explain the appeal." "I admit it." "What's your opinion, doctor?" "Man's instinct to kill is stronger than you'd think, Cristina." "You think so?" "There are dark forces inside men which derive pleasure from it." "The power to will another's death by force or cunning is a dark phenomenon of man's conscience, like so many others." "If you keep going on with your explanations you'll end up not coming with us." " I was going to tell you exactly that." " Tell me what?" " I've decided to stay here." " To do what?" "That's a question that doesn't make sense, Ricardo." "You're right." "It's one of those questions that's asked daily, and makes no sense at all." "Or it can suddenly make complete sense." "It's this conversation which doesn't make sense." " You're very excitable today." " Maybe so!" "I should go to bed." "Good night." "Let's go to the living room." "Look, Alejandro." "I got this white-tailed male at the mountain in Zacatecas last year." "It was around this time of year, which is the start of mating season." "Being a good hunter, I got the female first, so that the males would approach her one by one." "This was the first one." "I admit that I shot it from so close, it was almost an execution." "As you know, during mating season the males' lust for the females makes them deaf." "They don't even flee from the sound of footsteps." "My feelings are all mixed up." "The way that Ricardo spoke makes me admire him." "On the other hand, more and more, I find in Lucía a promise I can't resist." "Our love, from the perspective of man's laws and conventions, has the horrible appearance of adultery." "The adulterer, however is Ricardo, though he would deny it." "He unwittingly created the shadow of sin over this inevitable love that binds us." "The wait is becoming more and more unbearable." "When Alejandro said he would stay he meant that he would wait for me." "This love is all I know." "Neither of them dares to look at the other and both of them are watching me." "It's the perfect excuse." "Early in the morning, I'll leave with Raúl and the butler." "Lucía will throw on a robe, and she'll use the garden to get to the cabin." "I'll say I forgot something, and I'll go back." "I won't flinch as I fire twice from the chamber of this Mauser." "What if right now, as if by accident I were to fire once into Alejandro's forehead?" "There's the box." "I can take one." "Open the chamber of the rifle." "Look at it against the fire from the fireplace, to pretend that I'm looking to clean it thoroughly." "Then, test the cartridge loader." "Close the chamber." "Load the bullet automatically." "Keep it aimed level with his forehead." "In the temple unless he moves, and it seems he'll stay there for a few more moments." "Now I find the trigger." "I look at the two of them... and nobody looks at me..." "Good evening." "Come in, Raúl." "Why are you all so silent?" "There isn't always a reason to talk." "I'm going to bed before it rains." "It'll rain all night, like always, doctor." "It's true, Ricardo." "I've been thinking that when it rains, people in the cabin get isolated." "But if they're in there, why do they need to leave?" "Rainstorms here all end within 30 minutes because they're so torrential." " Good night everyone." " Good night." " Bye, Raúl." " Bye, doctor." "You know why I'm here." "We'll leave before sunrise." "At 4:30, okay?" "Let's leave a bit earlier." "The waterfall is 30 minutes away." "Okay." "We can leave the horses at the bridge entrance, and go down on foot to wait for sunrise." "That's when they usually go down to La Guaje, right?" "That's right." "Who's coming with us?" "The Agrarian Department's engineer and the mayor of Paso de Ovejas." " Tell them we'll leave a little before 4:30." " Very well." " Well, see you tomorrow." " See you then." " Good night, ma'am." " Good night, Raúl." "I think it's time for us to retire." "I'm not tired." "I am, and I need to be up early." "Try not to wake me when you go to bed." "And you try not to wake me when you get up." "See you tomorrow." "Alejandro." "Alejandro." "It's true, Ricardo." "I've been thinking that when it rains, the people in the cabin get isolated." "Here it never rains for more than 30 minutes, because the downpours are always torrential." " What's wrong?" " I forgot the most important thing." " What?" " The bullets." "I'll go, sir." "I have to go myself." "I left them in the bedroom." "The cave should be nearby." "Go in and wait for me." "That one struck up there." "What's that noise?" "A tree splitting." " Hear that?" " Someone shouted." "That tree struck the engineer." "Doctor!" "Doctor!" "Doctor!" "What is it, Primitivo?" " Doctor, it's Ricardo." " What?" "The storm split a tree and it struck him and his horse." " Where?" " Just over there." "At the intersection of the large orchard's two canals." " We don't know if he's dead." " Is there a horse?" "There's mine, sir." "If you want, we can ride there two-up." "Let's go!" "Hello?" "Hello?" "Yes, doctor." "This is Dr. Mangino." "No." "I just want to check when the ambulance left from México." "At what time?" "What?" "No, it still hasn't arrived." "Yes." "The case is extremely serious." "I implore you to leave an extra shift of nurses tonight." "He may need an operation today." "Possibly." "No, I don't know." "One moment, doctor." "I think the ambulance is here." " It's here?" " Yes." "It just got here, doctor." "Yes, thank you." " I brought what you asked for." " Have them bring up the equipment." " Primitivo, assist the lady." " Yes, doctor." "You too, José!" "Come on!" "There's something that I can't understand." "Yeah, and what's that?" "Calm down." "It's something nobody has stopped to think about." "Because you're the only one who thinks here." "Perhaps." "I want to know what happened last night." "What were they talking about when I went to bed?" "Nothing." "Ricardo began quietly cleaning his gun, and then Raúl arrived." "Quietly..." "I knew it." "I remember something made me think that when it rains, the people in the cabin get isolated from the house." "And I said so." "Ricardo joked that if the people were here why would they need to leave?" " He said that?" "Exactly that." "Your idea about people isolated in this cabin by rain inspired his plan right there." " What do you mean?" "Ricardo, when that tree split and struck him was coming to do one thing:" "To kill." "I don't know how you ever got such an idea." "Ricardo said he'd go back, because he forgot the most important thing:" " The bullets." " So what?" "When I put away the clothes Ricardo had worn, the box of bullets was right in his jacket pocket." "Ricardo's condition is very serious." "The skull fracture has caused a cerebral hemorrhage." "Without x-rays, I'm blind." "But a very delicate surgery will surely have to be performed." "In any event..." "I'm faced with a dilemma." "It's useless to try to care for him here." "And without the operation, his fate is sealed." "If I take him to México, he may not survive the trip." "But at least he'll have a fighting chance, and we'll be doing all that we can for him." "As a doctor, I've chosen to play this card, the only one we have left." "Ricardo's life is in your hands." "Do what you must." "In any case, you need to know that Ricardo..." "No, Lucía!" "Why not?" "Because..." "I don't know if it's true." "What does Cristina know?" "That Ricardo, when he was hurt by the tree, was coming to kill you." "Don't cry, Cristina." "She could have told you without me there, at least." "So you knew about Lucía and I?" "That's not what matters." "What does, then?" "It was necessary that you never find out that I knew." "Why?" "Because I don't know why!" "SURGERY" "I have to tell you that I'm very intrigued by the theory that you present in your book." "What's terrifying is that it's not a theory, but a reality about which science knows little or nothing." "Yes, yes, it's possible." "What I don't understand is why you had me come at 11:00 PM, to give me these notes to read." "Because you're the most prestigious authority among psychiatrists, an old master in that unforgettable cathedral, and I want you to resolve a medical ethics case that no doctor, perhaps, has ever faced." "And what case is that?" "Mine." "I don't understand." "I'm the patient who served as a test subject, day by day, detail by detail, for the exposition of those notes which you consider a theory, and which I've lived as a horrendous reality." "What are you saying?" "That statue." "That woman." "The first symptoms of an obsessive trance in a sculpture hall." "The fury of that passion." "The dazed lover about to commit a crime." "His self-control put to the test." "Triumphs and failures are, in short, my medical history." "My tragic medical history." "Supposing that's all true what, then, is the case that I have to resolve?" "In a few moments, I have to operate on Ricardo." "I'm still fully capable as a surgeon, and I know I can save him from permanent paralysis." "I saw a similar case in England." "I'll graft nerve tissue from the back of his hand onto the areas affected by the fracture." "The tissue is sure to regenerate." "If this technique gets applied, it'll save Ricardo's life." " But..." " But what?" "On the other hand..." "I'm a sick man." "And like all sick men at risk of an involuntary attack I fear I'll betray myself, and the monster controlling me will appear when least I expect it." "I have to open a hole in the skull." "Perform a trepanation." "If I hammer the chisel any harder than necessary it will bring instant death." "And that is the dilemma, doctor." " What should I do?" " Operate!" "Operate precisely, as you've done so many times before." "You know as well as I do, or better than I do, that a surgeon, in the sacred rite of surgery, in the silence of that temple of life which is an operating room, is something of a priest of a magical religion." "He's surrounded by mysterious forces which artists call inspiration, and which dictate to the poet words for a novel image." "For the painter, a brushstroke of unexpected color." "For the sculptor, a hammer blow over the smile in the rock." "And they guide the surgeon's hand as he cuts over brain tissue, as he applies forceps to a bleeding artery, as he works around a nerve that threatens to paralyze his patient." "You're at the moment when every sculptor who carves directly approaches his statue with a hammer and chisel, with the confidence in his steady hand that inspires all great artists to masterfully sculpt stone eyelids over the eyes," "or an invisible smile on half-open lips." "He knows that if his hand shakes at all, or disobeys him even slightly, he will, in a creative sense, give the statue not life but death." "If your patient's only hope is this audacious operation, and you're the only one, sick or not, who can save him, then that, in my judgment, trumps any other consideration." "Then, doctor it's your judgment that...?" "No!" "It's not a judgment!" "It's an order!" "Operate!" "Only that door separates you from a man who expects life from you." "Operate!" "Transfer the life from the new tissue to his destroyed tissue, with that wonderful, audacious grafting technique of yours." "Operate!" "Since only you possess the secret of this new triumph of surgery." "Your inspiration as a surgeon will undoubtedly be greater than your struggles as a man." "STERILIZATION" "Center that light more!" "Another chisel!" "More light!" "That shadow!" "More!" "More light!" "You've been at his grave for over an hour." "I've come in search of a truth which I haven't found." " And you, what are you doing here?" " Looking at you." "Looking at you and waiting another hour, on top of the ones I've already waited." " And what are you waiting for?" " Your love." "Your return to mid-life, seared by a pain that burns your blood." "To make you feel the first shadow and the first caress of fresh air from an orchard." " It's incredible." " What is?" "At last, I've found the truth." "I've found it in your patience." "In your kiss." "In your silent love." "But it's too late now and I can't stop." "It's never too late." "Tell me it isn't!" "You don't know, Cristina... what sick man or what criminal has given you your first kiss." "Alejandro!" "Where are you going?" " To where the tree split." " No." "Don't go now." "I have to." "I have to go." "Lucía!" "What's wrong?" "Go after Alejandro!" " Now!" " Where?" "He said he was going to the tree and he's walking toward the waterfall!" "What are you thinking?" "I don't know." "I don't know." "Twilight." "Everything... the furrows in the earth, the trees, the flowers are growing cold and still under that shadow which puts them to sleep." "Just as my sick conscience, abandoned by its full light, ...enters into a mysterious twilight which is almost magical." "It's between waking life and the abnormal, between day and night, between beauty and crime, between what is and what isn't." "How sad is a love that has to live in the shadows." "I've found the truth, in your patience, in your kiss, in your silent love." "But it's too late now and I can't stop."