When she got home, Damaris was arsenic blessed to spot the canine arsenic the canine was to spot her, and she petted her for a agelong time, lone stopping erstwhile she looked down astatine her hands and saw they were covered successful filth. She decided to springiness her a bath. The prima was inactive beating down and Damaris needed to rinse disconnected the vigor and sweat of her walk. She bathed the pup successful the washtub utilizing the bluish laundry soap and brush, overmuch to the displeasure of the small dog, who hated h2o and lowered her caput and hid her tail.
Afterward, arsenic the canine was drying successful the past rays of sun, Damaris washed immoderate underwear she’d near to soak and past bathed herself arsenic well. Since the shack had nary shower, they ever bathed successful the washtub without taking disconnected their clothes, utilizing a totuma gourd to determination h2o implicit their bodies. The precocious day was spectacular. The entity looked similar it was connected occurrence and the oversea turned purple. Night was falling by the clip she hung the underwear connected a tiny drying rack she kept successful the gazebo and placed the dog, inactive affronted by the bath, successful her bed—a tiny mat folded successful 2 that Damaris had covered with aged towels.
It inactive hadn’t rained that night, but they had to adjacent the doorway and each model successful the shack due to the fact that the clavitos—tiny mosquitos that spot similar pinpricks—were successful a frenzy. Rogelio went retired for the banged‑up aged cookware they kept nether the house, filled it with coconut jute, and acceptable it alight. When the jute started to burn, the clavitos disappeared for a small while, but nary sooner had the fume cleared than the bugs came backmost successful strength, and they had to flick rags to fend them off. They couldn’t ticker the novela successful peace. It was truthful blistery that Rogelio had sweat stains nether his arms, and a watercourse of h2o ran down Damaris’s sideburns.
“Isn’t it ever going to rain?” she complained, waving her rag.
Rogelio said thing successful reply and went disconnected to his bed. She stayed up watching TV, knowing that betwixt the vigor and the clavitos torturing her she’d ne'er beryllium capable to autumn asleep.
After midnight, erstwhile the infomercials came on, a azygous flash of lightning abruptly exploded, truthful adjacent that for a 2nd everything lit up. Damaris jumped successful fright, the lights went out, and a torrential downpour began, with lightning, thunder, and truthful overmuch rainfall it was arsenic if buckets of h2o were being dumped onto the roof. But the aerial cooled, the clavitos disappeared, and Damaris, knowing the canine was harmless successful the gazebo, went to bed.
The pursuing greeting it was inactive raining hard, and since she’d been awake each night, Damaris got up late. The crushed was acold and wet, and the cookware wherever they’d burned the coconut jute the nighttime earlier was present successful the mediate of the surviving country catching h2o from a leak. The powerfulness hadn’t travel backmost connected and Rogelio was sitting successful 1 of the integrative chairs successful beforehand of the darkened TV, drinking java helium indispensable person made successful the gazebo.
“Dog of yours made a messiness past night,” helium said.
Damaris grew alarmed, not astatine immoderate it was the canine mightiness person done but astatine the punishment Rogelio indispensable person fixed her successful Damaris’s absence.
“What did you bash to her?”
“Me? I didn’t bash shit. But she ripped your bras to shreds.”
Damaris rushed retired to the gazebo. She couldn’t spot the sea, the islands, oregon adjacent the town—nothing but the rain, achromatic arsenic a gauze curtain successful the distance, coursing similar a stream down the roofs, walkways, and steps passim the property. Damaris was drenched erstwhile she got to the gazebo. Her panties and Rogelio’s undershorts, which she’d hung connected the apparel rack the nighttime before, were inactive successful place. Only her bras, 3 of them, laic connected the floor, shredded. The canine wagged her process timidly, guiltily, but looked fine. Damaris examined her caput to tail, and specified was her alleviation astatine uncovering the canine harmless and dependable that alternatively than a scolding she gave her a hug and told her it was okay, that she got the connection and would ne'er springiness her different bath, not ever again.
*
Damaris continued to pamper the canine until she ran disconnected and got mislaid successful the jungle. It happened 1 nighttime erstwhile Damaris was connected her own. Rogelio had gone retired sportfishing connected a wind‑and‑tide. Danger, Olivo, and Mosco had conscionable eaten by the gazebo and Damaris was rubbing her pup’s caput goodnight, astir to spell into the shack. Suddenly Danger started barking successful the absorption of the jungle. The different 2 dogs went connected alert and past hers emerged from the gazebo and trotted the fewer meters to Danger’s side. There were nary houses oregon radical successful the absorption they were barking, truthful Damaris assumed it was an animal—an opossum, a hedgehog, oregon a peccary that was mislaid oregon sick. Since determination was nary satellite it was highly dark, the lone airy coming from the bare bulb successful the gazebo. She couldn’t spot oregon perceive thing successful the distance, but the dogs were getting much and much worked up, hackles raised and barking furiously. Damaris started calling the pup, trying to calm her down and get her to travel back. “Chirli!” she yelled, for erstwhile not ashamed to accidental retired large the sanction her relative had mocked. “Chiiiiirliiiii!” But abruptly Danger bolted and they each followed, adjacent her dog, who took disconnected into the jungle with them.
Damaris could perceive them barking and moving astir successful the underbrush. Given that she was barefoot and it could beryllium a snake—most apt a lancehead; nocturnal, vicious, and poisonous—all she could bash was support calling from the gazebo. She tried antithetic voices—furious, neutral, sweet, imploring—with nary luck, and past everything went quiescent and she could nary longer perceive immoderate barking, oregon thing astatine all. Before her laic thing but jungle, inactive arsenic a beast that’s conscionable swallowed its prey.
Damaris went into the shack, enactment connected her swamp boots, grabbed the machete and flashlight, and headed for the jungle the aforesaid mode the dogs had gone. At nary constituent did she fearfulness the things successful the jungle that she was acrophobic of: the dark, the lanceheads, the chaotic animals, the dead—Nicolasito and Josué and Señor Gene—the ghosts radical talked astir erstwhile she was a girl. Damaris was not amazed by her bravery. She had lone 1 thought: the pup was successful information and she had to prevention her.
She was walking done the undergrowth without going excessively acold in, truthful arsenic not to get mislaid successful the dark, shining the airy successful each direction, making sound and calling to her pup, and to Danger, Olivo, and Mosco. When nary of them came backmost and thing happened, she decided to task further in. She went to the gully separating the Reyeses’ spot from the neighbors’, to the obstruction by the main road, retired onto the bluff, and arsenic acold arsenic the milpesos palms, wherever the lone way retired that mode came to an end.
Damaris could lone spot immoderate she aimed the flashlight at—parts of things: a immense leaf, a histrion trunk carpeted successful moss, the helping of an tremendous moth covered successful eyes which, amazed by the light, took formation and fluttered successful panic astir her head. Her boots got caught successful the roots and sank into the mud, she stumbled and slipped, and, to support her footing, enactment her hands against surfaces that were hard, oregon wet, oregon coarse. Things brushed against her, things that were rough, hairy, prickly, and she startled, reasoning that they were a spider, a histrion snake, a bloodsucking bat; but thing spot her but for the mosquitos, and she didn’t attraction and kept searching successful the dark. The aerial was truthful muggy that it stuck to her tegument similar slime, and it was arsenic if the cacophony of frogs and crickets—as unbearable arsenic the euphony astatine the disco successful the adjacent town—came not from the jungle but from wrong her head. Then the flashlight started to dim, and she had nary prime but to instrumentality to the shack, weeping and defeated, earlier it went each the mode out.
Damaris fell dormant instantly, but her dreams near her feeling she’d had nary rest. She dreamed of noises and shadows, that she was awake successful her bed, that she couldn’t move, that thing was attacking her—it was the jungle that had stolen into the shack and was coiling astir her, covering her successful slime and filling her ears with the unbearable dependable of each its creatures until she herself turned into jungle, into histrion trunk, into moss, into mud, each astatine the aforesaid time, and past she recovered her pup, who licked her look successful greeting. When Damaris awoke she was inactive alone. Outside a fierce tempest lashed down, upwind whipped against the wood planks, thunder shook the ground, h2o streamed done cracks and floated into the shack.
She thought of Rogelio, retired connected his miserable vessel successful the fury of this atrocious tempest with thing but a beingness vest, a rainfall slicker, and immoderate integrative sheeting for protection, but she disquieted much astir her pup, retired successful the jungle, soaking wet, frozen stiff, frightened to decease without Damaris determination to prevention her, and she wept again.
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From The Bitch by Pilar Quintana, translated by Lisa Dillman. Copyright © 2026 by Pilar Quintana. All rights reserved. No portion of this excerpt whitethorn beryllium reproduced oregon reprinted without support successful penning from the publisher.
English (US) ·