The Listening Walls Read Online Free PDF

she just making a noise or was she screaming words?”
    â€œWords. Like ‘stop’ and ‘help.’ Maybe others.”
    â€œJust as a matter of curiosity, what were you doing in the broom closet at that hour?”
    â€œSleeping. I was very tired after work. I work hard, very very hard.” She threw a glance at Escamillo, the manager of the hotel. “Señor Escamillo doesn’t realize how hard I work.”
    â€œThat I don’t,” Escamillo said with a snort.
    â€œNo matter, no matter, no matter,” Mercado said. “Go on, señorita. You woke up and heard screaming. You rushed into 404. And?”
    â€œThe small one, Señora Kellogg, was lying on the car­pet beside the bed. Her head was bleeding and she was unconscious. I couldn’t see the other one anywhere. I never thought to look over the balcony. How could I think of such a thing? To take one’s own life, it is a mortal sin.” Consuela crossed herself, fearfully. “The room smelled of drinking and there was half a bottle of whiskey on the bureau. I tried to give the señora some to wake her up but it just spilled all over.”
    â€œSo you drank the rest yourself,” said Escamillo, the manager.
    â€œThe merest drop. To keep my strength up.”
    â€œDrop. Ha! You reek of it,” said Señor Escamillo.
    â€œI will not be insulted by any pig of a man!”
    â€œSo you dare to call me a pig of a man, you ladronzuela!”
    â€œProve it. Prove I am a ladronzuela!”
    Mercado yawned and reminded them that it was late; that he and his colleague, Santana, were very tired; that he, Mercado, had a wife and eight children and many troubles; and would everybody, please, be friendly and cooperative? “Now, Señorita Gonzales, when you failed to rouse the señora, what did you do?”
    â€œI telephoned down to the room clerk and he sent for the doctor. Dr. Lopez. He has an agreement with the hotel.”
    â€œHe has a contract,” Escamillo said. “Signed.”
    Consuela shrugged. “Does it matter what you call it? When a doctor is necessary, it is always Dr. Lopez they send for. So he came. Immediately. Or very soon anyway. That is all I know.”
    â€œYou stayed with the señora until the doctor arrived?”
    â€œYes. She did not wake up.”
    â€œNow, señorita, what do you know of a silver box?”
    Consuela looked blank. “Silver box?”
    â€œThis one. See, it has blood on it and is badly dented where it struck the pavement. Have you ever seen this box before?”
    â€œNever. I know nothing about it.”
    â€œVery well. Thank you, señorita.”
    Consuela rose gracefully and crossed the room, pausing for a moment in front of Escamillo’s desk. “I do not take insults. I quit.”
    â€œYou don’t quit. You’re fired.”
    â€œI quit before I was fired. So ha!”
    â€œI shall count every single towel,” Escamillo said. “Per­sonally.”
    â€œCochino.”
    Consuela snapped her fingers and went out, slamming the door firmly and finally behind her.
    â€œYou see?” Escamillo cried, beating the air with his fists. “How can I run a hotel with help like that? They are all the same. And now this terrible scandal. I am ruined, ruined, ruined. Policemen in my office! Reporters in my lobby! And the Embassy—Mother of Jesus, must the Embassy be brought into this, too?”
    â€œWe must, of course, inform the Embassy in such cases,” Mercado said.
    â€œThese crazy Americans, if they want to jump do they not have places to jump in their own country? Why must they come here and ruin an innocent man!”
    Everyone agreed that it was most unfair, most sad, but God’s will, after all. No one could argue with God’s will, which was responsible for national and domestic disasters like earthquakes, unseasonable rains, temperamental plumbing, difficulties with