Summary
The days go by, but time seems to stand still for the
hostages and the terrorists.
This South American country is blanketed by a garua, or
dense fog, for several months each year. One morning, the terrorists
and the hostages find that fog has completely enveloped the vice
president’s mansion. When they look out the windows, they can see almost
nothing of the outside world. The combination of entrapment in the
house, necessary idleness, and dense fog affects people’s sense
of time. The narrator says, “The day no longer progressed in its
normal, linear fashion but instead every hour circled back to its beginning,
every moment was lived over and over again. Time, in the manner
they had all understood it, was over.” People feel as if they’re
waiting in a train station.
The hostages and the terrorists begin to enjoy some aspects
of their lives in the mansion. With Watanabe’s help, Hosokawa starts learning
Spanish. The terrorists continue to march around with their guns,
but the hostages recognize that most of the terrorists are children,
and act in a parental manner toward them. Iglesias, the vice president,
sees the badly worn boots of one of the youngest terrorists, Ishmael,
and tells him to replace them with a pair of tennis shoes from his
wife’s closet. The terrorists find a globe and ask the hostages
to show them where they are from. These terrorists, young and unworldly,
are impressed by the roomful of international visitors.
Most of the terrorists have come from poor rural or jungle
villages, and the opulence of the vice president’s house amazes
them. One day they find the television and stare at their reflections
in the screen. Some of them have seen broken televisions before,
but none of them have ever seen one that works. When Thibault, thinking
to amuse them, wanders into the room and turns on the television
with the remote control, the terrorists are so alarmed that they
release the safeties on their guns, and one of the terrorists slams
Thibault up against wall. When they realize that he simply turned
on the television, they put down their guns. Watching TV becomes
a consuming pastime of theirs.
During this time, the hostages discover that two of the
terrorists are girls. Beatriz and Carmen have concealed their gender
under army caps and fatigues, but once their secret comes out, the
hostages soften even more in their feelings for the terrorists.
In general, everyone feels affectionate. The vice president and
a compatriot, Oscar Mendoza, banter about their past love exploits
and their infatuation with Coss. Coss starts to have feelings for
Hosokawa, around whom she feels quiet and calm.
After about two weeks of captivity, Coss decides that
if she will be a hostage for an extended period of time, which appears
to be the case, she needs to start practicing her singing again.
Before she can begin, she needs a new accompanist. Watanabe and
Iglesias ask if anyone can play the piano. Finally, Tetsuya Kato,
an executive in Hosokawa’s company who is known as a good numbers
man, comes forward.
