Don Baltazar placed the bag on my table as though nothing unusual had happened.<\/p>\n
It was the same bag I remembered.<\/p>\n
The same worn cloth.<\/p>\n
The same small sound of coins striking one another.<\/p>\n
But it was lighter.<\/p>\n
I noticed that immediately.<\/p>\n
He had promised to reduce his offer if I waited.<\/p>\n
Now he had come to show me that he meant it.<\/p>\n
I stood beside the table with my hands hanging at my sides.<\/p>\n
They were still swollen from the collapse.<\/p>\n
I had tried to wash every trace of soil away.<\/p>\n
But dirt remained beneath some of my nails.<\/p>\n
My clothes were clean enough.<\/p>\n
My face was not.<\/p>\n
I had barely slept.<\/p>\n
Don Baltazar looked at me for a moment.<\/p>\n
Then he glanced toward the opening in the kitchen floor.<\/p>\n
He asked whether the digging had stopped.<\/p>\n
I did not answer immediately.<\/p>\n
He could see that it had.<\/p>\n
I knew there was no point pretending otherwise.<\/p>\n
I told him I had been unable to work for two days.<\/p>\n
He nodded.<\/p>\n
He did not ask whether I was injured.<\/p>\n
He did not ask what had happened.<\/p>\n
Instead, he spoke about how dangerous underground work could be.<\/p>\n
He reminded me that he had warned me.<\/p>\n
I could feel my face becoming hot.<\/p>\n
I wanted to tell him that my father had taught me more about wells than he would ever know.<\/p>\n
But I remembered the darkness.<\/p>\n
The soil around my legs.<\/p>\n
The fear that I would never reach the kitchen.<\/p>\n
I could not pretend I had been careful.<\/p>\n
He asked whether I was finally ready to discuss the property.<\/p>\n
I looked at the bag.<\/p>\n
The coins inside were fewer than before.<\/p>\n
He told me he was still willing to purchase the land.<\/p>\n
But the price had changed.<\/p>\n
He said the risk was greater now.<\/p>\n
He said the damage I had done to the house might make the property less valuable.<\/p>\n
He spoke as if the reduction were simply a matter of fairness.<\/p>\n
I knew what he wanted.<\/p>\n
He wanted me to believe I had already lost too much to refuse.<\/p>\n
He wanted the memory of the collapse to finish what hunger had begun.<\/p>\n
I sat down.<\/p>\n
My legs still hurt.<\/p>\n
Don Baltazar took the chair opposite me without waiting for an invitation.<\/p>\n
For a moment, the room was quiet.<\/p>\n
I could hear the wind touching the window.<\/p>\n
I looked past him toward the well.<\/p>\n
The wooden frame stood where it always had.<\/p>\n
My father's work.<\/p>\n
I thought about the empty coat hook.<\/p>\n
I thought about the tools beside the floor.<\/p>\n
I thought about the little girl who had climbed the hill with bread.<\/p>\n
All those things belonged to my life.<\/p>\n
The coins did not.<\/p>\n
But I also knew the difference between pride and survival.<\/p>\n
I had come very close to dying.<\/p>\n
I had little money.<\/p>\n
The tunnel was damaged.<\/p>\n
Winter was approaching.<\/p>\n
I could not simply ignore those facts.<\/p>\n
Don Baltazar seemed to understand my silence as hesitation.<\/p>\n
He began explaining what I could do with the money.<\/p>\n
I could leave before the pass closed.<\/p>\n
I could find work in the city.<\/p>\n
I could begin again without carrying the burden of a house I could not maintain.<\/p>\n
I listened.<\/p>\n
Some of what he said was reasonable.<\/p>\n
That was what made him difficult.<\/p>\n
He did not need every word to be false.<\/p>\n
He only needed the reasonable parts to lead me toward the decision he wanted.<\/p>\n
I asked whether he would buy the property without the well.<\/p>\n
He looked surprised.<\/p>\n
Then he shook his head.<\/p>\n
The well was part of the land.<\/p>\n
I had known he would say that.<\/p>\n
Still, I wanted to hear it.<\/p>\n
I wanted to make certain I understood what he was offering to take.<\/p>\n
He was not simply buying a difficult house from an orphan.<\/p>\n
He was buying the best water source on the upper slope.<\/p>\n
A well that had continued flowing through the hottest months.<\/p>\n
A well that could be used when the shallow sources struggled.<\/p>\n
He had never looked at our property as my father and I did.<\/p>\n
To him, its value was something that could be counted and owned.<\/p>\n
I looked at the bag again.<\/p>\n
There were enough coins to change my immediate situation.<\/p>\n
Perhaps not enough to build a secure future.<\/p>\n
But enough to escape the coming winter.<\/p>\n
I imagined the city.<\/p>\n
I knew almost nothing about living there.<\/p>\n
I would arrive alone.<\/p>\n
I would have money for a while.<\/p>\n
Then I would need to find work and shelter.<\/p>\n
Perhaps I could manage.<\/p>\n
Perhaps I could not.<\/p>\n
I looked toward the kitchen opening.<\/p>\n
At least here, I knew the ground.<\/p>\n
I knew the house.<\/p>\n
I knew the water.<\/p>\n
I knew why I was trying to stay.<\/p>\n
Don Baltazar asked whether I had made up my mind.<\/p>\n
I wanted to say no.<\/p>\n
I wanted to send him away.<\/p>\n
But the words did not come.<\/p>\n
I was frightened of making another bad decision.<\/p>\n
I had already trusted my own judgment once and nearly been buried.<\/p>\n
I wondered whether refusing him again would be another form of stubbornness.<\/p>\n
That was the worst part of the collapse.<\/p>\n
It had made me doubt not only my ability to dig, but my ability to choose.<\/p>\n
Don Baltazar waited.<\/p>\n
Then he said the offer would not remain open at that price forever.<\/p>\n
He spoke gently.<\/p>\n
As if he were giving me useful advice.<\/p>\n
I looked at his clean hands resting near the bag.<\/p>\n
Then I looked at my own.<\/p>\n
I thought about the hours he had spent watching my work from a distance.<\/p>\n
I thought about the credit he had taken away.<\/p>\n
I thought about the villagers repeating his warnings.<\/p>\n
He had not caused the collapse.<\/p>\n
That had been my mistake.<\/p>\n
But he had been waiting for a mistake he could use.<\/p>\n
I understood that clearly.<\/p>\n
I did not give him an answer.<\/p>\n
I told him I needed to think.<\/p>\n
He did not seem pleased.<\/p>\n
He looked toward the window again.<\/p>\n
Then he closed the bag.<\/p>\n
The coins shifted inside.<\/p>\n
I remembered the first time he had done that.<\/p>\n
He stood.<\/p>\n
He said I should not wait until there was no choice left.<\/p>\n
Then he left the kitchen.<\/p>\n
I watched him walk down the hill.<\/p>\n
His coat moved in the wind.<\/p>\n
He did not look back.<\/p>\n
I closed the door.<\/p>\n
For several minutes, I stood with my hand against it.<\/p>\n
I had not accepted his offer.<\/p>\n
But I had not refused it, either.<\/p>\n
That troubled me.<\/p>\n
I had been certain the first time.<\/p>\n
Now I was not certain of anything.<\/p>\n
The room was quiet.<\/p>\n
The floor remained open.<\/p>\n
The damaged tunnel waited beneath it.<\/p>\n
I moved the bag of flour away from the table and sat down.<\/p>\n
There was very little left.<\/p>\n
I measured some into a bowl.<\/p>\n
I could make it last a few more days if I was careful.<\/p>\n
Beyond that, I had no proper answer.<\/p>\n
I thought about Jacinta.<\/p>\n
I did not want to depend on a seven-year-old child for food.<\/p>\n
She had already done more than anyone could reasonably expect.<\/p>\n
I could not turn her kindness into an obligation.<\/p>\n
I thought about going to the village and asking someone for work.<\/p>\n
But winter was near, and my tunnel already demanded more time than I could spare.<\/p>\n
I had built a problem around myself that I could no longer solve by effort alone.<\/p>\n
I sat there until the light began fading.<\/p>\n
Then I heard something outside.<\/p>\n
At first, I thought it was wind against the fence.<\/p>\n
Then came the slow sound of hooves.<\/p>\n
I went to the window.<\/p>\n
An old mule was climbing the path.<\/p>\n
A man walked beside it.<\/p>\n
I recognized him before he reached the house.<\/p>\n
Eulogio.<\/p>\n
He was an old shepherd who lived in the valley.<\/p>\n
I had known him since childhood.<\/p>\n
He was not a man who spoke more than necessary.<\/p>\n
His clothes always seemed to smell faintly of wool and the outdoors.<\/p>\n
He had spent so many years among the hills that he walked as if uneven ground were easier for him than a flat road.<\/p>\n
I opened the door before he knocked.<\/p>\n
He greeted me quietly.<\/p>\n
Then he looked at the kitchen.<\/p>\n
He saw the opening in the floor.<\/p>\n
He saw the tools.<\/p>\n
He saw the dirt that still clung to the edges of the stones.<\/p>\n
He asked whether I was hurt.<\/p>\n
That question nearly made me cry.<\/p>\n
Don Baltazar had looked at the same room and asked about the property.<\/p>\n
Eulogio looked at me.<\/p>\n
I told him I had been caught in a collapse.<\/p>\n
He studied my hands.<\/p>\n
Then he asked whether I could still walk properly.<\/p>\n
I said I could.<\/p>\n
He nodded.<\/p>\n
He did not make a speech about my recklessness.<\/p>\n
He did not tell me I should abandon the work.<\/p>\n
Instead, he asked whether the roof had fallen near a support.<\/p>\n
I explained where it had happened.<\/p>\n
He listened carefully.<\/p>\n
Then he walked outside.<\/p>\n
I followed him.<\/p>\n
The mule stood near the fence.<\/p>\n
On its back were heavy oak beams.<\/p>\n
I stared at them.<\/p>\n
They were exactly the kind of timber I had been worrying about.<\/p>\n
Strong wood.<\/p>\n
Wood that could help repair the damaged section and reinforce the passage.<\/p>\n
I asked why he had brought them.<\/p>\n
Eulogio looked toward the well.<\/p>\n
Then he told me something I remembered only vaguely.<\/p>\n
Years earlier, my father had dug a well for him.<\/p>\n
The work had been difficult.<\/p>\n
Eulogio had wanted to pay.<\/p>\n
But my father had refused the money.<\/p>\n
He had said that finding water was a useful skill, not a reason to take advantage of someone who needed it.<\/p>\n
Eulogio had never forgotten.<\/p>\n
I remembered my father coming home from that job.<\/p>\n
He had been tired.<\/p>\n
I had asked whether the shepherd had paid him.<\/p>\n
My father had said some work was worth doing even when money did not change hands.<\/p>\n
I had not understood.<\/p>\n
We had needed money then, too.<\/p>\n
I had thought he was being impractical.<\/p>\n
Now an old mule stood outside our house carrying oak beams.<\/p>\n
I began to understand.<\/p>\n
Eulogio said he had come to help me continue.<\/p>\n
I told him I could not pay for the timber.<\/p>\n
He waved away the concern.<\/p>\n
He said my father had already given him more than he could repay.<\/p>\n
I tried to explain that the tunnel was dangerous.<\/p>\n
He said he knew.<\/p>\n
I told him people in the village thought I was foolish.<\/p>\n
He looked at me.<\/p>\n
Then he asked whether the ground had become any less dangerous because people laughed at it.<\/p>\n
I shook my head.<\/p>\n
He said that was what mattered.<\/p>\n
He had not come to discuss the jokes.<\/p>\n
He had come to examine the work.<\/p>\n
I stepped aside and let him enter.<\/p>\n
We carried the first beams inside together.<\/p>\n
The wood was heavy.<\/p>\n
My arms protested.<\/p>\n
Eulogio noticed.<\/p>\n
He made me put down my end.<\/p>\n
Then he told me to rest while he moved the next one.<\/p>\n
I wanted to argue.<\/p>\n
I had spent weeks trying to prove I could do everything myself.<\/p>\n
But I remembered how that pride had nearly trapped me underground.<\/p>\n
So I sat down.<\/p>\n
It felt strange.<\/p>\n
Watching someone else work in my house.<\/p>\n
Watching another pair of hands handle the materials.<\/p>\n
I had thought accepting help might make the tunnel feel less like my own achievement.<\/p>\n
Instead, I felt something I had not felt in weeks.<\/p>\n
Relief.<\/p>\n
Eulogio examined the kitchen opening.<\/p>\n
He asked about the depth and direction of the passage.<\/p>\n
I showed him my measurements.<\/p>\n
I told him about the rock and the nine-day detour.<\/p>\n
He listened without interrupting.<\/p>\n
Then I explained the collapse.<\/p>\n
I did not hide what I had done.<\/p>\n
I told him I had advanced without fitting enough supports.<\/p>\n
I told him I had heard the crack and still delayed leaving.<\/p>\n
He looked at me for a long moment.<\/p>\n
Then he said I had learned an expensive lesson.<\/p>\n
I looked down.<\/p>\n
He did not need to say more.<\/p>\n
We both knew what could have happened.<\/p>\n
He asked whether I was willing to work slowly from then on.<\/p>\n
I said yes.<\/p>\n
He asked whether I meant it even if snow came before I finished.<\/p>\n
That was harder.<\/p>\n
I thought about the well.<\/p>\n
The forty paces.<\/p>\n
My father.<\/p>\n
Then I nodded.<\/p>\n
I could not build a safe passage by pretending winter would wait.<\/p>\n
Eulogio examined the tools.<\/p>\n
He tested the rope.<\/p>\n
He looked at the wooden frames I had prepared.<\/p>\n
Then he stood beside the opening and studied the darkness.<\/p>\n
He said we would strengthen what needed strengthening before removing another bucket of earth.<\/p>\n
We.<\/p>\n
That word stayed with me.<\/p>\n
I had not heard it used about my work since my father died.<\/p>\n
I had been saying I for months.<\/p>\n
I would dig.<\/p>\n
I would carry.<\/p>\n
I would finish.<\/p>\n
Now someone had arrived with timber and said we.<\/p>\n
I looked at Eulogio.<\/p>\n
His face was lined by years outdoors.<\/p>\n
His hands were rough.<\/p>\n
He was not young enough to work carelessly.<\/p>\n
He knew that.<\/p>\n
So did I.<\/p>\n
He was not offering to do the whole job.<\/p>\n
He was offering what I had been missing.<\/p>\n
Experience beside my own.<\/p>\n
A second pair of eyes.<\/p>\n
Someone who would tell me to stop when I wanted to hurry.<\/p>\n
That evening, we began sorting the beams.<\/p>\n
We planned how to repair the fallen section.<\/p>\n
We discussed which supports needed replacing.<\/p>\n
I felt tired.<\/p>\n
I still had bruises.<\/p>\n
I was still frightened of going underground.<\/p>\n
But the fear had changed.<\/p>\n
It no longer seemed like a reason to surrender the house.<\/p>\n
It seemed like something I had to respect while I worked.<\/p>\n
Before leaving, Eulogio looked toward the well again.<\/p>\n
Then he told me he had not come because he believed the tunnel was easy.<\/p>\n
He had come because he knew my father had taught me how to attempt difficult things properly.<\/p>\n
I did not answer.<\/p>\n
I was afraid my voice would shake.<\/p>\n
After he left, I stood beside the oak beams.<\/p>\n
The kitchen smelled of fresh-cut wood and damp earth.<\/p>\n
The tunnel remained unfinished.<\/p>\n
Don Baltazar still wanted the property.<\/p>\n
Winter was still approaching.<\/p>\n
But I had not sold the land.<\/p>\n
And for the first time since the collapse, I could imagine returning underground without pretending I had nothing to fear.<\/p>\n
Don Baltazar placed the bag on my table as though nothing unusual had happened. It was the same bag I remembered. The same worn cloth. The same small sound of … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":12056,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drama-sory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12063"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12083,"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12063\/revisions\/12083"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}