The View from Mount Dog Read online

  Anyhow, I took the radio and climbed up the little hill behind his house and went through some bananas and things and came out on a grassy patch overlooking the roof down below (which had a flat bit on which he’d left a lounger and bottles of sun lotion – so he is vain after all! The strong and occasionally silent Jack is aware of his Bodddy!). Now comes the sentimental part – brace yourself, Ruthie – I scattered poor old Poyson to the four winds hoping he’d drift down to Jack’s roof and become incorporated with his master’s next tanning session but there wasn’t even one wind and the pooch, unhelpful to the last, bless him, fell all over my feet and I was about to brush him off when I noticed these kids watching me. Well, I can tell you I was embarrassed all to hell to have been witnessed scattering the remains of a Brazilian mongrel to the sound of ‘Also hat Gott die Welt geliebt’. I gave them a sort of grave salute and faded back into the bananas and switched off the cassette and made it back down to the road without being seen but feeling like a real idiot. And so my long-awaited visit to Handsome Jack Brunner was abortive and ended in farce! Just my luck. But I’ll bet you laugh all the same.

  I got back to San S. in time to catch my plane and I wasn’t sad to see the last of Parazuela – that is, until I landed in Caracas which is the pits!! although I saw Ellen and Paul who’re doing fine and send their love. And now here I am in MC with writer’s cramp and promise to write you again if anything of interest happens to me between here and Galveston. I’m not betting on it.

  Love to João, Sadie and anyone else worthy of it. But most of all to you.

  SAGE

  III

  A letter from Fr Ignatius O’Malley, Order of St Dominic, Parish of Pampola and Tutuban, to the Chaplain to the Bishop of Iguaçu, Parazuela, dated 16 June 1985. (Original in Spanish.)

  Dear Father Xavier,

  Word has reached me via the good offices of Brother Aristeo that your Bishop has requested you should write a report about the Tutuban Affair so that he can, in turn, inform Cardinal Celso in San Sacramento. I shall do my best, of course, but have no experience in such matters and anyway you know me – I’m bound to be too outspoken or undiplomatic so you’ll have to censor this as you see fit. Treat it, therefore, I beg you, merely as notes towards a report rather than as anything more final.

  I refer to it as ‘the Tutuban Affair’ because with the best will I cannot dignify it with a title such as would lend it the least respectability. It is from all viewpoints lamentable. Briefly the facts are as follows:

  (1) On 5 June this year three children of this parish (Nimfa, Rosario and Milagros Irubú) were on the hillside behind Calle Sta Isabel picking medicinal herbs at approximately 6.00 p.m. It cannot have been much later since the sun set at 6.22 on that particular evening and herb-picking in the dark is probably beyond the capabilities even of these favoured children (censor that). They allege that Our Lady suddenly appeared to them and blessed them. After perhaps ten seconds this apparition vanished.

  (2) The children ran home and told their mother, specifying that the alleged apparition had been of a young black woman wearing spectacles and a long white robe. She was accompanied by ‘heavenly music’ and in her left hand held a beautiful casket from which she took and scattered a greyish dust with her right. Her demeanour was ‘sad’, and when she saw the children she smiled sweetly and lifted her hand in blessing before fading from their sight.

  (3) The mother immediately summoned Fr Ayma of this parish, who on hearing the children’s account induced them to take him to the exact spot, which he then blessed, together with them, possibly to be on the safe side (excise that).

  (4) News travels fast in rural areas, as I need scarcely remind you. By the next evening at the same time a crowd of some 150 parishioners was waiting on the hillside for a possible reappearance, which, however, was not vouchsafed them.

  (5) Within a week pilgrims had begun arriving in Tutuban from as far away as Coatiara. In the meantime sermons had been preached in every church in town urging people to be cautious before accepting any rumour as well founded, the more so if that rumour purported to be of something miraculous. This warning, to judge from the ever-growing crowds besieging the home of the three children and the site of the alleged apparition, fell on preternaturally deaf ears.

  (6) On 9 June a man named Gustavo Mittelwalder arrived in Tutuban on the personal authority of the Minister of the Interior, Gral. Edmilson, in order to discover the facts of the case. I spoke to him at some length and told him all I have summarised so far. He appeared quite satisfied and left.

  (7) Three days later I received a visit from an American Peace Corps Volunteer named Jack Brunner who lives in the parish and has been working here for some time. Mr Brunner had just returned from a trip up-river to Meycauara where there is a tilapia-breeding scheme (a species of fish, I gather). His return had been delayed by transportation problems. On his arrival he found his house besieged, for he lives on the Calle Sta Isabel in a rented bungalow at the foot of the Miraculous Mountain itself (your blue pencil, please). On enquiring he soon learned how the quiet house he had left a week ago had in the meantime been transformed into a centre of pilgrimage. But the reason he came to me (we are quite well acquainted and have discovered a mutual friend in Dublin) was because he had found a letter left at his house in his absence by another Peace Corps Volunteer whom he had known in Rio de Janeiro and who had just passed through Tutuban on the off-chance of seeing him on her way home to America.

  (8) I append a photocopy of this letter left by Sage Maclean for Mr Brunner which he has most kindly allowed me to send you as documentary evidence. You will, Fr Xavier, be unsurprised to learn that the lady in question is black, bespectacled and has a penchant for wearing long African-style robes. You will also be amused to read the all-too-plausible explanation of the ‘grey dust’. Indeed, all that remains unexplained is the children’s ‘heavenly music’ – presumably pure imagination on their part – and the abject credulousness of their elders, who should know better.

  (9) I immediately notified Sr Mittelwalder – who had mean while returned to San Sacramento – of this turn of events, enclosing a second photocopy of the letter.

  (10) The next day, 14 June, a parishioner, Sra Marajacú, who is a near neighbour of Mr Brunner’s, claimed that she had also ‘seen’ Our Lady on 5 June, but earlier in the day than the children. She told me she had not come forward before in case she was thought a liar who had invented it to cash in on the Irubú children’s fame. She was indeed timid and confused, poor woman, but did add a detail. She made no mention of any ‘precious casket’ or ‘heavenly music’ but did say the apparition ‘smelled sweeter than the sweetest flower’. Indeed, it was this intense fragrance she remembered most clearly. She also claimed the vision had spoken to her but, unfortunately for Mankind, was quite unable to remember a word. (Axe that.)

  (11) Yesterday, the fifteenth, Sr Mittelwalder returned to Tutuban by military helicopter, landing close to the site of the ‘apparition’. His manner was considerably changed, being altogether more brusque, even menacing. He at once demanded the original of Mr Brunner’s letter. I told him truthfully that I did not have it. And then, because there was something in the man’s behaviour I could not trust, I confess to having told an untruth. I said I had made only the one photocopy I had sent him whereas in point of fact Mr Brunner (who considers the whole thing a vast joke) had told me to make as many copies as I liked in order to expose the whole misunderstanding as soon as possible. (He finds the crowds which perpetually beleaguer his house extremely trying and says they stop him from sunbathing on the roof! I admit to finding him a highly sympathetic young man.) However, seeing no real need beyond one other copy to send to you I made only the two. Between ourselves I think it important that as the secular authorities already have a copy so also should the ecclesiastical authorities, especially since a matter like this is far more our business than the military’s (you had better eat this when you have finished with it). Altogether I was dist
urbed by Sr Mittelwalder’s tone, which had become positively threatening. I was told later in the day that Mr Brunner accompanied him in the helicopter when it took off for, presumably, San Sacramento. I’m not sure I like the sound of that.

  I think, dear Father, that concludes the chain of events up to yesterday. As you can see by the date, I’m getting this down on paper while still fresh in my mind because, to be honest, I have a hundred more urgent spiritual matters to attend to and do not wish to waste time later having to rack my already unreliable memory. To summarise the entire thing, then, there is a completely rational – not to say banal – explanation for the ‘mysterious apparition’ of Our Lady at Tutuban ten days ago. She was in fact a visiting Peace Corps Volunteer who, by the merest accident of circumstances compounded by a regrettable superstitiousness, innocently induced three ignorant peasant children to believe she was of heavenly origin whereas she is, I gather, from Texas. No fraud was ever remotely intended, and I write at this length – and enclose Miss Maclean’s letter – so that your Bishop or even Cardinal Celso himself can issue the clearest possible statement and bring this episode to a swift close. Its prolongation can surely serve nobody’s interests. Indeed, I cannot imagine why the military authorities have not acted so far to quash the story: they are not generally slow in suppressing local newspapers and so on. Yet in the present instance there must be dozens of people in Tutuban who saw Miss Maclean during her visit – not least the staff of her hotel – but there has been not one mention in the Noticias de Tutuban. Strange and sinister times we live in, indeed. Meanwhile there are pressing human needs here in Tutuban as in every barrio of the entire country and we should not allow ourselves to be sidetracked for a moment from ministering to them.

  I greet you fraternally in Xto and entrust this letter to Brother Aristeo, who is returning almost immediately to Iguaçu.

  IGNATIUS O’MALLEY, OSD

  IV

  A memorandum dictated by Ambassador Philip Kleinman later used as the basis of his report to the State Department with particular reference to the official enquiry into the death of Jack S. Brunner, a serving Peace Corps Volunteer in Parazuela:

  The first I heard of this sorry business was when I was informed at eight-fifteen this morning comma June 17 that the police in Barrio Yagros comma a suburb of San Sacramento comma were holding the body of an unidentified Caucasian male believed to be a US citizen which had been found an hour earlier in an alley stop I immediately despatched John Socco er give him his full title etc. to make a preliminary identification but by the time he had arrived in Barrio Yagros the police at the precinct there claimed to have quote just found close quote an American passport in another alley approximately three blocks over from where the body was allegedly discovered stop and, Gloria, leave allegedly in, will you? er The passport was US passport number etc. dated etc. in the name of Jack initial S Brunner and from it and having inspected the body John Socco was able to make a clear preliminary identification of Mr Brunner stop, no, comma whose injuries appeared to be a single stab wound in the left lower back stop better make that injury singular At first sight, no, new para.

  At first sight Mr Brunner seems to be one more victim of the brutal robberies which are endemic in this city for the pockets were cut out of his pants but there is increasing evidence to suggest he had very recently been in police custody if not under actual detention by the military without comma of course comma this Embassy having been notified stop If confirmed this would put a new angle into the whole caboodle stop can you massage that last phrase please? You know, give it the Gloria treatment er The reasons for this suspicion are as follows colon

  (1) Mr Brunner was reported being escorted into a military helicopter in Tutuban comma Iguaçu province three days ago on whatever date it was stop Our informant was an Irish priest working in a parish there named O’Murphy I think but better check that stop He mentioned it in a phone conversation with a priest in San Sacramento a day or so after Mr Brunner was flown out of Tutuban because he claimed that quote on reflection there was something not quite right about it since Mr Brunner had no luggage with him and had not yet returned close quote Since then we have made every effort to reach Father O’Murphy to confirm this but without success since nobody in Tutuban knows where he is stop It begins to look as though he too has quote disappeared close quote stop

  (2) On learning of his allegation comma however comma strenuous representations were made yesterday from this office to General Tuig at National Integrated Police HQ and to General Mendez at Camp Gutierrez Command HQ and both denied absolutely that Mr Brunner comma or indeed any other foreign national comma was in their custody stop

  (3) Approximately two hours ago I received a personal summons to visit urgently the Minister of the Interior General Edmilson from whose office I have just returned stop He expressed regret at Mr Brunner’s death and informed me bluntly he had proof that Mr Brunner had been involved with an antigovernment rebel movement and was in close contact with guerrilla forces in the remote Meycauara district upriver from Tutuban where the Peace Corps Director here and the RAPCD in Iguaçu tell me Mr Brunner had personally instituted a successful fish hyphen farming project stop Needless to say I denied this allegation in the strongest possible terms and demanded substantive proof stop General Edmilson offered none whatever but claimed it was quote on its way close quote and added that there was a further suspicion that Mr Brunner had been involved in the narcotics trade stop At this point I asked the General if Mr Brunner had not also been suspected of theft comma arson comma and counterfeiting thousand hyphen peso bills and could he still assure me that in view of these suspicions and allegations Mr Brunner had never been in official custody stop I added that I now had the gravest doubts about the circumstances surrounding his death and that the US did not take lying down the murder of its innocent young Volunteers stop To support his drug hyphen running theory the General made an extraordinary circumstantial allegation based on a letter he claimed was in his possession from another Volunteer he declined to identify who had seemingly come from Rio de Janeiro bringing drugs with her stop In this same letter comma the General alleged comma this quote courier unquote had written that she had come quote to scatter poison unquote comma a phrase I found opaque but which the General informed me was Brazilian underground slang for drug trafficking stop I wish it to be on record that I did not then believe a word of this nonsense and nor do I now stop New para, Gloria, please

  At this time we are awaiting the autopsy report so there is not much more to add except some private speculations which comma since they come from someone who has had close dealings with Parazuela for almost seven years comma may retrospectively prove pertinent stop Good stuff, eh, Gloria? I regret to say that in the light of experience I have the gravest doubts that we ever shall learn the true reason for the unfortunate Mr Brunner’s death stop It may be that he was indeed the victim of casual street violence and certainly he was found in an area of the city notorious for such crimes stop It is an area full of bars comma brothels comma and night hyphen clubs which might well be thought to have offered strong temptations to a young single man having to spend months on end in a remote country region with almost no er facilities for relaxation stop new para

  However comma there are aspects of this case which lead me to suspect that Mr Brunner was deliberately killed with the sanction comma if not on the direct orders comma of high hyphen ranking military or police personnel stop If this is so comma the truth will probably never be known stop Even in democracies such things have occasionally happened and have proved enormously difficult to establish semicolon in a country like Parazuela under the present regime they are well hyphen nigh impossible to prove stop At all events the poor boy is dead and the reasons already given for his death by the police here will undoubtedly be the ones which it will be the US Government’s melancholy duty to pass on to his parents stop There is absolutely no need to cause distress by advancing alternative theories which might fuel speculati
on about conspiracies which can never be unravelled stop new para

  At this point I would like to state unequivocally and not for the first time that I do not consider Parazuela a fit country for the services of young Volunteers stop God knows the people on the ground could benefit from their presence comma but er in my opinion it is not fair to send such young comma inexperienced and highly motivated people out at large in a country which cannot offer even minimum standards of lawful protection and is wholly without the traditions and infrastructure which could support a democratic way of life stop I would now most earnestly recommend the closing down of Peace Corps operations in Parazuela stop new para

  There is one further and quite probably unconnected aspect to Mr Brunner’s death but which is at the very least a strange coincidence stop There are reports of a new religious cult centred on a plot of land immediately adjacent to Mr Brunner’s house in Tutuban stop It is claimed that some local children saw the Virgin Mary there a fortnight or so ago stop It seems to me eminently possible that Mr Brunner maybe put some fervent believer’s nose out of joint by complaining or scoffing colon he was only 24 and it should be noted that he was unafraid on all application forms and official declarations to give his religious status as quote atheist unquote stop The religious er sensitivities of the Parazuelans are considerable and deep hyphen running comma whether they are Catholic or charismatic or just plain superstitious stop It seems to me that youngsters coming from a culture which is to say the least often pretty sceptical about such things ought to be better briefed about how easy it can be for them unwittingly to give offence stop new para Sorry, Gloria, it’s getting a bit long, I know, but I’ve hit a vein. Don’t worry, we’re nearly through. New para or did I say that?