after all? had they left her a single mother? was everything happy and pure now gone? it was morning in the kitchen. jayne stared out the back door of the ranch house in san miguel. and that s when she saw it, there was a skeleton out there, a walking dead man, it took a moment to register. it was eduardo, all but unrecognizable, suddenly old man, emaciated, skin and bones. she opened the door. i pulled him into me and put my arms around him, and he just felt so cold. it was literally as if he was already dead and i just started kissing him all over his cheeks. he could barely talk. he just whispered and told me, i love you so much. it was as if his freedom had come at the last possible moment before death. earlier jayne had put doctors and a psychologist on stand by for just such a moment as this. he refused them. and there by the door, as she held him in her arms, he begged her for her special banana pancakes.
there is a happy reunion at the school jayne helped found. they lead her around the campus to show off the progress they have made in her absence. wow. it looks amazing. how painful that absence has been. their trip back to the ranch coincides with eduardo s 61st birthday. jayne hastily organizes a fiesta, only close and trusted friends are invited. party food prepared. the favorite charo suit out of the closet and they, in a magic evening, are transported back into the world they left behind, a world they love. in those months in the box, eduardo had stayed sane by dreaming of singing again with mariachis. tonight, he does.
and then the son of one of mexico s great newspaper barons with jayne and his family was escorted out of the land he loved. that kidnapped employee, by the way, the kidnappers simply released him nearly three months later, no ransom at all. by then, jayne and eduardo and their children had squeezed into what they expected would be a temporary exile, two months or so, at jayne s mother s house in america. why just two months? mostly because federal police assured them they had significant leads. they still insisted they knew the group responsible, a marxist revolution party called the epr. and besides, one of the officials who debriefed eduardo was soon promoted to commissioner of federal police and hadn t he promised personally that he would aggressively chase down the abductors? but two months grew to three, then six. no word. i tried to call different times.
the secrecy lifted a little after eduardo s friend lucy was leekted mayor. the chief of police went public with news of two more kidnappings, here in relatively safe san miguel. just want to raise my kids in a place where you can trust the police, where it s the justice system conscience. a sentiment they discovered which is created a whole other kind of immigration from mexico. immigration based on fear. i would like to form an organization organizing the people like us who have had to leave mexico and take refuge in the united states. i was going to say you think you would have much company? a lot. by thousands. it was in the box where eduardo felt isolated, starved, beaten, beset by glaring light, deafening noise, the fear of death, it was a revelation. and he hasn t been the same since. nothing really matters,
the commissioner. no leads. but please don t talk to the media. the kidnappers are still out there. advice rejected. you are potentially setting yourself up as a target, however. the best way to fight this craziness is to speak about it, to go with solutions. but if you keep quiet, like most people do, how are you going to come up with solution. some fellow citizens have expressed discomfort about eduardo s outspokenness. he thinks he knows why. some people that we know have expressed madness that we shouldn t say anything because it affects tourism. affect the real estate values. so let s lift the carpet, sweep it under, shh. it s better not to scare anybody away.