“I think all of us have a hero and a villain in us”

Anson Mount

Yawning and stretching, Alfred and Pip slid out of the truck, thoroughly dishevelled from four days and nights on the road and none of the niceties of modern bathroom plumbing. Carbonell, a giant of a man, looked at them, scratched his jaw, and then embraced Albert in a grip that might have startled a bear. They exchanged pleasantries and then turned to have a look at Pip. 

“How are you, young lady?” Carbonell asked.

She looked up at him. “Tired, sore, cranky, needing a bath and hungry, in that order, Señor.”

"Well. I can help you with those, just not in the way you might expect. Grab your things.”

He laughed as she climbed out from the driver’s side. “Oh, I see, you were driving, were you?”

“Si, I was, how did you know?”

“You were? I was just joking!”

“No,” Alfred said, yawning, slamming the passenger side door.. “It would have been four boring days down here and it seemed a great opportunity to teach her so I could catch up on my sleep. She was pretty good at it and she’s fun to talk to. I didn’t get too much sleep, but I didn’t wake up dead, so it worked out well for both of us. Get in, Pip, show him how you did it.”

She climbed back into the cab, shut the door, started the truck up and drove around the lot in a figure 8. “I’ll be damned. You can’t even see her head over the dash. That’s good to know. Good skill. We’ll definitely take her.”

“Let’s go Pip. Adios, Alfred.” With that, he turned and walked into the jungle at the side of the road.

Pip looked at Alfred dubiously. “Get going,” he said. “He won’t wait. Don’t lose him. He is your life. Hurry up. I hope to see you again, Pip, it was fun.” He hugged her and pushed her into the trees.

She could hear Carbonell ahead of her and caught up, following behind him. Past experience kicked in, and despite her anger at once more being on a forced march, she kept her mouth shut and walked. It was some miles before they encountered a stream where Carbonell gestured they would rest for a bit. There was a waterfall, a pool of blue water and a feeling of elemental peace. 

She stripped down to her underwear and walked into the pool. After two years of living with and looking after future sex toys, Pip had no inhibitions about nudity. After four days in the cab of a pick-up truck, this was heaven. She was floating on her back when she noticed Carbonell had joined her in the pool. He was a pale, bronze, well-muscled man with curly black hair, a short beard and a moustache. He was much taller than most Colombian men she’d seen and wondered what he’d eaten that made him so big. She was just a little taller than his waist

A while later, after they’d eaten, a meal she was familiar with, cancharinas and smoked beef, Carbonell introduced himself and told her where she was going, “Deeper into the jungle.” 

“Why are you living in the jungle?” she asked him. 

His jaw dropped. “You have never heard of guerrillas?”

“Yes,” she replied. “But I’m not from here. I’m Canadian.”

“He looked at her with astonishment. “But you speak Spanish like you were born here?”

“That’s because I’ve been here for a long time. I don’t even know what year it is. I only recently found out what country I’m in. I have no idea where I am. I was seven when I was taken. That was in 2009. September, I think. My family and I were on vacation in Trinidad when some big black guy grabbed me. I was eventually sold to El Heledaro. You know him, I think. Right?”

“Si, I do.”

“I understand. You will be looking after me until whatever he’s doing or wherever he’s going, American prison, I think, is over and he’s back. He said you’d teach me how to survive in the jungle. Is all of that right?”

“Si, si it is,” Carbonell said. “I don’t normally take on kids as small as you. If I’d known you were so small, I’d have said no. But here you are, so we have to make the best of it.”

“So what are you doing out here in the jungle? You’re not making sense. Why live in the jungle when you could be living more comfortably in a house?”

“The short answer is that we are at war. We are fighting the government. That’s what you’ll be doing, too.”

“What?”

"That’s what you’re here for. You’re here, as Daro told me, to learn what real life is all about.”

“I’m not fighting a war! I don’t want to kill people!”

“Of course you don’t. Nobody does. But here, if you don’t kill them first, they will kill you. That’s how it is here and how it will be until Daro tells me it’s safe for you to go home. His home, I mean. And since he’s serving a life sentence for drug smuggling in the U.S, you can count on being here in the jungle a long time, Pip.”

“What? He never told me that!”

“ I believe you, Pip, but his sentence won’t end for many years. Maybe twenty or thirty years.” She burst into tears. 

“He never said! He never said! He never said! Wailing. Carbonell waited patiently for her to calm down. When she did, she muttered, afraid of what he might say, “How long have you been doing this? All your life?”

“Not all of my life, but most of it. My parents were killed in an army raid. Our farm was destroyed. They said my family was sympathizing with the Rebels. It was true. We had no choice. The guerrillas were always around. The army was hardly ever around. Once my parents were gone, my brother and I could either starve or join the Rebels. What would you do?”

“The same, I guess. But that’s not fair.”

“Life is seldom fair, little girl. We take what we are served, and we deal with it. Complaining doesn’t help; it generally just makes things worse. Anyway, since joining, I’ve fought many battles and killed many people. My brother was killed in March of 2009. As of now, the year is 2011. When were you born?”

“I have no idea. My parents adopted me when I was thought to be one or two years old. They never told me where or how they got me. I was with them for five years. So, with them for five years. That takes me to 2007, and now we’re in 2011? I’ve been here just over two years, then, so, I must be about nine. Daro is now more or at least as much my father as my parents, Phillip and Cheryl. I remember Daro better than I remember them. He was always good to me. I miss him more than I miss my father and mother, I think.. I don’t know if I’ll ever see or hear of any of them ever again.” Tears welled up in her eyes. It makes me feel rootless. I guess being in a jungle is a good place as any to not know who you are.

“Are you Chinese?” he asked, “You look Oriental, but you have red hair and blue eyes. I really don’t understand how you can have blue eyes.” 

“I don’t know either, I don’t know what I am. I don’t look like my parents. I’m adopted. They told me they’d tell me how they got me when I was old enough to understand. Now I’m old enough to understand but I don’t know if I’ll ever see them again.”

“There are many of us like that here in the jungle, Pip. We have no families and we live under an alias. We are also rootless and stateless. You will grow up among people who understand you.”

“You think so? What’s an alias?”

“I know so, Pip. An alias, Pip, is a name you are given or earn as a member of FARC. We are a rebel army fighting the government. Many of us still have living relatives. We are given different names so that our relatives can’t be identified if we are captured or otherwise identified. Let’s get dressed and get to camp. We can talk more once we get there.” 

“How long will that be?”

"Oh, another six hours or so,  you’ll manage it. It’ll be dark before we get there."