By Night in Chile

Leaving Farewell’s doorstep, Urrutia wanders the streets of Santiago, feeling he’s caught in a dream. He hears the voices of all the past popes as the screeching of a flock of birds. He sees time obliterating Chilean poets, past, present, and future. The narrative returns to Urrutia’s deathbed, where he envisions his own reputation as H. Ibacache outliving him and watching as obscure writers are swept into oblivion. The writers implore him to remember them.

Urrutia’s thoughts turn to the wizened youth. The night Urrutia walked the streets of Santiago, the wizened youth was a child living on the banks of the Bío-Bío River, in the distant south of Chile. Only later did the wizened youth start his diatribe, accusing Urrutia of being a member of Opus Dei, a fact Urrutia insists he never tried to hide. Propping himself up on his deathbed, Urrutia explains that despite his own conservative politics, he praised poets who were members of the Chilean Communist Party.

Urrutia hallucinates that his deathbed is floating down a river through a jungle. The current spins the bed, silencing the wizened youth. Urrutia enjoys the silent reprieve before resuming his defense of his membership in Opus Dei, even though the wizened youth hasn’t reappeared.