Read Online Out in the Open by Jesús Carrasco - Free Book Online Page B

wall, the round tower to the left and, beyond that, the horizon from which they had come. To one side of the tower was a rounded arch containing a bricked-up door. On the highest part of the wall, above the keystone of the arch, was a machicolation supported by three corbels. For their part, the goats happily dispersed, guided only by their need for food in the form of dry tufts of grass. If the wall did collapse, it would kill almost all of them. The boy paused to examine the sculpture, which reminded him of the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the village church. Just for a moment, he felt a desire to go back and rejoin the other children in the school playground and tell them about his discovery and tell them, above all, that there was no need to visit a castle in order to be terrified, that terror rode the streets of the village in the form of a backfiring motorbike and clouds of toxic smoke.
    After a while, the boy turned to the old man, expecting him to abandon his contemplation in order to unload the donkey and to rest. However, the old man continued to stand there, staring blankly at the wall. The boy thought he must have gone to sleep. From his lesser height, he could see the old man’s wide nostrils and the long white hairs sprouting from the darkness within; his grizzled four days’ growth of beard; and his jaw from which hung the slack skin of his blank face. The boy felt like tugging at his sleeve and dragging him away, but could not allow himself such familiarity. He cleared his throat, scratched the back of his neck and shifted from foot to foot like someone desperate for a pee, but still he couldn’t get the old man’s attention.
    â€˜Sir.’
    The goatherd spun round as if he’d been insulted, and only then did they start to walk towards the wall. When they reached it, the old man almost collapsed against it, and it was the boy who took charge of unloading the donkey. He removed the various bits and pieces from the panniers on the pack frame and placed them next to the old man. When he’d finished doing this, he detached the panniers themselves and put the goatherd’s belongings back inside them. The old man asked him to bring him the packsaddle to use as a pillow. The boy tried to get it off the donkey by lifting it from the side, but it was too well embedded on the animal’s back and, however hard he tried, he couldn’t shift it. He searched the panniers for a length of rope left over from the netting and tied it to the donkey’s cinch strap. Then he attached the other end to a large piece of stone fallen from the castle wall and gave a tug on the halter. The donkey immediately started forward, and the saddle slipped backwards over its rump onto the ground.
    He carried the packsaddle over to the goatherd and, seeing him from close to, the boy thought that not only did he look much tireder than on previous days, he looked quite ill. The old man said that they would stay there for a couple of days because there was a well nearby, plus it was the only shade they would find for many miles and there was food for the goats. The boy glanced around him and, for as far as he could see, there was nothing but stones and baked earth. The only food available for the goats was a few withered clumps of astragalus and some scattered stubble left from the last harvest. Up until then, they had always managed to find shade and, as regards food for the goats, this was one of the poorest places they had camped. He turned to the old man and found him lying down on the stones, his head resting on the packsaddle and his hat covering his face. The boy assumed that he must be exhausted after so much walking and that they had stopped there because the man could go no further. He bent down and, picking up the flasks, shook them to see how much water they had left.
    At midday, the boy managed to load the panniers onto the donkey’s back and in them placed the flasks and the milking