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The Ring
by Bernard Smith
(Adapted book. Pre-Intermediate level)

CHAPTER ONE
The Madman on the Beach
When I saw Rafael for the first time, I was twelve
years old.
My family lived in a big town, far away from the sea.
But my Uncle Miguel and his family lived in a little village
on the coast. He had a cafe and a small farm there, and
sometimes my family visited him.
There in that village I met poor, mad Rafael. I didn't
know then who he was. I didn't know why he was mad. I
knew nothing of his strange and terrible story. Now,
fourteen years later, I know exactly what happened. But
Rafael is dead. Why should I tell people his terrible secret?
Only I know what happened to Rafael. Only I know what
happened to the young and beautiful Anita. And to the
soldier. Only I.
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The people in the village told me what they knew.

Their stories were all true. Every word. My uncle, his wife,
Rodrigo the shopkeeper - nobody lied to me. Nobody. Not
even poor Clara, Rafael's mother. And she was already
dead when I went back to the village. Their stories were all
true. But they didn't know what really happened.
The first time I saw Rafael, I was walking along the
beach with my younger brother Pablo. Our parents were
talking with my uncle and his family. We boys went along
the beach to look around.
At the end of the beach there were high black rocks,
where the mountains behind the village came down into the
sea. Near them was an old wooden boat-house. It had no
doors. The roof was broken at one end, and open to the sky.
Inside there was an old wooden fishing boat.
My brother and I looked inside. The sand was deep
and soft on the floor. Suddenly, in a corner behind the boat,
something moved in the shadows. It was a dirty young man
with long hair and a beard. He stood up and looked at us.
His eyes were open, but empty. He looked at us, but he
didn't see us. He was very thin.
He put one hand to his neck. I saw something shining
under the dark beard. There was something small and
bright on a thin fishing line round his neck. He pulled it out
to show us. It was a small gold ring in the shape of a fish.
Suddenly he spoke. His voice was clear, but thin and
high. He spoke words, but they didn't mean anything.
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'She gave me the golden fish,' he said. 'She gave it

back to me.'
Then he laughed. And when he laughed, my brother
and I were very afraid. He laughed and laughed, but his
eyes were big and sad. We ran out of the boat-house. The
thin young man came out behind us. He stood in the
sunshine and laughed.
'She gave me the ring,' he shouted. 'I still have it.'
Some little boys from the village came running. Some
of them threw stones at the thin, dirty man.
'Crazy Rafael!' they shouted. Crazy Rafael!'
He stopped laughing and screamed at them. Then he
went back inside the boat-house. The children laughed and
ran away.
We went back to my uncle's house.
'Who is that crazy man on the beach?' we asked. 'The
children called him Rafael.'
'He's only a poor, mad young man,' said my uncle. 'He
isn't dangerous. He went mad about a year ago. We don't
know why. Nobody can help him. I'm afraid. His mother
lives in the house at the end of the village. She brings him
food every day. All the people in the village help her when
they can.'
Soon the adults began to talk about other things. But I
never forgot poor, mad Rafael. Every time I thought about
the village, I remembered the poor, mad man in the boat-
house on the beach. Sometimes I saw him in my dreams.
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He looked at me with his big, empty, mad eyes. He called

to me. He had the gold ring round his neck, and he held it
out to me. He called for me to help him.
* * *
My family went back to the town. After I left school,
I went to university in the capital. I studied to be a doctor. I
spent two years in the USA. Finally, I came back to my
home town and I found work in a big, new hospital there.
In all those years, I never went back to the village.
But then one of my uncle's sons got married and all my
family went there for a few days.
There were many changes in the village. Twelve
years of change. There were new stone houses. There were
new, brightly-painted fishing boats along the beach, a lot of
them with engines. My uncle had a big, clean, new cafe
with tables and chairs, and a television in the corner. It was
all very different from the village that I saw as a boy.
I went down to the beach on my first afternoon in the
village. I wanted to see again the place where I first saw
Rafael. I couldn't believe it. The old boat-house and the
boat were still there. The boat was in pieces now, but the
boat-house was bigger and stronger. There was some new
wood on the walls and a new roof on it.
I walked along the beach and felt the soft sand under
my town shoes. There was a man sitting near the old boat-
house. He was looking at the sea. He had long hair and
long, thin legs. I came closer and he suddenly looked round
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at me. It was Rafael. I saw again those same wide, crazy,

sad eyes, the eyes from my dreams.
He was twelve years older. His hair and beard were
beginning to go grey, but they weren't as long and dirty as
before. His face was very thin and he looked ill. His clothes
were old, but clean.
'How are you, Rafael?' I called, smiling.
He put his head on one side and looked at me. His
mouth opened and he smiled. A thin brown hand moved up
to his neck.
'She gave me the golden fish,' he said. His voice was
flat and empty. He coughed suddenly - a deep, dry cough.
Then he looked with sad yellow eyes at the bright, empty
sea.
I went back across the soft white sand to my uncle's
house I had an idea in my head. I was a doctor now.
Perhaps I could find out what was the matter with this poor
man. I could give him the best help that modern medicine
could give him.
I told my uncle what I wanted to do. 'There are special
hospitals now in the capital for people like Rafael. I can
take him there. If I can make him well, I will. If not, he can
stay in a hospital there. He will have a bed, good food,
nurses all the time. It's not good for him to sleep on the
beach. He looks ill.'
I asked him to tell me about Rafael. He told me
everything that he knew. It was a long and strange story. I
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wrote it all in a notebook. I wanted to help the poor

madman to get well. For this, I had to know everything
about him.
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CHAPTER TWO
Rafael's Father and the Sharks
Told by my uncle

Rafael was born in the village (my uncle said).

His father was called Manuel and he was a fisherman.
His mother, Clara, is also dead now. She was the sister of
my own wife, Rosa. Rafael was their only child. He was a
fine boy, never ill, good-looking, healthy and strong.
When he was about eight years old, his father was
killed. It was a terrible thing for the young boy. He was
there and saw his father die. They were out in their boat,
fishing with some other men from the village. I don't know
what happened exactly. Something happened to the fishing
nets; perhaps they were caught under the boat. Manuel
went into the water to do something with them.
Suddenly a shark attacked him. It was a complete
surprise. The other fishermen could do nothing to help him.
It was a big white shark. It came up from deep water and
bit off one of Manuel's legs - a clean bite above the knee.
The other men pulled him into the boat. The blood
from his leg ran deep in the bottom of the boat. The men
put a shirt round the top of his leg. They tried to stop the
blood, but it was impossible. They say that Manuel was
calm at first. He felt no pain. He smoked a cigarette and he
talked to little Rafael, in the boat next to him.
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But after a few minutes he went very white. Then he

began to feel very cold. The men covered him with their
clothes to keep him warm. But he became very weak and
sleepy.
Suddenly he put his hand on Rafael's head.
'Be a good son,' he said. His voice was terribly tired.
'Help your mother.' Then he fell asleep, and in a few
minutes his heart stopped.
After that, Rafael and his mother, Clara, lived alone in
their house at the end of the village. Manuel's brother,
Ricardo, helped Clara with money. All the people in the
village helped her. Manuel was a good man. We always
help our people when they need it. In a few years Rafael
was older and started to work. He became a fisherman, too.
He and his mother were poor, but he could earn enough
money for them both.
Rafael was a fine boy. He became a good fisherman.
But he always hated sharks, because of what happened to
his father. Every few months, he did something very
strange. When anyone in the village killed an animal for
meat, Rafael asked them for the skin and the stomach. He
took the insides of the animal that nobody wanted. Then he
went out in his boat alone, far from the land. There he
threw the pieces of the animal into the sea and waited for
the sharks to come. A shark can smell blood in the water
when it is many kilometres away. Soon a lot of sharks
arrived in the water round his boat. Then Rafael took his
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fishing spear. He stood up in his boat and killed one or two

of them.
When he killed a shark, the other sharks tasted the
blood. They began to bite and eat the shark. So then there
was more blood in the water and more sharks came. Rafael
killed more and more. After an hour he was almost too tired
to stand. It was a really dangerous thing to do in a small
boat.
But he was smiling when he told me about it. He was
really happy about the dead sharks, because a shark killed
his father.
So Rafael grew up, tall, strong and good-looking.
And, of course, he fell in love with Anita, the shopkeeper's
daughter. So now (said my uncle), I have to tell you about
Anita, too.
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CHAPTER THREE
Anita, the Shopkeeper's Daughter
Told by my uncle

Anita was a beautiful child (my uncle continued). I

know, most children are beautiful. But she was the most
beautiful child that I've ever seen. Everyone loved her.
Little children, old people, men and women, they all loved
Anita. They smiled when they saw her. And year after year
she grew up, and year after year she grew more beautiful.
Her father, Rodrigo, the shopkeeper, loved her most.
He tried to keep her close to him, always. She could never
go out and talk with the village boys. But this is a small
village. It was impossible to keep her at home all the time.
She was a good girl, but all the young men dreamed of her
and wanted to marry her.
She was not only beautiful. She was clever, too. Her
father could read and write. Most of the people in the
village couldn't. We had no school in the village in those
days. So Rodrigo taught Anita to read and write. He often
went into the town to buy things for his shop. Then he
brought back picture magazines and small story books for
her.
Anita was very good at reading and telling stories.
She remembered everything that she read. When she was
only nine or ten, she often sat near the house under a tree
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with a book. There she read or told stories to her little

brothers and sisters. Soon the other children of the village
came and sat round her. Some of the fishermen, old and
young, sat on the beach near the shop, too. They liked to
listen to little Anita when she told her stories.
Of course, Rodrigo had big plans for Anita. He was so
proud of her. He wanted her to marry someone rich and
important. Perhaps a man from the city, who was able to
help Rodrigo's business. Everyone knew one thing for sure.
He didn't want Anita to marry anyone from the village.
Rafael loved her very much. They say Anita loved
him, too. But there was no hope for him. Rodrigo didn't
want a poor fisherman to be Anita's husband.
Poor Rodrigo. He loved Anita and he had great hopes
for her. When she ran away, it was terrible for him. He still
doesn't talk about it. Not a word. Not after all these years.
For him, he says,
Anita is dead. He has no daughter of that name.
* * *
'But where did she go?' I asked my uncle. 'Someone
knows. And why is Rafael mad? Not because Anita ran
away from home. She didn't run away with him, did she?'
'No, she didn't,' answered my uncle. 'That's for sure.
Nobody knows where she went. But Rafael stayed in the
village. And that was the time when he went mad. I believe
that Anita ran away with the soldier. I think they're
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married. They're probably living in another town, far away.

But that's only my opinion. I don't really know.'
'The soldier? What soldier?' I asked. My uncle smiled
and looked at his watch.
'It's a long and strange story,' he said.
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CHAPTER FOUR
The Soldier
Told by my uncle

The soldier (said my uncle) came to the village about

three months before Anita ran away. She was sixteen years
old then, and Rafael was eighteen.
The soldier was a strange man. His real name was
Carlos, but everyone called him 'the soldier'. He told us
about his life.
'I've been a soldier all my life,' he told us. 'I was in
Cuba for six years. Then I fought in Africa and many other
places. I've seen the world, my friends.'
He had a thousand stories. But nobody ever knew
where he came from. He was Very handsome, with bright
eyes and long, dark hair. He was a soldier, a sailor, a
fisherman - everything. He had a small boat with an engine.
That was unusual in those days. He worked for nobody. He
went where he wanted to. He did what he wanted to. He
bought things and sold things. He could get anything that
you wanted, for a price.
He sailed into our village late one afternoon. He
anchored his boat a few metres from the shore and walked
up the beach. I never knew what he came for. It was just a
small thing that he wanted, probably. First he went to
Rodrigo's shop. Then he came to my cafe and sat for an
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hour and talked. And there he saw Anita, sitting by the

corner of the shop. The children were all round her on the
ground and she was telling them a story.
He sat outside the cafe and talked for an hour or more
about this and that. But his eyes never went far from the
little group of children.
At last he asked me: 'Is that girl your schoolteacher?'
I laughed and said: 'No, she's just the shopkeeper's
daughter. She's only sixteen. She's not much older than a
child.'
He left the village late in the afternoon before it got
dark. He walked through the water to his boat and climbed
in. We watched him start the engine. The boat moved away
round the rocks at the end of the beach. Everyone in the
village stopped what they were doing. Anita, too, stopped
in her story. Everyone watched the strange thing - a boat
that went without a sail.
Of course, he came back. I told you, no man could
ever forget Anita. A week or two later his boat arrived
again and the good-looking stranger went to Rodrigo's
shop. He bought a few things and talked with Rodrigo.
Then he came to the cafe again. He had a drink and a talk
with me. Then he went off again along the coast.
Soon he came twice a week, on Thursdays and
Sundays. He made friends with the people of the village.
He was exciting and amusing. He was different from the
people of the village. He was a stranger, but everyone
seemed to like him. We listened to the stories about his
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travels and his life in other countries. He always spent an

hour or two at my cafe. He sat and drank with us and told
funny stories. Many of the fishermen came to the cafe
when he was there. I liked him, the other men did, too.
He often brought little presents for people. He
brought me a little cassette player one day. It was
something new for us. We had no electricity in the village
then, and we knew very little about the outside world. He
showed me how it worked. Then he brought me new
batteries for it every two weeks. He gave me some cassettes
for it, too, of music from the cities, dance music from Latin
America, and Mexican love songs.
'A cafe must have music,' he said, 'music for the
customers to enjoy.'
After that I kept the little cassette player on the bar.
Every time the soldier came to the cafe, I played some
music for him. When the cafe was busy, I played music for
the people of the village, too.
He brought a paraffin lamp for Rodrigo to put in his
shop. It was a very bright light. No house in the village had
a light like it. The soldier was becoming very good friends
with Rodrigo.
Then early one Monday morning, we heard a terrible
noise from Rodrigo's house. He was shouting, his wife was
screaming, and the children were all crying. It seems Anita
wasn't in the house. Her bed was cold and empty. There
was no note from her, not a word. Rodrigo wanted to get
the police.
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'Somebody has stolen my daughter,' he said.

'Somebody has taken her away in the night, dead or alive.'
But then they found that her little box was empty.
Anita's best clothes and favourite things weren't there. Even
her little story books were gone. So Rodrigo stopped
talking about bringing the police. For a few days he was
terribly angry. He spoke wildly and fought with everyone.
Nobody could speak to him. Then, suddenly, he seemed to
cut her out of his life. He never spoke her name again. He
still doesn't talk about her. Only a brave man speaks Anita's
name in front of him.
We never saw the soldier again. He was here on the
Sunday afternoon and evening. He usually was. He spent
most of the evening in the cafe, listening to the music. Then
he left at about ten o'clock. I watched him go out to his
boat. It was dark. There was no moon. But I heard him start
his engine and go off to the west. And the next morning
Anita was gone. And we never saw her or the soldier again.
So I - and most people in the village - believe that she
ran away with the soldier. Nobody knows how they did it.
We never saw him talk to her for a minute in the village. I
think he waited for her in his boat along the coast. And she
went to him in the middle of the night. Most of us believe
they are living together somewhere. Maybe with their own
children now.
* * *
'But why did Rafael go mad?' I asked my uncle.
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'Who knows?' he replied. 'Perhaps he went mad

because he loved Anita. Then she ran away with the
soldier. Who can say? He did love the girl very much. I
knew it, and his mother did, too. But marriage was
impossible because Rafael was a poor, fatherless
fisherman.'
'But a man doesn't go mad for thirteen years because a
girl runs away from home,' I said. 'Men often lose their
wives, their children. People die in accidents. This doesn't
make other people crazy. Rodrigo lost his favourite
daughter, the light of his life, but he didn't go mad.'
'Who can say?' said my uncle again. 'Who knows why
things happen? Why does a man go mad? We know that
Rafael was in love with Anita. He loved her for a long time
before the soldier came to the village. We know that
because of the gold ring.'
'Ah, yes,' I said. 'Tell me about the gold ring that
Rafael wears round his neck. It's clearly a very important
part of the story.'
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CHAPTER FIVE
The Gold Ring
Told by my uncle

Rafael (said my uncle) was in love with Anita. He

wanted to marry Anita when she was only fifteen or
sixteen. His mother went to see Rodrigo to talk to him
about it. I heard that Rodrigo was very polite to her.
'I'm sorry,' he said. 'Anita is going to marry a rich
businessman in the city. He's a very rich man and a friend
of our family. Your son Rafael is a fine boy. But he's too
young to get married. And he has nothing to give her.
Nothing at all.'
Rafael was very sad when he heard about Anita and
the businessman. Then, after a few weeks, he suddenly left
the village and went to the port on the coast.
'I'm going to find work in the port,' he said to his
mother. 'I want to see something of the world outside this
village. I'll come back in a month or two.'
He put his few things in his boat and sailed along the
coast to the port. It was six months before we saw him
again.
* * *
'Six months? What did he do there for six months?' I
asked my uncle.
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'You're lucky,' he replied. 'I can tell you. Rafael came

to the cafe one evening. There were no other customers that
night, and he told me about his time in the port. This is
what he told me.'
* * *
Rafael stayed in the port all the time (my uncle said).
He slept in his boat on the beach. Sometimes he bought
fruit and vegetables from the market after it closed. They
were very cheap then. He worked for anyone. He did
anything. He carried things for people. He loaded and
unloaded boats and lorries. Every morning, very early, he
went fishing. Then he sold the fish on the beach before he
started work. Slowly, very slowly, he began to save some
money.
Rafael met an old goldsmith in the town. He was a
good old man. Rafael helped the goldsmith when he could.
He cleaned his shop for him and brought packages and
messages for him. He talked to him and made coffee for
him. He watched him while he was working. Soon he
became a good friend.
Rafael never took any money from the old man. He
never asked for any.
Then, one day, the goldsmith asked Rafael what he
wanted. He knew he wanted something. And Rafael told
him.
'I want a gold ring for a girl in my village,' he said. 'It
must be in the shape of a fish, a long fish with its tail in its
mouth. How much will this ring cost? I have some money.
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I know it's not enough. But I'll work for you until I've paid
for it.'
The old goldsmith made the ring for him. I'm sure
Rafael paid much less than its real cost. But it took six
months of hard work to pay for it.
Soon after Rafael came back to the village, he went
with his mother to see Rodrigo. This time Rafael spoke for
himself.
'Senor Rodrigo,' he said quietly. 'My father is dead
and my mother is poor. But I'm hard-working and honest
and I'll be a good husband to Anita. One day I'll be a rich
man, like your friend in the city. But I'll be a better husband
to Anita than the businessman, because I love her with all
my heart.'
Then he gave the gold ring to Rodrigo as a present for
Anita.
Of course, Rodrigo didn't agree to a marriage between
Anita and Rafael. He gave the ring back to Rafael.
'I'm sorry,' he said. 'But Anita will marry the
businessman in a year or two. That is decided and I am not
going to change my plans.'
* * *
'So Anita never got the ring,' I said to my uncle. 'After
all that work and time, he couldn't give it to her.'
'He still has it on a piece of fishing line round his
neck,' my uncle said.
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'And when did the soldier come to the village for the
first time?'
'A few months after Rafael came back from the port,
perhaps. I can't remember exactly.'
'But Rafael wasn't mad at that time?'
'Oh, no. Not at all. In fact he seemed very happy.'
'Tell me about the time when he went mad. Was it the
same time exactly when Anita went away with the soldier,
or later?'
'It's difficult to remember. A lot of things happened at
that time.'
'What do you mean? What kind of things happened?'
'Oh, little things, strange things. Santiago's old
donkey disappeared.'
'What do you mean - it disappeared?'
'It did - it went. It disappeared. One day it was in the
field behind his house. The next day it wasn't there.
Perhaps Anita stole it to ride on. But everyone knew
Santiago's donkey. It was too old and weak to walk a
hundred metres. It couldn't carry a girl.'
'What other strange things happened?'
'I remember that on that last night, Rafael danced.'
'Danced?'
'Yes, he danced for hours, alone, here in the cafe. He
never danced before, not in the cafe or anywhere. Or I
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never saw him dance. And, of course, he never danced

again, because he went crazy. But I must start at the
beginning.'
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CHAPTER SIX
The Night When Rafael Danced
Told by my uncle

It was a Sunday (said my uncle). The soldier arrived

in his boat in the early afternoon, when everything was
quiet. He lowered his anchor a few metres from the shore,
as usual, and walked up the sand to the houses. He never
pulled his boat up on to the beach. It was a heavy boat and
he didn't want to break the engine. He always left it in
about one metre of water.
That day he came first to the cafe. He sat and talked
with me and some of the men. We all sat outside the cafe
and listened to his stories.
Then, later in the afternoon, he went to Rodrigo's
shop and bought a few things. He had a big can of paraffin
in the boat for Rodrigo's new lamp. I saw him give it to
him. The soldier and Rodrigo sat and talked and drank
coffee outside the shop for about an hour.
When it got dark, he went with Rodrigo into the
house behind the shop. I could see the bright light from the
lamp through the window. Then the soldier had a meal with
Rodrigo.
After the meal, he came back to the cafe and sat with
me and some of the fishermen. It was very dark and we sat
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inside. The soldier seemed very happy. He told us a lot of

funny stories about his life as a soldier.
Then, at about nine o'clock, Rafael came into the cafe.
We were surprised to see him, because Rafael didn't
spend a lot of time at the cafe. And he never came into the
cafe when the soldier was there. That night he was wearing
his best clothes. Usually he wore his old clothes, even in
the cafe. He was wearing his best shirt and trousers. His
face and hands were very clean, and his hair was still wet
and shiny from washing. I asked myself: 'Is he trying to
show the soldier that he is not just a poor fisherman?'
The soldier knew Rafael. He knew that he wanted to
marry Anita. Everyone in the village talked about it. Rafael
knew that the soldier was also interested in her. Everyone
in the village talked about that, too. But nobody knew the
secret game that the soldier was playing.
Rafael and the soldier didn't speak. The cafe was
quiet. Nobody spoke.
Suddenly the soldier took a cassette from his pocket.
'Let's have some music,' he said, giving me the
cassette.
I took it and put it into the player. I remember it was a
love song. It was sung by a girl with a soft and beautiful
voice. We all sat and listened to it.
Rafael smiled and listened, too.
When the cassette ended, I put another cassette in the
player. But the soldier stood up.
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'It's getting late,' he said. 'I must go.'

He went out into the dark night. It was about ten
o'clock, I think. His usual time. A few minutes later, we
heard the noise when he started the engine of his boat. Then
the sound of the engine went slowly along the coast. Soon
everything was quiet again. We could hear only the sea and
the music.
The girl on the cassette was singing another love
song. It was a sad song, slow but strong. The fishermen and
I sat quietly and listened.
Suddenly Rafael stood up in the corner of the cafe and
began, very slowly, to dance. Alone in the shadows, his
eyes closed, he moved to the music.
He danced, his head back, eyes closed, a strange half-
smile on his face. We all watched him in surprise. After a
few minutes we laughed and went on talking. But Rafael
went on dancing, dancing alone for the rest of the evening.
Every time the music stopped he looked at me with big,
dark eyes and said, 'Again.' And I put another cassette in
the machine. Then Rafael smiled, closed his eyes, and
continued dancing.
At midnight all the other men went off to bed. Rafael
was still there, still dancing. I watched the poor boy until
the song ended. Then I switched off the machine. I said
good night to him, and sent him home to bed.
* * *
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Then the next morning, before daylight, we heard

shouting and crying from Rodrigo's house. The news went
round the village like fire. Anita wasn't there.
Rodrigo sent all his family and friends out to look for
her. They looked along every road, big and small. They
looked in the fields and along the beach, in the rocks.
Everywhere.
Later, Rafael came out of his house with his mother. I
told them about Anita, and they were very surprised. We all
were. Rafael went to his boat immediately. He planned to
sail along the coast and look for her.
He sailed away to the west. I watched him until I
couldn't see him. He sailed round the rocks at the end of the
village. He was looking at the land as he went. The next
time I saw him, he was mad.
Everybody in the village was out looking for Anita
that morning. But nobody found her. Then Santiago
couldn't find his old donkey. He came to Rodrigo's shop.
He was shouting that Anita took it. Rodrigo was very
angry. He wanted to hit Santiago and knock him down. I
thought he wanted to kill the old man. Some friends of
Santiago took him away quickly. After that, he said nothing
more about the donkey.
Then, early in the afternoon, some of the fishermen
found Rafael. He was about a kilometre west of the village,
in a quiet place near the high rocks. His boat wasn't far
from the shore and Rafael was lying in the bottom of it. He
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was wet and dirty. He was looking up at the sky and

laughing. And he was completely mad.
They brought him and the boat back to the village.
His mother and I washed him and gave him some water.
We put him to bed. But he lay and made noises all night.
He screamed and fought. He was like a mad animal.
The next day he went out of the house and sat by his
boat. He looked at the sea all day and said nothing. We
waited, day after day. We gave him food and drink. We
washed him when we could. But he was like a small child.
We waited for him to get better. But he never did.
* * *
'And you never found out what made him mad?' I
asked my uncle.
'He never speaks. Only about the ring. You know
everything that I know now,' he said. 'When we were
washing the poor boy, we found the gold ring on a fishing
line round his neck. When we tried to take it off, he
screamed. So we left it there. All these years later, he still
wears it round his neck. He gave six months of his life to
buy that ring. His present for Anita which she never had.'
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CHAPTER SEVEN
Two Visits
The next morning, I went with my uncle to see
Rodrigo, the shopkeeper. He had a fine supermarket now,
built of stone. He still lived in a house behind the shop. But
now the house was two floors high and had a garden with a
wall round it. He also had his own lorry with his name on
it, and there was a new car next to the shop. It was clear
that Rodrigo had plenty of money now.
Inside the supermarket there were all kinds of tins and
packets. There were boxes of fresh fruit and vegetables
outside the door. It was the biggest shop in the village and
it seemed to sell everything.
Rodrigo was a big, heavy man. He was about fifty
years old and he wore a fine white suit and a white hat.
When we arrived, he was unloading boxes of tins from the
lorry. He was picking them up, three at a time, and taking
them into the shop. He was big and fat. But he was still a
very strong man.
He was polite and friendly to my uncle and me. He
knew I was a doctor. He invited us into his house. We sat
and had coffee and talked about the changes in the village
since my first visit as a boy.
At last I told him my ideas for helping Rafael. Then
he wasn't so friendly.
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'A doctor!' he said. 'He needs more than a doctor. I

don't know why he's crazy. Nobody does. God knows, I've
helped him and his mother over the years. I've given them
food when they were hungry. And money when they
needed it. His poor mother was a good and hard-working
woman. Now she's dead. It was a terrible thing to happen to
her. Terrible. First her young husband was killed by a
shark. Then her only son went crazy and lived on the beach
like an animal.
'Some people say that love made him mad. But you're
an intelligent man, doctor. You've studied at university.
Does a young man of eighteen years go mad for love of a
girl? A strong young man in good health? It's a stupid idea.
I believe he wasn't in good health. I think he was ill. I don't
know the problem exactly. You're the doctor. Help him.
Make him better, if you can. But look for the facts. Don't
listen to people's silly stories.'
'So you don't think that your daughter Anita was the
reason for his madness?' I asked.
Rodrigo didn't look at us. He looked at the wall for a
long time.
'I don't have a daughter called Anita,' he said at last. 'I
had one many years ago, but she's dead.'
After that, he said nothing more about Rafael or
Anita. Soon we thanked him and left.
* * *
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Later that morning, a man came to my uncle's house.

He was small and thin. He stood at the back door with his
hat in his hands.
When my uncle saw him, he brought him inside. He
found a chair for him and gave him a drink.
'This is Luis Valdez,' he said to me. 'He's a farmer. He
has a farm just outside the village to the east.'
We sat and talked about farms and the weather. Then
the man began to ask me about Rafael.
'Is it true, the story that I hear?' he asked. 'Are you
trying to save Rafael, the poor, crazy boy?'
'I'm a doctor,' I answered. 'And yes, I'm interested in
Rafael. I'm trying to find out why he went mad. Perhaps I
can make him better. Perhaps not.'
'My wife asked me to talk to you,' he said. 'She's
Marta, Rodrigo's second daughter and Anita's younger
sister. She says she wants to talk to you about Anita and
Rafael. But it must be a secret. She knows things that even
her father Rodrigo doesn't know. She wants to help Rafael.
But she doesn't want to make her father angry or unhappy
after all these years.'
'Her secrets will be safe with me,' I said. 'I don't want
to make the people in the village unhappy. I only want to
help Rafael. If she knows anything about Rafael, I'll be
happy to talk to her.'
That evening I went alone to Luis's house. Luis sent
his children to bed, and Marta began to tell me her story.
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CHAPTER EIGHT
The Young Princess
Told by Marta

I'm Rodrigo's second daughter (Marta told me). I was

seven years younger than Anita. When I was a little girl, it
was very strange. Anita was beautiful; I wasn't. Anita was
clever; I wasn't. She could read and tell stories, sing and
draw pictures. I couldn't. I was small, fat and stupid. But
I've been lucky I married a good husband. I have two
healthy sons and a pretty daughter. Now I'm very happy
with my life.
But I must tell you about my sister Anita. It's true that
she was beautiful and clever. But, I'm sorry to say, she
wasn't a very good child. Not very nice. Our parents gave
her everything she wanted. She could do anything she
liked. She never worked or helped our mother in the house.
I remember that her hands were always clean and beautiful.
Her fingernails were long and pink. They were never
broken or bitten like mine.
Everyone thought she was beautiful and clever.
Everyone smiled at her. Everyone did what she wanted.
She became proud and lazy. I remember she told us
stories, sitting near the house. But her voice was very loud
and clear, and all the people near us could hear her clever
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words. She often sang to herself in the house. But she sang
only when there were people outside to hear her.
I'm sorry. This isn't important, really. But she did
other things. Worse things.
We slept in a small room at the back of the old house.
I was only eight or nine years old then. Anita had most of
the room for her things, and I slept in the corner.
One night, I remember, it was very late. Our parents
were in their room asleep, and something woke me up. I
saw Anita going quietly out of the room. She was wearing a
dress and shoes. The moon was very bright that night, and I
couldn't sleep again. I lay awake, waiting. About half an
hour later, Anita came quietly back into the room and got
into her bed.
'Where have you been?' I asked her.
She was very angry, because I was awake.
'Go to sleep, stupid girl,' she said. 'I had stomach-
ache. I only went out for a few minutes. Don't say anything
to anyone.'
I said nothing, but after that I watched her. I saw her
go out on other nights. At last, I asked her where she went.
She laughed quietly. 'I go to meet my prince,' she
said. That was all that she said. Her head was full of the
stories that she read in her books. She loved stories about
princes and princesses. Stories about magic carpets which
could fly, and magic lamps and rings. These were the
stories that she told us most often. She didn't have to read
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them. She knew them all. She imagined that she was a
beautiful princess in a story. She never believed that she
was only a shopkeeper's child. Perhaps a king gave her to
her parents in secret when she was a baby. She had many
strange and silly ideas in her head.
* * *
'But who did she go to see? Who was this prince?' I
asked Marta.
'It was Rafael, of course,' she replied. 'They were in
love. Even when they were little children. She went out at
night to the big rocks at the end of the beach. Rafael came
and met her there. They sat there in the rocks in the
moonlight. They talked about their love and the happy
married life that they planned.
'Our parents had no idea that she was doing this, of
course. Anita told me to keep quiet about it. "If you tell
anyone," she said "I'll say terrible things about you to our
parents. They'll believe me. They won't believe you." And
it was true. I knew it was true. They always believed Anita.
'She could always do what she wanted. I was always
in trouble. So I said nothing.
'Then Rafael went away to work in the port. For six
months, Anita lost her prince. In the daytime, she was the
same as before. But at night she cried in her bed, because
her Rafael was far away.
'But when he came back, she was happy again. She
went to meet him at the big rocks.
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'After a few days she came back from one of these

meetings with a ring on her finger. She showed it to me in
the moonlight in our room. It was the gold ring in the shape
of a fish. She was very proud of it. She wore it on her
finger when she went to meet Rafael. At other times she
kept it under the carpet in our room.'
Marta stopped and drank from a glass of water. I
didn't know what to say. This wasn't the same Anita that
my uncle described to me.
'Do you know what happened to Anita?' I asked. 'Do
you know where she went that night? The night she went
away?'
Marta thought for a few long seconds.
'I can remember what I saw. And I can remember
what I heard, she said. 'I remember all that exactly. I shall
never forget it. But I'm still not sure what happened.'
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CHAPTER NINE
The True Prince
Told by Marta

On that Sunday night (Marta continued), I went to bed

early. About eight o'clock, I think, like most younger
children. My father was in the living room. He was talking
to the soldier. The soldier stayed for a meal that evening. I
could hear their voices through the walls. They had the new
paraffin lamp in there with them, I remember. It made a
bright light in that room.
Anita was in our room, too. Father sent her to bed
because the soldier was there. She was lying on her bed and
reading by the light of a small oil lamp. She was listening
to the talk in the living room, too. I remember that we could
hear the soldier's deep voice very clearly through the thin
walls.
I think I fell asleep. When I woke up, it was later, but
not very late. The bright light from the lamp was still
shining under the door of the living room. My parents were
in there, talking quietly. But the soldier wasn't there with
them.
Anita was taking things out of her box and putting
them in a bag. I sat up and spoke to her.
She told me to be quiet. She continued taking her best
dresses out of the box and putting them in the bag. I asked
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her what she was doing. 'I'm going to meet my true love,
my true prince,' she said. 'I'm going away with him.' She
laughed and sang quietly, 'The girl with the magic ring will
always know her true love.'
She told me to say nothing. Then she went very
quietly to the back door and went out into the dark night.
Her hand quietly pulled the door closed behind her. On her
middle finger she wore the gold ring shaped like a fish.
I went to the window and looked out. I was terribly
afraid, I knew Anita was a silly child, but this was very,
very wrong. 'If Father finds out, he'll kill her,' I thought. 'He
gets angry very quickly, and he's very strong.' But I was
afraid of Anita, too. So I stood there looking out of the
window. I cried quietly.
There was no moon and it was very dark. I heard
music playing in the cafe along the beach. It was a nice
song, a slow song. I listened to the music and the soft
sound of the waves on the beach. Soon I felt a little better.
After a long time, I started to feel cold. So I went back to
my bed and fell asleep.
I woke up again much later. The house was dark and
quiet. My parents were asleep. Nobody was talking
anywhere in the house. Anita's bed was still empty. I went
to the window again. The moon was up and I could see the
houses along the beach. There was still a light in the cafe
and music playing.
I went back to bed. I cried until I fell asleep. I hoped
that it was all a bad dream.
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When I woke again, the first grey light of the new day
was in the room. Anita's bed was still empty. I lay in bed
with my eyes closed until my mother came to wake us.
When she found Anita's empty bed, she started to shout and
scream. Then I opened my eyes. I soon started to cry, too. I
never told them where she went. Or what she said. There
was terrible shouting and crying in our house that day. But
we never saw Anita again.
* * *
'So you think she went to see Rafael that night?' I said
slowly.
'Oh, no,' said Marta. 'I think she went to meet the
soldier, Carlos. That's why she called him her true prince.
He was like someone in a story, you see. First the beautiful
princess falls in love with a poor fisherman. Then either he
turns into a handsome prince, or a real prince comes along
and takes her away to his palace. I'm afraid Anita was quite
a silly girl, really. She lived the stories in her head. After
the soldier came to the village, she started to meet him at
night. She went to the same place in the rocks. But she was
meeting the soldier, not Rafael. She went there many times.
Then, that night, she didn't come back. She went away with
him in his boat. In those days, perhaps, a boat with an
engine was like a magic carpet.'
'But she was wearing the gold ring when she went? I
said.
'Yes, she took all her best things: dresses, her story
books, and the ring.'
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'But Rafael has that ring. He has worn it round his

neck for more than thirteen years.'
'I know,' she said. 'I think she spoke to Rafael that
night. I think she told him her plans. Then she gave him his
ring and went off to meet the soldier somewhere along the
coast.'
'Is that what you really think?' I asked.
'Yes,' said Marta. 'She said goodbye to Rafael and
gave him his ring. Then she went to meet the soldier. That's
what made Rafael mad. He went to look for her the next
day, but all the time he had the ring round his neck. He
wanted her to come back. Or he wanted her father to find
her and bring her back. But she never came. And when she
didn't come, Rafael went mad. When you talk to Rafael,
what does he say?'
'He holds the ring, and says, "She gave me the ring,"
or "She gave me the golden fish",' I answered
'Exactly,' said Marta. 'First she took his ring and said,
"I love you." Then she gave it back to him and went away
with the soldier. That's what made the poor man crazy.'
'What was so special about the ring?' I asked. 'What
did Anita say? Something about a magic ring?'
'The girl with the magic ring will always know her
true love. It was in her story,' said Marta. 'Her own story.
She wrote it herself. It wasn't a story that she read in a
book. It was her favourite story. She told it to us hundreds
of times.'
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'And it was about a magic ring?'

'Yes. In fact, I have the story here. Anita wrote it in a
notebook and I kept it. It's the only thing of Anita's that I
have. I can't read it, of course, but it's that story.'
Marta went into another room and came back with a
small, thin notebook. She carried it carefully in both hands.
She put it on the table in front of me.
It was a cheap school writing book. The pages were
yellow with age. There was only one story in it. It was
called 'The Ring of the Golden Fish'. The story was short. It
was written in pencil in the large, clear writing of a young
child.
Luis and Marta looked at me. I realized they were
waiting. They wanted to hear me read the story to them.
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CHAPTER TEN
'The Ring of the Golden Fish'
This is the story that I read to Marta and her husband. The
story that was written by Anita all those years ago.

A long time ago, there was a beautiful princess. She

lived in a beautiful palace with big, beautiful gardens all
round it. But she was sad because she had no friends. She
couldn't talk to anyone or play with anyone. She was a
prisoner in the palace because she was so beautiful.
Her father wanted her to marry a rich, handsome
prince. But the princes in that country weren't handsome.
And the rich men weren't princes. And the handsome men
weren't princes or rich. So she married nobody, and she
was very sad.
One day, a poor fisherman came to the beach at the
end of the palace gardens. The gardens were very big and
went as far as the sea. The fisherman caught a big golden
fish and he wanted to kill it. But it was a magic fish and it
spoke to him.
'Don't kill me,' it said, 'and I'll give you a magic ring.
And with this ring you can marry the princess.'
So the handsome young fisherman put the fish back
into the sea. Soon it came back with a gold ring in its
mouth.
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'The man with this magic ring will always know his
true love,' said the fish. And it swam away to the bottom of
the sea.
The handsome young fisherman was called Roberto.
(Here the name Rafael was written first and then changed.)
When Roberto put on the ring, he saw in his head a picture
of the princess. He fell in love with her.
He walked through the gardens to the palace, looking
for the princess. When he found her in the garden, he put
the magic ring on her finger. And she knew immediately
that she loved the handsome young fisherman. They went
to her father, the king, and he gave the poor fisherman half
his lands. And they were married and lived happily forever.
* * *
It wasn't really a very good story. It borrowed a lot
from other stories. But it told me a lot about poor Anita. It
told me why Rafael suddenly decided to work in the port
for six months. It told me why he brought her a gold ring in
the shape of a fish.
I went back to my uncle's house. It was late at night,
but I sat with him and drank coffee. My head was full of
changing ideas. I said very little, but I thought a lot.
'Have you learned anything important or useful?'
asked my uncle.
'I don't know,' I said. 'I can't tell you what Marta told
me. I promised to keep it a secret. But are you sure about
what you told me? You haven't made any mistakes?'
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My uncle thought for a few seconds. 'Yes, I'm sure. I

haven't forgotten anything important,' he said.
'Did Rafael really come to the cafe when the soldier
was still there? Are you sure about that?'
'Oh yes. I'm sure. I remember how they looked.
Rafael was clean and fine in his best clothes. The soldier
was sitting at the table with his friends round him. But he
was looking at Rafael all the time. They were like two
dogs, looking for a fight.'
'And Rafael stayed in the cafe and danced until late at
night. And you were with him all that time.'
'I was with the poor boy all the time until nearly
midnight. Then I closed the cafe and sent him home.'
'Then how did Anita give him the ring?' I asked
myself. 'She didn't leave the house until the music was
playing in the cafe. And at that time she had the ring on her
hand. And Rafael was already in the cafe with the soldier.
And he stayed there until midnight, about two hours after
the soldier left in his boat.'
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CHAPTER ELEVEN
Rosa's Promise
That night I slept badly. Poor Rafael with his mad
eyes came into my dreams many times. He was holding the
gold ring. He was showing it to me and asking me to help
him.
The next morning I sat outside my uncle's house. I
looked out at the calm blue sea. I was very tired and
unhappy. Soon my uncle came out and sat with me. His
wife Rosa brought out coffee and eggs for us.
'What will you do now?' asked my uncle.
'I don't know. I still don't know why Rafael went mad.
I still don't know when exactly. I can't believe that a man
can go crazy for love of a girl. You say Anita was very
beautiful. But a strong young man doesn't go mad for love.
Rodrigo is right. I can't explain it. But I'm sure it was
something more strange, more terrible. There is a reason,
but I haven't found it. I think nobody here in the village
knows it.'
'So, what will you do?' asked my uncle again.
'I'll take Rafael to the hospital in the capital. If you
help me, I'll give him some medicine. Then he'll go to
sleep. When he's in hospital, I can begin to help him. I
believe something terrible happened to him. I don't mean
when Anita ran away with the soldier. I mean something
really terrible, something strange and frightening. Rafael is
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afraid to remember it. That's why he's mad. At the hospital

I can give him modern medicines. They'll help him to sleep
and to feel happy. Then perhaps he'll remember what
happened to him. If he can remember, he'll get better.'
Rosa was standing in the door. She came to me and
took my hand. She looked into my face. Her eyes were full
of tears and she looked terribly afraid. 'Please don't take
Rafael to hospital,' she said. 'Leave him here in the village
with us. He'll be all right with us.'
I was surprised. There were tears in her eyes. She
really was very worried and afraid. I thought it was the
hospital. Village people are often afraid of hospitals. They
believe that people only go to hospitals to die.
'Please don't worry, Aunt Rosa,' I said calmly. 'I won't
hurt him. I really think I can help him to remember. With
God's help, perhaps I can make him better.'
'He mustn't remember,' she cried. 'He's mad because
of his crime. He went mad because of the terrible thing that
he did. He mustn't remember. If he remembers, he'll die.'
My uncle and I looked at Rosa. We were very
surprised. Her face was red and tears were running down
her face.
'What do you know about Rafael's madness?' asked
my uncle quietly. 'I'm sure you know something. Tell us
now.'
Rosa put her wet face in her hands.
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'I promised poor Clara not to tell,' she cried. 'I

promised her on her death bed. But if you leave her poor
son here with us, I'll tell you.'
Rosa dried her eyes. She sat on the steps in front of
the house. She didn't look at us. She looked out at the sea
all the time as she told her story.
'I sat with his mother, my sister, when she was very ill
five years ago. Before she died, I promised to be a mother
to her poor, mad son.'
'We know that,' said my uncle. 'You and I agreed to
look after him. And we have. But what did she tell you
about why Rafael went mad?'
Rosa put her face in her hands.
'Please don't tell anyone,' she cried. 'I promised to
keep her secret forever.'
'We promise,' I said. 'What secret?'
'The secret of Rafael's madness,' said Rosa. 'His
mother knew it. But she kept his secret from everyone. He
was mad because he did a terrible thing. He did it for love,
from hate, the poor, poor boy.'
'What did he do?'
'He killed a man. He took another man's life. The
worst crime of all. He murdered the soldier, because of his
love for Anita.'
'He did what? But that's impossible!' shouted my
uncle.
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'That's what Clara told me,' said Rosa. 'She told me

everything only hours before she died. She couldn't meet
God with that secret in her heart.'
'But how? When?' I asked her quietly. 'Did she say?'
'I'll tell you what Clara told me,' said Rosa. 'Her
words are written in fire on my heart. I'll never forget
them.'
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CHAPTER TWELVE
A Terrible Secret
Told to Rosa by Clara

It happened that Sunday evening (said Clara).

It was the evening before Anita went away. I cooked
some fish and rice for myself and Rafael. Soon it was
ready, but Rafael was out in his boat. He often went out
soon after it was dark. That day he was out for more than
an hour.
Then I heard his boat come on to the beach near our
house. As you know, the house stands alone at the end of
the village. But still Rafael didn't come to the house, and
the food was getting cold and dry.
So I took the small oil lamp from my kitchen and I
went down to the sea to find him.
The boat was half on the sand and half in the water.
Rafael was standing next to it. He was washing the inside
of the boat. There was a lot of water in the bottom of it. I
came near with the small lamp. The light shone on Rafael
and the boat. He was very wet - his head and hair, his
clothes. The water was running down him.
Then I saw something terrible. There was blood on
Rafael's clothes. Blood in his hair. Blood running down his
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face. His wet shirt and trousers were covered in it. There
was fresh blood on his hands, red in the light of the lamp.
'God save us!' I said. 'What's happened?'
'I'm all right, mother,' he answered. 'Don't be afraid.
But I've killed the stranger who came here to steal my true
love.'
Then I saw that all the water m the bottom of the boat
was dark with blood.
I put out the lamp immediately. There was no moon
and the night was dark. I looked round at the empty beach.
'Take off those clothes,' I said quietly. 'Wash yourself
in the sea until you're clean. Then go to the house and put
on clean clothes. Go quickly to the cafe, so people can see
you. I'll wash your clothes and the boat. Nobody will know
what you've done. If the soldier stops coming here, people
won't be very surprised. The man was a stranger. He had no
family or close friends.'
Rafael did what I told him. He went to the cafe and
stayed there all that evening. While he was there, I washed
the boat. Then I washed his shirt and trousers many times,
until you couldn't see the blood.
* * *
'Oh, Rosa, my dear wife,' said my uncle quietly. 'Have
you kept this dark secret in your heart all these years since
Clara died?'
'I promised her. She asked me before she died,' cried
Rosa.
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'She was as mad as her son!' said my uncle angrily.

'We know the soldier ate with Rodrigo in his house that
evening. Then he came straight to the cafe. I saw him and
talked to him. He left the cafe, alive and well, about an
hour later I heard him leave the village in his boat. More
important, Rafael was with me in the cafe when the soldier
left. Yes, he was wearing his best clothes and he was very
clean. But when Rafael came into the cafe, the soldier was
sitting there, alive. I promise you.'
'Perhaps he followed the soldier in his boat when he
left that night. Perhaps he killed him on the sea later,' said
Rosa. 'Clara didn't remember the time exactly.'
'Impossible,' said my uncle. 'Rafael stayed in the cafe
with me and a lot of other men. He was dancing to the
music. He didn't leave the cafe for about two hours. And
Rafael couldn't catch the Soldier's boat. It had an engine. It
was a very fast boat.'
'He killed someone,' said Rosa. And he thought it was
the soldier. I don't know who he killed. But that's what his
good mother told me. I must believe her. Perhaps Rafael
thought he killed the soldier. Then later he saw him in the
cafe and went mad. It was still a terrible crime. Perhaps
that's why he went crazy. But who did he kill? No, it's
impossible.'
Rosa ran into the house, crying. My uncle and I
looked at the empty blue sea. We didn't speak for a long
time. There was food on the table, but we didn't feel very
hungry.
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'Is it possible?' I asked at last.

'What? That Rafael killed somebody by mistake. No.
It's not possible.'
'But his mother's story...'
'Listen!' said my uncle. 'I'm not stupid. When Rafael
came into the cafe, he saw the soldier. He didn't look
surprised. He didn't even look angry. They both listened to
the music for about an hour. Rafael was happy. He was
smiling and dancing.'
'All right,' I said. 'I believe you. I believe everybody.
But this mystery is going to make me crazy soon.'
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CHAPTER THIRTEEN
In the Hospital
All that morning my head went round and round. It
was all impossible. I took a notebook and wrote some
questions in it. I still have that notebook with me.
Sometimes, when I start feeling very proud of myself, I
read it.
Question 1: Did Rafael kill someone? Is that why he
went mad? His mother thought he did. She saw him
covered in blood. But who did he kill?
Not the soldier. He left the cafe when Rafael was still
in it with my uncle.
Not Anita. She was with her sister until the music
started in the cafe.
And Rafael was inside the cafe then.
So who?
Impossible!
Question 2: Was the soldier killed, or did he only go
away? If he was killed, who killed him?
Not Rafael. He was in the cafe until midnight.
Not Anita. She was a child, and loved him.
Who could kill him? He was a strong young man, a
soldier. And he was friendly with everyone in the village.
Impossible!
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Question 3: Did Anita run away with the soldier, or

was she killed, too? If she was killed, who killed her?
Not Rafael. He loved her. And he was in the cafe all
evening. Perhaps the soldier, and he then ran away. But
why? He loved her and wanted to marry her.
And if the soldier killed her; why did Rafael go mad?
Impossible!
I read all my notes and questions again and again.
Everything seemed impossible.
Suddenly I looked at them again. There was someone
in the village who was big enough and strong enough.
Someone who could kill the soldier. He had a good reason
to kill him. There was someone who had a good reason to
kill Anita, too. Perhaps he saw her leaving the house with
her bag that night. Perhaps he followed her along the dark
and empty beach, quietly through the soft sand. Perhaps he
saw her meet the soldier. Perhaps he killed both of them
and put their dead bodies deep in the sea.
There was another man who loved Anita. And that
man could kill her for running away. He was big enough
and strong enough to kill the soldier. That man was
Rodrigo, her father. But then the wrong man was mad.
* * *
I am a doctor, not a policeman or a detective. I
believed I was a clever man, more intelligent than the
people of the village. I was too proud of myself. I told my
uncle and all the people of the village about my plans to
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help poor Rafael. I, the great doctor from the university in

the city, could make him well again.
I was too proud. I spent a week in the village and I
talked to a lot of people. But I still knew nothing about
Rafael's madness. I still had no idea what happened to the
soldier or Anita. I couldn't be sure that Rodrigo killed them.
It was a stupid idea. I didn't really believe it.
I promised Rosa and Marta to tell nobody what they
told me. It was our secret. I went back to my hospital to do
my work. I wasn't so proud. I decided not to think about
what happened in the village. It wasn't a good idea to try to
change things.
* * *
I heard nothing from my uncle or anyone in the
village for almost a year. I often dreamt of Rafael and his
gold ring when I was very tired. But I never went back to
the village. I didn't want to meet those good people. I was
sure they didn't have a good opinion of me now.
Then, one day, a fisherman brought a note to the
hospital. It was written by Rodrigo, the shopkeeper. It said:

Rafael is very ill. We think he's dying. Please come

immediately. Only you can help us. Please come.
Remember my dear daughter Anita and poor, mad Rafael
and help us. Your uncle asked me to write this letter. But I
want you to come, too. Perhaps at last we can find out what
really happened to my daughter all those many years ago.
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Rodrigo Garcia

I took a small ambulance from the hospital and went

to the village. I was there in a few hours. I went straight to
my uncle's house. Rafael was there, lying on a bed. Rosa
was putting cold wet cloths on his head. Rafael was very
thin and yellow. When I came into the room, he coughed
weakly. Blood ran from his mouth. Rosa washed away the
blood with another cloth. It was already red with Rafael's
blood.
'It's tuberculosis,' I said immediately. 'He's very ill.'
'Yes, I know,' said my uncle. 'That's why I asked you
to come. It's very bad. I don't think there's any hope for
him.'
'I'll take him to the hospital,' I said. 'I've got an
ambulance with me. With medicines and nursing, perhaps
we can still save him. But there's not much hope for him.
He's very weak.'
We put Rafael in the ambulance and I took him back
to the hospital in the city. He was almost dead. We washed
him and cut his hair and beard. We put him in a clean bed
and gave him medicines.
I sat by his bed for eight hours. He didn't move. He
lay like a dead man. His body temperature was very high.
Then, very slowly, it began to fall, and he fell into a quiet
sleep.
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Two days later, he opened his eyes. He was still

having medicines and he was very weak. He lay without
moving. Only his eyes moved. He looked round the strange
white walls, at the plastic bottle above his head. He looked
at me in my white coat at his side.
'Am I dead?' he asked, very quietly.
'No, Rafael,' I said. 'You're in hospital I'm a doctor.
Miguel, the owner of the cafe in your village, is my uncle.
Don't be afraid. We're trying to make you well again.'
His mouth moved in a tired smile, and he fell asleep
again. I brought a nurse to sit by his bed.
'Tell me if he wakes up. Or if he gets worse,' I said.
Then I went to my room in the hospital and fell on the
bed. I was asleep in a few seconds.
There was little hope for poor Rafael. He was thin and
weak after all the years that he lived on the beach. For
years he ate very little. He slept on the cold, hard ground.
The tuberculosis was very bad. He was very, very ill.
But he wasn't mad.
He could speak very little. Most of the time he was
very tired. But when he spoke to me, his words were clear
and calm. He lived for six days in the hospital. He slept, he
woke. And when he was awake, he talked to me. Coughing
blood, he told me everything. Then, on the sixth day, he fell
quietly asleep. And after a few hours his heart stopped and
he was dead. After his long years of pain and madness, I
was happy that his death was quiet and easy at the end. He
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did a terrible thing, a terrible crime. But he paid for it with

long years of madness.
I have written his story down here. One day, perhaps,
people will read it. But not until all the people in it are
dead. Until that day, it must stay a secret.
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CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The Murder
This is what Rafael told me:
Rafael always loved Anita. He couldn't remember a
time when he didn't. It was a small village and the children
always played on the beach. Anita and the other girls
watched the fishermen. The men cleaned their boats and
mended their nets. Rafael fell in love with Anita when they
were still children. He loved her, and she loved him. Or she
always said so.
But her father wanted her to marry a rich man. A fat
old man, perhaps, old and ugly. But he must be rich and
important. Rafael could do nothing to change Rodrigo's
plans.
There was a place in the rocks at the end of the beach
to the west. The children often played in it. It was like a
little house in the rocks. In the evenings, Rafael sometimes
met Anita there. She came out of her house very quietly
and ran to their secret place in the rocks. There she and
Rafael talked for a few golden minutes. Then she ran home
again, afraid of her father. Anita was only fifteen years old
at that time. But her head was full of the stories in her
books. She was sure she was in love with the handsome
young fisherman.
Rafael brought her the gold ring. It was like the magic
ring in her story. Her father didn't accept it from Rafael.
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But Rafael gave it to Anita in secret, when they met later in

their secret place in the rocks. The ring was the promise of
their love. She wore it when she was with him. At other
times she kept it in her room, in the secret place under the
carpet.
But then the soldier came to the village. He was an
older man. With his bright eyes, his long hair, his boat with
an engine, he was much more exciting than Rafael. When
he talked with Rodrigo about his life and his travels, Anita
heard his stories through the wall of her room. These
stories were more exciting than magic lamps and talking
fish.
Anita soon thought Rafael was very boring. She
stopped meeting him. She stopped speaking to him. Now
she was sure she was falling in love with the soldier. But
she still kept Rafael's ring, of course.
Rafael was very sad. He wanted the soldier to leave
the village and go away for ever. He wanted Anita to come
back to him.
But then, one night, Rafael was coming back late
from a fishing trip. He saw Anita running along the beach
in the moonlight. He watched quietly from the sea. He saw
Anita meet the soldier in the little house in the rocks. How
did the soldier speak to her? How did Anita give him the
time and place to meet? Rafael didn't know. Perhaps the
soldier gave her a secret note. Perhaps Anita gave him one.
They could both read and write.
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Rafael left his boat and swam to the shore. He moved

very quietly through the rocks. The soldier's boat was in a
small piece of open water on the other side of the rocks. It
was only about ten minutes from the village along the
coast.
Rafael watched and waited until he saw Anita run
back to the village. Then he watched the soldier swim back
to his boat. After a few minutes, the soldier started his
engine and went away to the west. Rafael was very angry.
But he was angry with the soldier, not Anita. He hated this
man who was a stranger in the village. A man who the
people all accepted as a friend. But a man who was now
stealing Anita, his own true love, from them.
Next time the soldier came to the village Rafael
watched him. When the soldier went away in the evening,
Rafael went quietly along the beach to the place in the
rocks. Soon the soldier's boat came back into the place in
the rocks and he lowered his anchor. The soldier swam for
a few minutes in the moonlight. Then he sat in the boat
again and smoked a cigarette.
He sat for a long time, looking sometimes at his
watch. At last he swam to the beach and went to the secret
place in the rocks. He waited there. Soon Anita came,
hurrying over the rocks. She and the soldier kissed. Long,
loving kisses. They sat in the little house in the rocks. The
soldier held her close. They talked and laughed and kissed
again. And all the time Rafael watched and listened to them
with black hate in his heart.
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After that, Rafael followed the soldier every time he

came to the village. The soldier did the same every time.
Sometimes Anita didn't come to the place in the rocks. But
the soldier always waited for her there.
Then Rafael knew how to kill the soldier. It was a
good plan.
The next time the soldier came to the village, Rafael's
plan was ready. The soldier arrived in the village that
Sunday and went to Rodrigo's shop with the tin of paraffin.
Rafael waited until it was dark. He saw the bright light of
the lamp in Rodrigo's house. He watched the soldier start to
eat the meal with Rodrigo.
He had everything that he needed in his boat. He
sailed out quietly to the place in the rocks. The place where
the soldier always waited. He took his boat close to the
shore and tied it to a rock. Then he went on foot to old
Santiago's farm. The old donkey was standing sleeping in
its field. Rafael walked with it down to the beach near his
boat. It wasn't very far. There he took the old donkey into
the water, and then killed it.
He put the dead animal into his boat and went out into
deeper water. He went to the place where the soldier
usually left his boat. There he began to cut up the dead
donkey, throwing the pieces into the sea. He and the boat
were soon covered in the donkey's blood. But there was
much more blood in the water all round the boat. Rafael
knew that the sharks, far away in the sea, could smell it.
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Rafael kept the back legs of the donkey in his boat.

He took a long, strong piece of line and tied the legs to it.
Then he sailed quietly back to the village. There was no
moon that night, only the light from the stars. Soon he
could see the beach and the houses of the village. The lamp
was still burning in Rodrigo's house. The soldier's boat was
a few metres from the shore. It was always in the same
place. The soldier didn't want to break his engine.
Rafael moved his boat close to the soldier's boat and
stopped. He went into the dark water and swam across to it.
He had the end of the line in his teeth. He tied it to the
bottom of the soldier's boat. Then he swam back to his boat
and put the legs of the donkey quietly into the water. Now,
the soldier's boat had the smell of blood behind it.
Rafael took his boat to the far end of the beach in
front of his house. He pulled it half on to the sand, and
began to wash the donkey's blood from the bottom of the
boat. He washed some of the blood from his clothes in the
sea. But there was a lot of blood and water in the boat.
Suddenly his mother came with an oil lamp. She saw
the blood on his clothes and in the boat. She was afraid he
was hurt.
'Don't be afraid, mother,' he said. 'I'm not hurt. This
isn't my blood. I've killed the soldier.'
It was true. The soldier wasn't yet dead, but Rafael's
plans were made.
Rafael wasn't afraid to tell his mother. She always
kept his secrets. She was very calm when he told her. She
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sent him to the house to change his clothes. She stayed and
cleaned the boat.
When he went to the cafe, he found the soldier there.
He was surprised. He thought the soldier was spending the
evening with Rodrigo. Rafael looked at the soldier, his
enemy. He was smiling and laughing with his friends.
Rafael thought, 'The sharks are already waiting for you.
Tonight you're going to your death.'
The soldier left in the middle of the evening. He went
out to his boat, started the engine and went off to the west.
Rafael stayed in the cafe, listening to the music. He
was afraid, but he was excited, too. When he heard the
music, he began to dance to the songs. Eyes closed, he saw
in his head the soldier's boat. It went through the dark
night. Behind it, the red line of blood, dark in the water.
The engine stopped. The boat came quietly back to the
secret place in the rocks. The soldier waited in the
moonlight, smoking a cigarette. Perhaps, then, he jumped
into the dark sea for a swim. Something was waiting there,
something big and hungry. It moved fast through the water.
Perhaps there was time for one short scream. Then all was
quiet again. The dark waters were calm. And the soldier
was gone for ever.
Rafael danced and smiled and saw these pictures
again and again. He stayed and danced until midnight.
Then he went back to his house and went to bed. But
he slept only for a few hours. Before the first light of day,
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he got up quietly and went out of the house. He took his

boat along the coast to find the soldier's boat.
The boat was there in the place in the rocks. It lay
empty and quiet in the water. Rafael looked for the soldier
in the sea and on the land. But there was no sign of him.
Nothing was left of him. Rafael saw the long shadows of
sharks still swimming in the water near the boat. The boat's
engine was above the water. There was a long piece of
fishing line tied many times round it.
Rafael laughed.
'My plan was better than I thought,' he said to himself.
'I tied the legs of the old donkey to his boat with some
fishing line. And the line also stopped the engine. So the
soldier had to go into the water to untie it.'
Rafael took the soldier's boat far from the shore.
There he made a hole in the bottom and pushed it under the
water. Soon it went down to the bottom of the sea.
Rafael was happy. The soldier and his boat were at
the bottom of the sea. Nobody knew what happened to him.
He went back to the village and into the house to have an
early breakfast. Suddenly he was very hungry.
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CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The Truth, at Last
A little later (Rafael told me), he and his mother heard
the shouting and screaming from Rodrigo's house. They
soon learned that Anita was nowhere in the house or the
village. Rafael smiled to himself. Perhaps Anita was still
waiting somewhere for her soldier. 'She can wait forever.
She'll never see him again,' he thought.
'I'll sail along the coast and look for her,' he told his
mother. In fact, he wanted to go to a quiet place to wash his
boat again. There was still some dark blood in the bottom.
He went back to the place in the rocks.
It was calm and quiet there. The soldier's boat was at
the bottom of the sea. Rafael took some water from the sea
to wash his boat. A small shark swam slowly under it.
Almost without thinking, Rafael picked up his fishing
spear. He hit the shark hard through the back of the head.
Its blood came out into the clear water. A few other sharks,
bigger ones, smelt the blood and came fast through the
water. They began to bite at the dying fish with their great,
sharp teeth. They fought, biting great pieces off the dead
shark.
Rafael decided to catch one or two and cut them up in
his boat. He wanted their blood to be in the boat with the
donkey's.
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A white shark about three metres long was pulling at

the dead one. If lay in the water next to the boat, not
moving. Rafael killed it with his spear and put a line round
its head. Then he pulled it into the bottom of the boat.
Rafael took his knife and cut the shark open from
neck to tail. Pieces of meat, fish and hair from its Stomach
fell out into the bottom of the boat. There was a large piece
of donkey skin with its grey hair. Rafael moved it with his
knife.
In that second, the world stopped. Rafael's blood
seemed to freeze inside him. The sky went dark. He
couldn't move.
In the pile of meat and fish in the bottom of the boat
there was a hand.
A complete hand, white and clean. It was cut off at
the wrist with one clean bite. It was a small hand, with
small, pretty fingers. The fingernails were long and pink.
They weren't bitten or dirty or broken by housework.
And on the middle finger of the hand was a gold ring,
a ring in the shape of a golden fish
Rafael gave one great scream. He held his head in his
hands. He knew now where Anita was. The night before,
when the engine of the soldier's boat stopped working, she
was there in the boat with him. Then he went into the water
to look at the engine. She stayed in the boat. She saw him,
when the sharks killed him in the dark water. Perhaps she
tried to pull him into the boat. But then she too fell into the
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blood-red water. And there she spent the last terrible

seconds of her life with her true prince, the soldier.
Rafael knew he couldn't continue living. He couldn't
live with this terrible secret. He stood up in the boat and
called Anita's name. Then he threw himself into the sea. He
lay in the water, face down. He waited for the sharp teeth in
the mouths of the sharks to pull him down to his death. But
they didn't. He felt them in the water all round him.
Sometimes he felt them push against him. But they didn't
hurt him.
Then Rafael understood. God didn't want him to die
this way. An easy death. A quick death. Too quick and easy
for a murderer. He was terribly afraid. He tried to kill
himself. He held his face under the water and tried to die.
But he couldn't.
At last he climbed back into the boat. He sat like a
dead man and looked at the little hand with the gold ring.
After a long time he took the ring carefully from her finger.
He took a piece of fishing line and tied the ring round his
neck. He had his ring again. He had it from Anita's own
hand. 'I'll keep it with me forever,' he thought. 'Then I will
never forget my terrible crime.'
He threw the dead shark back into the sea.
Then, last of all, he took the cold white hand. He held
it in his own hand for the last time. Then he put it carefully
into the water.
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Then he lay down in the bottom of the boat holding

the ring at his neck. And he looked at the bright sky and
talked to Anita. And they laughed and laughed...
* * *
I took Rafael's body back to his village. He lies in the
ground near that place in the rocks. The secret place where
he and Anita spent many happy hours. I put the gold ring
round his neck. The ring that he took from Anita's dead
hand. It will stay with him forever.
Nobody in the village knows what he did. Not
Rodrigo, not my uncle or Rosa. They still believe that Anita
and the soldier are living somewhere far away.
I can see no reason to tell them anything different.

- THE END -
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