6:45 p.m. Mario calls to let me know that he will be late for dinner because he has a special meeting at the bank. I take advantage of this to write a note to “Guayito” to order a few items from the factory. At 7:15 Lelo Ungaretti comes by with a message (I do not remember what about) for Mario. I load into the car the defective lamp base to be returned to the factory, along with a wooden fish from Birmania that Rodrigo sent from New York as a gift for Magalí (whose birthday was yesterday), and which I brought to the store to have wrapped. When I get into the car, I see a young man staring at me from across the street, pacing in front of the store. I exit on Seventh Avenue and, as is my habit, I use the access lane on Plazuela España to avoid the red light. I am in a hurry, because I want to have dinner before the 8:00 movie they are going to show on Channel 3. When I turn on to 12th Street, a white van cuts me off. I think it’s backing up to park. I see another vehicle in my rearview mirror. Four or five men get out of the van. There is a woman with them. A man I had not seen, and who I imagine got out of the car behind me, breaks the window on the passenger side of my car (I always keep that door locked) with the butt of his gun. I hear gunshots. I scream.

Tuesday.

Long, instructive interview with Benedicto Tun.

The Pasaje Suiza building, which connects 9th and 10th Streets, is today a somber place that still has some of the glamour of the fifties. Tun’s office is on the third floor, at the end of the hallway, a hallway that has high wood panels and several waiting benches built into the walls between one office and the next. A Kaqchikel family with two small children and a baby sits on a bench under high windows, with the sunlight filtering in through a film of dust and dirt, eating a snack of black bean soup, avocados, and tortillas. When I walk by them, they offer me lottery tickets. A handwritten note with Tun’s cell phone number is stuck to the door of his office. I call him. He tells me he is almost there. I sit on a bench and take notes.