“Do you mean the debt repayments?” I asked.

“Well, yes,” he said, “that’s part of it, but for the moment it’s a small part. The real issue is oil: we want them to privatize the oil business, there are a number of private companies here already, we want them to have a bigger stake, but we want the state company opened up. That’s the priority, that’s what this visit, in essence, has been about. It’s a delicate issue, and we want to place it in the overall context of debt repayment and the restructuring of the economy.”

We had another drink as some of the guests began to arrive.

“You probably did not notice,” Donald said quietly, “the group who specialize in the economics of oil, but they noticed you, and they were impressed with the work you did helping the transport guys. They gave you a good report: they said that you were exceptional. The oil guys are going to stay on for a day or two. We’ll have a meeting tomorrow mid-morning to talk about strategy, and they want you to attend. They know nothing about politics here, they don’t know where they are. I think you would be good for them. There’s a lot of work to do. On Sunday we’ll take them out somewhere. I’d like you to get to know them, but they’re here for the long haul, and if things work out over the next couple of days we’ll think of a title for you and put you on someone’s payroll. That is unless you’ve got other plans.”

I nodded and said we could talk about it the next day. “Some of this country stinks,” Donald said. “The oil industry is full of corruption, it’s unreformable. It will have to be sold off. I think these guys are pretty shocked by what’s been going on. Real banana republic stuff.”

THE DAYS LIVING in the hotel had become the world for me. I had not gone home. Returning there, walking up the stairs to the apartment, or waking in my own bed, was hard to imagine. I had come to like these men; I enjoyed the sound of their voices and I sensed something beneath all the hardness, the brusque gestures, and the clipped talk. And yet I somehow also wanted it to be over, it was too much to absorb and I needed time alone. I contemplated more days of this and I was unsure and suddenly low. Donald said nothing. He finished his drink and went over to speak to one of the economists. I stayed at the bar on my own. It struck me that I felt the same as I had before classes began; I wondered would all of my life be like this, full of moments of dread at the prospect of facing the outside world, like a machine fitfully shuddering before it starts. Eventually, Donald came back with a man called Federico Arenas who worked for YPF, the government oil company. Donald told him that I had been working with the transport people and would be spending some time now with the oil people. He shook my hand.