Tomas and Ophelia plunged into adult life, both eyes closed by adversity. But then, there was never anything like adversity to spark changes. Remarkably, Ophelia still trusted her judgment but had found out the hard way that life was full of unexpected surprises. Tomas' behavior had confirmed Ophelia's mother's estimation of his character. As if on a Casanova's script, he disappeared after their tryst and rumor had it that he was chasing Consuela in the jungle as she went about her first year of studying howler monkeys. The Don had contrived a situation where she read about Dian Fossey in Africa in the National Geographic Magazine and decided she would follow in her footsteps.
Everyone under the volcano thought she was mad but when Consuela made her mind up, no one could change it. Her nickname at school was buro. Her teachers told her she would come to no good because a young woman should listen to her elders and follow the path suggested by them. For Consuela, only the howler monkeys mattered.
One Sunday morning at church about a month after Ophelia's tryst and Tomas's disappearance, Consuela rushed after Ophelia to tell her about one of her monkeys.
"Ophelita, I'm so happy. Do you know what I learned this week in the jungle?"
Ophelia flushed, turned around without waiting for Consuela to continue and stomped away. A tear struggled to her eye, but she squelched her emotions. Consuela grabbed Ophelia's arm from behind and forced her to turn around.
"What's wrong with you?"
"You have to ask?"
"Ophelia, what did I do to hurt you? Don't walk away like that. Just talk to me," said Consuela.
The tone of Consuela's voice communicated her concern and broke the barriers Ophelia had built up to contain her disappointment with Tomas. Tears flooded out, but Ophelia's change of heart was short-lived. She turned around and left without saying a word. Consuela was left standing in the morning sun, upset but uncomprehending. She knew with each passing month why she loved the monkeys and felt confused when she dealt with people. She shouted after Ophelia.
"What you see is never what you get with you."
Then Consuela's peripheral vision caught Tomas waving at her and she turned to avoid his puppy-dog looks and cloying behavior. Only Pedro is normal after all that happened. Then she picked up speed and plunged into the jungle before Tomas could see where she had entered the undergrowth. She ignored him when heard him calling out her name.
"Consuela, Consuela. Where are you?"
Consuela stopped and toyed with the idea of answering back but then thought better of it. Her friendship with Ophelia meant more to her than a thousand flirtations.
Can't she see I'm not interested in her precious Tomas? Consuela picked up her pace along a little used animal trail in the undergrowth.
Tomas gave up his search behind her. Then she heard a monkey howl close by and she stayed silent. It howled again. This time closer. She bent down, foraging like a monkey in the jungle.
"Patience, patience, girl," she whispered to herself.
She crossed her toes and fingers when the calls appeared to be right on top of her. The memory of monkey pee pouring down on her when she had approached them to aggressively, tried too hard to get close quickly, tempered her movements. Consuela controlled her breathing and calmed down, the ritual of her movements grounding her. The silence of the forest was deafening. They didn't pee this time. They let her stay there not looking at them. One of them howled in a way that she knew they used to encourage others in their group to keep up.
The monkeys moved on and so did Consuela. The budding naturalist dared not look up but she managed to follow them like that for days, foraging just like them, sleeping in the trees. One day towards the end of the summer break from school during the summer of Tomas's gambit with Ophelia, after days and weeks of skulking around the outskirts of the territory of the troop she was following, a small male came down the tree with food in its hand, some banana and left it on a tree trunk near Consuela.
Her heart thumped in her chest. She ventured to look at him peripherally. She didn't dare touch the offering, but she noticed he had a scar on his face, on his right cheek. That was the day she began naming her howlers. Scarface became her first monkey friend under the volcano. When the monkeys left, Consuela finished eating the banana. All of the monkeys seemed eager to watch what she would do with Scarface's offering. Chattering became raucous when she started eating it, then they left, their noises echoing behind them. It would be months before she would have another success, but the die was cast.
A naturalist was born that morning. As she would later learn, her success would confirm Leakey's ideas about women working best with primates. Before leaving the jungle that day she made her first rough field notes, ideas and observations that, despite her lack of formal education, would one day appear in prominent scientific journals.
Tomas's tragic gambit sent Consuela camping into the forest in August of that year. She took Pedro with her every day because he was unable to shake his doldrums. Their friendship grew as she taught him to live like a howler monkey in the wild. He never talked during the first few days in the forest with her and she didn't force the issue. He mimicked everything she did by watching her. Somehow the monkeys caught on and they started coming down out of the trees to greet the wounded pair.
One day late in August, Pedro broke down as they sat eating fruit and nuts they had found in the early light of the day.
"It's my fault she's gone. I could've helped her," said Pipi through tears streaming from his eyes.
"What're you talking about? Tomas went crazy and shot her," said Consuela.
"But I saw them doing it and I could've stopped him. I just watched."
"You saw him shoot her?"
"No, no. Doing it."
"Doing what, Pedro? You're not making sense."
"One day in June, I was looking for Ophelia in the forest because she had started escaping from me to run off with Tomas. I was hurt. Then I came near that clearing with the fallen log where Tomas made a log seat like the one I made for all of us."
"So?"
"They were kissing and he took off his pants and he was pushing himself between her legs."
"You saw them making babies in the forest."
"Yes. I should have stopped him. Then none of this would have happened. Then she would be alive."
"First, Pipi listen to me. If what you say is true then it's not your fault. They wanted to be adults and they both made decisions. It's not your fault."
"Can you keep a secret?"
"I only talk to you and my monkeys."
"I loved her, Consuela. I was so —"
"You think that's a secret. Everyone's knew that. You were like a lost puppy around her."
"If Tomas hadn't disappeared I would have killed him."
"That's a good idea. Spend the rest of your days in prison—"
"I mean it. When he comes back I'll kill him."
Promise me something, Pedro?"
"What?"
"When you go to kill him bring me with you."
"I'll hold him for you. You know how he chased me around the forest trying to make me do that too. I was just luckier than Ophelia was. I saw the monkeys doing it so I ran away from him all the time. Promise me, Pedro."
"Cross my heart and hope to die."
From that moment Consuela and Pedro cemented what would become a lasting friendship. Tomas never returned and there would be another funeral to attend before Christmas that year, the year that changed it all for the inseparable foursome.
For Consuela, the monkeys became the main focus of her existence, while Pedro decided he would become a policeman so he could stop people from hurting themselves and others. It was also the year that Pedro's dreams became even better measures of reality around him.