Brothers (Tenth Chapter)

Tenth Chapter
The battle between two wills continued its course. One was stronger, intelligent, and had the virtue of constancy. The other was pure impulse.

While he was in his confinement, Blas felt tiredness, pain, thirst, and hunger. He did not know it at the time, but depriving him of drinking water during those intervals perhaps saved his life.

He heard movements and noise in the adjoining room. In time he would learn that equipment was being prepared for his next torment. The Lord gave the instructions and two workers from the hacienda carried out the orders. No one asked — nor would ask — anything.

Blas closed his eyes, tried to concentrate and gather strength, calm down, and steel himself to resist. Curiously, he managed it. He was a very strong boy, stubbornly headstrong. His mother said he was not afraid. He fell and got back up, he did not cry when he fell, and was always seeking new experiences.

When the stage was ready and properly equipped, Braulio took Blas out of his confinement, removing the shackles and taking him to where The Lord instructed him to climb onto the rough wooden table that had undergone a substantial change, new equipment installed to torture him.

The restraints on the feet remained: ankle cuffs on that body, this time reinforced, but the wrist cuffs changed radically. Now they were not fixed to the corners of the table, but were attached to chains that wound around a winch fastened to the side of the table, turned with a toothed crank that prevented it from going backward; that is, as it was turned, it tightened the chains and did not allow them to retreat.

The wrist cuffs had also changed: they were thicker and adjusted with several buckles, preventing them from coming loose and favoring what The Lord was seeking: to subject the tortured animal to stretching.

Blas immediately knew what was coming; he had no illusions. He thought how much he liked pull-ups and of when he had competed to remain hanging from parallel bars with his brother, which he had won easily, more than a year ago.

Blas was placed on his back on the table and The Lord began to turn the crank, and the chains began to tighten until they started stretching his arms, that feeling of tension the torturer liked to provoke.

He turned the crank until the arms were sufficiently tense. He left the crank and approached Blas’s face, looking fixedly down at him. He could see The Lord’s hard face, his fearsome features, his penetrating gaze. It was uncomfortable for Blas, who knew he could not look at him, but felt it was his duty to return the gaze, accepting the consequences.

“You like disobeying, you love defying, it excites you to provoke, right?”
… Blas did not answer, he only shifted his eyes.
“Answer, animal, answer!” The Lord shouted.
Blas felt drops of The Lord’s saliva on his face, sensed his rage, and knew he had to answer....