The Fountains of Silence: A Novel

“They stand in line for blood” (1). Rafa works in a slaughterhouse, and he daydreams about fighting Franco one on one while he sells blood to women who use it to make morcilla, or blood sausage.

He flashes back to the day the Guardia Civil killed his father; Rafa thinks of these killers as “[p]atent leather men with patent-leather souls” or “Crows” (1). Rafa hid in the bushes, and the Crows grabbed him and carried him away along with his father’s body. Rafa pushes the memories away, plasters a smile on his face, and helps the next customer.

Ana works at the Castellana Hilton in Madrid. Her sister, Julia, constantly reminds her to be quiet; she says that that Ana “trust[s] too easily” and “reveal[s] too much” (4). Ana dreams of leaving Spain, and, like Rafa, remembers her father’s execution and her mother’s imprisonment—all because, as teachers, they wanted to run a Montessori school rather than a religious school. Franco declared the church would run the schools and decided to punish secularists, calling them “Republican sympathizers.”

When Ana receives an anonymous note, which reads “I know what you’ve done” (3), she thinks it must be a lie.