La Última Carta de Gonzalo
(Gonzalo's Last Letter)
La inspectora Lucia Vega fue convocada al despacho del comisario un jueves por la mañana.
Inspector Lucia Vega was summoned to the commissioner's office on a Thursday morning.
Se le informo de que un hombre llamado Gonzalo Reyes habia sido hallado muerto en su apartamento de la calle Sierpes.
She was informed that a man named Gonzalo Reyes had been found dead in his flat on Sierpes Street.
Segun los primeros indicios, se trataba de un suicidio.
According to the initial evidence, it was a suicide.
Junto al cuerpo habia sido encontrada una carta manuscrita, dirigida a una mujer cuyo nombre nadie reconocia: Paloma.
Next to the body a handwritten letter had been found, addressed to a woman whose name nobody recognised: Paloma.
Lucia leyo la carta con detenimiento.
Lucia read the letter carefully.
En ella, Gonzalo le pedia perdon a Paloma por no haber sido valiente cuando deberia haberlo sido.
In it, Gonzalo asked Paloma for forgiveness for not having been brave when he should have been.
Mencionaba un secreto que ambos habian compartido durante años, algo que, segun el, les habia destruido la vida. <<Ojalá hubieras podido olvidarlo>>, escribio. <<Pero se que ninguno de los dos pudo.
He mentioned a secret that both of them had shared for years, something that, according to him, had destroyed their lives. <<I wish you had been able to forget it,>> he wrote. <<But I know that neither of us could.
Este peso ya no puede ser cargado por una sola persona.>>
This weight can no longer be carried by one person alone.>>
Los vecinos declararon que Gonzalo habia vivido solo durante los ultimos diez años.
The neighbours stated that Gonzalo had lived alone for the last ten years.
Era un hombre reservado que trabajaba como archivero en la biblioteca municipal.
He was a reserved man who worked as an archivist at the municipal library.
Nadie recordaba haberlo visto con ninguna mujer, y mucho menos con alguien que se llamara Paloma.
Nobody remembered having seen him with any woman, let alone someone called Paloma.
Una vecina, doña Carmen, le confeso a Lucia que a veces lo habia oido hablar en voz alta por las noches, como si mantuviera una conversación con alguien que no estaba allí.
One neighbour, Dona Carmen, confessed to Lucia that she had sometimes heard him talking aloud at night, as if he were having a conversation with someone who was not there.
Lucia registro el apartamento durante horas.
Lucia searched the flat for hours.
En un cajón cerrado con llave, debajo de docenas de cuadernos, encontro algo que la dejo helada: cientos de cartas, todas dirigidas a Paloma, todas escritas con la misma caligrafia meticulosa.
In a drawer locked with a key, beneath dozens of notebooks, she found something that left her frozen: hundreds of letters, all addressed to Paloma, all written in the same meticulous handwriting.
Abarcaban mas de treinta años.
They spanned more than thirty years.
En las primeras, Gonzalo le contaba a Paloma los detalles de su día.
In the earliest ones, Gonzalo told Paloma the details of his day.
En las mas recientes, le suplicaba que lo perdonara por un accidente que habia ocurrido cuando ambos eran jovenes. <<Fue culpa mia>>, repetia en carta tras carta. <<Si yo no te hubiera pedido que cruzaras la calle en aquel momento, tu seguirias aquí.>>
In the most recent ones, he begged her to forgive him for an accident that had happened when they were both young. <<It was my fault,>> he repeated in letter after letter. <<If I had not asked you to cross the road at that moment, you would still be here.>>
Al día siguiente, Lucia visito el registro civil.
The following day, Lucia visited the civil registry.
Lo que descubrio confirmo sus sospechas.
What she discovered confirmed her suspicions.
Paloma Navarro habia muerto atropellada a los diecinueve años, en un cruce de la calle Sierpes.
Paloma Navarro had been killed in a hit-and-run at the age of nineteen, at a crossing on Sierpes Street.
El conductor se habia dado a la fuga y nunca fue identificado.
The driver had fled and was never identified.
La fecha del accidente coincidio con la primera carta del cajón.
The date of the accident coincided with the first letter in the drawer.
Gonzalo habia empezado a escribirle a Paloma el mismo día en que ella murio.
Gonzalo had begun writing to Paloma on the same day she died.
Y no habia dejado de hacerlo en treinta y dos años.
And he had not stopped doing so for thirty-two years.
Lucia cerro el expediente aquella tarde.
Lucia closed the case file that afternoon.
Pero una pregunta seguia rondandole la cabeza, una pregunta cuya respuesta tal vez no quisiera conocer.
But one question kept going round in her head, a question whose answer she perhaps did not want to know.
Gonzalo habia escrito que fue el quien le pidio a Paloma que cruzara la calle.
Gonzalo had written that it was he who had asked Paloma to cross the road.
Si no hubiera sido el conductor que se dio a la fuga, no habria tenido razón alguna para sentirse culpable.
If he had not been the driver who fled, he would have had no reason to feel guilty.
La carta final no era una despedida.
The final letter was not a farewell.
Era una confesion.
It was a confession.
Key Vocabulary
convocar to summon, to call together
el indicio indication, clue, evidence
manuscrito/a handwritten, manuscript
el archivero archivist, filing clerk
suplicar to beg, to plead
atropellar to run over, to knock down
darse a la fuga to flee, to make a getaway
el expediente case file, dossier
la confesion confession
rondar to go round, to haunt, to circle