The Informers

by Juan Gabriel Vásquez

he moved as though he’d been offered the world and declined it out of modesty,

Before the beginning of the war, a Hungarian architect had disappeared along with his wife, and someone had just found them in the mountains. There were some tourists walking up in the mountains and a guy came out from somewhere and asked them how the war was going. It seemed he’d fixed up a cave and had spent all that time hidden there. He fished for food and got water from the river. When they told him the war had ended a year and a half ago, he went down to Budapest, went to see his family and returned to his house, but as soon as he arrived he realized he wasn’t going to be able to do it. His wife agreed. So they packed up some clothes and utensils and went back to their cave.