he searchlight caught him, which was from the police car that had come silently, without siren, and posted itself at one back corner of the lot. Enrique fell to the gun from the car.To make matters worse, there was a car at the other corner and its searchlight was going over the weeds where Maria lay hidden. The Negro was busy helping to search for her at the moment. Maria earnestly prayed the dead soldiers to keep her from talking if she was taken.Eventually, they caught her. By now, Maria was quite sure that every one was helping her. She sat in the car with an unusual confidence, her face shining.The Negro would be well paid for his help. But seeing the girl’s face, he felt frightened…I like this story very much. Getting myself totally involved in it, I felt personally on the scene. I could hear the sirens, see the searchlight, and sense the heartbeat of the protagonists. However, what impressed me most is its theme, title and ending.In the story, there is a combination of two eternal themes: war and love. A lot of young men like Enrique joined the war for liberty. All of them were either killed or badly wounded. The living honored the dead, yet they must turn grief into strength. So what they thought was how to work to take their places, to advance wave upon wave. Where one died did not matter if he died for liberty. And it wouldn’t always be a failure. Such was the strongest belief of Enrique, of all the soldiers who had lived through the war, and of every one longing for liberty.The love between Enrique and Maria is quite moving. It was intensified through the war. At first, Maria was sentimental. Not having witnessed the sacrifice of the soldiers as Enrique had, she could not understand his attitudes toward the dead, though she loved him deeply. But the moment she touched the huge sunken scar on Enrique’s back, she suddenly understood the worth of the soldiers’ death, as well as t...
