Out of Captivity : Surviving 1,967 Days in the Colombian Jungle

Broken Bones and Broken Bonds201show, the three of us were sitting with several of the other politicals.Clara came up to us and seemed really nervous and excited. She hada way of twitching and fluttering her limbs as she spoke, and that day,her nervous energy was on full tilt.“I have something to tell you all that is very important and I hopeyou will listen to me carefully so you will have shared with me thisimportant news that I have chosen now to tell you.” She barely pausedbefore lunging headlong into the next sentence. “I am very pleased toannounce to you all that I am pregnant with a child and I will be givingbirth in four to five months. I ask that you respect my privacy such as itis under these conditions and not ask me any questions about this subject.Thank you in advance and please respect my wishes.” She noddedand blinked and walked away toward Ingrid and Lucho’s little setup.We all sat there like we’d just been at a very hastily put together pressconference and someone’s representative had read a statement denyingsome allegations of wrongdoing but wasn’t going to answer any questionsto clear up the matter. Clara had to know what we were all thinkingand wondering about, and her desire to keep that matter private wouldhave been fine under normal circumstances, but these weren’t normalcircumstances, and even under normal circumstances, everyone wouldhave wanted the question answered: Who was the father?Later, Marc, Tom, and I were sitting by Tom’s hammock spot whenMarc said, “It’s got to be one of the politicals. Who else has she beenaround?”“The guerrillas is all I can figure.” Tom swung the pendulum inthe other direction. “Clara wasn’t around the other male politicals at apoint when it would make sense chronologically that one of them wasthe father.”“It doesn’t matter to me who it is just so long as folks know who itwasn’t,” I said. “Word of this is going to get out and I don’t want thispregnancy linked to me in any way. I can’t have that happen.”