Touched by Death
I knew not his name but had watched him work on La Corona.
For about three weeks now we had watched the villa renovation across the valley.
A crew of 6 to 10 guys of various ages and skills. Young, middle and older.
They worked the concrete house, chipping out the old and installing the new.
They moved their scaffolding along the house finally taking off a green screening.
Now they worked a new area, taking off a roof and cutting the walls.
One great column was erected and then another begun. Mason and Assistant.
I gained interest and used my telescope to watch the mason lay the concrete blocks.
He laid two one way, then two the other, went to get more mortar, then laid more.
I had noted that the first column had been completed now, he worked the second.
There was rebar sticking out of the first and it had been filled with concrete.
This second column was nearly done now, two stories tall, rising rapidly.
I left that side of our house......
Sitting in our patio, we could hear the typical sounds of the day.
Cars running up and down the hill, trucks delivering, the tapping of machinery at the new construction site above us, the sirens of official vehicles.
Later, I returned to the naya by the pool and noticed lights flashing across the way.
I thought it odd that the construction vehicles had twin flashing lights.
Then I noticed lots of people down at the pool of the construction site.
Calling Vaughn, I said "looks like there has been an accident across the way."
There were ambulance workers in orange, local police in yellow backed uniforms, guardia civil who seemed very young, and onlookers on the road above the house.
The ambulance team seemed to be administering to a man on the ground.
The police seemed to be in different quarters, kind of odd.
As we watched they hooked up sensors to the body, made a printout.
The body was covered by a sheet, a definitive statement.
I was somewhat sure that this had been the mason I was watching just an hour before.
But what had happened? Apparently a fall off the scaffolding.....
Nicholas arrived and for the next three hours we watched the accident scene.
Death at close range creates an unsettling feeling.
The ambulance packed up and left. Some of the police left.
The work crew stayed, sequestered in the house or above.
Two older local police and the two young Guardia Civil stood watch.
Various people arrived and we speculated who, out of range.
The builder, family or friends, distraught and weeping.
The body remained untouched, but the story was told by the Guardia.
Pointing up to the scaffolding, a stain in the corner of the terrace a few paces away.
And oddly the seemed to point away from the scaffolding as well.
The hearse arrived, rear doors flung open, and awaiting....
But still the scene evolved.....
Now another official, a detective? Taking the tour and taking pictures, measurements.
And finally another group of people under police escort.
And a woman, apparently the medical examiner.....
Another tour of the scene, removal of the sheet and examination of the body.
Examination of the front, the back, hands, feet, the shoes, the gloves.
Various discussions in various groups, seemingly distraught and perplexed.
The body finally bagged and carried up all the steps to the hearse.
Slow dispersal, hand shaking, the workers there until the end.
The house is sealed, darkness envelopes.....
Dead and Gone
Now a day later, no work was done today at the work site.
Police returned, more measurements taken.
That same strange feeling knowing of a death so near.
Every time we go through the naya door, we see the vacant house.
A news report about the incident in spanish is of an electrocution!
The wires next to the property are apparently what was being pointed to.
We still speculate..... A length of rebar, two stories tall?
Examination of hands and feet, gloves and shoes.
Those three wires by that villa, lead up next to our villa!
The same wires that my younger brother Brian touched over 40 years ago.
His burned fingers and legs from the electric arc.
His luck with a ride to hospital, not the morgue.
