Cuba

Cuba functions in this episode as a possible destination for fugitives, not as a setting the narrative visits. Juan invokes flights to Havana to argue that a single gun could make escape by plane feasible. His account briefly gives the characters a route out; Pauline’s skepticism then exposes how uncertain that prospect is, and the discussion sharpens into a conflict within the room.

Cuba as a Proposed Destination

Juan’s idea begins with the problem of having only one gun. He argues that it could still be enough to hijack a plane and go to Cuba, where the weapon’s force would matter more than the number of armed comrades. In his formulation, a fast entry and exit could make the imbalance manageable, while a group cornered on the ground would be in far greater danger. Cuba is thus presented through a tactical argument about escape, not through description of the country or evidence of a plan already underway.

The possibility is also tied to Juan’s memory of having once thought he should be prepared to help comrades leave the country. He says he never expected that he himself would become one of the people needing such help. That reversal connects Cuba to the fugitives’ present predicament: an idea once entertained as assistance to others now offers Juan a possible route for his own group.

Juan’s Account of Earlier Flights

To support his proposal, Juan recounts what he says he learned from a friend on the East Coast. According to Juan, the friend helped two men leave the country after they had bombed a Dow Chemical plant. The friend had heard that planes traveling from New York to Miami were frequently hijacked to Havana, and searched newspaper archives for evidence. Juan describes the reports as brief wire-service items buried in the back pages, while failed hijackings received prominent attention. He also says airlines instructed pilots to comply with hijackers’ demands because of the danger to passengers.

Juan presents this as a pattern that news organizations and the government had little incentive to publicize: reporting successful hijackings, he argues, would reveal both how easy they could be and how many people wanted to reach Cuba. He says his friend heard through the Liberation News Service that the flight carrying the two men had been diverted to Havana. Juan initially doubted the story, then repeated the research himself and concluded that it was true. He estimates that there had been between ten and twenty hijackings a year, though fewer by the time of the conversation, and insists the possibility had not disappeared. These claims belong to Juan’s account; the episode establishes what he believes and how he supports it, not an independent history of the flights.

Doubt and Immediate Consequences

Pauline asks whether the two men made it, and Juan answers confidently that they did. But his example does not persuade her that the same tactic is available to the group. Looking out at the rain, she says they could never hijack an airplane. Juan challenges her to name a better long-term plan, and she responds that finding one is his responsibility. Her answer shifts the discussion from the apparent precedent of Cuba-bound flights to the leadership and judgment required to turn an anecdote into a workable escape.

The disagreement has an immediate physical consequence. Before Jenny has registered what Pauline has said, Juan snatches the gun from the table and aims it at Pauline, angrily confronting her. Cuba remains a destination in the argument, but the gun that was supposed to make escape imaginable becomes an instrument of intimidation within the group. The scene leaves the proposed route unresolved and makes clear that invoking a possible refuge does not settle the dangers or divisions of the present.