Christmas

Christmas serves as both a practical landmark and a brief interruption in the winter of 1946–47: its approaching festivities help the narrator time a visit to María Eugenia León’s home, while Christmas Eve and the New Year bring a few exceptions to Manolo’s relentless review of police and court records.

Timing a Visit in Madrid

The narrator and his companion choose Wednesday the 18th for a visit to the Maroto household. The date is close enough to Christmas Eve that wealthy homes are receiving more messengers and visitors, but early enough that people planning to spend Christmas in their home towns are still in Madrid. The season’s bustle supplies cover for a visit whose timing has been deliberately considered.

Before leaving the office, the narrator hastily fills out a delivery slip for a fictitious shipment, leaves its contents unspecified, and places it in an envelope with one of his business cards. His job at the agency gives him plausible freedom to leave during working hours: client visits and supervision of truck loading or unloading are ordinary parts of his work. He usually sees patients at midday, during the three-hour break in his split schedule, and on this occasion does not alter that routine.

At the building, a delivery boy carrying a large Christmas basket reaches the concierge just ahead of him. The basket is wrapped in several tiers of cellophane; the black legs of two hams show beneath its ribbon. The narrator says he is headed to the same household, and the boy directs him to the main elevator. He waits on the third floor to give the servants time to collect the basket before ringing the bell. The Christmas delivery thus becomes part of the practical cover and choreography of his arrival.

An Unexpected Reunion

María Eugenia León appears dressed elegantly and ready to go out. More than two years have passed since she and the narrator last parted. He is unsure whether she will be glad to see him, but her face registers terror as she approaches him slowly. Her reaction turns what might have looked like a seasonal social call into an encounter charged with an unexplained alarm.

She greets him as Rafa and wishes him a happy Christmas, then sends the maid, Margarita, back to the kitchen, explaining aloud that he is an old friend. After the maid leaves, María Eugenia gives him a distracted, formal embrace and checks that they are alone. Only after closing the door does she whisper her urgent question about what has happened to Sito. The holiday greeting and the concealed question occupy the same entrance: beneath the polite appearance of Christmas hospitality lies a private crisis.

Christmas Eve and the Investigation

Christmas Eve brings one of the few breaks in Manolo’s work. María Aránzazu invites the group to dinner at her home; a week later, Meg gives up the embassy cocktail party because she wants them to see in the New Year at Puerta del Sol. They then welcome 1947 in her apartment with a tremendous drunken celebration. Apart from these two occasions and the resulting New Year’s hangover, Manolo spends the period from December 20, 1946, through January 14, 1947, reading court records and Allied police reports from Germany.

The narrator asks each afternoon how the search is going. Manolo invariably shakes his head, and the narrator sits beside him, takes the first folder from the pile, and eventually shares his discouragement. His help produces no breakthrough; it only reduces Manolo’s workload. They find just two Spanish names, both belonging to Mauthausen prisoners who had acted as witnesses, and are beginning to despair when Manolo reaches the file of an SS officer named Ernst Kleiber.

The Holiday’s Narrative Function

Christmas does not suspend the investigation so much as mark its pressure and persistence. Its crowds and deliveries make a carefully arranged visit easier to stage, while its customary gatherings provide a small interval in an otherwise nearly month-long stretch of document review. The contrast is pointed: baskets, dinner, and a New Year celebration briefly interrupt the work, but the search resumes each afternoon until a specific file offers a new lead.