Aldehuela de doña Mencía

Aldehuela de doña Mencía is the poor, dusty village Alice Gould reaches late in the day while fleeing the asylum. Its tavern offers a momentary chance to rest and seek help, but the failed call home and a radio report about the escaped woman make the stop precarious. The village marks a sharp turn in the escape: from a plan to misdirect her pursuers, Alice must continue on foot, away from the road and toward the woods.

Setting and Arrival

Alice reaches Aldehuela de doña Mencía in the late afternoon, almost exhausted after walking. The village is described in stark material terms: adobe houses, chickens pecking through cow dung, children crawling naked, and an atmosphere of dust, dirt, flies, and heat. The name promises more beauty than the place possesses; the description instead makes it a harsh, exposed stop on her flight.

The Tavern and the Failed Call

Suffocated by the heat, Alice enters an empty tavern where a radio blares and the innkeeper sleeps through the noise. She wakes him, claims that her car has broken down, and asks to use the telephone and have a beer. Calling her home in Madrid briefly seems hopeful: she hears someone pick up. But the voice belongs to a wine-representation business, whose occupants say they do not know who rented the premises before them. The call does not put her in touch with home, and the unfamiliar answer makes the distance between escape and safety suddenly concrete.

Recognition and Departure

As Alice pays, the radio broadcasts a description of a tall, blonde, well-built woman wearing jeans, a checked shirt, a cream-colored jacket, and low shoes, warning that she is dangerous. Alice suspects the innkeeper may have recognized her as the woman who escaped from the asylum. She leaves without waiting for her change and heads toward a distant pine wood, with the setting sun in front of her as she walks west.

The village is therefore a brief but decisive waystation, not a refuge. After entering it under a false account of car trouble and failing to reach her home, Alice returns to movement and improvisation. She unfolds a drawing Ignacio Urquieta gave her and uses it to orient herself toward a road she expects to cross, carrying the escape onward beyond the village.