Ignacio Urquieta’s Episode in the Rain

Ignacio Urquieta’s episode in the rain turns a previously unexplained pattern of absences and precautions into a visible medical crisis. When rain begins during a walk, he bolts past Alice Gould in a state of physical distress, collapses, and nevertheless resumes running; his subsequent fall in the rain leads Alice to recognize the water phobia she had heard described by Teodoro Ruipérez.

The episode begins

Alice has remained beside an oak tree, half asleep, for what may have been another hour. Clouds have gathered, some appearing ominous, and she gets up to continue walking. Then Ignacio rushes past her so violently that he nearly knocks her down. He is sweating, panting, groaning, and visibly disturbed; his eyes are unsettled, and he does not see Alice.

The change in his movement is conspicuous. Alice remembers his earlier trot, when he had been told that he had a visitor. This is different: Ignacio runs wildly, as though fleeing immediate danger and needing to reach shelter to save his life. His body reveals the extremity of his fear before he can explain it. He trips while descending a slope and rolls several metres, but springs up and continues his frantic run.

Rain and the route to shelter

A man described as Ignacio’s supposed brother follows him at a quick, worried pace. Although the shortest way back to the building passes the garden, workshops, and sports area, Ignacio takes the longer path around the bar, chapel, and family units. His choice initially looks like a senseless detour, but the rain that begins at that moment makes it legible as an attempt to avoid the swimming pool.

Once the rain starts, Ignacio falls to the ground as if suffering an epileptic attack. People presented in uncertain familial roles—one as a possible father, another as his wife or an imagined sister-in-law—reach Alice. Their anxious presence frames the collapse as a familiar crisis for those around him, while the scene leaves their exact relationships unclear. One explains that Ignacio realized too late that rain was coming and describes water as something profoundly dangerous to him; reassurance that he will soon recover accompanies the account, but does not lessen the force of his reaction.

Alice recognizes the pattern

The crisis recalls Alice’s first interview with Teodoro Ruipérez. He had described a patient whose response to water could include vomiting, fever, skin eruptions, and fainting—not only when touching water, but also when seeing or hearing it. Alice now understands that this is the condition Ignacio suffers from. The rain is not merely uncomfortable for him: even its arrival can precipitate a collapse.

That recognition also reorganizes details Alice had noticed at other times. Ignacio’s long absences coincided with rainy days. At meals he sat with his back to the other patients, so that he would not have to see their water jugs or glasses; only wine and carbonated drinks were served at his table. And on this walk, the longer route makes sense because it let him avoid encountering the pool. What had seemed like separate eccentricities—the absences, the seating arrangement, the restricted drinks, and the detour—now form a consistent set of precautions around water.

The question left open

After connecting the episode to Ignacio’s condition, Alice asks Cosme el Hortelano who once threw a bucket of water at Ignacio’s feet. The question points toward a specific past incident, but this scene supplies no answer and does not establish who was responsible or what followed. Its ending therefore widens the significance of the episode: Alice has identified the phobia and its effects, while the history behind the fear remains unresolved.