The Crossing

Content Warning: This summary section mentions self-harm and death by suicide.

Billy stops at a house owned by a woman and her blind husband. While they eat, the woman tells Billy their story: Her husband lost his eyes in 1913 during the Mexican Revolution serving under rebel Maclovio Herrera. The husband was captured in Durango, and while he waited for execution a German Huertista mocked him. The husband spit in his face, and in retaliation the Huertista grabbed him and sucked his eyes from their sockets. In this way, the husband was saved from execution, though his fellow captives did not know if his fate was worse. The wife says that 28 years later things are still the same, but the man says “The world was new each day for God so made it daily. Yet it contained within it all the evils as before, no more, no less” (278).

The wife continues her story: When the rebels took Durango back, none present knew who the blind man was, so they sent him to Parral with nothing but a stave. People took care of him on his journey, but he was filled with despair, afraid for his new sense of being trapped inside of himself.