No One Writes To The Colonel

An elderly, practical woman with severe asthma, the colonel's ailing wife tries to balance their needs with her husband's stubborn pride. Physically, the colonel describes his wife as "scarcely more than a bit of white on an arched, rigid spine" (4). Emotionally, the colonel regards his wife as "naturally hard, and hardened even more by forty years of bitterness" (59). She believes the "world is corrupt" (13). However, the colonel's wife displays resilience and fastidiousness in the face of their dire situation. When she recovers from her bouts of asthma, the colonel's wife has "an energetic attitude" (45). She cleans the house and prepares the colonel's clothes and shoes for his trip to see Sabas. By the novella's end, though, the colonel's wife allows her anxiety about money to consume her thoughts and confronts the colonel physically about his rooster pipe dreams. 

A married couple expecting a baby, Ana is hotheaded young Damaso's slightly older wife. Ana works as a laundress and seamstress while Damaso turns to robbery to try to get a little money. Ana, a forgiving woman, tells Damaso he has "the feelings of a donkey" (78) for doing something so stupid without consideration for her or the baby. Damaso, frustrated by Ana, stubbornly refuses to accept that his actions have hurt not only her but the whole town. Eventually, though, Damaso realizes that he needs to return the balls not only to make things right between he and Ana but to restore order to the town. 

A 94-year-old priest, Father Anthony Isabel struggles to keep his congregation coming to his parish because he's delivered sermons on seeing "the devil on three occasions" (124). The townspeople consider this "just a bit out of place" (124). During the plague of dead birds falling from the sky, though, Father Anthony claims to see the "Wandering Jew" (133), a mythical man whose presence signals the coming of the apocalypse. When Father Anthony delivers a free-flowing sermon on the apocalypse, parishioners return.