Juan Goytisolo's story is about soldiers guarding prisoners in Franco's Spain. Goytisolo didn't like Franco, and the narrator, pulling his first guard duty, does not like Franco's Spain.
The narrator, with a submachine gun on his shoulder, is curious about a prisoner, an eccentric kid who is obsessed by soccer. The kid asks the narrator to bring him some newspapers — the ones with all the scores.
The narrator says almost nothing about himself. Others call him "sergeant." The lieutenant gives him a lecture on how the narrator and his kind — soft university types — have no understanding of what's below the cultured classes. It's ugly. Harsh discipline is needed.
The narrator learns the eccentric kid was a recruit, an ordinary soldier who believed that if he compiled and studied all the statistics, he could predict the winners of soccer games. He didn't embezzle exactly— he just borrowed an advance on his pay from military funds.
The kid placed a big bet and was astonished he lost. He "borrowed" more to recover his losses and make his fortune.
Some people are certain they know how things work: how soccer games are won and lost, and how governments should exercise authority. We human beings do not understand soccer well enough to reliably predict outcomes. We understand even less about just governance.
The narrator looks at the future and is depressed. Some of us know how he feels.
• Source: Spanish Stories: A Dual-Language Book, ed. by Angel Flores; New York: Dover Publications, Inc. 1987, pp. 260-75.
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