Though she is hesitant about the fact the commission will only look into cases in which victims are dead and is equally concerned that the commission will not have powers to prosecute, she tells him to take the position. Gerardo claims he is holding off on taking the job until he has Paulina’s approval. Gerardo and Paulina then discuss his new job offer: the country’s new president has asked him to head up a new commission to investigate atrocities committed under the previous dictatorship. Gerardo blames Paulina for the spare tire in their car being flat and quibbles with her over his missing car jack-which she has loaned to her mother. He explains that one of his tires had gone out on the way home and a kind passing motorist had stopped to help. Hearing a car pull up, Paulina retrieves a gun from the sideboard and listens as Gerardo thanks an unknown individual before coming in. It’s already after midnight the wind is making the curtains billow and the sounds of the sea can be heard. Paulina is waiting for Gerardo to return home, their dinner going cold on the table. The country they live in is “probably Chile,” and is certainly a newly democratic country trying to leave its military dictatorship past behind. Paulina Salas, a woman around forty years old, and her husband, Gerardo Escobar, a mid-forties lawyer, are staying in their secluded beach house.
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