Last night, I read beyond the point of Jose Arcadio Buendia’s death, but I keep coming back to it. There are things here that must be thought about.
And too, this morning I consider replacing the tub caulking, and try to read the label for the curing time, and find that I cannot. No matter where I hold it, the tiny text eludes me. Then I think: If proof of existence is in the seeing is believing, does this exist? I see the tube of caulk, and feel it–the empirical philosophy that says it does. But then, the writing is currently (at this space in time) undecipherable. So then, does it not exist? At least for me? Are there two cars in the garage in/on moonless nights?
As Jose Arcadio is dying, he sees Prudencio, who has haunted him since his murder, driving the Buendia family into leaving their village and starting their own community, a force more powerful dead then when alive, and who has become a friend of sorts, a harbinger perhaps of what is beyond what is not known or seen.
I shall soon form some thoughts based on the dream Jose Arcadio Buendia has in his muddled mind after years of sitting out by the chestnut tree. And of the explainable–seeing Ursula and yet believing it to be Prudencio–as well as the unexplainable–the rainfall of yellow flowers after Jose’s death.
It all means something, and as I squint and finally seek out a magnifying glass to read the writing on the tube of caulk, I will as well–and share here–seek out a magnifier in my mind to focus on the words Marquez has given us in puzzle. If Melquiades is the world outside our own earthly travels, is Prudencio the world of that beyond? Just as Melquiades leaves and returns from all over the globe, does the dead Prudencio challenge it with his own appearances? Does he confirm it?
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology