NOTES
This story was born when two books I was reading came together. One was a non-fiction about the Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest and the other was an Agatha Christie. The story within a story, Alejandro’s tragedy, was inspired by descriptions of ploys the natives used against the invaders, such as placing headdresses on poles and dancing around the fire to make it appear they were greater in number. Another trick I remember reading about is boring holes in canoes and refilling them with sawdust mixed with tree sap so that it would dissolve once the enemy had rowed far enough away from shore, sinking the boat.
The idea I got from Ms. Christie is that of tricking the eye, distracting attention like a magician performing an illusion, focusing notice on one thing so that somet
