After a Halloween party in the tiny town of Three Pines, a black robed/masked figure appears on the village green. All he/she does is stand there like one of those living statues who appear in Copley Square and other tourist spots.
So, what the fuck’s up with that? This particular living statue is a cobrador. Not the current tuxedo clad variety but the medieval sort who dressed like Death with a veil over its eyes.
a cobrador del frac, a collector of unpaid debts (including moral debts) who follows defaulters, shaming them with his remorseless gaze. In the presence of this wraith, the villagers begin to exhume their own guilty secrets.
A creepy twist in the narrative traces the cobrador back to medieval Spain, when plague victims, lepers and witches were consigned to a remote island to die. Those who survived and managed to return to the mainland silently stalked the people who had banished them and, over the years, became mythic figures. (source)
Lorca is quick to point out that they only pursue "people who are able to pay but refuse to pay. We don't pursue people who have no money, but people who may have concealed their money in fake companies for example.” (source)Fascinating, no? Frankly, I think we could use this right here in the US of A.
That and wages on which people can actually live. With rents starting at around $1,000 in Alabama, fer instance, how in the fuck is a person going to support their family on Walmart pay of $12.93 an hour? Before taxes are taken out, that’s $3,198 a month. Alabama has absolutely obscene abortion restrictions so, let’s say you’re a single woman whose birth control has failed. If you’re a customer service rep at Walmart in Alabama City, you’re screwed especially with their Byzantine time off system.
Could we get an army of corridors to stand outside (hell, INSIDE) their corporate offices?
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