No One Writes to the Colonel

For fifteen years, a retired colonel has made a weekly pilgrimage to the post office, waiting for a letter confirming the pension he was promised for his service in the Thousand Days' War. Living in a small, repressive village under martial law with his asthmatic wife, the couple endures poverty and the recent grief of their son's death for political reasons. Their only remaining asset, and the last memory of their son, is a prize fighting rooster - an animal that represents both a potential financial salvation and a powerful symbol of defiance for the entire town.

The colonel clings to a fragile hope, navigating the quiet desperation of his circumstances with an unwavering sense of dignity. As he and his wife face starvation, the pressure to sell the rooster mounts, forcing a choice between immediate survival and holding on to the last vestige of pride and hope. This novella explores the depths of patience and the struggle to maintain integrity in a world defined by official neglect and corruption, questioning what remains when hope is all one has left.