My Tired Father (4 page)

The anatomy of two English hairdressers

Next to him there was also a surgeon specializing in the plague

They were in possession of some indubitable rules (History and Melancholy)

They successfully reconstituted the generating circle

They used a coefficient of indirect references in which nature played no role whatsoever From that need of a personal ritual a loss of instinct resulted (Table you're going to bed I want to be held in your arms)

That's why

The obscenity of the prophets

There were also other incidents and other reflections that suggested the decline of impulse and every morning they went for a carriage ride

Inside himself each felt a mouse

Some figures did not correspond to those forecast but met the necessary conditions

The complicated ceremonies were to take place in the vicinity The abbot had been brought by the sand

By dint of considerable effort long training and a certain amount of intelligence some tried to better their talent and technique

For that they used the ovoid powders

Only the exhausting and terribly boring result seemed important to them

But what counted was the way the man called Abend had carried out a fantastic holdup Millions of lire were transported from the train station to the cemetery

Naturally he had used the materials at hand (pellets buttons) but also things found by chance (twigs pebbles)

Pushed down the corridor he kept his hat in his hand He was probably very pale for one of the girls dressed in white asked Are you always so pale I don't think so he replied but I played for a quarter of an hour on the curb in the cold

Another looked at his hand and said The wedding ring Do you think it could go on the right hand Of course On the same finger

A kind of hurricane tore off the roofs of all the houses in Bavaria

A voice said He is innocent

An almost perfect circle about 20 km in diameter stretched north and south and also contained some volcanic fields good for pasture

With calm vehemence with active sadness Catherine evoked the errors of the day before

She looked from outside at the herd and became again flesh of her flesh

It's me she said and in this found a reason to persevere

In the morning she brought out the ladder Just imagine the passersby applauded her

I had long since grown indifferent

I entered the open elevator with the look of a man convinced he was making a mistake I was quickly fastened they attached the hook to me and the others began to pull

I had identified a strange crisis of paternal conscience

I took a shortcut but that was in no way a heroic action and no one among us was influenced by its symbolic character

I had the right and the duty to put myself on the list of those who while appreciating practice go on to the study of problems and do not forget that after all

In a more recent period I combined little colored papers

I studied problems of detail for example the feeling of capillarity an error always applied very rigorously

The humidity until then laborious but lacking precision declared itself clearly in our favor

I had known King Phillip and I had obtained a document to this effect Added to this was the beginning of moral intimidation on the part of the others In fact they were biting their fingers

I was implicated in labors of a Herculean nature

If a case of force majeure prevented my being present at the deliberations I had to vote by mail

I had an immense field of view and a practically unlimited feeling

At the letter P I became a pohet once again I sat in my place as determined by the alphabet and waited

At the letter N I would say Neave me alone

On that occasion I began preparing myself for a sedentary life and I dug an irrigation canal into which I diverted part of the water of a stream flowing nearby. After completing this job I went off at top speed toward the southwest

I procreated in a mysterious manner then I tried to destroy or immortalize my progeny

With eyes closed I read the eulogizing letters

The portrait probably showed me admiring my bracelet

The distinguishing sign was the forehead adorned with feathers

My sister had contributed to the institution's development

I never forgot the uncertainties of our pathetic practical spirit

That had been long and hard work but it had ended well and it was certain that the event would take place

The empty square room turned I drew a blue rectangle in the middle The sound of the cascade entered through wide-open windows That was one way of getting out

The next day around four o'clock in the afternoon Catherine Mahoney had caught sight of Abend this time wearing a long cloak and a hat whose brim fell over his eyes

She observed him attentively as he stopped by the roadside as if he meant to speak to the man trimming the bushes that grew in abundance there

When Catherine approached Abend had already inexplicably disappeared and the man in question swore that no one had come that way in the last quarter of an hour

Between 5 and 6 o'clock in the month of March I went back home Coming to a bend in the international highway I spotted a man in black walking along quietly in front of me After the bend that man vanished

They did different things with the same means and reflected their roots in the water

It was the most effective method and stimulated by their accomplishments they advanced irresistibly toward perfection

Assembling and dispersing according to unpolished rules they were content with elegantly filming their wives on horseback

They made love in an old-fashioned but charming way They poured a drop of water on the backs of their hands and right away the palms became velvety

They tied their sandals with incredible elegance

In their free time they drew and painted while developing their personalities and acquiring from the start a practical education in certain dynamic arts such as decoration advertising modeling etc Numerous abundantly illustrated textbooks allowed them to work as required and in full reliance on solid experience

Protected by complete thermal isolation (the photograph below) they slept at a certain distance from one another

Some had decided to start over from the beginning They had what is called a harelip

They had generic names but practiced the gray ebullitions

They opened the triangle in the middle of its longest side and made a square by bringing together the opposed extremities of the longest side

The children came almost every day to share in the famous physical and intellectual discipline

They gathered in cement nests haunted by an immense longing for solitude

They organized in an eloquent way things we all knew quite well

Fascinated by typhus they secretly took anatomy and natural science courses

Two were seated face to face on folding chairs One had a scepter and was dressed in a short tunic and held a bow and arrow The younger one held a sleeping woman in his arms

The compensator kept remarkable time

No one picked up the wrappings anymore

The coloring happened after they had wiped their surface in a circular motion with a well-tied ball of cloth

Between each incursion they did not leave the barracks It seemed they lived down there in tiny rooms but in optimum conditions as to temperature

Once I met them on a small wooded hill They had encircled the hill and begun their advance I was with Catherine and I climbed up a rock

They began shooting and the bullets buried themselves in the rock I quickly bit the places struck by the bullets and then I leaped from the rock and fled

Another time I made myself a bed of grass next to the barracks on perfectly flat and bare ground They found out and all night long I heard them munching and carrying off my grass

They did this with the same energy all the next day and the following night as if quite indefatigable During the day for example they chewed all the grass beneath my pallet

They were hypothetical potters such as rarely seen nowadays

The advantage of their lost form consisted of the fact that it was no longer necessary to straighten out their knots

In his capacity as president Abend (on the right wearing glasses) moderated his appetite At other times he pretended to listen but his statements contradicted his attitude

Because all the elements expressed the error of a single gesture

Some of them eulogized the fascinating attraction of that somber unknown land The prudent spoke of the future

The earth inside had to be thrown out

That fall Catherine's parents insisted that I leave Just after my departure she fell prey to a profound melancholy said not one word and refused to eat her secretions stopped Thus Catherine Mahoney died despite the advice and prayers of those close to her

The next summer a group of friends quarreled The youngest one rebelled but not for long

The son of an over-excited mother he stood out in early childhood because he loved dolls and would waste hours at a time in sewing shops enthusiastically collecting scraps

Credulous and dutiful he wore an ample black frock coat

Such a man could be crushed by disappointments but when he came back he seemed surrounded by a halo

He drew leaves

The opinion of white roses or a small hat on a chair

The only allusions to his love life

The basement of a large hotel or a gigantic airport I used these kinds of ingredients too

It was an acid and maddening time

Someone was asking What are you doing down there in the dark