The Collected Novels of José Saramago (291 page)

The tree in which Senhor José has taken shelter is an ancient olive tree, whose fruits the local people still come and pick despite the fact that the olive grove has now become a cemetery. Over the many years of its life, the tree’s trunk has gradually split open down one side, from top to bottom, like a cradle stood on its end so as to take up less space, and it is there that Senhor José manages to doze off now and then, it is there that he jerks awake, startled by the wind buffeting his face or when the silence and stillness of the air grew so profound that his drowsing spirit began to dream about the cries of a world sliding into the void. At one point, like someone determined to cure a dog bite with a hair of the dog that bit him, Senhor José decided to make use of his imagination in order to re-create mentally all the classic horrors appropriate to the place in which he found himself, the processions of lost souls swathed in white sheets, the
danses macabres
of skeletons rattling their bones in time to the music, the ominous figure of death skimming the ground with a bloody scythe to make sure that the dead resign themselves to remaining dead, but, because none of this was actually happening in reality, because it was just the work of his imagination, Senhor José gradually began to drift towards an enormous inner peace, only occasionally disturbed by the irresponsible flutterings of will-o’-the-wisps, enough to strain most people’s nerves to breaking point, however tough they might be or however much they might know about the elementary principles of organic chemistry. Indeed, our fearful Senhor José is displaying a courage which the many upsets and afflictions through which we saw him pass earlier would not have led us to expect, which, once again, just goes to show that it is in moments of extreme duress that the spirit gives the true measure
of its greatness. Towards dawn, now almost indifferent to fear, lulled by the gentle warmth of the tree embracing him, Senhor José dropped off to sleep with remarkable calm, while the world about him slowly re-emerged from the malevolent shadows of the night and from the ambiguous brilliance of a now departing moon. When Senhor José opened his eyes, it was already broad daylight. He was chilled to the bone, the tree’s friendly vegetable embrace must have been just another deceiving dream, unless the tree, considering that it had fulfilled the duty of hospitality to which all olive trees, by their very nature, are obliged, had released him too soon and abandoned him, helpless, to the cold of a low, delicate mist that hovered over the cemetery. Senhor José struggled to his feet, feeling every joint in his body creak, and stumbled towards the sun, at the same time beating his arms vigorously about him in order to warm himself. Beside the grave of the unknown woman, nibbling the damp grass, was a white sheep. All around, here and there, there were other sheep grazing. And an old man, with a crook in his hand, was coming towards Senhor José. He was accompanied by an ordinary dog, neither large nor small, which, while it gave no sign of aggression, looked very much as if it were only awaiting a word from its master to attack. The man stopped on the other side of the grave with the inquisitive air of one who, without asking for any explanation, clearly believes he is owed one, and Senhor José said, Good morning, to which the other man replied, Good morning, It’s a lovely day, Not bad, I fell asleep, Senhor José said, Ah, you fell asleep, said the man in a doubtful tone, I came here to visit the grave of a friend of mine, I sat down to rest under that olive tree and I went to sleep, You spent the night here, Yes, It’s the first time I’ve ever met anyone here at this hour, which is when I bring the sheep to graze, You’re not here during the rest of the day, then, asked Senhor José, It would look bad, it would show alack of respect, with the sheep getting in the way of the funerals
or leaving their droppings when the people who come here to remember their loved ones are walking about praying and crying, besides, the guides don’t want us to get in the way when they’re digging graves, so I have no option but to bring them a bit of cheese now and then so that they don’t go complaining to the keeper, Since the General Cemetery is open on all sides, anyone can come in, and that includes animals, in fact, I’m surprised that I didn’t see a single cat or dog when I walked up here from the office, There’s no shortage of stray cats and dogs, Well, I didn’t see any, You mean you walked all the way, Yes, You could have caught a bus, or a taxi, or come in your car, if you’ve got one, I didn’t know where the grave was, that’s why I had to go and ask first at the office, and then it was such a lovely day, I decided to walk, It’s odd that they didn’t tell you to go around, they usually do, I asked them to let me in and they did, Are you an archaeologist, No, A historian, No, An art critic, Certainly not, A genealogist, Please, Then I don’t understand why you would want to make that great long trek, nor how you managed to sleep among all these tombs, I’m pretty used to the place, but I wouldn’t stay here a minute after the sun’s gone down, Well, that’s what happened, I sat down and I went to sleep, You’re a brave man, No, I’m not that either, Did you find the person you were looking for, It’s that one there, right beside you, Is it a man or a woman, A woman, She still hasn’t got a name, I imagine the family will be deciding on a headstone now, I’ve noticed that the families of suicides are more likely to neglect that elementary duty than others, perhaps they’re filled with remorse, they probably think they’re to blame, It’s possible, Considering that we don’t know each other, how come you’re answering all my questions, most people would tell me to mind my own business, It’s just the way I am, I always answer what I’m asked, You’re a subaltern, a subordinate, a dependant, a manservant, an errand boy, I’m a clerk at the Central Registry, Then you’re just the person to be told
the truth about the land of suicides, but first, you must swear solemnly that you’ll never reveal the secret to anyone, I swear by all that I hold most sacred, And what exactly do you hold most sacred, I don’t know, Everything, Or nothing, It’s a bit of a vague oath, don’t you think, I can’t come up with a better one, Swear on your honour, that used to be the surest oath, All right then, I’ll swear on my honour, but, you know, the head of the Central Registry would die laughing if he heard one of his clerks swearing on his honour, Between a shepherd and a clerk it’s a serious enough oath, not laughable at all, so we’ll stick with that, So what is the truth about the land of suicides, asked Senhor José, Not everything here is what it seems, It’s a cemetery, it’s the General Cemetery, It’s a labyrinth, You can see when something’s a labyrinth, Not always, This is the invisible kind, I don’t understand, For example, the person lying here, said the shepherd, touching the mound of earth with the end of his crook, is not the person you think Suddenly, the ground began to shake beneath Senhor José’s feet, the one remaining piece on the board, his final certainty, the unknown woman who had at last been found, had just disappeared. Do you mean that this number is wrong, he asked, trembling, A number is a number, a number is never wrong, replied the shepherd, if you took this one from here and put it somewhere else, even if it was at the very ends of the earth, it would still continue to be the number it is, I don’t understand, You will, Please, I’m all confused, None of the bodies buried here corresponds to the names you see on the marble stones, I don’t believe it, Well, it’s true, And what about the numbers, They’ve all been swapped around, Why, Because someone changes them before the stones with the names on them are brought and put in place, Who, Me, But that’s a crime, protested Senhor José indignantly, There’s no law against it, I’m going to report you right now to the cemetery officials, You swore on your honour, I withdraw the oath, this situation invalidates
it, You can replace a bad word with a good word, but neither one nor the other can be withdrawn, your word is your word, an oath is an oath, Death is sacred, It’s life that’s sacred, Mr. Clerk, at least so they say, But in the name of decency, you should have a minimum of respect for the person who died, people come here to remember their relatives and friends, to meditate or pray, to place flowers or to weep before a beloved name, and now it seems, because of one mischievous shepherd, the person lying there has another name entirely, these venerable mortal remains don’t belong to the person they were thought to belong to, that way, you make death a farce, Personally, I don’t believe one can show greater respect than to weep for a stranger, But death, What, Death should be respected, And what in your opinion does respecting death involve, Not profaning it for a start, Death itself cannot be profaned, You know very well that it’s the dead I’m talking about, not death itself, And can you see the slightest sign of profanation here, Swapping the names around is hardly a minor profanation, Well, I can understand a clerk in the Central Registry having ideas like that about names. The shepherd stopped, made a sign to the dog to go and fetch a sheep that had wandered off, then went on, I haven’t yet told you the reason why I began changing the numbers on the graves, I doubt it’s of any interest to me, I’m sure it will be, Go on then, If, as I believe, it’s true that people who commit suicide do so because they don’t want to be found, these people here, thanks to what you called a mischievous shepherd, are now free forever from importunate visitors, in truth, not even I, even if I wanted to, would be able to remember where the numbers should be, all I know is what I think when I pass by these marble stones complete with the person’s name and the correct dates of birth and death, What do you think, That it’s possible not to see a lie even when it’s right in front of us. The mist had vanished a long time ago, you could now see how large the flock of sheep was.
The shepherd made a movement above his head with the crook, it was an order for the dog to gather the sheep together. The shepherd said, It’s time for me to take the sheep away, the guides might find me here, I can already see the lights of two cars, but they’re not coming this way, I’m going to stay for a while longer, said Senhor José, Are you really going to report me, asked the shepherd, I’m a man of my word, what is sworn is sworn, They’d probably tell you to keep your mouth shut anyway, Why, Imagine the work involved in disinterring all these people and identifying them, many of them are nothing more than dust now anyway. The sheep were all gathered together, apart from the occasional straggler which came leaping nimbly over the graves to escape the dog and join its sisters. The shepherd asked, Were you a friend or a relative of the person you came to visit, I didn’t even know her, And despite that you came looking for her, It was precisely because I didn’t know her that I came looking for her, You see I was right when I said that one can show no greater respect than to weep for a stranger, Goodbye, We might see each other again sometime, I doubt it, You never know, Who are you, I’m the shepherd of these sheep, And that’s all, That’s all. A light flickered in the distance, That one’s coming over here, said Senhor José, It looks like it, said the shepherd. With the dog at their head, the flock began to move towards the bridge. Before disappearing behind the trees on the other side, the shepherd turned around and waved. Senhor José waved back. He could see the intermittent light on the guides’ car more clearly now. It disappeared occasionally into a hollow or was momentarily concealed from view by one of the motley structures in the cemetery, the towers, the obelisks, the pyramids, then it reappeared, brighter, nearer, and it was coming fast, a clear sign that there were not many people accompanying it. When he had said to the shepherd, I’m going to stay for a while longer, Senhor José’s intention had been merely to remain alone for a few minutes before setting off again. He just wanted to ponder his own feelings a little, to judge the real depths of his disappointment, to accept it, to put his spirit to rest, to say once more, It’s over, but now he had another idea. He went across to one of the graves and adopted the pose of someone meditating deeply on the irremediable precariousness of existence, on the vacuity of all dreams and all hopes, on the absolute fragility of worldly and divine glories. He was so deep in thought that he didn’t even appear to notice the arrival of the guides and the half dozen or so people, slightly more, accompanying the coffin. He did not move during the whole time that it took to open the grave, lower the coffin, fill in the hole, make the usual mound with the surplus earth. He did not move when one of the guides placed at the head of the mound the black metal tag marked in white with the number of the grave. He did not move when the guides’ car and the hearse moved off, he did not move during the bare two minutes that the people lingered by the grave uttering useless words and wiping away the odd tear, he did not move when the two cars they had arrived in drove off across the bridge, he did not move until he was alone again. He took the number corresponding to the unknown woman and placed it on the new grave. Then he took the number from that one and placed it on the other grave. The exchange was made, the truth had become a lie. Besides, it might well be that the shepherd, finding a new grave there tomorrow, would unwittingly move the false number on it back to the unknown woman’s grave, an ironic possibility in which the lie, apparendy repeating itself, would become true again. The workings of chance are infinite. Senhor José headed for home. On the way, he went into a cafe, where he ordered coffee and toast. He couldn’t stave off hunger a moment longer.