Davide Longo - The Last Man Standing

“It’s normal for people who dance on hot coals to have black feet. It’s a professional risk, like a tennis player having one arm more muscular than the other.”

“What’s tennis?”

“Have you never seen a tennis match?”

The boy shook his head.

“You will one day, and maybe you’ll even be able to play. Let’s get some sleep now. In a few hours the doctor will be here and bring us something to eat.”

“Can I ask you something else?”

“Of course you can.”

“Where’s your daughter?”

Leonardo looked into the child’s eyes, which were fixed on him.

“When they brought you here, did you talk to a man with long hair and a beard? A man in a long robe?”

“Yes.”

“Can I ask you what he said to you?”

“That I was one of his sons and he would teach me many useful things. That I must love all the people around me because they were my brothers and sisters and apart from that I could do what I liked.”

“Was there a girl with a shaved head with him?”

“You mean bald?”

“Yes, a bald girl.”

“Yes.”

“That’s my daughter.”

“Is she his fiancée?”

“No, she’s not his fiancée.”

The child closed his eyes as though he had decided to go to sleep. Leonardo knew this was not the case and continued to watch him. In the darkness his skin was pearly white, the profile of his nose a work of art.

“Salomon?”

“Yes.”

“I want to say something very important to you. Something you must remember. Will you be able to do that?”

“All right.”

“In a little while they’ll let you join the others. There are some things you must promise me not to do.”

“All right.”

“The first thing is don’t try to escape; if they catch you doing that they could hurt you, and even if you got away you’d have nowhere to go. There are lots of bad people around. OK?”

The boy looked uncertainly at him.

“OK, Salomon?”

“OK.”

“Good. Once you’re out of here they’ll paint your face and shave off your eyebrows with a razor. That will mean you’ve joined the tribe. Let them do it but remember you don’t belong in their tribe. The family you had before, even if it doesn’t exist anymore, will always be your tribe. These people here will make you breathe in from a pouch and give you something to drink, you must pretend to do it but really not do it. Those things can harm you. If you touch them you’ll forget your mamma and your papa and your little brother, and if you forget them there won’t be anyone left to remember them.”

“You’re scaring me.”

Leonardo hugged him.

“Don’t be scared. Are you listening to me?”

“Yes, but stop scaring me.”

“I don’t want to scare you. But listen to and remember what I’m telling you: they’ll put you with other children. One of them is named Alberto. He was the child with me the day we came to your house. He’s two years older than you and has reddish hair. Don’t listen to what he tells you, OK? He and the others do very nasty things and will want you to join in…”

“What kind of nasty things?”

“Nasty things to people and animals. You love animals very much and people too, and you know things like that mustn’t be done. You know your mamma and your papa would never have done such things, and I know you won’t do them either. But don’t run away from the camp, OK? Here you’ll get food and drink and be safe. You must do like people in the theater, you must act.”

“What’s the theater?”

“Never mind, it’s not important. Just pretend to be like the others. You and I and David know you’re not really like the others at all. OK? Shall I repeat what you have to remember?”

“No. Are you pretending too?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Is it difficult?”

“It is at the beginning, but it gets easier. Now let’s get some sleep, OK?”

“OK.”

Leonardo closed his eyes and felt the child snuggle against him. He could hear something moving inside David’s stomach.

“Leonardo?”

He felt his eyes grow moist and kept them shut. Weeks had passed since anyone had called him by name.

“Yes?”

“Are teeth also a professional risk?”

“How do you mean?”

“You said black feet are a professional risk. But must a dancer on hot coals also have broken teeth like you?”

Leonardo smiled.

“It’s not essential, but it helps. Now go to sleep, OK?”

“OK.”

At midday, the cripple came to retrieve the boy and not long after that the whole procession moved off. For several days they drove at walking pace along secondary roads, not stopping until nightfall; the provisions found in Salomon’s homemade hunting expeditions were unnecessary. Sometimes the car sent ahead on reconnaissance came back to warn them they were getting near a village or group of houses. The column would then halt and the music turned off, and a band of about twenty youths would break away to take the place by surprise. They would nearly always come back empty-handed or with garbage that would have to be left behind. The land they were passing through seemed to have been already stripped of everything. Here and there, in the fields, they would come upon the rubble of past harvests, or find some item of agricultural machinery like a relic of a now extinct civilization. Fallow deer, red deer, and wild boar fled from the fields and roadside ditches to seek refuge in the thickets. No thread of smoke cut across the continuous gray of the sky.

In the evening, the procession would be arranged in a circle in a clearing or dry field, and a fire would be laid and lit. Richard would emerge to inspect the booty and talk to his people. He was always alone and Leonardo never managed to see Lucia even through the open door of the trailer.

After he had walked around and listened to each of the young people, Richard would give the cripple the drug to distribute and go back inside. The only people he never looked at, or spoke to, were Leonardo and the bald woman huddled against the ancient Opel, to which she was now tied by a rope a couple of meters long. When they were on the move, she had to walk barefoot on the asphalt, struggling to keep up so as not to be dragged along, while at night she huddled against the trunk of the car for warmth. As the days passed she had lost a lot of weight and her skin had taken on the malarial color of dried clay. When pieces of meat or other food were thrown in her direction she pushed them away with her foot and asked for water, which was almost always brought to her.

Leonardo was not allowed out of the cage, but the youngsters started going near it again to torment him and scoff at him.

At first, he reacted as before by hiding in the most inaccessible corner, but realizing that this merely attracted more and more spectators, he began jumping around, dancing and writhing to the music every time he was asked to. The young people would be amused and egg him on for a few minutes by clapping their hands, and then they would go away after throwing him something to eat as a reward. This is how he got two cans of sardines and one of tuna, which he ate at night, using the oil to massage his feet and face where he was deeply scarred.

When no one was disturbing him, he tried to concentrate on the roads and signposts so as to be able to memorize their movements; it was clear they were heading for the mountains, perhaps in the hope of finding a pass and reaching France, but at the same time they were taking the greatest care to avoid main roads, cities, and towns. At first, Leonardo thought there might be troops of the National Guard around, but he eventually came to the conclusion that Richard was well aware that the main centers of population had already been looted, and so he wanted to search isolated areas in the hope of finding people and fuel, like at the home of Sergio and Manon.