José Saramago - The Collected Novels of José Saramago

That afternoon, as agreed, Cipriano Algor phoned Marta to tell her that he had arrived safely, that the house looked as if they had left it only yesterday, that Found was almost mad with joy, and that Isaura sent her love. Where are you speaking from, asked Marta, From home, of course, And Isaura, She’s here beside me, do you want to talk to her, Yes, but first tell me what’s going on, What do you mean, I mean the fact that Isaura is there, Don’t you like the idea, Don’t be silly and stop beating about the bush, answer my question, All right, Isaura is staying with me, And who are you staying with, We’re staying with each other, if that’s what you want to hear. There was a silence at the other end. Then Marta said, I’m really pleased, Well, I’d never know it from your voice, My tone of voice has nothing to do with those particular words, but with others, What words are those, Tomorrow, the future, We’ll have time to think about the future, Don’t pretend, don’t close your eyes to reality, you know perfectly well that the present is over for us, You’re both all right, and we’ll sort ourselves out here, No, I’m not all right and neither is Marçal, Why, If there’s no future there, there’s certainly none here, Can you explain yourself more clearly, please, Look, I have a child growing inside me, if, when he’s old enough to make his own decisions, he should choose to live in a place like this, he will be doing what he wants, but I won’t give birth to him here, You should have thought of that before, It’s never too late to correct a mistake, even when you can do nothing about the consequences, although we might still be able to do something about those too, How, First, Marçal and I need to have a long talk, then we’ll see, Think carefully and don’t rush into anything, A mistake can just as easily be the consequence of careful thought, Pa, besides, as far as I know, nowhere is it written that rushing into things necessarily has bad results, Well, I hope you’re never disappointed, Oh, I’m not that ambitious, I just don’t want to be disappointed this time, and now, if you don’t mind, that’s the end of the father-daughter dialogue, call Isaura for me, I’ve got lots of things to say to her. Cipriano Algor passed the telephone over and went outside. There stands the pottery in which a solitary lump of clay lies drying, there is the kiln in which the three hundred figurines are asking each other why the devil they were ever made, there is the firewood that will wait in vain to be carried to the furnace. And Marta saying, If there’s no future here, there’s none there either. Cipriano Algor knew happiness today, the open sky of a love which, once declared, was consum mated, and now yet again the storm clouds are gathering, the malign shadows of doubt and fear, it’s obvious that, even if they pull in their belts to the very last notch, what the Center paid him for the figurines will last for two months at most, and that the difference between what the shop assistant Isaura Madruga earns and zero must be very nearly another zero. And what then, he asked, looking at the mulberry tree, who replied, Then, my old friend, the future, as always.

Four days later, Marta phoned again, We’ll be there tomorrow evening. Cipriano Algor made a few rapid calculations, But it can’t be Marçal’s day off yet, No, it isn’t, So, Keep your questions for when we arrive, Do you want me to come and pick you up, No, don’t bother, we’ll take a taxi. Cipriano Algor told Isaura that he found the visit odd, Unless, he added, the roster for rest days has been upset by some bureacratic confusion caused by the discovery of the cave, but in that case she would have said so and not told me to keep my questions for when they arrive, A day passes quickly enough, said Isaura, we’ll find out tomorrow. However, the day did not pass as quickly as Isaura thought. Twenty-four hours spent thinking are a lot of hours, twenty-four hours we say because sleep is not everything, at night, there are probably other thoughts in our head that draw a curtain and continue thinking unbeknownst to anyone. Cipriano Algor had not forgotten Marta’s categorical words about her unborn child, I won’t give birth to him here, an absolutely explicit statement, unequivocal, not one of those conglomerations of more or less organized vocal noises that seem to be doubting themselves even as they affirm. Logically speaking, there could be only one possible conclusion to draw, Marta and Marçal were going to leave the Center. If they do, they’ll be making a great mistake, said Cipriano Algor, what are they going to live on afterward, You could ask the same of us, said Isaura, but do I look worried, You believe in a divine providence that watches over the helpless, No, I don’t, I just happen to think that there are times in our lives when we have to let ourselves be carried along by the current of events, as if we didn’t have the strength to resist, but then there comes a point when we suddenly realize that the river is flowing in our favor, no one else has noticed, but we have, anyone watching will think we’re about to go under, and yet our navigational skills have never been better, Let’s just hope that this is one such occasion. He would soon find out. Marta and Marçal got out of the taxi, took some packages out of the trunk, fewer than they had taken with them to the Center, Found gave vent to his excitement by running wildly twice around the mulberry tree, and when the taxi drove down the hill to go back to the city, Marçal said, I am no longer an employee of the Center, I’ve resigned from my job as security guard. Cipriano Algor and Isaura did not feel they needed to look surprised, which would, anyway, have rung entirely false, but they felt obliged to ask at least one question, one of those useless questions we seem unable to live without, Are you sure you’ve acted for the best, and Marçal replied, I don’t know if it was for the best or for the worst, I just did what I had to do, and I wasn’t the only one, two of my colleagues resigned as well, one external guard and one resident, And how did the Center react, If you don’t adapt you’re no use to them, and I had stopped adapting, the last two phrases were spoken after supper, And when did you feel that you had stopped adapting, asked Cipriano Algor, The cave was the last straw for me, as it was for you, And for those two colleagues of yours, Yes, for them too. Isaura had got up and started clearing the table, but Marta said, Leave it for now, we’ll do it together later on, we need to decide what we’re going to do, Well, Isaura, said Cipriano Algor, is of the opinion that we should let ourselves be carried along on the current of events, that there always comes a time when we realize that the river is flowing in our favor, I didn’t say always, said Isaura, I said sometimes, but take no notice of me, it’s just an idea I had, It’s good enough for me, said Marta, besides it fits in very well with what’s actually been happening to us, What shall we do, then, asked her father, Marçal and I are going to start a new life a long way from here, that much we’ve decided, the Center is finished, the pottery was already finished, from one hour to the next we’ve become like strangers in this world, And what about us, asked Cipriano Algor, You can’t expect me to advise you on what you should do, Do I understand you to be saying that we should go our separate ways, No, not at all, I’m just saying that our reasons may not necessarily be your reasons, May I say something, suggest something, asked Isaura, I don’t honestly know if I have the right, I’ve only been a member of this family for about six days and I feel as if I was still on probation, as if I had slipped in through the back door, You’ve been here for months already, ever since the famous water-jug incident, said Marta, as for the rest of what you said I think it’s up to my father to respond, All I heard was that she had something to say, a suggestion, so any comments I might make at the moment would be completely out of place, said Cipriano Algor, What’s this idea of yours, then, asked Marta, It has to do with that fantasy of mine about the current sweeping us along, said Isaura, Go on, It’s the simplest thing in the world, Ah, I know what it is, said Cipriano Algor, What is it then, asked Isaura, That we go with them, Exactly. Marta took a deep breath, You can always rely on a woman to come up with a good idea, We shouldn’t rush things, though, said Cipriano Algor, What do you mean, asked Isaura, You’ve got your house, your job, So, Well, just leaving like that, turning your back on everything, But I’d already left everything anyway, I’d already turned my back on everything when I clasped that water jug to my chest, you’d have to be a man to fail to realize that it was you I was clasping to me, these last words were almost lost in a sudden irruption of sobs and tears. Cipriano Algor shyly reached out and touched her arm, and she could not help but cry all the more, or perhaps she needed that to happen, sometimes the tears we have cried before are not enough, we have to say to them, please, go on.