Iosi Havilio - Paradises

Then the party really comes undone. Loud, catchy music. Installed behind two computers, the grey-haired guy circles his arm in the air, encouraging people to dance. Initially, there’s a certain degree of timidity, until some of the more forward guests, Eloísa naturally, begin to move, overacting an enthusiasm that ends up infecting everyone else. I watch for a while, but faced with the very likely occurrence of Eloísa dragging me in to dance, I retreat and go outside again. I sit in an intermediate area between the house and the garden, a kind of terrace with deckchairs and large pots full of canes. Near me there’s a boy dressed all in black, a priest or executioner, his back to me, next to a girl dressed as a clown who’s facing my way. They are holding hands, staring at each other, serious despite the costumes and the deafening music, as if making a real confession. The girl can’t get over her bewilderment, she shoots out a hundred questions a minute: Are you serious? I can’t believe it. But how did it happen? Did anyone know? They’re talking about someone else, sick, dead, I can’t tell. I think about the mother, the father, also about a girlfriend or pal. Why didn’t you call and tell me? The boy shakes his head in a continuous movement. And, with a snap of the fingers to materialise the idea of the unexpected, he concludes: It was just like that.

Cohen, the dealer and former tutor, arrives. Dark glasses are the only element of disguise. I need no introduction. An average-looking guy, hooked nose, four-day beard, who flees from the crowd. He makes no greetings, he prowls around for a moment before taking refuge in Axel’s room. A minor celebrity.

I spend a while wandering, from the kitchen to the living room, living room to garden, to the barbecue area and back no fewer than five times, I go to the bathroom to pee, I entertain myself there for a while with the jet from the bidet, I take advantage of the opportunity to lose the tulle veil, hiding it in the laundry basket, I go and get another strawberry daiquiri which I leave somewhere, very sweet, undrinkable, I have a fleeting conversation with Leyla who asks me whether I brought anything to smoke, an exchange of words with the barman who suggests I have a gin with mint, a brief simulation of dancing which I abort as soon as a hand grabs my arm to draw me onto the dance floor, putting up an effective resistance.

It’s ten to three, I notice on the kitchen clock, I decide to leave. Near the exit I’m intercepted by Eloísa. She grabs my wrist and drags me to the basement. The light downstairs is terrible, like an interrogation cell. My eyes won’t adapt properly. Andy and other friends of Axel are playing ping-pong with obstacles. On each side of the table there are chaotically placed objects: a bottle of vodka, a pack of cigarettes, condoms, a couple of mobile phones. They laugh as if in a cartoon, bending double. Eloísa disappears along a corridor and leaves me watching the game. Now the ping-pong group is joined by a girl dressed as a peasant, very drunk, who sways from one player’s shoulder to another so as not to fall.

I’m almost falling asleep when Eloísa reappears, rapidly descending the stairs and nodding for me to follow her. She disconcerts me, leaving from one side, returning from the other; she comes from upstairs when I could have sworn she was down here. We go into the dressing room on the way to the sauna. We try to enter but someone is holding the door shut. It’s me, says Eloísa; it still doesn’t open. She insists and finally they give in. Axel sticks his head out, frenetic, nose running as usual, those red marks around his nostrils more pronounced than ever: Come in and shut the door, he says. He’s with Débora, Cyntia, Leyla and another girl. On a yellow plate, on the steps of the sauna, Axel tips out the contents of a little plastic tube full of a glinting powder. Cyntia smiles hello with a mouthful of braces, Leyla gets excited. Axel divides the drug into a series of lines which he invites us to take with that rasping snore of his, like a contented seal. A guru. In turn, we bend down to inhale. When it’s my turn, Axel warns me: It’s fierce. I take it since I’m there. A bitter taste descends my throat. I’ll leave you to it, he says and disappears. From the other side of the door a chorus begins: Aaaxel, Aaaxel, Aaaxel.

What if we light the stove, says Eloísa, but there’s no consensus. Go on, go on, and eventually she gives in. The crystals in my nose and the cigarette smoke cause a sneezing fit. For five seconds, one after the other. The girls laugh, I feel two flames behind my eyes. Eloísa leaves and returns like lightning with a bottle of vodka and a ping-pong ball. She suggests a game. You have to pass the ball with your feet, anyone who drops it has to take something off. To begin with, apart from Leyla, the girls can’t be bothered, they sigh and exchange glances. Eloísa: It’s just a bit of fun for a while, that’s all. Ok, they agree, but without the clothes part, without taking anything off. The game is more fun than expected. I get the feeling this isn’t the first time Eloísa has played, she’s by far the most skilful. We don’t even complete two rounds before we’re all falling about with laughter. Now it’s the vodka bottle being passed from hand to hand. We drink from the neck, even Débora, who takes a slug and shudders from the burning sensation. Eloísa tilts the bottle and takes a long gulp which culminates in an Aaahhh, poured out as if she were spitting fire. The feet game fizzles out. Leyla challenges us with a more daring variation. Now it’s passing the little ball from mouth to mouth, hands on the back of the neck. This time Débora and Cyntia require no convincing. We do that for a while, like fish out of water, mouths gaping, lips brushing, until Eloísa goes off the rails and gives a love bite to Débora, who pushes her quite hard. You’re really crazy, bitch, she says, her mohawk crushed. They exit in a line, Leyla too, in solidarity with her friend.

More vodka and my eyes go from so much dizziness. I lose my senses, the grain of the wood undulates as if braiding itself, I hear deformed words: catalep, tolomintes, monlocita . I look again: Eloísa has her legs open, knickers down, passing the ping-pong ball over her groin. It’s all rather blurry to me but I can still see how Eloísa puts the little ball into her cunt, which swallows it whole without chewing. A trick. Now she squats and expels it, trying to get it to land in the wooden pot at the foot of the stove. She tries once, twice, three times, she laughs alone, she runs out of air. I think that yes, like the girls said, she’s mad. Totally mad. I leave the sauna, Eloísa doesn’t follow me. The basement is empty, there’s just a couple kissing at the mouth of the tunnel leading to the bunker. I climb the stairs quickly and cross the slippery floor, a pool of sugar, lemon and mud. It’s as if my head has been cut from my body.

In the living room they’re dancing in circles, unruly, costumes dishevelled. A potpourri of Jewish music. Axel is in the middle shaking his fake locks, minus his jacket and hat, face swollen, about to explode, glued to a bottle of whisky which he keeps pouring into his eyes. He shakes his head like a loony, he jumps, he stamps, he gives a war cry and when he can see again, despite everything, there is still some kind of emotion in his gaze. Around him there are two circles, one within the other, spinning in opposite directions, arms interlinked, screeching like magpies. Speed disintegrates the rings and the dance becomes a violent pogo with Eloísa in the vanguard, magnificent Eloísa once again, hurling bodies against each other, with punches, elbows and flying kicks. Débora ends up on the floor with a burst lip and a bloody mouth.

The accident paralyses everything. First, someone dressed as a labourer tries to administer first aid but since he can’t stop the bleeding they decide to take her to A&E. Axel is white, shaken, looking for keys and money like a madman. They leave for a clinic in two cars, Axel, Cyntia and Débora in one and another three nameless guests in the other.