Daniel Galera - Blood-drenched Beard

When it is over, he waits for the lama to finish talking to the short-haired woman about Buddhist decorations that are going to be made to sell in the temple, so he can ask her the question that brought him here in the first place. He asks how Buddhists can talk about reincarnation if the whole philosophy preaches detachment from any notion of an ego that endures through time. Because for a being to reincarnate — I mean, to be reborn — something of what he was must reappear further down the track, or it doesn’t make any sense to use the term. Bonobo has told him it’s not exactly like that, it isn’t beings that are reborn but states of mind and, truth be told, it’s pretty hard to explain, but he sees no difference between a reincarnated spirit and a state of mind reappearing at some point in the future and being attributed to someone who died as if something of the person still existed. He can’t find the words he is looking for and knows that his question is starting to border on total incoherence, but Lama Palden listens with all her attention until he tires of speaking. Then she says that only meditation can lead to the rational certainty of the existence of karma and rebirth. The path to enlightenment is a training of the mind, analogous to training the body. Only practice reveals the teachings, she says. Truths cannot be understood through a rational, dualistic Western outlook. She also points out that enlightenment eliminates the cycle of rebirth and asks if he would like to know anything else. He stares at her as if he is taking it all in, thanks her repeatedly, and says good-bye. She tells him not to miss the coming services, which are every Sunday morning at nine.

Leopoldo agrees to stop by the bed-and-breakfast to visit Bonobo, who is watching a porn movie at a high volume on the computer in reception and shouts when he sees them walk in.

Captain Ahab! Leopoldo Beefsteak!

I told you not to call me that. I don’t like it.

Okay, Leopoldo Beefsteak.

You really are an idiot.

You guys call me Bonobo, and I don’t complain.

But you like it, don’t you? It’s different. I’m going to make up a bad nickname for you.

Back in Porto Alegre they also used to call me Monkey, Ebola, and Velvet Dick. Your choice. But tell me, swimmer, did you talk to the lama?

Yep, we’ve just come from the temple.

Cool. Wait around. A family from Curitiba is going to check out in about fifteen minutes, and then we can fire up some pizzas. Grab some beers from the fridge in the café.

The three of them spend the afternoon drinking and eating at one of the four tables in Bonobo’s Café. Leopoldo is a big man, but he gets drunk quickly and starts joking about his participation in that morning’s service. Bonobo listens to everything, shaking his head, and then tells him off.

You’re really something, aren’t you, swimmer? Jumping on the lama like that with the whole rebirth thing.

What’s the problem? I wanted to know.

What did she say?

To meditate until I understand.

Leopoldo laughs.

I told you, Bonobo, let’s not go there.

Man, you’re obsessed with this rebirth thing. Turn the page. Why is it so important to you to know if rebirth exists?

It’s important to know that it doesn’t exist. All the rest seems right to me, but that detail spoils everything.

Listen, swimmer. The question of rebirth isn’t all that important in the original Buddhism. There was a lot of black magic in Tibet when Buddhism first appeared there, and part of the madness stayed on. But it isn’t like the Kardec brand of reincarnation. If you understand that a person is just a dynamic agglomeration of states of mind, the idea of a soul that can reincarnate stops making sense. To put it in crude terms so you can understand it, it’s these states of mind that are reborn, that continue on and recombine to a certain degree. Just as your body feeds plants and worms if you’re buried in the ground. Just as the atoms of your body are stardust.

The atoms of my body might be stardust, but that doesn’t mean there are stars in me.

Stop talking like hippies.

Do you get what I’m trying to say, Bonobo? The star is dead, I’m going to die. It doesn’t make any difference. The atoms didn’t belong to the star. My states of mind aren’t mine . And what the fuck is the mind anyway? I think it’s just a clever way to believe in a soul. It’s the leftovers of permanence that Buddhists keep stashed under their beds.

We’ve created a monster, Beef.

I warned you. We shouldn’t have gone there.

Life can’t continue after death. I can’t. It’d be ridiculous. If they prove that it does, I’ll kill myself.

But in that case it’d be pointless.

You’re a piece of work. The most skeptical bastard I’ve ever met.

No, I’m not. I just don’t believe in any old thing.

If there was a God, he’d be amused by you.

Leopoldo raises a bottle and hiccups.

Here’s to the passionate belief that none of this exists.

He and Bonobo join the toast. The three bottlenecks clink together, and his bottle shatters, sending beer and glass flying. The trio looks at one other with their arms still outstretched and their shoulders up, unmoving, slowly taking in what has just happened. The bottle broke up in the air instantly, but the feeling that he is holding it is slow to disappear.

• • •

S ome winter days are like summer days, and this Monday in early September is one. Clotheslines sag and mattresses sunbathe on lawns and verandas. Those who can, enjoy the sunshine on the beach. Leaders of the two political parties running for election in the town set out early on their rounds to buy votes by giving away bags of cement and paying off motorbike loans. Poor children receive free surfing lessons and eat oranges for breakfast by the beach. He pulls on his wetsuit, lets the dog out, and walks across the rock to the ocean. With his first few strokes, the freezing water works its way through the neck opening and zipper and down his back and belly, but in seconds it is warmed by the heat of his own body, and the suit becomes protective and cozy. When he turns his head to the side to breathe, he can see Beta limping across the sand, accompanying his forward movement through the fishing boats. He doesn’t know how she does it, but she does. On the main avenue a mentally disabled man holding the Olympic Week torch runs slowly beside a guide, followed by an Association for the Handicapped microbus occupied by other disabled people taking part in the relay and two police cars with flashing lights. They are headed for the town of Paulo Lopes, where the torch will be passed along. In Rosa, Bonobo receives a phone call from a friend in a fix whose first thought was to talk to him and if possible see him, if that’s okay. In her house in Ferraz, a local woman is talking on Skype with her thirteen-year-old son who lives with his dad in Spain and comes to visit only during the summer. A gardener stumbles across the body of a dog that died of cold two nights ago in the flower bed of a summer house on Rua dos Flamboyants. In an isolated community in the hills of Encantada that lives according to the Mayan calendar, a toothache brings a young woman to tears, and she can’t stop thinking about what her life will be like if the world doesn’t end in December 2012 as predicted. He swims out deep and feels the waves growing larger and the surface growing rougher as he approaches the middle of the bay. The wetsuit attenuates his fear of the ocean, but it is still there and looms up as soon as he starts thinking about it. He has the feeling that the ocean wants something from him, but he can’t imagine what that thing might be. Perhaps a piece of information that he has forgotten or doesn’t even know he has. The ocean interrogates him and seems on the verge of losing its patience, but he usually gets out in time to avoid an attack of fury. In the health clinic, the doctor on duty is sewing up the face of a handsome surfer who hurt himself with his surfboard on the rocks in Ferrugem, using plastic surgery stitches to try to preserve his appearance as much as possible, while his girlfriend records the procedure with the camera on her cell phone. A group of young women working in lottery houses, pharmacies, and clothing shops exchange text messages to arrange the details of a secret party with champagne and vibrators that night. A coral snake slithers over the foot of a small-time drug dealer smoking marijuana on Siriú Hill without him noticing. A pyromaniac’s car is seized because he was driving without a license, and he decides to set fire to the entire town. In the municipal school, a teenage boy wants to talk to the girl he lost his virginity to the night before after the Campinense Club ball but isn’t sure of her name. The owner of a coffee shop on the outskirts of town tallies up the weekend’s takings and calls his wife to let her know that the new all-you-can-eat pizza service at night has brought them profits in the winter for the first time in three years. In some offices in a small arcade on the main avenue, a designer tweaks the vectors on the logo of a surf boutique, a lawyer holds an almost-full packet of cigarettes under the bathroom tap until it is drenched and then throws it into the bin, and a Pilates instructor hangs a student upside down on a wall using hooks and belts. He has been swimming without looking ahead for several minutes when he senses something strange. He raises his head and sees what appears to be a rock but then reveals itself to be the warty black mass of a right whale some thirty to forty yards away. His first reaction is to swim away in panic, but he calms down as he observes the unmoving animal. It must be one of the last whales of the season and is incredibly close to the beach, perhaps eighty yards. He sees Beta as a bluish blob with legs in the sand. A handful of humans are admiring the cetacean from the beach. The whale blows, and a shiver runs down his spine. Then there is another jet, smaller and higher-pitched, and he realizes that there is a calf near the mother, out of sight, on the other side of her. The whale doesn’t seem bothered, and he can’t tell if she is watching him. Her enormity is intimidating, but she gives off a sense of calm and camaraderie. Her back appears and disappears in the waves, reflecting the blue of the sky, and she flaps her flippers out of the water. It occurs to him that the whale is nursing and the calf is probably a newborn. As he emerges from the water, Beta throws herself into the shallow waves to meet him. He plays with her in the sand a little, and suddenly everyone around them gasps in admiration. The whale starts beating her tail in the water. A young woman standing nearby says with a smile that the whale is happy because of her baby. Each beat of her tail makes a big splash and produces a pleasant boom. The whale starts to swim away, and he heads home too, walking slowly with Beta limping behind him. She is already able to walk long distances but still has difficulty running. Over in the direction of the town, he sees a column of gray smoke and then another. It is too much smoke to be garbage burning in empty lots. A man is surfing the point break in the south corner of Silveira Beach alone. The sea is calm, and the waves are low. There is no one else on the beach, and a feeling of solitude suddenly grips the surfer with a mixture of ecstasy and terror. It is a winter day that feels summery. Sitting on his surfboard, he wiggles his toes in the cold water and imagines that there is no world on the other side of the hills. A gull appears out of nowhere and starts flying in circles over his head. It is all white, and he wonders if maybe it isn’t a gull after all. He can’t tell. The circles get smaller and smaller, and the surfer is suddenly certain that he is receiving a warning to get out of the water immediately. He has been detecting a series of subtle variations in the sea, invisible phenomena that are hard to describe. The rocky bottom starts to bubble. He paddles with all his strength toward the water’s edge, electrified with fear, aiming at a fixed point in the sand. As the surfer runs through the shallows with water up to his knees, he finally looks back and sees gigantic waves breaking over the rocky seabed, the waves that he believes would have drowned him.