The Red Door (24 page)

The butler began to comfort the baker but in his heart he was glad. In any case, he had always had the feeling that he wouldn’t be put to death.

‘One thing,’ said Joseph suddenly, turning away from the bird and twitching a little as if he were swallowing something distasteful, ‘when you meet the Pharaoh tell him about
me.’

The butler said nothing and finally the two of them left, the butler supporting the baker as before, and Joseph sitting there in a terrible dream of betrayal.

8

One day shortly after this the governor sent for him. He said:

‘You’ll have to wear fine clothes and make sure that you are clean shaven. The Pharaoh has sent for you. I don’t know why this is so. In any case it is a great honour. You have
been very competent in your work in the prison and I will give you good references. Everyone likes you, mainly because you have learnt not to speak too much and therefore you don’t make
enemies. Please tell the Pharaoh if you have a chance, what a competent man I am and how enlightened my régime is. Tell him that I love my prisoners and that they love me. My wife would like
it if I was promoted.’

Joseph said: ‘I will do that,’ looking around the office which was cluttered with papers, and at the governor whose garment was in disarray.

9

The Pharaoh was sitting on his throne and around him were his wizards and magicians. They were saying:

‘We cannot tell the meaning of the dream, lord. We have tried divining bowls and have read many books but we confess ourselves baffled.’

The Pharaoh regarded them contemptuously, his little eyes bright as those of a snake, and said:

‘I should throw you all into the Nile to feed the crocodiles, for if you cannot divine dreams what else are you fit for? But as the crocodile is an ancestor of mine I won’t throw him
corrupt flesh.’ Noticing Joseph, he said:

‘Approach, foreigner. Listen carefully. If you can’t tell me the answer to my dreams you will die.’

Joseph noticed the butler standing beside the king, secure and untroubled.

The Pharaoh said:

‘When I say that I will have you executed, I am telling the truth. Now then, listen. Every night I dream two dreams. Whenever I go to my bed I dream them. Firstly, I see the Nile
untroubled and calm. Then, grazing by the Nile, I see seven fat cows, smooth and shining. Everything is peaceful. The cows are grazing by the river. The sky looks blue and everything appears
idyllic. Then slowly I see rising out of the Nile seven other cows, so emaciated that every bone in their bodies is visible. They are like mechanical skeletons, toys. They have hungry red eyes. And
then in my dream I see them attacking the seven fat cows and ripping at their live flesh. I see their mouths working like machines. And yet the sky is blue and the Nile is calm.’

The Pharaoh passed a hand over his brow. ‘Some more wine,’ he said to the butler without looking round. ‘But that is not all,’ he continued. ‘I also see seven
sheaves of corn in a field. Fat and prosperous and innocent and golden. It is harvest time. Then I see seven thin sheaves, like dancers, moving towards them and devouring them all. In the silence.
It’s strange. It’s like nothing anyone would ever like to see, because of the silence. I dream these dreams every night. If you tell me their meaning I will offer you anything. Even a
god should not have nightmares all the time.’

Joseph thought: This is the time. To sell my dreams for money and for power. This is the time. If this is the time.

He said, ‘I know what your dreams mean, O Pharaoh.’

The Pharaoh told the rest to leave and Joseph told what the dreams meant.

‘How do I know whether you are right?’ said the Pharaoh.

‘I am right because you will cease to dream them. That is all.’

The Pharaoh closed his eyes and went to sleep while Joseph stood there as if carved from rock. His hands did not shake and he knew that he was in the hands of destiny. He knew now that destiny
was on his side, but he wasn’t happy.

After a while, the Pharaoh woke up clear-eyed and said: ‘I did not dream the dreams this time. Now what will we do about the famine?’

Joseph said:

‘You should appoint a man and he would gather in the corn and you would save it for the time of the famine.’

‘Where will I find such a man? Most of my administrators are fools, and you have seen what my magicians are like.’

He considered. Finally he said:

‘You.’

‘Me?’ said Joseph.

‘Yes, you. It came into my mind now.’ He shouted joyfully. ‘All you others come in!’

And they did, cringing and hoping that Joseph had failed. The Pharaoh said:

‘I have an announcement to make. This is it. This man Joseph will be my right hand man from now on. Do you see this ring? I put it on his finger. And this cloak. I place it on his
shoulders. You will accept orders from him as you would from me. The cloak and the ring will be sufficient.’

There were no comments, naturally. Joseph stood in his new cloak and with his new ring and knew he was hated again. But this time he did know it.

10

He took his chariot one morning when the sun was up and he went to where some workmen were working. They were making a sculpture of the Pharaoh in a rock tomb, and fitting up
mirrors so that it could be clearly seen.

Joseph wondered at the majesty and power of the work of art, so solid and lasting and showing such insight and artistry. He said to one of the workmen:

‘Which do you think more important, the making of this statue or having enough to eat?’

The workman laughed as if Joseph had made a joke.

Joseph sent for the foreman who was in charge of the whole operation. He was a short, sturdy, busy-looking man with broad shoulders and a practical air about him. His eyes twinkled and he seemed
to enjoy life and his work. He wore a blue smock.

Joseph said to him:

‘I have a job for you.’

While he was speaking he was looking at the sculpture, showing the Pharaoh seated in all his power and massive glory. The rising sun flashed directly into the hollow eyes, seeming to animate
them with commanding intellect.

‘What job is that?’ said the foreman. Joseph noticed that he didn’t say ‘sir’, though he probably knew who he was.

Speaking carefully and slowly, Joseph said, ‘I want you to leave this and build barns, at a higher salary of course.’

‘Barns?’ said the man incredulously, looking down at his stubby fingers covered with a fine powder. The hammers resounded through the air of the still morning.

‘There is going to be a famine,’ said Joseph, ‘and many people will die. We want to bring in the corn and store it in barns. We will need large ones and many of them. Will you
do that?’

‘No,’ said the foreman. ‘Anyone can build a barn. Only I can create this sculpture.’

‘I see,’ said Joseph enviously, feeling the cloak heavy round his shoulders like stone. ‘You refuse, even though many people will die? Can you not imagine the starvation and
the deaths?’

‘The world is full of people,’ said the sculptor. ‘Most of them are not of the slightest importance. I, on the other hand, am a genius. I cannot waste my time building barns.
That would be ridiculous.’

‘You are sure?’

‘Quite sure.’

‘You think that art is more important than the saving of life?’

‘Yes.’

Joseph went away, thinking to himself, deeply and rancorously.

11

So the corn poured into the granaries. Rats were killed and doors were padlocked. The corn mounted up all golden. There was an enormous documentation to be done. Squads of
collectors had to be sent out to examine the land and make sure that the farmers didn’t cheat by withholding too much of the corn for themselves. The whole operation required an administrator
of genius, which Joseph was. People came from everywhere as the famine spread. Also, there was dissension among the peasants whose corn was being taken from them, sometimes without payment. But
Joseph was inflexible, though he was called ‘The Foreigner’.

One day he looked up and there was Potiphar’s wife in front of him. She looked like a cheap prostitute, which she probably was. She also looked thin. At first she did not recognise Joseph,
but then she did. She ogled him and said:

‘Can I have some corn? I have already pawned all my jewels. The only thing I have left is my marriage ring.’ It came off quite easily and while she was disengaging it from her
finger, she made a pitiful attempt to show him her breasts.

‘How happy we might have been,’ she said, ‘the two of us. How much you missed,’ she said, almost defiantly. But she lacked the suave confidence of former days. He handed
her back the ring and said to an attendant,

‘Give this woman corn.’ Then he turned away and looked all round him at the golden sheaves.

Food. He had taken food to his brothers but they had rejected it. He in turn had turned down what might have been a form of life.

‘Goodbye,’ he said over his shoulder, for after all she had gone down in the world. He felt dirty and longed for Benjamin. ‘Of course I’m older now,’ she said.
‘My husband put me out. He was going to kill me but I got away just the same. There was another servant you didn’t know about.’

When she had gone a prince from the north came. He had five slaves with him. He said:

‘I offer you these five slaves for some corn.’ He looked fastidious and talked loudly as if he were the only important person there.

‘We have enough people here already,’ said Joseph, amazed at his stupidity.

Finally after all the people – the women with the children dead at the breast, the hollow-cheeked proud men, the pale adolescents – came the governor.

‘What happened to you?’ said Joseph. ‘I told a lie on your behalf.’

‘I was promoted,’ said the governor, ‘but I wasn’t so happy.’

‘You are speaking the truth at last,’ said Joseph, and he ordered corn to be given to him.

12

His wife was an Egyptian woman and she was proud of her husband. She was also religious and told stories to their children about Osiris and Anubis and the rest of the gods.
While she talked and as they sat in the garden Joseph said nothing and looked at the star which was his own and which had shone over desert, prison and palace. He never cared much for the Egyptian
gods for they seemed absurd and incestuous and not mathematical. They were the sort of gods that might have been created by children and for children. The world of number wasn’t as untidy as
that: it was clear and accurate and pure.

‘I’m tired of this weight of responsibility,’ he would say. ‘There must be a reason for it.’

Day after day he stood there saying, ‘No.’ If he had not been sold by his brothers and if he hadn’t been imprisoned then he wouldn’t now be the Pharaoh’s right-hand
man. So everything had worked out well after all. But he was sad just the same, for his dreams were all about the dying and the dead, about refusals and denials, about starving people and tons of
golden corn.

But he loved his life in a way, though some nights he felt he did not belong to that country. Its language was not his. Its customs were not his. He couldn’t speak as he wished. But the
world of number was common to all. It transcended nationality.

13

The day his brothers came he regarded them out of the shadows. They did not recognise him, though he recognised them. Probably the reason they didn’t recognise him was
that he was clean shaven as was the custom of the Egyptians. And they could not see him very well in the shadow.

‘What do you want?’ he asked roughly.

‘Food,’ said Simeon, who was the spokesman.

They looked rustic, that was what astonished him. He was not at all frightened of them. They looked exactly what they were, uneducated peasants from the hills, with large hands and large
feet.

‘You are spies,’ he said. ‘You come from the north. I can tell by your speech. You people think that because we have a famine we are weak and can be overthrown. You are making
a big mistake.’

‘We’re not spies,’ said Simeon, truthfully.

Judah said nothing, looking around him contemptuously. Reuben looked this way and that like a cornered rabbit.

‘I will have you all thrown in jail,’ Joseph shouted. ‘On second thoughts, you,’ pointing to Simeon, ‘will stay here as hostage for the others. I want to hear your
story.’

Simeon said:

‘We have been sent by our father to get food, because we are starving.’

‘Are you the only members of the family?’ said Joseph.

‘We have a younger brother,’ said Simeon.

‘Right,’ said Joseph, ‘I want him here.’

Simeon smiled gently and cunningly:

‘If that is your wish, sir.’ Joseph cut him off and then said to Judah:

‘You, sir, had better change the expression on your face or you will be beheaded. And you, what are you?’ he said to Reuben.

‘I am a liberal, sir. I do not believe in violence or spying. I know that you are a great man and I love power though I often affect to despise it.’

‘I see. You heard what I said. This brother of yours stays in prison.’

Simeon was put in prison but quickly learned to ingratiate himself with the guards and taught them how to play cards, a pastime in which he had often indulged when watching the sheep. Soon he
would be able to pick up the language and count.

14

Joseph came home to dinner.

‘Are they here?’ he asked his wife. She looked at him doubtfully.

‘They are my brothers,’ he said. ‘They sold me into slavery. How many are there?’

‘Four,’ she said. ‘What are you going to do?’

‘I shall offer them food,’ he said. ‘They have the smell of my own land.’ She turned away as if about to cry. He put his arms around her.

‘But destiny brought me here,’ he said.

‘Destiny?’ she said. ‘What’s that?’

He went inside. They were all sitting down very quietly, overawed. He shouted to the servants to bring in their food, and he served them himself, giving more to Benjamin than to the others. He
noticed how greedily Benjamin ate. But after all he’s a growing boy, he thought.