The Seven Madmen (7 page)

"You're right
...
but then, why did you let me have the money?"

"Well, that's a whole different story."

"But it keeps bothering me."

"Okay, well, see you later."

And before Erdosain could answer, the Ruffian was already off down a tree-lined path. He was walking off fast. Erdosain looked at him, and then rushed to catch up with him next to an old house. Haffner wheeled around, irritated, and burst out:

"Would you mind telling me what it is you want?"

"What do I want?
...
I want you to know one thing, see, that I'm not the least bit grateful for the money you gave me. You know? You want your check? Here, take it."

And he pushed it right at him, but then the Ruffian looked at him, this time with total contempt.

"Don't be silly, okay? Go pay up."

Erdosain was seeing the fence like a series of waves. He was obviously not doing very well and turned so pale he was practically yellow. He leaned on a post, sure he was going to throw up any moment now. Haffner, standing in front of him, asked condescendingly:

"Feeling better, now?"

"Yes
...
a little
...
"

"You're not in good shape
...
you should go see a doctor."

They walked on a few steps in silence. The light bothered Erdosain's eyes, so they took a path that lay more in shade. They followed it to the train station. Haffner walked slowly through the station. Suddenly he wheeled and asked Erdosain:

"Have you ever had the urge to be cruel to people?"

"Yes, sometimes
...
"

"That's odd
...
because just now I was thinking about this idea I had a while ago, the idea of having a blind girl to offer my clients
...
"

"Is she still alive?"

"Oh yes, and now she's pregnant. See? Blind and pregnant. I'll take you to see her someday. You can meet her. It really is a strange thing, so be prepared for something strong. See? Blind and pregnant. Oh, she's a wild one, wanders around with needles in her hands
...
besides which she eats like a pig. You'll find it very interesting."

"And you're going to—"

"Right, as soon as the Astrologer gets the whorehouse set up, she'll be our number one girl. We'll keep her on ice and bring her out as the exotic
spécialité de la maison
."

"You're more exotic than she is, you know?"

"How's that?"

"Because you defy explanation. While you were telling me about that blind girl, I was thinking of something the Astrologer told me. You took up with a really pure woman and even when she was right in your house you didn't lay a hand on her. Let me ask you this one thing: if that woman was in love with you and she was a virgin, why did you leave her alone?"

"No big deal. A little self-control, is all."

"What about the necklace story?"

Erdosain had heard this story from the Astrologer, that the Ruffian once asked a dancer for concrete proof she loved him, so with other women watching she took off a magnificent necklace given to her by a lover, an elderly yard-goods importer. It was bizarre, since the old man was sitting nearby. Haffner took the necklace and, to everyone's shock, hefted it jeweler-style, cast an appraising eye on it, then handed it back with a snide smirk.

"That necklace story is easily explained," Haffner answered. "I was a little drunk. But even so I knew my little bit of theater would really raise me in the eyes of that cabaret scum, especially the women, they're all pushovers for that dashing stuff. What's so odd is half an hour later the old guy who gave Renée the necklace came to thank me humbly for not accepting the gift. See? He'd been watching the whole thing from another table and the only reason he didn't do anything about it was he didn't want to make a scene. But the whole time he was quaking in his boots, worried sick about his necklace
...
well, you see what a sordid business it all was
...
but here's the train for La Plata. See you soon, pal—Ah! Be there for the meeting Wednesday at the Astrologer's house. You'll find other people even more bizarre than me."

Erdosain went over to where the trains left for Buenos Aires. It was clear in his mind that Haffner was a monster.

The Humiliated Man

He got home at eight that night.

"The dining-room light was on
...
But, in point of fact," as Erdosain was to tell it later, "my wife and I were so dirt poor that our so-called dining room was an unfurnished room. The other room was the bedroom. You may wonder why, if we were so poor, we could rent a house, but my wife had this notion, since she'd known better days she couldn't bear to just 'set up camp' somewhere.

"In the dining room the only furniture was a pine-wood table. In one corner our clothes hung from a wire, and another corner was taken up by a trunk with brass fittings, so it always seemed like we were about to take off for someplace else. Later, how often I've remembered how that cheap trunk always gave us that 'bon voyage' look, and it added to my misery when I was somebody who knew he could go to jail overnight.

"As I was saying, the dining-room light was on. When I opened the door, I stopped short. My wife was waiting for me, dressed to go out, sitting at the table. Her rosy little face had a veil down to her chin. To the right of her, by her feet, was a suitcase and on the other side of the table a man stood up when I came in, or rather, when I stood in the doorway paralyzed with shock.

"We were all frozen like that a second: The Captain on his feet, one hand on the table and the other on his sword hilt, my wife looking down and me in front of them, still with one hand on the door frame. Just that second's glimpse, but I'll never forget that man. He was a big guy, a big strapping jock in a green uniform. He looked away from my wife and his eyes were so very hard. I'm not exaggerating when I say he looked at me with insolence, as an inferior being. I kept my eyes on him. His big body went oddly with his little oval face, delicate slender nose, and tight-squeezed, prim little mouth. His chest bore the insignia of an air-force pilot.

"The first thing I said was:

" 'What's all this about?'

" 'Mr
...
,' then she felt ashamed and started differently. 'Remo,' she said, calling me by my name, 'Remo, I won't be living with you anymore.' "

Erdosain did not even have time to start shaking. The Captain spoke then:

"Your wife, whom I met a while ago—"

"And where did you meet her?"

"Why are you asking about this stuff?" Elsa cut in.

"Yes," the Captain objected. "Surely you can see that there are some things you just don't ask about
...
"

Erdosain turned red.

"Maybe you're right there
...
sorry
...
"

"And since you weren't making enough to support her
...
"

Gripping the revolver butt in his pocket hard, Erdosain looked at the Captain. Then, involuntarily, he smiled thinking how he had nothing to fear, since he could kill him.

"I hardly think what I said is all that funny."

"No, no, I was smiling over a weird thought I just had
...
. So she told you that kind of thing?"

"Yes, and she also told me about how you were a genius, and in a bad way—"

"We've talked about your inventions—"

"Yes
...
about your project to make metallized flowers."

"So why are you leaving, then?"

"I'm tired, Remo."

Erdosain felt fury scrunching his mouth into nasty words. He would have liked to insult her, but remembering the stranger could smash his face in, he held back his abuse and answered:

"You were always tired. At home, you were tired
...
here
...
there
...
up in the mountains
...
remember?"

Unsure how to answer him, Elsa looked at the floor.

"Tired
...
how come you're so tired? All of you women are tired, and I don't see why
...
but anyway you're tired
...
You, Captain, aren't you tired, too?"

The stranger looked at him for some time.

"When you say tired, how do you mean?"

"From boredom, from unhappiness. Haven't you noticed that these seem to be the times of tribulation that the Bible speaks of? That's what a friend of mine says, a guy who married a lame whore. The lame woman is the Whore of whom the Scriptures tell us—"

"I never knew that was so."

"Ah, well, I did. It may seem odd for me to be talking about suffering under these circumstances, but that's how it goes
...
men are in such a bad way that they need someone to humiliate them."

"I see nothing of the sort."

"Of course not, considering how much you make
...
How much do you make? Fifteen hundred?"

"Somewhere around there."

"Making that much it's only logical
...
"

"What's only logical?"

"That you shouldn't feel like a slave."

The Captain was glowering at Erdosain.

"Germán, don't pay him any mind," Elsa cut in. "Remo's always going on about unhappiness."

"Is that so?"

"Yes
...
but her, she believes in happiness. In the feeling of 'perpetual bliss' that would descend on her life if she could spend her days going to parties."

"I detest unhappiness."

"Well, sure, since you don't believe in unhappiness
...
the horrible thing gnawing away inside of us, inner unhappiness
...
a soul-deep thing that worms deep into our bones like syphilis
...
"

They fell silent. The Captain, obviously bored, looked at his nails, buffed to a shine.

Elsa looked out fixedly from behind the rhombus pattern veil, at the gaunt face of the husband she had once loved so much, while Erdosain wondered why he should be one huge vacuum on the inside, a vacuum in which his consciousness dissolved, finding no words that might howl out his pain to eternity.

The Captain looked up suddenly.

"And how do you plan to metal-coat your flowers?"

"Simple
...
Take a rose, for example, and dip it in a solution of silver nitrate dissolved in alcohol. Then you put the flower under a light that reduces the nitrate to metallic silver, which leaves the rose covered with a fine metal film, a good conductor of current. Then it's treated by the usual coppering process, galvanoplastic plating technique
...
and, of course, at the end of it you have your rose turned into a copper rose. It would be really useful in a lot of ways."

"The idea is original."

"Didn't I tell you how clever Remo is, Germán?"

"He sure is."

"Yes, maybe I'm talented in certain regards, but I don't have life
...
enthusiasm
...
something like some extraordinary dream
...
a great lie always struggling toward reality
...
but anyway, changing the subject again, do you two expect to be happy?"

"Yes."

Once more silence came over them. In the light of the yellow lamp their three faces looked like three wax masks. Erdosain saw that in a few brief moments it would all be over and digging down into his grief, he asked the Captain:

"Why did you come to my house?"

The other man vacillated, then said:

"I was eager to meet you."

"Sounded like it might be fun?"

"No
...
I swear that's not it."

"What, then?"

"I wanted to meet you out of curiosity. Your wife told me so much about you lately. Besides, I never figured on getting into such a weird situation
...
. Well, really, I'm not too sure why I came."

"See? These inexplicable things really happen. I've been trying for some time to think why it is I don't shoot you dead seeing that I've got a gun right here in my pocket."

Elsa looked up at Erdosain, who was at the head of the table
...

The Captain asked:

"What's stopping you?"

"Really, I don't know
...
or yes, I'm sure that must be it. I believe each one of us bears in his heart a destiny cut to a certain measure. It's like a way of knowing things through some mysterious instinct. This thing that's happening to me now, I feel, must fit within the measure of my destiny
...
it's as though I'd seen it somewhere before
...
where I don't know."

"How so?"

"What?"

"It wasn't that you gave me a motive
...
no
...
I tell you
...
a remote certainty."

"I don't follow you."

"I follow me fine. Look, it's like this. Suddenly you see in a flash how particular things have to happen to you in life
...
so life can be changing and always new."

"And you?"

"You think that's your life?"

Erdosain, ignoring this question, went on:

"And this thing here doesn't surprise me. If you told me I was going to buy you a pack of cigarettes, by the way, do you have a cigarette?"

"Here
...
and so?"

"I don't know. Lately I've been living an incoherent life, just numb with unhappiness. You see how calm I am talking to you here now."

"Yes, he was always expecting something extraordinary."

"You were, too."

"How's that? You, too, Elsa?"

"Yes."

"But, you?"

"All right, Captain. I see what you mean. You mean something extraordinary is happening to Elsa right now, too, right?"

"Yes."

"Well, you're wrong, isn't he, Elsa?"

"You think so?"

"Tell the truth, aren't you really expecting some extraordinary thing besides this business here?"

"I don't know."

"See, Captain? That's just exactly how it always was with us here. The two of us sitting at this table in silence—"