666
RAMON SENDER
Understand? Nothing that lives must stop living,
if
we can help
it. On those lunar days when you cry in your room ..."
"I don't cry. Scream, that's what I do, scream. You should
hear me."
"All right, when you feel yourself falling into that well, and
you scream and want to throw yourself against the wall and tear
open your veins with your teeth, it isn't you alone, but the entire
planet that
is
falling into the darkness because it sees its hope
endangered. The savior might be born to you."
After saying the words "planet" and "savior," he was sorry.
He should not let himself be so utterly carried away. For the
first time, however, she appeared capable of understanding. Yet
what she said was somewhat out of line:
"You must be a rather queer doctor. But I like queer people.
My second husband was like that too--Bob, I mean. And as for
me, well, I had the reputation of a freak, have no doubt of that.
Before coming here I was something like a savage and dangerous
wildcat. Now, as you see, I'm a gentle little lamb. I listen to you
and begin to think you might be right.
If
so, isn't my case
tremendous?"
At that instant someone overturned an ice bucket and the
ice cubes spilled merrily over the floor. Here even the slightest
incident had enormous repercussions. On some of the cubes
the lamp light played delicately. Several people formed a kind
of safety cordon, so that no one would slip on the ice and fall.
Meanwhile they were
all
picking it up. The director himself,
Dr.
Smith, with his fish face, got down on all fours to gather up
some ice cubes underneath a table.
A nurse grabbed her skirts on seeing a little piece of ice
slide over the floor, as if it were a mouse.
Arner and
his
partner continued dancing. When the music
ended, Matilda led Arner to the buffet. She served two plates,
which they carried to a free table,
As
he passed near the·orches–
tra Arner's foot brushed the enormous m(l$ of the base viol,
which vibrated for some seconds. Arner glanced around for
Dr.
