Ocean Sea by Alessandro Baricco

Author:Alessandro Baricco [Baricco, Alessandro]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
ISBN: 9781782111610
Publisher: Canongate Books

BOOK III

The Songs of the Return

CHAPTER 1

Elisewin

PERCHED ON THE EDGE of the land, a stone’s throw from the stormy sea, the Almayer Inn lay motionless, immersed in the dark of the night like a portrait, a love token, in the darkness of a drawer.

Although dinner had been over for some time, everyone, inexplicably, was lingering in the large room with the fireplace. The sea’s fury, outside, troubled the spirit and set ideas in disarray.

“It’s not for me to say, but perhaps we ought to . . .”

“Have no fear, Bartleboom. In general, inns do not get shipwrecked.”

“In general? What do you mean, in general?”

But strangest of all were the children. They were all there, with their noses pressed up against the windows, oddly silent, watching the darkness outside: Dood, who lived on Bartleboom’s windowsill, and Ditz, who granted Father Pluche his dreams, and Dol, who saw the ships for Plasson. And Dira. There was even the beautiful little girl who slept in Ann Deverià’s bed and who no one had ever seen walking around the inn. All there, hypnotized by who knows what, silent and restless.

“They are like little animals, believe me. They sense the danger. It’s instinct.”

“Plasson, why don’t you do something to calm your friend?”

“I say, that little girl is splendid . . .”

“You try, Madame.”

“There is absolutely no need for anyone to take trouble to calm me, since I am perfectly calm.”

“Calm?”

“Perfectly.”

“Elisewin . . . isn’t she beautiful? She seems . . .”

“Father Pluche, you must stop looking at women all the time.”

“She is not a woman . . .”

“Oh yes, she is.”

“A small one, though . . .”

“Let’s say that the dictates of common sense warrant due prudence in considering . . .”

“That’s not common sense. That’s plain fear.”

“That’s not true.”

“Yes.”

“No.”

“It certainly is.”

“It certainly isn’t.”

“Oh, enough. You two are capable of going on for hours. I shall retire.”

“Good night, Madame,” said everybody.

“Good night,” replied Ann Deverià, a trifle absently. But she did not get out of her armchair. She did not even change position. She stayed there, motionless. As if nothing had happened. Really, it was a strange night, that one.

Perhaps, in the end, they would all have surrendered to the normality of a night like any other; one by one, they would have gone up to their rooms, they would even have fallen asleep, despite that tireless roaring of the stormy sea, each one wrapped up in his dreams, or hidden in a wordless sleep. Perhaps, in the end, it could have even become a night like any other. But it didn’t.

The first to take her eyes off the windows, to turn suddenly and to run out of the room, was Dira. The other children followed her, without a word. Speechless, Plasson looked at Bartleboom, who, speechless, looked at Father Pluche, who, speechless, looked at Elisewin, who, speechless, looked at Ann Deverià, who carried on looking straight ahead. But with an imperceptible surprise. When the children reentered the room they were carrying lanterns in their hands.

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