Eleven Minutes by Coelho Paulo

Author:Coelho, Paulo [Paulo, Coelho,]
Format: epub, mobi, azw3
Published: 2010-06-10T04:00:00+00:00

“Pain and suffering don’t normally go with pleasure,” Maria thought. And yet she desperately wanted to believe that they did, and thus make a positive out of her many negative experiences.

He took her by the hand and led her over to the window: on the other side of the lake they could see a cathedral spire. Maria remembered passing it when she had walked the road to Santiago with Ralf Hart.

“You see the river, the lake, the houses and the church? Well, it was all pretty much the same five hundred years ago, except that the city was deserted. A strange disease had spread throughout Europe, and no one knew why so many people were dying. They began to call the disease the Black Death—sent by God because of mankind’s sins.

“Then a group of people decided to sacrifice themselves for the sake of humanity. They offered the thing they most feared: physical pain. They began to spend days and nights walking across these bridges, along these streets, beating their own bodies with whips and chains. They were suffering in the name of God and praising God with their pain. They soon realized that they were happier doing this than baking bread, working in the fields or feeding their animals. Pain was no longer a cause of suffering, but a source of pleasure because they were redeeming humanity from its sins. Pain became joy, the meaning of life, pleasure.”

His eyes grew cold again. He picked up the money she had put down on the desk, separated out one hundred and fifty francs and put those in her bag.

“Don’t worry about your boss. Here’s his commission, and I promise I won’t say anything. You can leave now.”

She grabbed the money back.

“No!”

It was the wine, the Arab man in the restaurant, the woman with the sad smile, the idea that she would never ever return to this wretched place, the fear of a new love that was coming to her in the shape of a man, the letters to her mother telling of a wonderful life full of job opportunities, the boy from her childhood who had asked her for a pencil, the struggles with herself, the guilt, the curiosity, the money, the search to discover her own limits, and all the missed chances and opportunities. Another Maria was there now: she was no longer offering gifts, she was offering herself up as a sacrifice.

“I’m not afraid anymore. Let’s carry on. If necessary, you can punish me for my rebelliousness. I’ve lied and betrayed and maligned the very person who protected and loved me.”

She was entering into the spirit of the game. She was saying the right things.

“Kneel down!” said Terence in a low, chilling voice.

Maria obeyed. She had never been treated this way, and she didn’t know if it was good or bad, only that she wanted to go forward; she deserved to be humiliated for all she had done in her life. She was entering a role, becoming a different person, a woman she did not know at all.

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