The Giant Cloud
A novel in twenty episodes
By Luís Carmelo
(transl. Bernardo Palmeirim)

FIRST EPISODE
(Who could he be, after all?)

Nothing was to remain the same, the stars admitted. Quite so.
The world broke out in a sudden delirium and the early breakfast hour almost allowed you to forget the swarm of lights the hotel had become during the night. There had been fire flies, mosquitoes, moths as Edmundo walked on stilts, imagining buildings and constructions, the massive meccano of the universe; but, above all, the uncertain whereabouts of Albe’s porch. Which one was it? – What maze or mist, what dream could cover the emptiness left behind by that room since you crossed the swimming-pool like a golden mermaid, Albe? – And Edmundo in the darkness, divining a giant lamp, the foundations of a Trojan faun, or was it the huge horse on wheels to penetrate the porch, as if he were Zorro and she a Juliet of too high a breed for such a sudden lot.

And Albe, in front of the mirror, on that same night of waves suspended by time, idling around the bulls and pegasuses from La Camargue, with a ticket to love growing in secret, or in the simple music her dove heart fugaciously pumps into her retina, so close to that day. – Who could he be, after all? - and Albe, facing useless shadows, after having turned the bedroom light off, watches the carved movement of shapes on the ceiling, while her skin stirred up under the thin sheets and the night heat - always the same prodigal night –, that went on whispering the name of languor, magic, of the answer without end. – Why did he look at me like that? – and Albe lay in front of the night’s burning chamber, as the stars filled the void of open curtains, and mole-crickets and other strange animals tramped along the same scorching fate.

(Next episode of The Giant Cloud: “Edmundo comes down to the lobby and does not even notice the tall and glazed crystal jar…”)

Continues

(see here portuguese updated version)