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

FOURTEENTH EPISODE
(I decided to turn into a ghost and disappear)

“Ok: what happened, man, was that I won the lottery. I haven’t told this to anyone, I assure you. You’ll be the only one to know. A secret for a secret. I owed you this, and for a long time. Don’t ask me why, but some things a guy should cherish till he’s old, and, for me, with that tasteless life I led back home, only later did I understand how much your breaking free, your guts, and foremost your loyalty meant to me back then. The great small things should be cherished, don’t you think?”
“Yeah, I agree… and thank you. I wasn’t ready for all this, I should tell you.” António got up, used the second large pause in the conclave and went on:
“When I found out I was rich, I decided to vanish. I didn’t go around explaining, just a couple of hints back home - and off straight to Lisbon. It was just the way I wanted to do things. To tell you the truth, I think my kids are already grown up; and besides, a family is supposed to be this ‘untouchable institution’, my close friends are leeches, the clubs and parishes are the barren tits of the people and my job as a public servant was, for a long time, nothing but a slow death. So I decided to turn into a ghost and disappear. Furthermore, I decided to live here, at the hotel, for as long as I could afford it, and simply go to bed when I feel like it, eat when I want, sleep with who I want to… The diet I want, the hours I want, to drink and dream my desire away and… well, that’s it. For the rest of my life: long live freedom!” António Romeu set his glass on the table, leaned against the large window sill and let a huge smile come out, from ear to ear, leisurely, witty, joyous.
“You mean you’ll never return to Ribatejo?”

(Next episode of The Giant Cloud: “By the Tagus, not a breeze, not a ship or sound, only that feeling of the both of us…”)

Continues

(see here portuguese updated version)