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

TWENTIETH (AND LAST) EPISODE
(The cloud that covered Lisbon)

That was the last time I ever saw him. We shall both die with two secrets engraved in our souls, and that will be enough. Certain thresholds can only be understood in this conformity, in taking pleasure in this unlimited and extreme recess. I stood there staring at the Casa dos Bicos and realized, there and then, that there is indeed a degree of lucidity in stupefaction. Somewhere between brightness, bedazzlement, and on the other hand, perspicacity and even intelligence. There are times in life when one of the sides of the scale suffices – but afterwards, sooner or later, the cracks, the lacks, and the unforeseen always surface. It is as unforeseen to fall in love as it is to bump into a friend near the Terreiro do Paço, who doesn’t even want to recognize me. A lifelong decision is as lucid as sharing a big, though meaningless, secret.
I walked out of the Campo das Cebolas and called Albe on my cell to meet her in front of the Lapa Hotel. We were celebrating the anniversary of the day we met by the pool. Again.
I looked into the water and I swear, Albe, I saw you again, floating, adrift with open arms joined in a clean, pure, ancient ring.
Albe looked ahead and seemed to see the whitish silhouette of a linen suit and, beyond the dark glasses covering her face, a giant starfish.
Such was the cloud that covered Lisbon at that hour.

The End