Carnival Read Online Free PDF Page B

substitute their cocaine lines with fishing ropes that sailed up their nostrils and down their brains, or I could simply juggle bowling pins while standing at their Sunday barbecues in the middle of their lawns . . . But they all shouted, Liar, liar, and walked towards the elevator, except a short guy who stayed behind.
    He came to me smiling, pulled out a ten-dollar bill, and handed it to me. He laughed and said: Brazil, good one. Keep the change, buddy. He clapped me on the shoulder and left.
    I went back to my car and tucked my screwdriver away beside me.
    That same night, I picked up a man who claimed that he had just run away from the mental hospital. He opened the front door and sat next to me, panting. He had run out through the hospital doors as a stretcher — or was it a wheelchair, he muttered — stood between him and the big nurse who wanted to chain him to his bed, and he laughed for a while and showed me the traces of straps around his wrists. I looked carefully but I didn’t see any marks. He claimed to be able to escape every straitjacket, or any underwater tank for that matter, because he possessed the knowledge.
    What knowledge? I asked him.
    All men are trapped, he said, until they hear the call.
    Then I asked him where he wanted to go, but he didn’t answer. So I pulled over and said, Listen, pal, if you don’t tell me where we are going, you might as well get out, because I am not going any farther. You have to give me some of that knowledge and tell me the way.
    He panted and said, Stasis is death.
    Fine, but until death arrives we shall be moving. Now where will it be?
    To Cyprian’s Supper, he said.
    Well, you’re in luck, I know that joint. You are very lucky indeed, because if I didn’t have this knowledge you would be back on the street right now, running from the big nurse.
    When I asked him if he had any money, he said that his brother was Cyprian, and that he would pay me.
    I drove him to the restaurant.
    Listen, I said, as I followed him inside. No offence, but don’t you think it’s a bit of a pretentious name for such a rundown place?
    But the man kept on walking as if he hadn’t heard me.
    The place was a dive; it was so empty there wasn’t even any smoke or music to describe. The madman disappeared, to the bathroom, I guessed, though I couldn’t see any stairways or doors other than the one we had come in. So I waited at the bar for a while and then finally asked the bartender if he’d seen a man with long hair go by.
    The bartender, for once, and contrary to popular images, was not holding a white cloth between his fingers and polishing a glass and lifting it towards the light. He looked at me and then directed his head towards the glass that he was now in fact holding and twisting a piece of cloth inside, and said, If Lucian promised you drinks or money, you are not getting them from me.
    Who is paying me, then? I asked.
    Back table, the bartender said.
    I looked around and wondered which table he was talking about.
    That way, he pointed, with his cloth and his twitching eye.
    When I walked to the back, I realized that the room was bigger than I’d thought. I saw a pool table first, then smoke, and another table farther back with two men at it. One of the men was well-built and had tattoos all over his arms. The other appeared older and wore a hat.
    They both looked my way and looked surprised.
    I am looking for Lucian, I said. He owes me the taxi fare.
    Come and join us, the older man said. I’ll cover the fare, but first let me get you a drink. What would you like?
    A juice, I said.
    Juice! He laughed. He is in a bar and the man orders juice. But he waved away the other guy, who went to fetch my drink.
    And how is the taxi business?
    It gets better once the Carnival starts, I said.
    Everyone in this town waits for the Carnival to make their money, but I say that a man should make his own future. Anyway, he continued, I am Cyprian, Lucian’s brother, and I am glad Lucian