Paris, Apr.-May 1974
A City of Museums
ou wouldn't dream of staying here without having booked a hotel room far in advance, for once in town, trying to find lodgings with the locals is hopeless. When the locals aren't innkeepers, they're curators or docents. Housing for the archival students was put up outside town. The lower classes-cleaning women, waiters, municipal clerks-come from neighboring hamlets. At day's end, they all go home in cars or buses. If by chance the last shuttle should leave someone behind, it's quite a sight to see the beeline that last straggler makes for the overnight shelter by the police station. Not that any danger awaits: no city is safer. But fear overtakes the townspeople when night falls. If they only knew what mellowness follows when the putt of the final motor fades away!
How many times have I seen it? It's as if the evening breeze awaits that moment to sweep the streets clean of all the putrid fumes. How many times have I spied that first imperceptible breath, the Spirit stirring in a rustle of wings? I don't know. I'm not twenty yet, but I've prowled these streets forever, it seems. When the wind is on the rise, I step out from the shadows of the carriage entrance where I hide myself away, and take possession of the streets. I head for the old quarter, for the city's sacred heart. The Ancients dwelt there: adventurous bards, pallid monks, mischievous schoolboys or court poets in ruffles, tricorne-sporting hypochondriacs, wild-eyed petits-bourgeois…I stand before them in my faux leather bomber jacket and worn jeans, and laugh along like a conspirator, I who have yet to write a line. And I walk, heartened, caressed, the breeze gently nudging the back of my shoulders.
There are some fifteen of us, pariahs who hang on within these walls. Dressed in rags, always starving, hounded by the city watchmen, we hole up by day and go out only at night to root through hotel Dumpsters. One fine morning, each of us left hometown, job, or family to come live here like a rat. That's what we're called, too: rats.
I'd long been the youngest of the pack. I was sixteen when I slipped through a barred window into the basement of a museum, a few minutes before everyone headed home. I'd arrived that very morning with a high-school group. From my hole, I watched without regret as the bus drove off and disappeared, carrying my classmates toward their ordinary fates.
Last year, two teenagers joined us one after the other. A high schooler, who like me had let his bus leave without him, and a farmer's son from nearby. Most of us think the high schooler won't last long. He moves slow and makes too much noise. Plus he picks his hiding places poorly. Sooner or later the guards'll collar him. They'll give him a beating and then send him home. Gus, the farmer's boy, is made of sterner stuff. The guards, who learn all our faces from trying and failing to run us out of town, still don't know he exists. Also, Gus already writes memorable poems. The oldest among us, Guv'nor Paul, sometimes honors me with his confidences. He's almost convinced Gus has what it takes, and will someday pull off the feat we all dream of.
"One day' he told me, "one day Gus's hideout will be its own museum.
Gus's hideout must be a disused wardrobe, or a trunk abandoned somewhere in a museum attic-the Robinson Museum, or maybe the Ballantrae, since he hung around there a lot. I swear I bit my lips in disappointment. Guv'nor Paul didn't seem to think my favorite hideaway might also become a museum.
Tuesdays the museums are closed. On Tuesdays alone we emerge in plain day and mingle with the bored tourists. We chat them up for cigarettes and candy. The tourists don't like it when the guards chase us right before their eyes, so the mayor's issued orders, and the guards are nowhere to be seen. But toward day's end, no sooner has the last tourist returned to his hotel, than our enemies, unleashed, hit the streets running. Most of the collars go down Tuesday night. The wariest of us make ourselves scarce long before nightfall. Where do we hide? Everyone's got their secret spot. I know, from having stumbled across Guv'nor Paul's this summer, that he's not too proud to take cover in the bathrooms of the bishop's palace, which was turned into a museum last century, after a subdeacon composed some very pretty Christian meditations there. As for me, every other Tuesday, after making sure I'm not being followed, I make for the former opera hall. I slip in through a manhole that also serves to air out the opera's underground vaults. After navigating a maze of hallways and picking a few locked doors, I reach the prop room. There via a trapdoor built into the shoulder blades of the Commander's statue, I curl myself up in his plaster loins. Every other Tuesday, that is-otherwise I sleep in a cannon up on the ramparts.
A very strange thing happened to me a few days ago. The night before, I'd swiped a bottle of wine, maybe two, from a case a delivery man left by a hotel door. By the end of the night, I'd fallen asleep in Scriblerus House-today the Scriblerus Museum-on the bed where the author of Sylvie's Baubles had once lain in state.
The day was well underway when a little old man in a wing collar shook me from my slumber. "Young man! Wake up!"
"Huh? What?"
"Wake up, I say! You've been quite careless!"
I leapt to my feet, despite my state. No doubt I had the museum curator before me. Expecting to see a squad of guards come hustle me out, I eyed the door to the duke's chambers uneasily.
"Don't worry," said the old man. "I haven't summoned them."
He saw the look of surprise on my face. "You see, it isn't every day that a curator has the chance to speak with a…"
"A rat?"
The curator nodded. "But you don't seem quite up to satisfying my curiosity yet. Come with me. I'll give you some of my coffee. You'll see, it's excellent; my wife makes a thermos for me every morning."
"So, you're-"
"A rat."
"Delighted! Please, relax! You're safe here in my office. No one will disturb us; the Scriblerus is one of the city's most rarely visited museums. Have no fear of my watchman: he's utterly devoted to me. Would you like some more coffee?"
I took a second cup of the delicious brew.
"And now, tell me… What's it like? Have you lived like this for long? Do you have friends? What are they like? Surely you write! Have you anything on you to show me?"
He kept me until the middle of the afternoon, and insisted that I take half his meal home with me: a chicken drumstick and an orange, which he placed in a plastic bag.
"At my age, one hardly eats anything anymore. You'll come back and see me often, won't you? You can't imagine how long I've awaited such a meeting. You… rats, you're life itself, you're hope! The rest of us,"-he waved wearily to include his sumptuous office, that of the Duke of Scriblerus-"the rest of us manage but dust and death. Go on, young man, be careful, and above all, come back. I still have many things to ask you, and some to teach you as well."
I didn't dare confess to Mr. Kingsheart-for that was my new friend's name-that I'd never yet written a thing. We saw each other often; he plied me with beef casserole and rice pudding. Mrs. Kingsheart cooked every dish to perfection. Even reheated any old way in a mess kit over a camp stove, her casserole was a marvel. I hesitated to introduce my benefactor to Gus. I'd have to split the chow. Maybe Gus would even take my place in the curator's heart? That'd be plain dumb of me. No, clearly things were better as they were: genius for Gus and beef casserole for me.
From fear that Mr. Kingsheart might tire too quickly of my company, I took care to dole out the secrets of our band sparingly. Everything interested him: our conversations, our little schemes, our Weltanschauung. Sometimes, too, speaking in veiled terms as if he feared to say too much, he broached quite an alarming topic. According to him-if I understood correctly-the township kept us at bay, yet also, in a way, at their beck and call. The mayor had but to give his guards free rein, and they would seize us all in one fell swoop. The trap was set, but the mayor deliberately held off on springing it. They had plans for us. They were grooming us as part of some devious design. God, how plain and simple everything had seemed only yesterday! We were Heroes of the Human Spirit persecuted by obtuse Authority. Now I wondered if we weren't merely some ki
nd of livestock, secretly handpicked by some infinitely patient owner…
I resolved to take Gus to the Scriblerus. He had two short poems on him, jotted in his big, loopy handwriting on endpages torn from valuable volumes of the Ballantrae Museum's library. Mr. Kingsheart read them and reread them with a greediness not unlike that with which I'd initially fallen on the meals his wife made. Tears rolled down his wrinkled cheeks. He pressed Gus to his heart. "My boy! My boy!" he gibbered. Dumbfounded, Gustin let himself be swept clumsily into an embrace. I found both of them fairly ridiculous. From that moment on, I knew I no longer mattered. Gus was the only important one. Of course, Mr. Curator knew how to treat his guests! He began bringing double servings of food, but Mrs. Kingsheart's rice pudding now stuck in my throat. No matter. I put it off for a bit, but eventually wound up following the dictates of my conscience. I didn't think there was anything left for me at the Scriblerus Museum.
It's Wednesday. Last night, Gus was killed. He slipped from the roof of the Robinson Museum, where he'd been hiding from the guards. I went up there with Guv'nor Paul and a few others this morning. I don't know really what we were thinking… a kind of pilgrimage, perhaps.
From above, we witnessed a scene I alone understood. Before a chalk outline traced on the ground the mayor stood stuffed into a camelhair coat. He seemed lost in a bleak reverie. Guards kept the tourists back. Mr. Kingsheart showed up. He walked right up to the mayor and, with all his strength, slapped him. Then he threw a sheaf of papers into his face.
Beside me, Guv'nor Paul's eyes widened. "What's all that about, then?"
"Tell you later."
He stared at me, then, taking closer notice than he had in a long time. "Indeed you will. Come to think of it: time you started writing, isn't it?"
"Yes-it's time."
Below, Mr. Kingsheart had turned on his heel. Leaving the mayor on his knees, busy gathering up the papers the wind threatened to scatter, he strode furiously toward his car.
Bures, February 1983
The Guardicci Masterpiece
was walking down a quiet street around nightfall. It was fine weather. Even on the ground floor, locals had opened their windows to the warm night. Some had lit their lamps, but others preferred to let night flood the rooms where they sat as the tide floods a grotto. From these submerged chambers drifted snatches of conversation by turns ordinary, amusing, and mysterious. But what struck me at first was the sound of the voices: hushed or muffled, muted, inexplicably distant and musical.
I stopped before a taxidermist's storefront. The pieces on display were bathed in a warm glow confined to the middle of the window by a large parchment shade: a fox and a young boar, a few small weasels (marten, ferret, civet), but also various birds kestrel, swift, woodpecker, tawny owl). I thought I glimpsed, in the shapes I made out farther back from the light, other creatures, tightly wrapped in bandages, that had been mummified instead of stuffed. My face pressed to the glass, I scanned the depths of the store. There was a jackal, a hyena, then cats, a tall wading bird (stork or heron), and apes-one of which, for all I could see, could well have been a human being.
A brass wind chime gave out a tinkle. The door opened, and the proprietor appeared, an old man in loose brown overalls and a square black hat that lent him a judgelike air.
"Please, come inside! You can't see anything from out here. There's nothing to be afraid of. My creatures are all far less dangerous than any you could meet outside. They're beautiful and well-behaved and pretty as pictures.
I obeyed, mesmerized. He stepped aside to let me pass. "Look! Modern-day mummies! New mummies! You won't find these anywhere else. I'm the exclusive distributor."
"But," I ventured, "what about…I mean, that-"
I pointed at the human mummy, for indeed a young woman was on display between an ocelot and a baboon. Her mask lay on a table nearby.
"What about it? Oh, yes, quite. Rest assured, it's all perfectly legal, all the papers are in order. Really-no Joke!"
She gazed at me, the lamp from the window flickering in her glass eves.
"Is she for sale?" I asked.
"Everything you see is for sale, sir. Of course, she's my finest specimen, and her price, well…Take a closer look, and tell me if you've ever seen anything like it."
I turned back to the mummy.
"If I may, sir, her eyes! Look into her eyes."
The mummy's glass stare had such depth and humanity I found myself more flustered than if I'd been faced with a living person.
"Aha!" exclaimed the owner. He put his hand on my forearm then, a hand white as a stripped root. "You felt it too, then! Her stare is an enigma… or rather, a work of art! Have you ever heard of the glassmaker Leonello Guardicci?"
I said I hadn't.
"He created these wonders," the taxidermist continued, pointing at the mummy's right eye. It was so convincing I expected to see it flinch when the shopkeeper grazed it with his fingernail. Despite myself, I turned away.
"Don't do that. It makes me uncomfortable."
"You're too sensitive. It's only glass. A colored marble carefully inset-by a great artist, I'll give you that!"
"It's not just the color," I protested. "It's..
I fell silent. The shopkeeper nodded, as though I'd finished my thought.
"It's a very beautiful thing indeed. A very beautiful thing! A charming subject, consummate craftsmanship. Such skill is costly. The mummy, too, of course-and then those eves. I dare say, Leonello Guardicci's masterpiece!"
I gave the old man all the money I had on me as a deposit. Ever the professional, he made out a receipt and wrote my name on a tag he tucked into a bandage, right over the mummy's heart: she had been reserved.
I'll admit I was upset the next morning when I remembered my twilight stroll and what had happened. A mummy probably isn't the most essential thing you can buy these days. My apartment was cramped: three tiny rooms already crammed with books and musical instruments. After some thought, I decided to give up what now seemed an extravagance.
I could simply have never contacted the taxidermist again, but instead a trivial concern guided my steps back to his shop: I was willing to pay a penalty, but I didn't like the thought of losing my entire deposit.
I was expecting a niggling exchange. To my deep relief, the shopkeeper made no objection. So I'd changed my mind? It happened. And I wanted to recover part of my deposit? He retained such a tiny amount that I almost felt offended for his sake. It must've shown, for he smiled assuagingly.
"A piece like that isn't an easy sell, but I'm not worried," he said. "She'll be someone's, someday. Just not yours."
In such delicate transactions, a customer's most intimate sensibilities come into play and reveal themselves. Just what was this crude profiteer trying to say? That I was too crass a soul? What did he know? I thought myself worthy of owning such a singular object, at once macabre and sophisticated, almost immaterial. I wasn't merely making a bid on the semblance of a few fleshly remains, but on the glints and echoes of a life cut short. This mouth had laughed and sung, these lips whispered sweet nothings in a darkened bedroom, these hands drawn hopscotch courts, cradled dolls, set balls in flight… I was buying all that and more. I'd changed my mind again, this time once and for all. As the owner of that magical gaze for which the whole mummy was a reliquary, I'd be able to draw on its treasury of impressions and emotions whenever I wished from now on.
I wrote a check for the remainder. The shopkeeper made me out a receipt in due form, accompanied by a certificate of authenticity.
"Hold on to this, for insurance purposes, in the event-fire, theft, nothing's safe. These days, everything disappears or goes up in smoke. Make sure you're insured," he sighed. "I assume you haven't yet decided where you'll display it?
A Life on Paper: Stories Page 13