“ ‘You know you can’t do that to me,’ Eonar said in a flat voice.
“ ‘Are you sure? Where’s that written? I was able to do it to Shallem. You aren’t much stronger than he is.’
“Eonar was pensive and silent as he studied Cannat. After a few minutes, he said, ‘It may be exciting to have both of you coming after me. It would be a nice change to my tedious existence. Yes, I think I’ll accept your threat, I accept it with pleasure.’
“With a bored expression, he looked at Shallem and then at Cannat.
“ ‘Good-bye, my brothers,’ he said.
“ ‘No! No!’ Shallem screamed and turned to try and protect Cyr with his own body. He enveloped him in his arms and covered his head as though he were trying to protect him from an explosion. Everything happened very quickly. Cyr began to scream like mad from pain. Suddenly, I saw Shallem throw himself on top of Cyr. Using his own body, he desperately tried to put out the flames that had started to burst out of Cyr’s interior.
“The wide Avenue of the Dead had been turned into a quiet cemetery but our broken screams seemed to fill the entire world.
“I was devastated just as much by our child’s death as by seeing how heartbroken Shallem was as he held Cyr’s burned remains. Although tears didn’t pour from his eyes, it was obvious he was crying. The scene was even more tragic than the one that had taken place so many years before during that horrible storm in Paris.
“Eonar had disappeared and he took Cannat with him.”
Suddenly, the woman came back to reality. She rolled her stiff neck and leaned her head back to try and relax her tense muscles. Father DiCaprio was absentmindedly biting his white handkerchief.
“It was the third child Shallem and I had lost. My third child.”
She slowly stood and crossed the room as though she wanted to lie on the cot. Then, as if she were in a trance, she turned and looked at the priest with a pleading look in her eyes. He quickly stood, carefully took her by the arm, as if she were an elderly woman, and helped her sit on the bed.
“Relax.” He tried to reassure her. “That’s in the past. Lie down. I’ll bring you a glass of water.”
He quickly walked to the table and hastily filled a glass of water. He ignored how the water splashed onto the fine pages of his Bible. Then, he ran back toward the woman holding the glass and saw that she was crying.
“Juliette, Juliette, please don’t cry,” he said and gave her his handkerchief.
He wanted to tell her everything would be okay, that everything would work itself out, and he desperately tried to find a way to promise her a happy ending but he couldn’t come up with any evidence.
After she drank the water, he quickly returned the glass to the table and walked back to her. She was lying down so he sat next to her on the small, uncomfortable cot and took her slim hands in his. She was cold.
“I think you’re stressed. You’re somewhat cold and very pale,” the priest commented.
She didn’t say anything, she just squeezed his hand and continued to cry in silence.
“Juliette, I... If I were God... I... I understand. I really do. I would give anything to help you.”
“It’s just that I still haven’t told you everything,” she whispered trying to control her tears.
They remained silent for a few seconds as she dried her last tears.
“I want to get up,” she said. “I feel like I’m lying on a psychiatrist’s sofa.”
Father DiCaprio smiled compassionately and stood to help her stand. They sat at the table.
“I became deeply depressed,” she continued. “I didn’t want to do anything except lie in that soft feather bed and satiate my tears, immerse myself in the pain I thought I deserved. It was as if I wanted the pain, as if I unconsciously felt I had to suffer hard and long to atone for my sins. However, Shallem wouldn’t let me. He woke me at dawn and forced me to walk through the jungle. We went looking for something, for anything that could distract us and give us some comfort. Dispiritedly, we explored and discovered hidden nooks in which we had never been and which would not bring us any painful memories about Cyr. But it’s impossible to run from memories. Our son’s face was a firm, clear and constant image in my mind. It didn’t matter what we were pretending to do, what conversation we tried to sustain with forced and feigned interest, and what beauties tried to catch my eye because I was blinded by one obsessive vision. My son.
“Shallem tried to console me with all his heart and soul. Only his expression revealed the deep pain that he himself suffered but did not show in my presence. He tried to be strong, very strong and didn’t let any emotions show except his affection for me. Nevertheless, when I watched him when he wasn’t looking, alarm seemed to burst inside me. It was something other than the pain he repressed, something other than the intense sadness on his face. It was the rigid mask of severity, indifference and aloofness that vainly covered the tormented, lonely soul that seethed inside him. How many times I had asked myself if there were a time when Shallem had never felt alone!
“Cannat came back five weeks later. He was somber and solemn.
“They hugged each other affectionately and then Cannat opened his arm to me and I joined them. He hugged and kissed us both.
“ ‘Eonar is paying for what he did,’ he said. ‘And he’ll pay a hundred years of his eternal life for every single year he stole from Cyr.
“It was an extremely emotional moment, my feelings were too intense. My tears ran down his chest as I held and kissed him with all my strength.
“Years passed. The first years seemed tyrannical, ruthless but then the following years were cloaked with a merciful blanket of forgetfulness. In time, happiness returned. How could happiness not return during such a long life?
“However, for Shallem, that blanket of forgetfulness wasn’t made from a thick and tightly woven wool; for him, it was a fine, extremely delicate veil that, from time to time, fluttered in the wing and exposed his naked skin to the coldness of night.
“After the extensive slaughter, the city had turned into an abandoned ghost town in the middle of a jungle. The very morning their gods had incomprehensibly turned against them, the remaining natives ran away frightened. Cannat seemed relieved. It was as if he were free from a heavy burden, free from an activity that, in reality, bored him and which had continued to do simply because he had felt the need to do something.
“The city quickly disappeared, invaded by the jungle’s devastating floral army. Seeds germinated as easily among the stones in the streets or the stones in the pyramids as in the former landscaped areas around the palace and administrative buildings.
“I had never wanted to be around the natives. I never learned too much about them. However, a year later curiosity caused us to revisit the deserted streets. We walked through the streets as if we were tourists visiting a ghost town and it was then that I realized the glory the natives had known, the civilization they had developed. They had schools, hospitals, fire departments... Things that are common today but which didn’t even exist in the Europe I had known.
“We walked around the city in anguish, pretending to not know, or perhaps, avoiding the place we wanted to go. Finally, whether by mistake or by coincidence, we came face to face with one of the wide streets that led to the middle of the Avenue of the Dead.
“Without anyone of us trying to stop the others, our steps took us to the exact location where the tragedy occurred. The scene was completely different. The pond had dried and the flowers were dead; all the grandeur of that manmade beauty had disappeared. Vegetation had fed on the ashes of the dead.
“I didn’t feel anything in particular. I mean, my sadness, in itself, was so intense that being there couldn’t make it any worse. You must understand, I relived my son’s death every day as if it had just occurred. I didn’t need tombs or reliquaries to help me vividly remember what happened to him.
“I believe I already told you how objects and places made Shallem and Canna
t relive memories. I expressed the fervor in which Cannat had ran around our home in Florence to look at and touch clothes, books, paintings, and vases after Shallem had been captured by Eonar. I assume you understand that the souvenirs Cannat keeps in his house in the jungle also serve this exact same purpose. Now you can easily understand how, for them, the flowers had not yet died nor had the pond dried up. Being in the place where Cyr had died was, for them, like taking a trip to the past. They were in the same place at the same time except they couldn’t intervene in what was happening.
“I saw Shallem’s eyes move compulsively from one spot to another and how his vacant expression grew increasingly furious. Everything was happening for a second time. I started to feel a growing and excruciating pain in my hand. Shallem was blinded by fury and trying, in vain, to step into the scene, he was observing from afar. Absentmindedly, he had squeezed my hand until my delicate bones broke.
“ ‘Shallem! Shallem!’ I screamed but Shallem was far away. ‘Cannat! Help me!’
“Cannat, although also lost to that scene, quickly came and immediately realized what was happening.
“ ‘Shallem! Shallem!’ he screamed as he shook Shallem violently.
“I shrieked in pain. Not only did the pressure not ease, it had become so intense that my bones felt like they were about to shatter. Then, Shallem woke up. He was astounded by what he had done to me and by how deeply he had fallen into that trance.
“ ‘Shallem, it’s over.’ Cannat affectionately consoled. ‘Will you ever learn? Tell me, if we were to cry every day for all the things we have suffered throughout our entire eternal lives, how many hours would we have left in day? We all loved him but he won’t return because we cry. This is what you choose.’ Cannat pointed at me. ‘You knew you would only have a few years with them. You knew you would watch them suffer all the miseries of mortality and then watch them die before your very eyes. They are born to grow old and old age is to suffer. Their bodies feel pain, they suffer from hunger, thirst, ignorance and confusion. They suffer from thoughts and needs that don’t even exist in our language. They are born to suffer and they drag you into their nightmares. We aren’t mortals, Shallem. I’m repeating it for the thousandth time. We can’t live with them because we can’t die like them. Can’t you see the abyss that separates you from her, from all of them? Can’t you see that? They are dead bodies you must fill with life, like a blank book you must fill with writing. You made a wrong choice and now you’re suffering the consequences. Learn and accept it. It isn’t just Cyr who has died. You’ve had thousands of mortal sons and not one lives. They die without you even knowing, nor do you care to find out. This is how it must be.’
“Shallem expression was disconcerted and pained.
“ ‘And now,’ Cannat continued. ‘Take her and leave this city. This is one memory I want to forget.’
“When Shallem and I rose into the air, the abandoned city’s stones returned to their origin deep within Mother Earth.”
“You mean Cannat started an earthquake?” Fascinated, the priest intervened.
“Yes,” the woman responded.
“Oh! And the entire city disappeared?”
“No. Some remains must still be there. However, the pyramids, the temples, the skulls, the statues and everything else that had been built around the pond, disappeared forever.
“Five years later Cannat convinced us to have another child. He said, with his characteristic lack of taste and consideration, that I was growing old. I wanted to have another child but didn’t know how to ask Shallem after Cyr’s death. Cannat helped me. He told me that Shallem also wanted to have another child, that it would help distract him and that if we waited too long, it would be too late. Shallem was certain everything would go well this time. He knew no one would keep him from making his child immortal or stop him from giving him the powers of a god. And this is exactly what happened.
“However, there’s something I must tell you before I keep going. A few days after Cannat’s return, I noticed a few things that led me to realize something.
“ ‘Leonardo’s dead, isn’t he?’ I asked Cannat. He nodded.
“ ‘I had to do it. I needed Leonardo’s powers to fight Eonar. I wouldn’t have been able to defeat him without them.’
“ ‘You killed your own son to avenge Shallem’s son?’ I asked, incredulous.
“ ‘No. I did it so Shallem could find peace. What did you want me to do? Did you want me to sit and watch, for all eternity, how his unfulfilled vengeance made his soul rot? No one could have defeated Eonar except me, but I couldn’t have done it without Leonardo’s power. It was a necessity. Now, not a single angel exists on Earth or in heaven more powerful than I am.’
“I was dumbfounded. I had never thought that Cannat was truly more powerful than Eonar.
“ ‘So now you can listen to souls?’ I asserted, horrified by the possibility.
“ ‘Yes,’ he responded and with a disdainful gesture added, ‘But don’t worry, I won’t bother to listen to yours.’
“I felt horrible knowing my Leonardo was dead.
“ ‘Leonardo didn’t suffer,’ he suddenly added. ‘His human body simply ceased to exist.’
“Well then Cannat lied,” the priest commented. “In spite of what he said, he had read your thoughts.”
“Of course. I always knew he would love doing so if he had the power. Well then, as I was saying, Shallem and I decided to have another child. They wanted a girl but I wanted another boy, another little Shallem who I could cradle in my arms.
“Leger was born on a splendid summer’s day. His supernatural birth was completely different from the other two. Cannat and Shallem were as excited as children. It was as if they themselves had conceived Leger and he was their first child.
“ ‘Cannat help me sit up, bring me the other pillow,’ I told him. They were nervous and anxious as they watched my doubled legs. Cannat diligently did as I had asked and placed two pillows behind my back.
“ ‘Is that okay? Are you in pain? Very slowly, remember, you must do this very slowly,’ he told me. Finally, my son’s little head began to emerge and Shallem placed his hands on top of it.
“ ‘Don’t push abruptly.’ Cannat kept repeating. ‘The head must come out just a little.’
“Obviously, Cannat had never given birth. Trying to obey his instructions was torture.
“The head began to crown.
“ ‘Now Shallem! Now! Quickly! Don’t waste time! Do it now!’ Cannat exclaimed and then to me he said, ‘You stay calm. Don’t push! Don’t move!’
“Shallem leaned over the little head. He concentrated and stayed in that position for an undeterminable amount of time, a minute, perhaps. Then he lifted his head and I could see he was crying.
“ ‘Cannat! I did it!’
“ ‘Of course you did! Juliette, you can push now! Let’s go! Let this precious creature be born! Let’s say hello to our little Leger.’
“ ‘I want to name him Alois,’ I told Cannat.
“ ‘Yes, of course, Alois,’ he agreed obediently.
“A few more strong pushes and Leger painlessly left my body. Shallem held him in his hands as though he were the first baby he had ever seen.
“ ‘Look how small he is. Isn’t he too small,’ he asked Cannat worried.
“ ‘He’s perfect,’ Cannat responded. He looked at the baby so full of pride you would have thought he was the father. ‘But we must clean him up.’
“ ‘Come on! Bring him to me! I want to see him!’ I yelled, furious that they hadn’t let me hold him. I wanted to snatch him out of their hands.
“Cannat pointed his finger commandingly and said:
“ ‘You’ll see him later. Now keep doing what you’re doing, you’re not finished yet.’
“For a minute I wondered what he meant but right away I realized I didn’t feel any relief, instead it felt like I still hadn’t given birth. I felt another contraction.
“ ‘Shallem! Sha
llem!’ I called frightened. ‘What’s happening to me?’
“ ‘Don’t worry my love. Everything is all right. It’s a surprise,’ he responded.
“You can imagine, Father, how completely surprised I was. Not even for a moment had I suspected what was about to happen but, I must say, after the initial shock, I couldn’t have been more happy or thrilled.
“Everything happened exactly as it had happened with Leger. However, this time Shallem leaned over our daughter’s head as soon as it emerged and made her into a beautiful and powerful immortal.
“ ‘Eve,’ Cannat whispered with adoration as Shallem held her gently, as if she were a flower he was scared to move for fear of losing a petal.
“ ‘Her name is going to be Arlette,’ I said.
“ ‘Yes, of course, Arlette.’
“I’m not going to say much about the years we spent living with our children because not a single thing happened that affected the future. Those years were filled with happiness. They grew in our jungle paradise like young and adored Robinsons. They had all the same powers I mentioned that poor Leonardo had possessed, and even more. They weren’t weak nor helpless mortals like Cyr had been. But I don’t have time to boast about them... I’ll only add that Cannat was very careful, and even fearful at times, to not get between Shallem and the children in any way. Although it hurt him to do so, sometimes he would insist Shallem and the children go places without him.
“When the twins turned sixteen, they started to go through spells when they were anxious and irritated. Although they didn’t know why they were acting this way, I knew it was due to the explosive arrival of adolescence, or rather, their sexual maturity. Their appetite to explore was growing and not being able to satisfy it made them irascible and constantly angry. So Shallem decided to take them to live among mortals for a few days.
“Their bewildered eyes discovered the miserable smallness of mortals. They saw how young people suffered on a daily basis; they observed the painful helplessness and pitiful aspects of the old. They watched the mortals, terrified by their suffering and pain, by their illnesses and all the necessities they needed to survive, by how their minds and bodies were so restricted, and they were terrified of the mortal’s ignorance. They watched all of this from some mysterious and remote region of superiority.
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