living room door again, said goodbye to them with a big devious smile and watched them walk away before closing it. In the blink of an eye the family was downstairs.
“What did they want?” the grandfather asked.
“To make me sign some papers.”
“What papers?”
Louis Normil shrugged.
“They didn’t give me time to read them.”
“But, Papa!” Rose exclaimed.
The grandfather put down the invalid on a chair and walked over to face his son in silence.
“I did what was best, Father, believe me.”
“Hell and damnation!” the grandfather yelled.
“Shut the door, Paul!” the father ordered.
“Hell and damnation,” the grandfather repeated in the same tone. “So then you tremble at the sight of them?”
“And who doesn’t tremble at the sight of them?” Louis Normil replied calmly.
“I don’t!” the grandfather yelled again. “Do you know what you just did? You have just signed papers recognizing that we were never the rightful owners of this land, that’s what you’ve done.” He was fuming with such rage that his goatee was wet from the spray of his words. The father looked at the others and said:
“With or without signed papers, the power is in their hands, Father, and you know this as well as I do. I did what was best, I swear…”
He stopped talking, felt around in his pocket and added:
“Now all that matters is not to waste any more time; I am going to that lawyer’s.”
“To waste your time completely,” Paul blurted out sarcastically.
“So what do you want me to do?”
He was caught unawares by the blood frothing in his veins. His ears were hot but he mastered himself and went upstairs to get the money.
Outside, he calmed himself and his features once again returned to their nice, calm, masklike stillness. He ran into two of his colleagues, who started whispering once they caught sight of him, and he waved to them without getting a response. It wasn’t yet eight and the lawyer’s doors were still closed. He walked past them, not wanting to seem impatient, and came back fifteen minutes later to find the guard opening them. The latter didn’t seem to recognize him. He wanted to follow the guard inside, but the trembling old man who had left the room when his patience had run out last time now jumped in front of him and, pushing him aside, sneaked in first. A bit out of breath, the old man rushed to a chair and was about to sit down when he saw the guard and changed his mind. So he remained standing, all sheepish, hat pressed against his stomach. Five other clients arrived and got behind him into a tight queue, nose to nape. “You’d think they were in a penitentiary,” thought Louis Normil, who had settled himself comfortably into a chair. He thought these people were clients who couldn’t pay the lawyer in any way besides flattery and he felt the money in his pocket with satisfaction. So he was more than a little shocked when he saw the toothless old man pulling out his wallet and taking out a twenty-dollar bill, which he slipped the guard with a conniving wink. The peephole opened and an eye slithered into its frame. As if awaiting this signal, the guard opened the door and had the old man go in. The others executed a sharp ballet step forward that brought them closer to the guard.
“Settle down,” he told them with a look of disapproval, like a schoolmaster talking to his students.
“But they pushed me,” the first one whispered humbly.
The old man’s visit didn’t last ten minutes. He reappeared, fidgeting and trembling more than ever.
“An arm and a leg!” he was heard mumbling. “Costing me an arm and a leg!”
Seeing the guard motion to another client to go in ahead of him, Louis Normil understood that the exact time of his appointment had no significance and that he would again just waste his morning waiting if he remained glued to his chair. So he went to line up behind the other four clients, having firmly decided not to give up his place to anyone. Two hours later, he was finally able to get into the lawyer’s office.
For a long time, the latter looked at him in silence, without even moving, as if he wanted his immobility to prove to Louis Normil the futility of his endeavor.
“Really now, sir,” he said in a nasal voice, “what do you want from me?”
Louis Normil took the money out of his pocket and patted it between his palms:
“To bring you this,” he said. “Didn’t you ask me for five hundred dollars?”
“What right have you to present yourself without an appointment?” the lawyer yelled.
“But,” Louis Normil stammered, disconcerted.
“There is no but,” the lawyer continued. “I remember making an appointment with your daughter, not with you. Take this money back with you.”
Louis Normil felt his father’s anger rising in him. The shock was what saved him. He instinctively tilted his head to take his leave of the lawyer and made for the exit. He thought he caught a glint of mockery in the guard’s eyes, but he paid him no mind and went to work. It was about eleven and, to excuse his absence, he pretended he had been unwell and had to go see his doctor. The two employees he had run into earlier exchanged a quick look and smiled sardonically. The atmosphere of the office was heavy, smothered in layers of unbearable silence worsened by the sudden arrival of the director.
He was a reddish, paunchy mulatto who carried himself like a Jesuit and spoke to his employees in an insufferably soft voice. His myopic eyes, encircled by glasses, rested unforgivingly on Louis Normil.
“Late again, Normil,” he said, discomfited, as if he wanted the other employees as witnesses. “Is it your health that is the source of the problem?”
“Precisely,” Louis Normil uttered, his tone a bit forced. “I wanted to see you to apologize. I am currently being treated by my doctor.”
“In that case, why not take a few days off! We’ll find you a substitute. How long will your treatment last? A month? Two months? You mustn’t neglect your health, take as much time as you need.”
“Thank you, sir,” Louis Normil answered, convinced that they wanted to get rid of him discreetly. “I am grateful for this, but fortunately I should be done with my doctor by tomorrow.”
The director coughed and left quickly as if he had made a sudden decision.
Louis Normil again felt the five hundred dollars in his inside pocket and tried to occupy his mind with work. Papers were piling up on his desk. Despite his best intentions, he couldn’t manage to focus and absentmindedly tried to look busy under the scrutiny of a neighboring coworker. “If I lose my job,” he kept repeating to himself, “if I lose my job.” And these words caused him such despair he began to shake and sweat.
“Are you all right?” the employee staring at him asked.
“Yes, yes,” he answered and continued shuffling papers around, pretending to be busy.
At the end of the workday, he went home and found the family sitting at the dinner table. No one asked him anything this time, but Rose tried to make eye contact and he shook his head with discouragement. He got up before the others did and went up to his room to put the money back under the mattress.
“So, Papa?”
“He refused to take the money,” he admitted.
“Don’t you think I’m big enough to take care of myself?”
“Don’t get involved in this.”
“Papa!”
“Don’t get involved in this,” he repeated and rushed downstairs without looking at her.
She slowly opened the door to the bedroom, lifted the mattress, took the money and slipped it in her bag.
