Here is an example of simple, straightforward dialogue, with no harmonies and no arpeggios, unaccompanied and unadorned by thoughts and subtleties, it’s as if they weren’t dealing with serious matters, but were saying, So, how have you been, Very well, thank you, and yourself, A friend of yours in Vendas Novas sends you his regards, Do give him mine when you next see him. A bell has just rung inside João Mau-Tempo’s head, there is a great clanging sound like that of castle doors being slammed shut, no one enters here. But the owner of the castle is trembling, his hands and voice are trembling, Defend yourself, my soul, but this lasted only a second, time enough to feign horror, surprise, offended, outraged innocence, How can you say that, sir, I haven’t been involved in anything like that for four years, not since I was arrested and taken to Montemor, there must be some mistake, and Corporal Tacabo says, Well, I certainly hope so, if you know nothing about it, the authorities will release you immediately. Perhaps it will be all right, perhaps it was a false alarm, perhaps no one is drowning, perhaps the fire will die down without him burning his hands, Could you send for my wife so that I can speak to her, Corporal. A perfectly natural request, but Monte Lavre, you see, is such an unimportant place, just a tiny village in the latifundio, that here the corporal is the commander, and he responds as firmly as the commander in Lisbon who gives him his orders, No, your wife can’t speak to you, nor can anyone else, regardless of what you may say, you have been judged to be a dangerous element, a soldier will go and fetch anything you need from your house.
João Mau-Tempo, a dangerous element. He was taken to the room that served as a cell, again it was José Calmedo who took him, there didn’t seem to be anyone else on duty, and João Mau-Tempo, before he was locked up, says, So you tricked me, and José Calmedo doesn’t respond at first, he feels offended, he was only doing his job and this is his reward, but he can’t remain silent as if he really had committed some crime, and so he replies, I didn’t want to worry you, José Calmedo really shouldn’t be wearing the uniform of the national guard, which is why he will take it off one day and go and live in a place where no one knows he was a guard, and that is all we will ever learn about his life.
Faustina Mau-Tempo and her two daughters come and go outside the barracks. They are in tears and anxious, they don’t know what their husband and father stands accused of, only that he will be taken to Vendas Novas, and as ill luck would have it, as the saying goes, the three of them, for one reason or another, are absent when the jeep from Vendas Novas arrives, complete with a patrol armed with rifles and bayonets, to fetch the criminal. When mother and daughters return, they will learn that João Mau-Tempo is no longer there, and they are left standing out in the street, at the door of the barracks, to which entry is barred, He’s not here now, that’s all we know, go home and you’ll be kept informed, they say these words to the poor women, but they are pure mockery, just as the guards who came from Vendas Novas to get João Mau-Tempo mocked him when they said, Hop in, we’re off on a little trip. The guard would never normally invite him to go anywhere, with transport paid for by the nation, which pays for all these things and out of our pockets too, and João Mau-Tempo would love to travel, to leave the latifundio and see other lands, but now that he has been dubbed a dangerous element, no thought is given to the inconvenience caused to the guards, who enjoy their rest, nor to the price of gasoline, nor to the depreciation in the value of the vehicle, and they immediately provide a jeep and a patrol complete with rifles and bayonets to go to Monte Lavre to find the malefactor and bring him safely to Vendas Novas, Hop in, we’re off on a little trip, if that isn’t mockery, I don’t know what is.
The journey is brief and silent, the guards’ fount of jokes, always the same, soon runs dry, and João Mau-Tempo, after much thought, says to himself that he might as well be hanged for a sheep as for a lamb, and that no one will get any compromising information out of him, if I were to talk, it would be better if all the mirrors in the world were shattered and all the eyes of those who come to see me were closed, so that I would never have to see my own face again. This road has many memories, it was here that Augusto Pintéu died crossing the stream with his mule cart, and over there, behind that hill, was where I first lay with Faustina, it was winter and the grass was wet, I wouldn’t do it now, but that’s youth for you. And he can taste in his mouth the bread and chorizo they ate afterward, their first meal as man and wife according to the laws of nature. João Mau-Tempo puts his hand to his eyes
