After the meeting with Father Leopoldo, Ana sacked one of the night security guards who had been asleep on duty. He pleaded in vain to keep his job. He had been ill, he said; he’d had a fever, his mother had had an accident, several of his children were in difficulties — that was why he had fallen asleep. Ana knew full well that nothing he said was true, it was a ritual from start to finish. But she allowed him to fetch his brother and appointed him as a night security guard instead, warning him that she would check up every night to make sure that he was awake.
After her afternoon siesta, when she had lain in bed unable to sleep, fanning herself, she was driven down to the fort. Carlos was sitting on the chimney when she left. She had realized that he was changing in some way, although it was not clear how. Perhaps I see Carlos as a reflection of myself, she thought. Something is happening, something with vital implications for my life. And hence also for Carlos’s future.
66
Moses was waiting in the shade of the wall surrounding the fort. Ana got out of the car and walked over to him. Moses selected a place where they could stand without being seen, and gave her a small leather pouch.
‘What’s this?’
‘The crushed shell of a special snail that lives off the Inhambane coast. Plus dried blossom from a tree that only blossoms once every nineteen years.’
‘Surely there aren’t any such trees?’
He looked offended, and she regretted what she had said.
‘What do you want me to do with this?’
‘Give it to Isabel. Say it’s from me. She should eat it.’
‘Why should she eat flowers?’
‘They’ll give her wings, like a butterfly’s. She’ll then be able to fly out of the prison. I’ll meet her and take her and her children to the tunnels in my mine. All that will be left in the cell is the leather pouch, and it will slowly rot away with a whispering noise.’
‘What? Can a leather pouch whisper?’
‘This one can: it will tell the story of Isabel and her new life for anybody who wants to listen.’
‘It sounds like a fairy tale you tell to small children.’
‘But what I’m telling you is the truth.’
Ana could see that Moses was serious. The person standing in front of her was no small child, and as far as he was concerned what he said was the truth, and nothing but the truth. Ana thought he looked very much like Isabel, you could see they were brother and sister, especially in his eyes and the high forehead.
‘I’ll give it to her,’ said Ana, putting the pouch into the basket with the food. ‘Does she know what to do with it?’
‘Yes, she knows.’
‘And you really believe that she will grow wings?’
Moses took a step backwards, as if he no longer wanted to be too close to her. Then he turned on his heel without answering, and left. Ana remained where she was, hesitating. She put down the basket, took out the leather pouch and opened it. It was half full of a bluish-white powder that glittered when the sun’s rays fell on it.
I’m taking part in a strange game, she thought. How can wings suddenly grow on a human being’s back? If my father had given me these ground snail shells and flowers, would he then have been able to watch me flying off over the river and up into the mountains?
She tied the pouch again. There’s a lot I don’t understand, she thought. The wings are something that only Moses and Isabel can relate to. For me they are both laughable and deeply serious at one and the same time.
She went into the fort through the entrance doors. Sullivan was waiting for her on the steps as usual. Today, he was wearing his white dress uniform. He was holding his pipe in one hand. It had gone out. She asked if he had managed to throw any light on who was responsible for the attack on Isabel.
‘No,’ he said. ‘But I can’t believe that we won’t be able to work out who did it.’
‘One of the soldiers?’
‘Who would take the risk? I would send the guilty man back home, and doing one’s military service in a penal settlement in Portugal is something every sensible soldier is scared stiff of.’
‘But who could get past the guards?’
‘That’s precisely what we are looking into. This is a small town. It will be difficult to hide away the truth about what happened.’
I’ll never get an answer, Ana thought. For all I know the man I’m talking to now could be the one who slashed her face.
She left the commanding officer and went down to the cells. She sat down beside Isabel. The basket from the previous day wasn’t completely empty: she had eaten, but not very much.
‘This pouch is from Moses,’ Ana said. ‘He wants you to swallow the contents so that you can escape.’
For the first time Isabel took hold of Ana’s hand. She squeezed the leather pouch hard, and for a brief moment leaned her head on Ana’s shoulder.
‘Go now,’ she said in a voice that was hoarse from lack of use. ‘I don’t have much time left.’
Ana left the darkness and came out again into the bright sunshine. Some black men were busy polishing the statue of a knight that had arrived on a ship from Lisbon, and would soon be put on display in one of the town’s squares. The goats were standing motionless in a shady corner of the walled courtyard.
Ana was driven back home. She had hoped that Moses would be waiting for her outside the fort, but he wasn’t there.
The next day, when she was woken up at dawn by Carlos kicking the quilt off the bed, she discovered that Moses was standing in the street below, staring up at her window. She hurried down the stairs and out into the street. The night guards had woken up, put out their fires and were getting washed at a pump at the rear of the house.
Moses was holding a spade in his hand.
‘It didn’t work,’ he said. ‘She’s still locked up inside the fort.’
‘How do you know?’
‘I know. She knows. There are too many white people around her, scaring away the spirits. And so I’m going to start digging today, so that I can get in under the wall. It will take longer than if she had been able to fly out, but we are patient.’
‘Where are you going to start digging? Do you really think it’s possible?’
‘It must be possible!’
‘Can you really do it, all by yourself? Even if you are a miner and used to digging.’
Moses didn’t answer. He merely turned on his heel and began walking quickly down the hill towards the fort.
Ana stayed where she was, even though she was wearing nothing but a dressing gown. It was only when the night guards came out of the courtyard and set off for home that she went back indoors. No matter what Moses and Isabel believed about butterflies’ wings, she was the only one who could help Isabel. She lay down on her bed again, and didn’t get up until she had made up her mind what to do. She got dressed, and gathered together most of the money she had in Senhor Vaz’s drawers and safes. She filled a large laundry basket with it, and was helped by Julietta to carry it down to the car when it was time for her to visit Isabel.
‘Is she going to eat that much food?’ asked Julietta inquisitively.
‘You ask far too many questions,’ said Ana sternly. ‘I haven’t the strength to answer them all. You must learn to keep quiet. Besides, this is a laundry basket, not something you carry food in.’
The chauffeur helped her to carry the basket into the fort. Sullivan was waiting for her as usual, this time wearing his ordinary uniform.