The July night covered us again with its gentleness, and so as not to disturb it, the ocean’s surface barely rippled. Nothing was more urgent than youth and happiness, as far as life can go, for happiness renders youth tireless. Before long our bodies were feeling their way again. We knew that, contrary to the order of rhetoric, it is not a matter of exhausting the subject but of making it exhaustible.
One day, having climbed the cliff, we came across the place of our first meeting, and I asked Emma what significance the ceremony, in which I had been held worthy of her, held for the village people.
“It seems the festivity used to be held at the new moon preceding each solstice and each equinox. The custom only recommenced a few years back. But I had never heard of it till the old man came to ask my parents to prepare me for the ceremony. He said: the Lady has chosen her. The Lady wants her. I believe my parents were afraid. They agreed without a murmur. And you, well you do not displease them now. My father said: he could have eaten our hearts, but he’s a man.”
As I knew nothing of the ceremony’s end, I should have liked Emma to describe it to me.
“I don’t know,” she said. “Virgins only come here if they have been chosen as new moon. The old people say we must deflower the new moon.”
“But who chose you?”
“The Lady. I told you.”
“What lady?”
“The one from the island.”
I had never heard of this other island. I wanted to know where it was.
“Over there,” Emma motioned, pointing out to me a spot on the horizon just opposite the terrace. It looked two or three hours away by boat. A very tiny island.
“Have you ever been there?”
“No one has ever been there. It’s forbidden and people are afraid.”
“Afraid of what?”
“The Lady.”
“But who is this lady?”
“The one who arrived naked.”
In a flash I saw her again. The Beauty. The hair. The triangle. The walk.
“Why are people afraid?”
“The island is well-guarded. There are dogs, arabs, armed black men. Mariners say that anyone who lands there never returns.”
“Are you sure?”
“That’s what they say.”
“And the village accepts that? There are many men here.”
“The Lady’s rich. She buys everything the men catch in the sea. She brings us everything that comes from elsewhere. It’s enough not to meddle in her affairs. That is the order.”
“And what does she do?”
“She has a large castle in the middle of the island.”
“And before?”
“Before what?”
“Before the Lady ruled here?”
“I do not know. The Lady’s older than me. The village has always depended on the island.”
There was a shadow behind my eyes. I had not known it to begin with, but suddenly I realized I was not seeing Emma anymore. Like a blind man I stretched my hand towards her face, then my tongue towards her tongue. The shadow persisted. At that time, towards her, I was no more than the fool of my own folly.
That night I left our stone house and the white bed to go down to the inn and talk to the fishermen. They greeted me, teasing:
“Emma is beautiful, isn’t she?”
“And what a pleasure, young man, by the look of you!”
I bought drinks and their friendliness expanded with every bottle they emptied of the dark wine. At last, when I thought the moment was right, I asked:
“What’s that island you can see from the top of the cliff?”
The lightheadedness disappeared abruptly. The mariners looked at me then at each other, before one of the oldest finally decided to answer:
“It’s Countess Mona’s island. You pleased her, since she picked you out the other night.”
“Is it always she who chooses?”
“Yes. She presides over our festivals. She started them again, after all. Old Bastien, the one in charge, defended the tradition well but without the countess it was probable that our virgins would keep their holes stoppered till marriage.”
“And Mona? Is she from here?”
“The island belonged to her father, and her father’s father. But the old man did not care much about us. Mona looks after us better, though we must not go near the island.”