Beatrice and Virgil

by Yann Martel

  "It's a striped shirt," the taxidermist said, cleanly interrupting Henry.

  "Striped?"

  "Yes. Vertical stripes. The sun is setting." He searched through his papers. "They've been talking about God and Virgil's faith and the day of the week. They're not sure what day it is. I'll read that scene. Found it."

  He started off once again:

  He looked up. "In the opening scene, in describing the pear, they also talk about bananas. Beatrice knows a lot about bananas. But the important thing here is that Virgil is sniffing the air."

  Henry nodded. The taxidermist continued:

  "They're starving," he explained.

  ( The animals stand, Virgil leaning against Beatrice, their nostrils flared, their ears twitching, their eyes wide open .

  Daylight has reached its last hour. The earth and the trunks of the trees are burnished red by the setting sun. Sweeping through the land comes a wind, a most gentle of cavalry charges. It's a fragrant wind, smelling of soil and root, of flower and haystack, of field and forest, of smoke and animals, but also carrying, by virtue of the distances it has covered, the very smell of vastness, a smell moist and cavernous. It's a beautiful wind, an exciting wind, a giving wind. Riding upon it is the collective news of all nature .

  In a province dismissed as flat and featureless, upon a clear and cloudless sundown, the Shirt, by means of a simple road, has tricked the two animals into climbing atop a low hill and then has dropped the blindfold before their eyes so that they might see what is to be seen, a landscape that opens up like a philanthropist's wallet .

  It starts with a clearing of untended grass, on whose edge, next to the road, the animals are standing. The shrubs and trees nearby are shapely, with full heads of shimmering leaves, and their long shadows are printed onto the land by the orange sun. Next to the clearing is a bright green pasture. Beyond it lies a tilled field of rich brown earth whose furrows make it look like fat corduroy fabric. And there are more fields beyond, a sweep of swells and undulations that stretches out as far as the eye can see. A few hills sprout sprigs of forest, some fields lie green for sheep and cattle, others lie fallow, but most are cultivated, revealing soil of such glossy, mineral wealth that the land sparkles in the sun like an ocean. These endless furrows are waves, and teeming in them is the plankton of the land--bacteria, fungi, mites, all manner of worms and insects--and speeding and jumping about them are the fish of the earth, the mice, moles, voles, shrews, rabbits and others, ever on the lookout for sharkish foxes. Birds chirp and screech as excitedly as gulls above the seas, beside themselves with the living riches over which they hover and to which they have access with an easy buckling of the wings. And access these riches they do. Virgil and Beatrice see countless birds soaring and plummeting and rising up again, their wings beating, the life in the soil scrambling, and all of it--all of it--doused with sprays of wind .

  Before long, the light grows dimmer, the hues deeper, and darkness begins to fall upon the land. While the wind continues to conduct its usual barter, one spore for one smell, the Shirt now appears marked with immense blue and grey stripes that traverse it from north to south .)

  The taxidermist lifted his eyes and spoke. "I imagine these stripes being projected not only on the back wall but right across the stage and onto the spectators. The whole theatre will be printed in blue and grey stripes."

  "What about the landscape?"

  "It will also be projected onto the wall, like the posters about Virgil. The stage will be bare, except for the tree to the side. The most prominent feature will be the huge back wall, probably curved, like the wall for a diorama."

  "And the wind?"

  "Loudspeakers. They do amazing things nowadays with sound systems. The description I give of the wind is just to give the sound designer an idea. I imagine Virgil and Beatrice standing motionless and this wind being heard very distinctly for a good minute or two, a soft, rich wind. Then the landscape will be projected and after that the stripes."

  He returned to his text:

  "Collar is another province," the taxidermist informed Henry.

  "Yes, I understood that."

  "And then we'd hear Virgil's howl, starting with his alone, then augmented by other howler monkeys' howls and projected through the sound system. I want a great and terrible symphony of howls."

  "Why does the Shirt have stripes? Why that detail? It reminds me of--"

  The doorbell tinkled. Without a word or gesture to Henry, the taxidermist stood up and left for the showroom. Henry sighed and looked at Virgil and Beatrice.

  "Does he always interrupt you like this?" he asked Virgil.

  Henry remembered the bell in the Flaubert story, when the stag comes up to Julian, just before it curses him. Except that bell must have tolled rather than tinkled. Henry got up and went to look at the newly finished deer head. He could hear the taxidermist speaking to someone in the other room. Henry drank more water at the sink, holding a new glass with both hands. He examined the rabbit. It still had its ligaments, which is why the skeleton hadn't fallen to pieces. The ligaments looked like thin spaghetti.

  The taxidermist returned. He removed his apron. "I must go," he said curtly.

  "That's fine. I should be going, too."

  Henry gathered his coat.

  "When will you come back?" the taxidermist asked.

  He's so damn up-front and direct, with questions that are orders, Henry thought.

  "Why don't we go to the zoo together? We have our choice." The city enjoyed the luxury of having two zoos and Henry liked zoos. It was where he'd started his career, in a way. "I'm sure you'd have a fascinating take on live animals. I spent weeks researching--"

  "Zoos are bastard patches of wilderness," the taxidermist cut in as he put on his coat. "The animals there are degenerate. They shame me."

  Henry was taken aback. "Well, zoos are a compromise, that's for certain, but so is nature. And if it weren't for zoos, most people would never see real--"

  "I go only when I have to, for work, to see a live specimen."

  Henry could hear in the taxidermist's voice the judge's gavel coming down again. The taxidermist was directing him out of the workshop with broad, imperative gestures.

  I will get him to bend, thought Henry.

  "I see zoos as embassies from the wild, each animal representing its species. In any case, let's meet at the cafe up the street. The weather is so nice now. How about this coming Sunday at two o'clock? That's what I have time for." Henry put a firm edge to his last words.

  "All right. Sunday at two at the cafe," the taxidermist agreed tonelessly.

  Henry was relieved. "I have a question," he followed up smoothly as they passed through the showroom. "It's been on my mind since I read the opening scene from your play: why this minute description of a common fruit? It seems an odd start."

  "How did you put it?" replied the taxidermist. "'Words are cold, muddy toads trying to understand spirits dancing in a field'?"

  "Yes. I said 'sprites'."

  "'But they're all we have.'"

  "'But they're all we have,'" Henry repeated.

  "Please," the taxidermist said, opening the front door of the store and ushering Henry out. "Reality escapes us. It's beyond description, even a simple pear. Time eats everything."

  And with that, leaving Henry with the image of Time eating a pear into oblivion, the taxidermist practically slammed the door in Henry's face. He locked it, turned the cardboard sign hanging from its frame from open to closed, and disappeared back into his workshop. Henry took no offence at the lack of ceremony bordering on rudeness. He must behave like this with everyone, he guessed. It was nothing personal.

  At least Erasmus was glad to see him. The dog was jumping up and down, yelping with joy.

  Henry had meant to ask the taxidermist another question. On the Shirt, there wasn't only a monkey and a donkey and a tree and a country road and a picturesque landscape. There was also "a boy and his two friends". So there were people i
n the play too?

  At home, Henry told Sarah about his second visit with the taxidermist.

  "He's a real character. As surly as a badger. And his play, I can't figure it out. There are animal characters--a monkey and a donkey--and they live on this very large shirt. It's all quite fanciful, yet there are elements that remind me, well, that remind me of the Holocaust."

  "The Holocaust? You see the Holocaust in everything."

  "I knew you'd say that. Except in this case there's an emphatic reference to striped shirts, for example."

  "So?"

  "Well, during the Holocaust--"

  "Yes, I know about striped shirts and the Holocaust. But Wall Street capitalists also wear striped shirts, for example, as do clowns. Everyone has a striped shirt in their closet."

  "Perhaps you're right," Henry said.

  He was irked. Sarah had long ago lost interest in the Holocaust, or at least in his creative involvement with it. And she was wrong. It wasn't that he saw the Holocaust in everything. It's that he saw everything in the Holocaust, not only camp victims, but also capitalists and many others, perhaps even clowns.

  That Saturday, Henry and Sarah went shopping for the soon-to-come baby. Stroller, bassinet, a sling, the tiniest clothes--they bought these items with a smile stuck on their faces the whole time.

  They weren't very far from the taxidermist's store. On an impulse Henry suggested that they drop by. Sarah agreed. It was a mistake. The visit went badly. Standing outside the store, Sarah granted that the okapi looked attractive. But as soon as they entered, Henry could tell Sarah didn't like the place. When the taxidermist emerged from his lair, she seemed to cower. Henry showed her around, pointing out details, trying to elicit an enthusiastic response. Sarah's remarks were short and she mechanically nodded her head in agreement to whatever Henry said. She looked tense. The taxidermist, for his part, glowered. Henry did all the talking.

  They'd hardly got home before they started at each other.

  "He's helping me," Henry said.

  "What do you mean he's helping you? How? With that hideous monkey skull he tricked you into buying? What is that monstrosity? Yorick to your Hamlet?"

  "I'm getting ideas off him."

  "Of course, I'd forgotten. The monkey and the donkey. Winnie the Pooh meets the Holocaust."

  "It's not like that."

  "THE GUY'S A CREEP! DID YOU SEE THE WAY HE WAS LOOKING AT ME?"

  "Why are you shouting at me? People always look at pregnant women. And what does it matter to you who I hang out with? I like his store. It--"

  "IT'S A FUCKING FUNERAL PARLOUR! YOU'RE SPENDING YOUR TIME WITH DEAD STUFFED ANIMALS AND A SLEAZY OLD MAN!"

  "Would you rather I spend my time in a bar?"

  "THAT'S NOT THE POINT!"

  "Will you stop shouting at me?"

  "IT'S THE ONLY WAY YOU'LL LISTEN!"

  And so it went, a full-blown row while bags full of baby things lay around them.

  . . .

  The next morning, Henry left early for his music lesson. Events conspired to improve his mood. First, his clarinet teacher surprised him with a gift.

  "I can't accept this," Henry said.

  "What are you talking about? It's from a good friend, an old student. He hasn't used it for a century. He wanted to get rid of it. I got it for practically nothing. What's the point of the thing never being used?"

  "I'd like to pay you for it."

  "Never! Over my dead body. You'll pay me by playing it beautifully."

  Henry was holding in his hands the loveliest Albert system clarinet.

  "And I think you're ready to try some Brandwein," his teacher added. "We'll start today."

  Maybe my heavy black ox is starting to take off, Henry thought. He was playing all the time, after all. Two tricks helped him. The first was to devote a corner of his apartment exclusively to music playing, with the stand set up, the sheet music in order, the clarinet clean, and a cup in place in which to soak his reeds in warm water. The second was to practice often, but only in short bursts, no more than fifteen minutes. He usually practiced just before a commitment he couldn't miss. That way, if he played well, he stopped regretfully and eager to come back to it, and if he played poorly, he was forced to give up before dejection and exasperation had him wanting to throw the clarinet out the window. With this arrangement, he was practicing three, four times a day.

  He had two faithful spectators: Mendelssohn, who was patiently fascinated in the way only cats can be, and the monkey skull, which he had set on the chimney mantel nearby. Their round eyes, the cat's and the skull's, were always on him when he played. Erasmus, the Philistine, would whine and howl, so Henry had to lock him in another room, usually with Sarah.

  The weather also soothed Henry. It was a Sunday that was gloriously living up to its pagan name, a bold rebel burst of warm weather that announced the impending vanquishing of winter. Music was escaping from doors and windows that at long last could be left open, and everyone in the city was parading in the streets. Henry arrived early at the cafe to have a light lunch before his appointment with the taxidermist. A smart thing too, as the place was packed. He got a table right next to the wall, one chair in the sun, one in the shade. He had Erasmus as usual, but he didn't have his normal zip. The dog lay quietly in the shade of the table.

  The taxidermist arrived exactly at two, as punctual as a soldier.

  "Sunlight, warm wonderful sunlight!" Henry said expansively, his arms open wide.

  "Yes," was the taxidermist's full reply.

  "Which seat would you like?" Henry asked, rising a little to indicate that he was willing to move.

  The taxidermist took the free seat, the one in the shade, without saying a word. Henry settled back. Outside of the confines of his store, the taxidermist looked out of place. He was overdressed considering the warm weather. When the waiter came over, Henry noticed that he addressed the question "What can I get you?" only to him and not to the taxidermist. And the taxidermist wasn't looking at the waiter, either. Henry ordered a latte with a poppy seed pastry.

  "And you?" Henry asked.

  "I'll have a black coffee," the taxidermist said, staring at the tabletop.

  The waiter left without saying a word.

  Whether it had started with him not liking them or them not liking him, it was clear that by now the dislike was mutual. It was not hard to imagine that if there was a street association, the fancy bridal store owner, the natty jeweller, the sophisticated restaurateur, the hip cafe owner and the others would stand on one side of issues, while the old taxidermist, the man who had trucks bringing him the carcasses of dead animals, the man who never smiled or laughed, would stand on the other side. Henry didn't know what the issues were, but there would be issues, that was for sure. Sundays, rainy days, every day, politics gets into everything.

  "How are you?"

  "Fine."

  Henry took a breath and put a firm lid on his high spirits. He would get only monosyllables out of the man if he didn't play it his way. One thing was certain: he wasn't going to mention the previous day's awkward visit with his wife.

  "I was thinking," said Henry. "You describe Virgil in your play. You also need to describe Beatrice."

  "I do."

  "I was thinking that because I saw a donkey a few days ago."

  "Where did you see a donkey?"

  "At the zoo. I went on my own."

  The taxidermist nodded, though without much interest.

  "I thought of you when I saw it," Henry continued. "I had a good look at it. You know what I noticed?"

  "What?" From the inside breast pocket of his coat, the taxidermist pulled out a pen and a notepad.

  "I noticed that a donkey has an appealing terrestrial solidity--it's a good, solid animal--yet its limbs are surprisingly slim. It's as firmly yet lithely connected to the earth as a birch tree. And such lovely, round, compact hooves. And the legs tuck directly under the animal when it's standing still. When it's walking, the stri
de is dainty and short-stepped. The proportions of the head--the slim ears, the dark eyes, the nose, the mouth, the length of the snout--are very satisfying. The lips are strong and agile. The crunching and grinding sound a donkey makes when it's eating is very soothing to listen to. And its braying is as frank and tragic as a sob."

  "That's all very true," the taxidermist said, jotting things down in his notepad.

  "Some have a cross in their hair along the back and across the shoulders, exactly like a Christian cross."

  "Yes. Coincidence." The taxidermist did not write that detail down.

  "So what do they do, Beatrice and Virgil?"

  "What do you mean?"

  "What do they do in the play? What happens?"

  "They talk."

  "About what?"

  "About many things. I have a scene with me right here. It takes place after they've gone off to look for food and each is afraid of having lost the other. Just after Beatrice goes off to find Virgil, Virgil comes back."

  He looked around warily at the other tables. No one was paying them any attention. The taxidermist pulled out of his breast pocket some folded sheets. Henry thought he was finally going to have something to read. Instead, the taxidermist unfolded them in front of his face, leaned forward in his seat and cleared his throat. Even here, in public, he was going to read aloud. What a control freak, Henry thought, exasperated. The taxidermist started in a low voice:

  "Virgil always has a sore back. And Beatrice always has a sore neck," the taxidermist informed Henry. "It's the stress. And she has a limp. The limp is explained later."

  The waiter approached their table. The taxidermist stopped reading and held his papers under the table. The waiter placed their coffees and Henry's pastry on the table.

  "There you go," said the waiter.

  "Thank you."

  Henry realized that he had forgotten to ask for two forks. He took the single fork that the waiter had brought and cut the pastry into several pieces. He placed the fork on the taxidermist's side of the plate. He would use his coffee spoon instead.

  "Help yourself," Henry said.

  The taxidermist shook his head. He brought the play back above the table.

  "'Those criminals...'" Henry repeated. The taxidermist nodded and continued: