Ghosts
Page 13
Around her, the women were talking about New Year’s resolutions, promises and hopes, which were sometimes indistinguishable. For Inés, it would be the pivotal year of her life, she said: the year of her marriage. The others agreed: afterward they would say “a year ago.... two years ago.... ten years ago”; it would be the milepost. And for Carmen, of course, the year would be marked by an event that was no less important for being repeated: the birth of a child. The years, they said, rolled on, and the children were the years, springing from the earth like capricious little butterflies, blown about by the breezes, by the days and weeks and months....
Suddenly the sirens blared. Midnight was imminent. The men rushed to light a string of rockets, which began to explode like joyous machine-gun fire. Before the volley was over, Patri got up and headed for the back of the terrace. Her step grew steadily quicker, although she didn’t break into a run. All at once the others realized what she was intending to do; and far from being paralyzed by surprise, they got up in turn and went to stop her: the women, the men and the children, shouting out as rockets exploded near and far, and thousands of fireworks flowered in the sky. They didn’t catch up with her, of course, although they came close. Patri leaped into the void. And that was it. The whole family came to a halt on the brink, right on the brink, and stood there speechless, as if their hearts, carried on by the momentum of the chase, had leaped as well. As she fell, Patri’s thick glasses came off and went on falling separately, beside her. A ghost, appearing suddenly from somewhere, caught them safely before they hit the ground, and rose as if lifted by a gentle spring to the edge of the terrace, where he came to rest, in front of the family, who were stunned by the tragedy. He held the glasses out to Raúl Viñas, who reached out and took them. Man and ghost stared at each other.
13th of February 1987
© 1990 by César Aira
Translation copyright © 2008 by Chris Andrews
Originally published as Los Fantasmas in 1990; published by arrangement with the Michael Gaeb Literary Agency, Berlin.
All rights reserved. Except for brief passages quoted in a newspaper, magazine, radio, television, or website review, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publisher.
First published as a New Directions Paperbook Original (NDP1133) in 2008
Published simultaneously in Canada by Penguin Books Canada Limited.
Design by Erik Rieselbach
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Aira, César, 1949–
[Fantasmas. English]
Ghosts / César Aira ; translated from the Spanish by Chris Andrews.
p. cm.
“A New Directions Paperbook Original, NDP1133.”
ISBN 978-0-8112-1742-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)
I. Andrews, Chris. II. Title.
PQ7798.1.I7F8313 2008
863'.64—dc22
2008047193
New Directions Books are published for James Laughlin
by New Directions Publishing Corporation
80 Eighth Avenue, New York, NY 10011