‘I visited him in mid-November,’ I said. ‘It was just after four, a cold blue twilight.’
He stopped pumping. The boat was now a plump shape with a taut, rounded skin. ‘We attach the seats next,’ he said. ‘They’re those black things over there. Pass them to me, will you?’ He pointed to the two contraptions whose purpose I had not divined. ‘When the room floods, you and I will get into this kayak. If Raphael tries to get into it with us, or to hang on to it, use your paddle to strike at her hands and head.’
‘The afternoon had been stormy,’ I said, ‘and the lights of the cars were pixelated by rain; the pavements collaged with wet black leaves.’
He was fiddling with the valves where the Air had gone in. ‘What?’ he asked, irritably. ‘What are you talking about? Can you hurry up and pass me those seats? We need to get a move on. She’ll be here any moment now.’
‘When I got to his house I heard music playing,’ I said. ‘A requiem. I waited for him to answer the door to an accompaniment of Berlioz.’
‘Berlioz?’ He stopped what he was doing, straightened and looked at me properly for the first time. He frowned. ‘I don’t … Berlioz?’
I said: ‘The door opened. “Dr Ketterley?” I said.’
He froze at the sound of his own name. His eyes widened. ‘What are you talking about?’ he asked again in a voice made hoarse with fear.
‘Battersea,’ I said. ‘You asked me once if I remembered Battersea. And now I do.’
Boom! … … Boom! … … The Tide from the Twenty-Second Vestibule was growing stronger; it was hitting the Walls of the Second and Third South-Western Halls with more force.
‘You saw her message,’ he said.
‘Yes,’ I said.
A thin Ripple of Water raced across the Pavement and hit my feet. It was followed immediately by another one.
He laughed suddenly, an odd sound: hysteria masquerading as relief. ‘No, no!’ he said. ‘You don’t get me that easily. Those aren’t your words. They’re someone else’s. You don’t really remember. Raphael put you up to this. Really, Matthew, how stupid do you think I am?’
He dived suddenly to the right, towards the Gun that was lying on the Pavement. But I had chosen my position with care and I was nearer to it than he was. I gave it a good, sharp kick with my foot. It skittered across the marble Pavement and came to rest by the Northern Wall about fifteen metres away. More Ripples – deeper now – were coursing past our feet. They flowed after the Gun, as if we were all playing a game with the Gun and they intended to catch it.
‘What …? What are you going to do?’ asked the Other.
‘Where is 16?’ I asked.
He opened his mouth to say something, but at that moment a voice was heard. ‘Ketterley!’ it cried. A woman’s voice. 16 was here!
From the sound I judged that she was hidden in one of the Southern Doors. The Other, who is not accustomed to the way in which the echoes reverberate in the Halls, looked around him in a confused manner.
‘Ketterley,’ she shouted again. ‘I’ve come for Matthew Rose Sorensen.’
He grabbed me by my right arm. ‘He’s here!’ he shouted. ‘I have him! Come and get him.’
The Booming of the Tides was growing louder. The whole Hall reverberated with the Force of it. Water was flowing freely in through all the Southern Doors.
‘Take care!’ I shouted. ‘He means you harm. He has a Gun!’
A small, slight figure stepped out of the Door that leads to the First Southern Hall. She wore jeans and a green jumper. Her dark hair was pulled back into a ponytail.
The Other let go of me with his right hand (though he still had hold of me by his left). Then he made a fist of his right hand and he swung his arm and body back, intending to get some momentum to hit me; but I swung with him, overbalancing him. He half-fell to the Floor. I pulled free from him and began to run towards 16.
As I ran, I shouted: ‘A Flood is coming! We must climb!’
I do not know how much of my words she heard, but she understood the urgency in my voice. I seized her hand. Together we ran towards the Eastern Wall.
The Statues of the Horned Giants were in front of us on either side of the Eastern Door, but we could not climb them; their bodies emerged from the Wall two metres above the Floor and there were no hand-or footholds until that point. Next to the Giant on the left was the Statue of a Father seated with his little Son in his Arms; the Father was plucking a thorn from his Son’s Foot. I climbed into their Niche and then onto their Plinth. I mounted onto the Father’s lap and by holding onto one of the Columns at the side, and using the Arm, Shoulder and Head of the Father as footholds, I climbed onto the Top of the triangular Pediment that surmounted the Niche. 16 tried to follow me, but she was not so tall as me and, I suspect, not accustomed to climbing. She got as far as the Statue’s lap but seemed at a loss what to do next. Quickly I climbed down again and lifted her up; with my help, she heaved herself up onto the Pediment.
It was noon. In the Tenth and Twenty-Fourth Vestibules the last two Tides were rising, filling the surrounding Area with tempestuous, raging Waters.
Half a metre above the Pediment was a Deep Cornice or Shelf that ran the whole length of the Hall. We scaled the slope of the Pediment and hoisted ourselves onto the Cornice above. We were now about seven metres above the Floor. 16 was pale and shaking (she clearly did not love climbing), but she had a fierce, determined expression.
The Air was suddenly rent by sharp, cracking sounds – perhaps four of them – one after the other. For one terrifying moment I thought that the Weight and Vibrations of the Waters were causing the Hall to collapse. I looked out into the Hall and I saw that the Other had not yet got into his boat (where he would be safe); instead he had run to the Northern Wall to retrieve his Gun. He was firing at us.
‘Get in the boat!’ I shouted to him. ‘Get in the boat before it is too late!’
He fired again, hitting a Statue above our heads. I felt a sharp pain in my forehead. I cried out. I put my hand up and brought it away covered in blood.
The Other started to wade through the running Waters towards us – presumably with the idea of firing his Gun at us more effectively.
I shouted at him again, something to the effect that the Tides were almost here! – but there was a Great Roar of Waters from every direction and I doubt that he heard me.
If there had not been someone firing a Gun at us, we could have stayed on the Cornice. (Then, if the Waters rose higher than I expected, we could have climbed up again.) But, as matters stood, we were exposed, without protection.
A metre or so below us the Back and Upper Arms of the Horned Giant emerged from the Wall. There was a Space between his Back and the Wall, a sort of marble pocket. I jumped; it was a distance of approximately two metres sideways, one metre down; I managed it with ease. I looked up at 16. Her eyes were wide with apprehension. I held out my arms. She jumped. I caught her.
We were now shielded from the Other’s Gun by the Giant’s Body. I heaved Myself up his marble Back to look over his Shoulder.
The Other had turned away from us and was trying to reach the boat. But he had left it too late. The Waters were as high as his knees and the contending Waves were dragging at him. As he struggled, he seemed to grow heavier; the boat by contrast grew lighter, freer. It danced on the Waters, spun from one Part of the Hall to another; one moment it was by the Northern Wall, the next it was halfway to the Western Wall. The Other kept changing direction to follow it, but by the time he had taken a few arduous steps, the boat was somewhere else entirely.
Suddenly it was as if the boat remembered the purpose for which it had been brought here; it seemed to make up its mind to save him. It turned and sailed directly towards him. He held out his arms and leant forwards to catch it. It was barely half a metre from his grasp. For an instant I think he had his hand on its bow; then it twirled around and was gone, borne away to the Western End of the Hall.
‘Climb! Climb!’ I shou
ted. It was too late to catch the boat, but I thought that if he climbed, he might still save himself. But he could not hear me above the Sound of the Waters pouring into the Hall. He continued to wade desperately, uselessly, after the boat.
There was a Great Rush and a Great Roar in the next Hall; a Weight of Water hit the other side of the Northern Wall. Boom!!! And then I was grateful that we had climbed down to the Horned Giant. If we had still been standing on the Cornice, we would have been flung off the Wall. But the Horned Giant held us fast.
Spray as high as the Ceiling exploded through all the Northern Doors. The Spray caught the Sun; it was as if someone had suddenly thrown a hundred barrelfuls of diamonds into the Hall.
Great Waves surged through the Northern Doors. One plucked up the Other and threw him against the Southern Wall. He crashed into the Statues at a point about fifteen metres from the Floor. I imagine that that was when he died.
The Wave drew back; he disappeared into it.
Meanwhile the little inflatable boat whirled about on the Waters, sometimes engulfed by them for a moment or two, but always reappearing immediately. If he could only have reached it, it would have saved him.
Raphael
second entry for the twenty-seventh day of the ninth month in the year the albatross came to the south-western halls
Waves crashed against the Southern Wall; explosions of white Spray filled the Hall. The Waters covered the Bottom Tier of Statues; the colour of the Waters was a stormy grey and their Depths were black. Several times Waves passed over our heads, but they fell back the next instant. We were drenched, we were numbed, we were blinded, we were deafened; but always we were saved.
Time passed.
The Waves sank down and the Waters became peaceable. They began to drain away into the Staircases and the Lower Halls. The Heads of the Bottom Tier of Statues reappeared above the Surface of the Waters.
In all this time 16 and I had not spoken to each other. The Roar of the Waves would have made it impossible for us to hear each other and in any case, we had been intent on saving ourselves and each other; we had had no thought for anything else. Now we turned and looked at each other.
16 had large dark eyes and an elfin face. Her expression was solemn. She was a little older than me – about forty, I thought. Her hair was black with wet.
‘You are Six … You are Raphael,’ I said.
‘I’m Sarah Raphael,’ she said. ‘And you are Matthew Rose Sorensen.’
And you are Matthew Rose Sorensen. This time she framed it as a statement, rather than a question. This was surely premature. It would have been better to keep it as a question. But then again, if she had framed it as a question, I would not have known how to answer it.
‘Did he know you?’ I asked.
‘Did who know me?’ she said.
‘Matthew Rose Sorensen. Did Matthew Rose Sorensen know you? Is that why you came here?’
She paused, taking in what I had just said. Then she said carefully, ‘No. You and I have never met.’
‘Then why?’
‘I’m a police officer,’ she said.
‘Oh,’ I said.
We fell back into silence. We were both still dazed by what had happened. Our eyes were still full of images of the Violent Waters; our ears were still full of their Sounds; our minds were still full of that moment when the Other was flung by the Wave against the Wall of Statues. We had nothing at that moment to say to each other.
Raphael turned her attention to practical matters. She examined the injury to my forehead and said that it was not very deep. She did not think that I had been hit by one of the Other’s bullets; more likely I had been grazed by a shard of splintered marble.
The Level of the Waters continued to fall. When they came no higher than the Plinths of the Bottom Tier of Statues, I began to consider how we would get down from the Horned Giant. We could not return the way we had come since that would involve a leap upwards onto the Cornice. I did not think that Raphael could manage it. (Indeed, I was not sure that I could either.)
‘I’ll go and fetch something to help you climb down,’ I told her. ‘Don’t be anxious. I’ll return as quickly as I can.’
I lowered Myself from the Giant’s Torso and dropped down. The Waters reached as high as my thighs. I waded to the Third Northern Hall and climbed up the Statues to the places where I keep my belongings. Everything was wet from the Spray, but nothing was drenched. I retrieved my fishing nets, a bottle of Fresh Water and some dried seaweed. (It is important to keep the body hydrated and nourished.)
I returned to the First Western Hall. The Waters had already dropped some more and only came up as high as my knees. I climbed back up the Horned Giant. I gave Raphael some water and made her eat a little of the dried seaweed (though I do not think she liked it). Then I tied my fishing nets together and fastened them to one of the Giant’s Arms. They hung down to a point about half a metre above the Pavement. I showed Raphael how to use the fishing nets to climb down.
We waded to the First Vestibule and ascended the Great Staircase so that we were out of the reach of the Waters. We sat down. Our clothes were plastered to our bodies with wet. My hair – which is dark and curly – was as full of droplets as a Cloud. I rained every time I moved.
The birds found us there. Many different kinds – herring gulls, rooks, blackbirds and sparrows – gathered on the Statues and Banisters and chattered at me in their different voices.
‘It’ll be gone soon,’ I told them. ‘Don’t worry.’
‘What?’ asked Raphael, startled. ‘I don’t understand.’
‘I was talking to the birds,’ I said. ‘They’re alarmed by the great quantities of Water that are everywhere. I’m telling them that it’ll soon be gone.’
‘Oh!’ She said. ‘Do you … Do you do talk to the birds often?’
‘Yes,’ I said. ‘But there’s no need to look surprised. You talked to the birds yourself. In the Sixth North-Western Hall. I heard you.’
She looked even more surprised at that. ‘What did I say?’ she asked.
‘You told them to piss off. You were writing a message to me and they were being a nuisance, flying in your face and over your writing, trying to find out what you were doing.’
She thought a moment. ‘Was that the message that you wiped out?’ she asked.
‘Yes.’
‘Why did you do that?’
‘Because the Oth … Because Dr Ketterley told me you were my enemy and that reading what you had written would make me go mad. So I erased the message. But at the same time, I wanted to read it, so I didn’t erase all of it. I wasn’t being very logical.’
‘He made things very hard for you.’
‘Yes. I suppose he did.’
There was a silence.
‘We’re both soaking wet and cold,’ said Raphael. ‘Perhaps we should go?’
‘Go where?’ I said.
‘Home,’ said Raphael. ‘I mean we can go to my house and get dry. And then I can take you home.’
‘I am home,’ I said.
Raphael looked around at the sombre grey Waters lapping the Walls and the dripping Statues. She didn’t say anything.
‘It’s usually a lot drier than this,’ I said quickly in case she was thinking that my Home was inhospitable and damp.
But that wasn’t what she was thinking.
‘There’s something I have to tell you,’ she said. ‘I don’t know if you remember this, but you have a mum and a dad. And two sisters. And friends.’ She gazed at me intently. ‘Do you remember?’
I shook my head.
‘They’ve been looking for you,’ she said. ‘But they didn’t know the right place to look. They’ve been worried about you. They’ve been …’ She looked away again to find the right words to express her thought. ‘They’ve felt pain because they didn’t know where you were,’ she said.
I considered this. ‘I’m sorry that Matthew Rose Sorensen’s mum and dad and sisters and friends feel pain,�
�� I said. ‘But I don’t really see what it has to do with me.’
‘You don’t think of yourself as Matthew Rose Sorensen?’
‘No,’ I said.
‘But you have his face,’ she said.
‘Yes.’
‘And his hands.’
‘Yes.’
‘And his feet and his body.’
‘All that is true. But I haven’t got his mind and I haven’t got his memories. I don’t mean that he’s not here. He is here.’ I touched my breast. ‘But I think he’s asleep. He’s fine. You mustn’t worry about him.’
She nodded. She was not a contentious person as the Other had been; she did not argue and contradict everything I said. I liked that about her. ‘Who are you?’ she asked. ‘If you’re not him.’
‘I am the Beloved Child of the House,’ I said.
‘The house? What is the house?’
Such a strange question! I spread my arms to indicate the First Vestibule, the Halls beyond the First Vestibule, Everything. ‘This is the House. Look!’
‘Oh. I see.’
We were silent a moment.
Then Raphael said, ‘I need to ask you something. Would you be prepared to come with me to Matthew Rose Sorensen’s parents and sisters – to let them see his face again? It would help them a lot to know he is alive. Even if you had to go away again – I mean even if you had to return here, it would help them. What do you think about that?’
‘I can’t do it now,’ I said.
‘OK.’
‘I have to consider the needs of the Biscuit-Box Man – and the Folded-Up Child – and the People of the Alcove. They only have me to take care of them. They are in unfamiliar surroundings and may feel disconcerted. I have to return them to their appointed places.’
‘There are other people here?’ asked Raphael, in surprise.
‘Yes.’
‘How many?’
‘Thirteen. The ones I have just said and also the Concealed Person. But the Concealed Person resides in one of the Upper Halls and has not been affected by the Flood so there was no need to move him or her.’
Piranesi Page 16
