1993 - The Blue Afternoon (36 page)

Carriscant spent eight years behind the grey walls of Bilibid prison before he was transferred to the island of Guam, to a prison camp for former unrepentant insurrectos (battles were still being waged in the hills of Mindanao as late as 1913) run by the US military. In 1919, after serving sixteen years of his sentence he was paroled and went to live in Capiz, on Panay island, where he opened a small restaurant in the main square of that pretty provincial town. He was still obliged to report to the authorities in Iloilo once a month until the full term of his sentence was up. He never returned to Manila and lived quietly and forgotten in Capiz where his restaurant, “La Esperanza”, earned him a decent living. It was only in 1935 when he bought the house of a former Portuguese manager of the sugar refinery there, and came across a stack of old illustrated magazines through which he idly leafed, that he ever thought about moving.

I asked Carriscant how he had survived his sixteen years of incarceration. “Two things, really,” he said, “though I have to tell you conditions were not so tough, especially on Guam. It was more like a farm there, and I ended up running the camp’s kitchens.” The first was the ever-sustaining knowledge that Delphine at least was free, that she had escaped, and somewhere was leading the new life that they had both planned. “I was the only person in the world who knew she was not buried in Paco cemetery. A big secret, that, a secret worth keeping. I was consoled by it. As long as I kept the secret she was safe. It helped to know that.”

“What was the second thing?”

“You.”

Love is not a feeling. It does not belong to that category of bodily experience which would include, for instance, pain. Love and pain are not the same at all. Love is put to the test—pain is not. You do not say of pain, as you do of love,

“That was not true pain, or it would not have disappeared so quickly.”

It was Udo Leys who told Carriscant about Annaliese’s pregnancy. Udo died in 1905 and in the years up to his death he was Carriscant’s only visitor in Bilibid. It was a month after the verdict that he broke the news that Annaliese was leaving the Philippines.

“She’s going back to Germany,” Udo told him, morosely. “I tell her no but she says she can’t live here. The shame, the scandal. Everyone knows her as the woman married to the murderer.”

“But I wasn’t found guilty of murder.”

“Salvador, I have to tell you, everyone talks as if you did it.”

“Jesus Christ…Anyway, I’m sorry about Annaliese, I knew it would be hard on her.” He thought for a while. “I’d like to see her before she goes.”

“Ah, Salvador, she’ll never see you. Never again, she say. She’s even given up her job with the bishop. She stays indoors, she can’t face anyone.”

“Did you give her my last letter?”

“She tear it up, before my eyes. She won’t see you.”

“Poor Annaliese…I should’ve thought how difficult it would be for her to stay here.”

“Listen, it’s not so easy for me,” Udo protested equably. “Everybody talks about it, everybody wonders how and why, why were those men selected as victims…A cause celebre, Salvador. They’ll be talking about it for years.”

“I didn’t do it, Udo. I didn’t do anything. I’m an innocent man.”

“Of course you are. I know that. But you’ll never stop people talking.” He smiled apologetically. “Anyway, it’ll be better for the child to grow up away from this atmosphere.”

“What child?”

Udo frowned. “Didn’t Annaliese write to you? She’s pregnant.”

We dined in the hotel: a mutton stew which I disliked but which Carriscant declared was among the finest he had ever tasted.

“Mutton is a coarse fibrous meat with a strong taste. This dish is not pretending to be anything else. Garlic, potatoes, carrots and cabbage, what more could you ask for?” Back on dry land his appetite had returned. The dessert was a dense flat triangle of cake, a kind of heavy sponge, served with syrup from a green and gold can. The clientele were all smartly dressed, the dining tables covered with clean linen, the silverware much used but well shined.

“I like this hotel,” Carriscant said, spooning more syrup. “I could live here.”

Adulthood. When the prospect of physical or sensual excess is no longer enticing. Is this why I feel an adult? Is this why I feel so old beside Salvador Carriscant?

I
sit at the pine table in my room and stare out at the street with the trams going by with a clatter and fizz. Their approach is announced by a singing of the electric wires, a kind of ghostly monotone whistle. A weak sun is shining today and new fragile green leaves flutter bravely in the cool breeze that blows off the estuary.

So: S.C.’s version goes like this. During the false period of reconciliation with Annaliese they made love. He only specified one occasion, when she came into his study, but he did say he ‘reoccupied the marital bed’. It is not unreasonable to suppose that the event recurred. Annaliese became pregnant but probably only became aware of her condition after the arrest and trial. She never saw him again after he was arrested. She refused to attend the trial or visit him in prison after she was made aware of the unsent farewell letter. Then she quit Manila sometime towards the end of 1903 for German New Guinea. So let us say the child was conceived in early May 1903…It would have been born in January 1904. My date of birth is 9 January 1904.

My head fills with clamouring questions when I try to come to terms with these facts. How did she end up in German New Guinea? Carriscant said Udo Leys told him she was returning to Germany…How did she meet Hugh Paget? Was she married to him by the time I was born, or did he marry her afterwards and adopt the baby girl as his own?…The thought comes to me that Hugh Paget might be merely a convenient fiction. An old photograph of a man of the cloth, found somewhere. A handy sad story to relate to a kind fellow like Rudolf Fischer; a neat explanation for the presence of a baby daughter. My mother is no fool. Widow’s weeds hide a great deal…

Hugh Paget. My English father.

Question: How did Carriscant know my name? How did he know to come looking for me in Los Angeles?

We went out to buy Carriscant a new suit—his idea. We found a tailor’s on the Rua Conceicao and Carriscant bought a three-piece suit off the peg. It was a dark navy blue with a thin red and white chalkstripe, a double-breasted coat and a vest with small lapels. With it we purchased a cream soft–collared shirt and a maroon tie. The trousers had to be taken up an inch or so, which they did on the premises while we waited. He looked well in it: a fit, boxy, broad-shouldered older man, and the cream shirt set off the olive tones in his skin. And all of a sudden I see the young surgeon in Manila—confident, gifted, and so very sure of himself. Carriscant celebrates by having a haircut and a professional shave. I stand outside the barber’s and watch the thick suds applied to his face, see the poised careful scraping as the swathes of smooth skin are exposed. Carriscant studies himself in the mirror, his fingers on his chin, pulling and pushing, testing the grain.

He is dressing for someone—not me—and intends to look his best. In the afternoon we go to an annexe of the US legation, a new building of tawny stone, on the Rua do Alecrim, where we had an appointment with a Mr Shelburne Dillingham, the second secretary. The envoy himself, a Mr James Marion Minnigarde, was visiting the consulate at Oporto. Also he was a recent appointment; we needed to talk to someone who had been in Lisbon for some years, who would at least be familiar with the legation’s business in the 1920
s
.

Mr Dillingham was a serious young man with a pronounced overbite which he tried to disguise by pushing his bottom lip out and up to cover his protruding top teeth, a trick which had the effect of making him look oddly pugnacious. But whenever he talked, or smiled, the old overbite re-established itself until he remembered his trick again. I became so fascinated with this labial manoeuvre that I found I was paying scant attention to his words. I concentrated once again.

“—I’m pretty sure that the Aishlie cup lapsed in 1930 or 1931,” he was saying. He smiled at me, toothily. “I’ve only been here three years.”

Carriscant pushed his photograph across the desk. “This is the woman we are interested in. She was the wife of an embassy official here, I’m sure.”

Dillingham looked attentively at the picture. “Very elegant lady,” he said. “What age would she be there?”

“Early fifties.”

“Let me see.” He went to his bookshelf and drew out a slim navy blue book from a row of identically bound volumes. On the cover was a gold seal and lettering that read: Department of State, Foreign Service List, 1927. He flicked through the pages.

“The envoy in 1927 was Warrick Aishlie and we know that the lady in question is not Mrs Aishlie…The only other diplomats of an age to have a wife in her fifties are…”

He consulted the list. “Hmm. Mr Parker Gade, vice consul in Funchal, and Commander Mason Shoemaker, the naval attache for air.” He made an impressed noise. “That was forward looking for us in 1927. Now,” he reached for the 1936 service list, “let’s see where they are today.”

“Naval commander?” Carriscant said, drawing the photo back. “Could that be him in the picture?”

“I couldn’t tell you, sir,” Dillingham said as he checked the index. “No reference. Both of these gentlemen appear to have retired from the service. Or they’re deceased.” He made an unhappy face. “I could cable the State Department, but I’m fairly sure they wouldn’t give out any personal information.”

Carriscant suddenly looked glum and unhappy, shifting uncertainly in his seat, his fingers tugging at the collar of his new shirt, and I felt sorry for him, his hopes raised and dashed so swiftly. “Isn’t there anyone here in the legation who was here in 1927?” I asked. “There must be some member of staff who goes back that far.”

“Good point,” Dillingham said, throwing me an admiring glance. “Please excuse me one moment.”

Carriscant stood up and went to the window to look down on the little courtyard outside. I joined him. Some small scruffy pigeons pecked around the base of a lime tree, pecking in a dilatory and routine manner at the sparse blades of grass, as if the search for nourishment itself was sufficient to satisfy their hunger.

“If she did marry this naval commander she could be anywhere,” I said gently.

“No,” Carriscant said with complete confidence. “She’s here, I’m certain of it.”

I turned away, exasperated. He had all the doggedness of a Flat-Earther. These people had to find out the hard way.

Dillingham returned with an elderly Portuguese man in a black suit. He had grey hair combed brutally back from his forehead and held in place with some fearsomely adhesive grease or potion. He wore small round tortoise-shell glasses and a neatly trimmed toothbrush moustache dyed a disconcerting shade of coppery brown.

“Senhor Liceu,” Dillingham said, presenting him. “Our esteemed chancery clerk. Been here for ever.”

Senhor Liceu shook hands with us, inclining his trunk forward at a slight angle each time. Carriscant showed him the photograph and asked if he could identify Commander Shoemaker.

He did so at once. “That’s Commander Shoemaker,” he said. “A good likeness.” His English was excellent.

Carriscant pointed to Delphine. “And is that Mrs Shoemaker?”

Liceu tried not to smile at some memory. “No, sir, there was no Mrs Shoemaker. The commander was a confirmed bachelor.”

“Do you recognise that lady?”

“No, I’m afraid not. I was there that day, I remember it well. I was a great admirer of Senhorita Barrera.” He gave a sad smile. “I think I only had eyes for her. This lady was probably Commander Shoemaker’s guest. Or Mr Aishlie’s.” Despair was creeping back into Carriscant’s face. “Could this lady have been French?” Liceu said, frowning. “I have some recollection of a very elegant French lady at one of the receptions.”

“I don’t think so.” Carriscant shrugged. “Unless she married a Frenchman.”

“I’ll ask some of the other staff,” Liceu volunteered. “Perhaps someone will remember. It was a great day for the legation. Most memorable. There may be others with better recall than I.”

We thanked them both and left the place somewhat cast down. We walked down the front steps slowly. Evening was coming on and the streetlamps were lit. In the sky above were a few pink-touched clouds. A taxi pulled up and a young man with bad acne descended and spent some time searching his pockets for change while the taxi ticked patiently at the kerb. I felt Carriscant’s depression settle round my shoulders like a shawl. I had to say something.

“How does it go?
At the violet hour, something something, like a taxi throbbing at the door
…No,
the human engine, like a taxi throbbing at the door
.”

“What on earth are you talking about?” Carriscant rather snapped at me.

“Just a line of poetry. Came to mind.
At the violet hour, etcetera
.” I pointed up at the rose-flushed evening sky. “It’s nothing important. Just the conjunction of the light effect and that taxi. Ignore it.”

He was staring at me, a slow smile widening his face. “At the violet hour,” he said. “Don’t you see?”

“What? No, I don’t.”

“Violets.”

W
e spent the morning walking round the Baixa going from sweetshop to sweetshop looking for one that sold crystallised violets. Out of six confeiteiros we found only one with a stock of the sweets. We returned with Joao from the hotel to help us translate.

“They sell many types of sweets,” Joao said needlessly as we looked round the small shop. It was narrow and dark and looked more like an apothecary’s with its crammed shelves of ornate glass bottles, some of them tinted green and blue. “But they have no regular order for the violets. They do not despatch them to special clients.”

“What about regular customers?”

Joao conferred with the bemused couple who ran the shop. Yes, they did have some regular customers. They peered curiously at Carriscant’s picture. No, they didn’t recognise the woman.

Undeterred, Carriscant secured the name of the wholesaler who supplied them with the sweets; from him he would obtain a list of other stockists in the city, he explained.