All The Names - Jose Saramago

driver announced, Here we are, Senhor José discovered that he wasn't outside his house, but at the door
of the Central Registry. It wasn't worth explaining to the man that he should go around the square and up
the side street, he'd only have to walk about fifty yards, not even that. He paid with his last few coins, got
out and when he put his feet on the pavement and looked up, he saw that the lights in the Central Registry
were on, Not again, he thought, and he immediately forgot his concern for the fate of the lady in the
ground-floor apartment and the fact that the mother with the child had remembered him, the problem now
is finding an excuse for the following day. He went around the corner, there was his house, squat, almost a
ruin really, clinging to the high wall of the building that seemed about to crush it. It was then that brutal
fingers clutched at Senhor José's heart. The light was on in his house. He was sure he'd turned it off when
he went out, but, bearing in mind the confusion that has reigned for days now inside his head, he admits
that he might have forgotten, if it weren't for that other light, the one in the Central Registry, the five
windows brilliantly lit. He put his key in the door, he knew what he was going to see, but he paused on the
threshold as if social convention required him to be surprised. His boss was sitting at the table, before
him were a few papers carefully lined up. Senhor José did not need to approach in order to find out what
they were, the two forged letters of authority, the unknown woman's report cards, his notebook, the cover
from the Central Registry file containing official documents. Come in, said his boss, it's your house. The
clerk closed the door, went over to the table and stopped. He didn't speak, he felt his head become a
whirlpool in which all his thoughts were dissolving. Sit down, as I said, it's your house. Senhor José
noticed that on top of the report cards there was a key the same as his. Are you looking at the key, asked
the Registrar, and continued calmly, don't imagine it's some fraudulent copy, the houses of staff members,
when there were houses, always had two keys to the communicating door, one, of course, for the use of
the owner, and another which remained in the possession of the Central Registry, everything's fine, as you
see, Apart from your having come in here without my permission, Senhor José managed to say, I didn't
need your permission, the master of the key is the master of the house, let's say we're both the masters of
this house, just as you seem to have considered yourself master enough of the Central Registry to remove
official documents from the archive, I can explain, There's no need, I've been keeping regular track of
your activities, and, besides, your notebook has been a great help to me, may I take the opportunity to
congratulate you on the excellent style and the appropriateness of the language, I'll hand in my resignation
tomorrow, I won't accept it. Senhor José looked surprised, You won't accept it, No, I won't, Why, if you
don't mind my asking, Feel free, since I am an accomplice to your irregular activities, I don't understand.
The Registrar picked up the file of the unknown woman, then said, You will understand, first, though, tell
me what happened in the cemetery, your narrative ends with the conversation you had with the clerk over
there, It'll take a long time, Just tell me in a few words, so that I get the complete picture, I walked through
the General Cemetery to the section for suicides, I went to sleep under an olive tree, and the following
morning, when I woke up, I was in the middle of a flock of sheep, and then I found out that the shepherd
amuses himself by swapping around the numbers on the graves before the tombstones are put in place,
Why, It's hard to explain, it's all to do with knowing where the people we're looking for really are, he
thinks we'll never know, Like the woman you call the unknown woman, Yes, sir, What did you do today, I
went to the school where she was a teacher and I went to her apartment, Did you find anything out, No,
sir, and I don't think I wanted to. The Registrar opened the file, took out the record card that had got stuck
to the cards of the last five famous people in whom Senhor José had taken an interest, Do you know what I
would do in your position, he asked, No, sir, Do you know what is the only logical conclusion to
everything that has happened up until now, No, sir, Make up a new card for this woman, the same as the
old one, with all the correct information, but without a date for her death, And then, Then go and put it in
the archive of the living, as if she hadn't died, That would be a fraud, Yes, it would, but nothing that we
have done or said, you and I, would make any sense if we don't, I still don't understand. The Registrar
leaned back in the chair, drew his hands slowly over his face, then asked, Do you remember what I said