All The Names - Jose Saramago

een subverted once before, when the Registrar had ordered this same deputy to take Senhor José the
pills, but that infraction could be justified by the suspicion that the senior clerk responsible would prove
incapable of satisfactorily carrying out the mission which consisted not so much in taking a few anti-flu
tablets to a sick man as having a look around the house and reporting back. A senior clerk would find the
damp stain on the floor perfectly acceptable that is unremarkable and easily explained by the wintry
weather they had been having at the time, and would probably not even have noticed the record cards on
the bedside table, he would return to the Central Registry in the happy belief that he had done his duty,
declaring to the Registrar, Nothing unusual to report, sir. It must be said, however, that the two deputies,
and this one in particular, more direcdy involved in the process by his active participation in it, realised
that the Registrar's behaviour was determined by an objective, a strategy, a central idea. They couldn't
imagine what that idea or objective might be, but all their experience and knowledge of their boss told
them that, in this affair, every word and every deed must inevitably point to one end, and that Senhor José,
placed by his own actions or by a chance circumstance on the path towards that end, either was merely an
unwittingly useful instrument or was himself its unexpected and entirely surprising cause. Such opposing
arguments, such contradictory feelings, meant that the order, from the tone in which it was subsequently
communicated to Senhor José, sounded far more like a favour the Registrar had ordered to be asked of
him than the clear, categorical instruction that had effectively been issued, Senhor José, said the deputy,
the Registrar is of the opinion that, given your fainting fit of a moment ago, your health is not suffciently
recovered for you to come to work, It wasn't a fainting fit, I didn't lose consciousness, it was just a
momentary weakness, Well, weakness or fainting fit, momentary or lasting, what the Central Registry
wants is for you to make a complete recovery, I'll work sitting down as much as I can, in a few days' time
I'll be right as rain, The Registrar thinks it would be best if you took a short holiday, not your whole
twenty days, of course, perhaps ten, ten days to rest and regain your strength, take it easy, go for a few
strolls round the city, there are gardens to visit, parks, and the weather's glorious just now, a proper
period of convalescence, we won't even recognise you when you come back. Senhor José looked at the
deputy in amazement, this really wasn't the kind of conversation a deputy had with a mere clerk, there was
something almost indecent about it. Obviously the Registrar wanted him to go on holiday, which was, in
itself, intriguing, but, as if that were not enough, he was showing an unusual, indeed disproportionate,
interest in his health. None of this corresponded to the usual patterns of behaviour in the Central Registry,
where holiday plans were always calculated with meticulous precision in order to achieve, by pondering
multiple factors, some of which were known only to the Registrar, a fair distribution of the time set aside
for annual leisure. It was unheard of for the Registrar to ignore the plans already made for the current year
and simply send a clerk home. Senhor José was confused, you could see it in his face. He could sense his
colleagues' perplexed eyes on his back, he could feel the deputy's growing impatience with what must
seem to him baseless indecision, and he was about to say, Yes, sir, like someone simply obeying an order,
when suddenly his face lit up, he had just seen what those ten days of freedom could mean, ten days during
which he could carry out his investigations without being tied down to the servitude of work, to a
timetable, never mind about parks, gardens or convalescence, God bless whoever invented flu, and so
Senhor José smiled when he said, Yes, sir, he should have been more discreet in the way he expressed
himself, you never know what a deputy might go and tell the boss, In my opinion, he reacted very
strangely, first, he seemed upset, or as if he hadn't quite understood what I'd said, then, it was as if he'd
won first prize in the lottery, he didn't seem the same person, Do you have any evidence that he's a
gambling man, I don't think so, it was just a manner of speaking, Then there must be some other reason.
Senhor José was already saying to the deputy, It would really suit me to have a few days off, I must thank
the Registrar, I'll pass your thanks on to him, Perhaps I should do it personally You know perfectly well
that is not the custom Nevertheless, considering the exceptional nature of the matter, and having said
those, bureaucratically speaking, most pertinent of words, Senhor José turned to where the Registrar was