All The Names - Jose Saramago

José will not be seen again in that area. Of the ten different shops he went into to ask questions, including
the pharmacy, in only three of them did he find someone who claimed to remember the girl and her
parents, the picture on the report card jogged their memories, unless, of course, it merely took the place of
their memories, it's quite likely that the people questioned simply wanted to be nice and did not want to
dis appoint this man who looked as if he had just got over a nasty bout of flu and who spoke to them of a
school diploma issued twenty years earlier and never delivered. When Senhor José got home, he felt
exhausted and discouraged, this first stage in the new phase of his investigations had indicated no route
along which to continue, quite the contrary, it seemed to have placed before him an unscalable wall. The
poor man threw himself down on the bed wondering why he didn't do what the pharmacist, with illdisguised
sarcasm, had suggested, If I were you, I would already have solved the problem, How, asked
Senhor José, I'd have looked in the phone book, that's the easiest way of finding someone these days,
Thanks for the suggestion, but we've already done that, and the lady's name isn't there, replied Senhor
José, thinking that would shut the man up, but the pharmacist returned to the charge, Go to the tax office
then, they know everything about everyone. Senhor José stood staring at this spoilsport, struggling to
disguise his embarrassment, the lady in the ground-floor apartment hadn't thought of that, then he managed
to murmur a response, That's a good idea, I'll tell the head teacher. He left the pharmacy feeling furious
with himself, as if, at the last moment, he had lacked the presence of mind to respond to an insult, he was
all set to go back home without asking any more questions, but then, resigned, he thought, The wine has
been poured, I must drink it, he did not, like someone else, say, Take this cup away from me, what you
want is to kill me The second shop was a hardware store the third a butcher's, the fourth stationer's, the
fifth an electrical goods shop the sixth a haberdasher's the usual routine suburban selection, and so on to
the tenth shop, fortunately, his luck held, after the pharmacist no one else mentioned the tax office or the
telephone directory: Now lying on his back, with his hands interlaced behind his head, Senhor José looks
up at the ceiling and asks What am I going to do now and the ceiling replied, Nothing, your knowing her
last address, I mean, the last address she lived at during her schooldays, gave you no clue as to how to
continue your search, of course, you could go to earlier addresses, but that would be a waste of time, if
the most recent shopkeepers couldn't help you, the others certainly won't be able to, So you think I should
give up then, You've probably got no option, unless you go to the tax office, it shouldn't be difficult with
that letter of authority you've got, besides they're civil servants like you, It's a forgery, Yes, you're right,
you'd probably better not use it, I wouldn't like to be in your skin if one day they catch you redhanded, You
couldn't be in my skin, you're just a plaster ceiling, I know, but what you're seeing of me is also a skin,
besides, the skin is only what we want others to see of us, underneath it not even we know who we are,
I'll hide the letter, If I were you, I'd tear it up or burn it, I'll put it with the bishop's papers, where I kept it
before, Well, it's up to you, I don't like the tone you said that in, it doesn't augur at all well, The wisdom of
ceilings is infinite, If you're such a wise ceiling, then give me an idea, Keep looking at me, sometimes it
works.
The idea that the ceiling gave to Senhor José was to cut his holiday short and go back to work, You
tell the boss that you're much stronger now and ask him to reserve the other days for another occasion, that
is if you ever find a way out of the hole you've got yourself into, with all doors shut and not a single clue
to follow, The Registrar is going to find it strange a member of staff going in to work when he's not
obliged to and without being called, You've done stranger things than that recently, I lived a peaceful life
before this absurd obsession, looking for a woman who doesn't even know I exist, But you know that she
exists, that's the problem, I'd better just give up once and for all, Maybe, maybe, anyway just remember
that not only the wisdom of ceilings is infinite, life's surprises are too, What do you mean by that tired old
cliché, That the days go by and never come again, That's an even tireder cliché, don't tell me that the
wisdom of ceilings consists only in clichés like that, said Senhor José scornfully, You know nothing about
life if you think there is more than that to know, replied the ceiling and fell silent. Senhor José got off the