All The Names - Jose Saramago

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When I'd finished talking, she asked me, And what do you think you'll do now, Nothing, I said, Are
you going to go back to your collections of famous people, I don't know, possibly, I'll have to fill my time
somehow, I fell silent, thinking, and then said, No, I don't think I will, Why, Well, when you think about it,
their lives are always the same, they never change, they appear, they talk, they show themselves off, they
smile for the photographers, they're always arriving or departing, Just like us, Not like me, Like you and
me and everyone, we all show ourselves off in various places, we talk, we leave our homes and come
back, sometimes we even smile, the difference is that no one takes any notice of us, We can't all be
famous, Just as well, imagine if your collection were as big as the Central Registry, It would have to be
even bigger, the Central Registry only wants to know when we're born and when we die, and that's about
it, Whether we marry, get divorced, widowed or remarried, the Central Registry has absolutely no interest
in finding out if we were happy or unhappy while all that was going on, Happiness and unhappiness are
just like famous people, they come and they go, the worst thing about the Central Registry is that they're
not interested in what we're like, for them we're just a piece of paper with a few names and dates on it,
Like my goddaughter's card, Or yours, or mine, What would you have done if you'd actually met her, I
don't know, perhaps I'd have spoken to her, perhaps not, I never really thought about it, And did it occur to
you that, at the moment when she was actually there before you, you would know as much about her as you
did on the day you first decided to look for her, that is, nothing, and that if you wanted to know who she
was, you would have to begin looking again and that, from then on, it would be much more difficult, if,
unlike famous people, who like showing themselves off, she preferred not to be found, You're right, But,
since she's dead, you can go on looking for her, she won't mind now, I don't understand, Up until now,
despite all your efforts, the only thing you've found out is that she went to a school, in fact, the very one I
told you about, I've got photographs, Photographs are just bits of paper too, We could share them, And we
would imagine that we were sharing her out between us, one bit for you, one bit for me, There's nothing
more to be done, that's what I said at the time, assuming that she considered the matter closed, but she
asked me, Why don't you go and talk to her parents, to her ex-husband, What for, To try and learn
something more about her, how she lived, what she did, Her husband probably wouldn't want to talk about
her, it's all water under the bridge, But her parents are bound to, parents never let slip a chance to talk
about their children, even if they're dead, at least that's been my experience, I didn't go and see them
before and I'm certainly not going to now, before, I could have said that I'd been sent by the Central
Registry, What did my goddaughter die of, I don't know, How is that possible, her death must be
registered at the Central Registry, On the card we just put the date of death, not the cause, But there must
be a certificate, doctors are obliged by law to certify a death, when she died, they wouldn't just write
She's dead, The death certificate wasn't with the papers I found in the archive of the dead, Why, I don't
know, they must have dropped it when they were taking her file to be put away, or else I dropped it,
anyway, it's lost, it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack, you can't imagine what it's like in
there, From what you've told me I can, You can't, it's impossible, you'd have to actually be there, In that
case you've got a perfect reason to go and talk to her parents, tell them that, unfortunately, her death
certificate has got lost in the Central Registry, that you have to complete the file otherwise your boss will
punish you, show them how humble and anxious you are, ask the name of the doctor who came, where she
died, and what of, if it happened at home or in the hospital, ask everything, you've still got your letter of
authority, I suppose, Yes, but don't forget it's a false one, It fooled me, it'll probably fool them too, no life
is without its lies, perhaps there's some deceit involved in this death as well, If you worked at the Central
Registry, you'd know that there is no deceiving death. She must have thought the remark didn't merit a