Read Time Ages in a Hurry for Free Online

what they were saying, he caught only the sound of the voices. He’d stood up with the coins in his hand aimed at the phone, rather he’d almost stood, he half stood, just like the daybefore getting out of bed, when the same razor blade cut into his back again, slicing all the way down to below his navel. He stood very still, like that figure of Pontormo he liked so much, whose face is a landscape of pain almost as though he were bearing the cross instead of the one destined for such a task. The two female voices were still too feeble to be deciphered, but they were cheerful, this he got from the tone, they seemed to be twittering back and forth, like two little sparrows telling each other something, he shut his eyes and the twittering became a squeak and he thought instead of mice chattering together in their cage, those white mice that scientists experiment on, they were two guinea pigs for the science of so-called life, the most agonizing science of all, one of them was being subjected to it prematurely, the other, the old one, had endured the experiments and gone on. They fell silent, perhaps because the woman pushing the wheelchair was getting tired and the girl didn’t want to wear her out, but as soon as they reached the top of the path the girl began talking again, and must have been responding to something the nurse had said, from her tone of voice it was clear she was affirming something, a solemn affirmation that nobody could prove wrong. Her voice was joyful, full of life, as when life, through the voice, is willful and affirms itself. The girl repeated what she’d said just as they were passing him, and while she spoke a broad smile lit up her face: but this is the most beautiful thing in the world! But this is the most beautiful thing in the world!
    The path continued down toward a clinic in the middle of the grounds. They’d stopped talking, but he could hear the noise of thewheelchair rolling over the gravel. He wanted to turn around but was unable to. The most beautiful thing in the world. That’s what the girl had said, this bald girl, being hauled in a wheelchair by a nurse. She knew what the most beautiful thing in the world was. He, however, did not. How was it possible at his age, with all he’d seen and experienced, that he still didn’t know what the most beautiful thing in the world was?

Clouds
    – You stay here in the shade all day, said the young girl, don’t you like going in the water?
    The man gave a vague nod that could have meant yes or no, but said nothing.
    – Can I use
tu
with you? asked the girl.
    – If I’m not mistaken, you just did, the man said, and smiled.
    – In my class we also use
tu
with adults, said the girl, some teachers allow it, but my parents won’t let me, they say it’s impolite, and
lei
, sir, what do you think?
    – I think they’re right, responded the man, but you can use
tu
with me, I won’t tell anybody.
    – Don’t you like going in the water? she asked. I think it’s special.
    – Special? the man repeated.
    – My teacher told us we can’t use awesome for everything, that sometimes we might say special, I was about to say awesome, for me going in the water at this beach is special.
    – Ah, said the man, I agree, it seems awesome to me too, even special.
    – Sunbathing’s awesome too, the young girl went on, in the first few days I had to use the SPF forty cream, then I went to twenty, and now I can use the golden bronzing cream, the one that makes your skin sparkle like it has little gold specks all over it, see? But, sir, why are you so white? You came here a week ago and you’re always under the beach umbrella, don’t you like the sun at all?
    – I think it’s awesome, said the man, I swear, to me sunbathing is awesome.
    – Are you afraid of getting sunburned, sir? asked the young girl.
    – And what do you think? answered the man.
    – I think you’re afraid of burning, sir, though if a person doesn’t start out slowly, he’ll