Piranesi(52)

I lowered Myself from the Giant’s Torso and dropped down. The Waters reached as high as my thighs. I waded to the Third Northern Hall and climbed up the Statues to the places where I keep my belongings. Everything was wet from the Spray, but nothing was drenched. I retrieved my fishing nets, a bottle of Fresh Water and some dried seaweed. (It is important to keep the body hydrated and nourished.)

I returned to the First Western Hall. The Waters had already dropped some more and only came up as high as my knees. I climbed back up the Horned Giant. I gave Raphael some water and made her eat a little of the dried seaweed (though I do not think she liked it). Then I tied my fishing nets together and fastened them to one of the Giant’s Arms. They hung down to a point about half a metre above the Pavement. I showed Raphael how to use the fishing nets to climb down.

We waded to the First Vestibule and ascended the Great Staircase so that we were out of the reach of the Waters. We sat down. Our clothes were plastered to our bodies with wet. My hair – which is dark and curly – was as full of droplets as a Cloud. I rained every time I moved.

The birds found us there. Many different kinds – herring gulls, rooks, blackbirds and sparrows – gathered on the Statues and Banisters and chattered at me in their different voices.

‘It’ll be gone soon,’ I told them. ‘Don’t worry.’

‘What?’ asked Raphael, startled. ‘I don’t understand.’

‘I was talking to the birds,’ I said. ‘They’re alarmed by the great quantities of Water that are everywhere. I’m telling them that it’ll soon be gone.’

‘Oh!’ She said. ‘Do you … Do you do talk to the birds often?’

‘Yes,’ I said. ‘But there’s no need to look surprised. You talked to the birds yourself. In the Sixth North-Western Hall. I heard you.’

She looked even more surprised at that. ‘What did I say?’ she asked.

‘You told them to piss off. You were writing a message to me and they were being a nuisance, flying in your face and over your writing, trying to find out what you were doing.’

She thought a moment. ‘Was that the message that you wiped out?’ she asked.

‘Yes.’

‘Why did you do that?’

‘Because the Oth … Because Dr Ketterley told me you were my enemy and that reading what you had written would make me go mad. So I erased the message. But at the same time, I wanted to read it, so I didn’t erase all of it. I wasn’t being very logical.’

‘He made things very hard for you.’

‘Yes. I suppose he did.’

There was a silence.

‘We’re both soaking wet and cold,’ said Raphael. ‘Perhaps we should go?’

‘Go where?’ I said.

‘Home,’ said Raphael. ‘I mean we can go to my house and get dry. And then I can take you home.’

‘I am home,’ I said.

Raphael looked around at the sombre grey Waters lapping the Walls and the dripping Statues. She didn’t say anything.

‘It’s usually a lot drier than this,’ I said quickly in case she was thinking that my Home was inhospitable and damp.

But that wasn’t what she was thinking.

‘There’s something I have to tell you,’ she said. ‘I don’t know if you remember this, but you have a mum and a dad. And two sisters. And friends.’ She gazed at me intently. ‘Do you remember?’

I shook my head.

‘They’ve been looking for you,’ she said. ‘But they didn’t know the right place to look. They’ve been worried about you. They’ve been …’ She looked away again to find the right words to express her thought. ‘They’ve felt pain because they didn’t know where you were,’ she said.

I considered this. ‘I’m sorry that Matthew Rose Sorensen’s mum and dad and sisters and friends feel pain,’ I said. ‘But I don’t really see what it has to do with me.’

‘You don’t think of yourself as Matthew Rose Sorensen?’

‘No,’ I said.

‘But you have his face,’ she said.

‘Yes.’

‘And his hands.’

‘Yes.’

‘And his feet and his body.’

‘All that is true. But I haven’t got his mind and I haven’t got his memories. I don’t mean that he’s not here. He is here.’ I touched my breast. ‘But I think he’s asleep. He’s fine. You mustn’t worry about him.’

She nodded. She was not a contentious person as the Other had been; she did not argue and contradict everything I said. I liked that about her. ‘Who are you?’ she asked. ‘If you’re not him.’

‘I am the Beloved Child of the House,’ I said.

‘The house? What is the house?’

Such a strange question! I spread my arms to indicate the First Vestibule, the Halls beyond the First Vestibule, Everything. ‘This is the House. Look!’

‘Oh. I see.’

We were silent a moment.

Then Raphael said, ‘I need to ask you something. Would you be prepared to come with me to Matthew Rose Sorensen’s parents and sisters – to let them see his face again? It would help them a lot to know he is alive. Even if you had to go away again – I mean even if you had to return here, it would help them. What do you think about that?’