"Mama, when you go back, where will you live?" "When you go back to Cape Verde, where will you live?" "I'll build myself a home." " Close to your mama's?" " Right on top of hers." "Her house only has one storey?" "You would raise a storey?" " Is that it?" " I guess so." " Is there space for a garden?" " A garden?" "Not even for a decent house, never mind a garden!" " But is there no yard?" " The house was built on the yard." "And papa's old house?" "Forget papa's house." "It's a wreck." "It's up on the hill in Mourão." "There's no-one there." "It's no use." " Is it abandoned?" " Abandoned." "A hangout for rats and lizards." " Then I could have it." " What for?" "To be there on your own?" "I'd live there." "Do it up." "And papa's folks?" "Your uncle Santo's the only one left." "He's in Milho Branco." " In grandma's house?" " You should see the garden he has." " Manioc, potatoes, the lot..." " What about our house?" " I told you, it's abandoned." " Is it really yours?" " No-one else has lived there." " How come?" "Everyone is gone." " Then let's go there." " Who, me?" "Out in the sticks with no water, no light, no nothing?" "Here I have water, light, and all I need!" " Maybe I could live there." " No way!" "All alone with an oil lamp?" "No lamp could lighten that darkness." "That's why everyone left." "It's no life." " But our house is still there?" " Course it is!" "It's big." "Three bedrooms." "A large living room." "Looking onto a nice avenue." "A marble floor." "All fixed up." "My old place!" "I miss you!" "I spent loads of money on it." " And can we not sell it?" " Who would buy it?" "They've all fled and won't be going back!" "Maybe some poor bastard who's sent back there..." "Whoever's sent back will find nothing but misery." " What's it called again?" " Mourão." "It's in Montinho." "Montinho or Montijo?" "Montinho, Achada Ungueira, Raçatchó," "Montinho de Cima, Montinho de Baixo," "Milho Branco." "Papa's house was here, grandma's was here, right?" "Together?" "All this talk is making me want to go back." "Rest these bones..." "Mama, is it far from Santana?" "A friend of mine is in Santana." "Santana is over by Assomada." "He's in Cape Verde?" "He was sent back." "He was in prison." "Now they've sent him back." "Must be hard for him..." "Listen to her, answering all Cape Verde..." "It makes me all warm thinking about it." "What about that guy who sends people to meet their maker?" "He only kills grown-ups." "He slips them a letter without them noticing." "He slips it into their pocket?" "He hides it on their motorbike, in their car." "No-one notices." "Then he appears and asks for what they were given for him." "He says, "Search your pockets."" "The person finds the paper and he says, "Come with me."" "And they go with him." "Then he bores a hole in their head, sucks their blood and goes on his way." "Holy shit." "He doesn't eat them." "Just sucks their blood and goes." "He takes the people to..." "To the bush, to the wilds..." " So, he's a bit of a devil?" " He's terror in person!" " We must follow him?" " Yes!" "When he says, "Come with me!", he has taken hold of their spirit." "They're at his mercy." "All they can do is go with him." "To their sad fate." "Then he's off again." "They say he approaches children, "Take this letter to such-and-such."" "He doesn't go near children." "But a kid might take the letter to those who are going to die." "Like when a person goes shopping..." " And he's in the cafe?" " Yes, in the grocery store." "The person is in the shop." "He weighs the sugar or the rice and wraps the sugar or the rice in the paper." "It's his wicked ways." "Or you're walking along and meet the man." ""Give me what they gave you for me."" ""I haven't got anything." "You have it right there."" "And if you don't give it to him?" "He shows you it and then kills you." " I would pretend..." " It's no use." "You're already a goner!" "I would fool him..." "You're already a goner." "Once, a woman asked a boy to do some errands for her." "The poor boy went into town, did the shopping for her." "He came out of the shop." "And there he was." "The man said to him," ""Take out of your bundle what was given to you for me."" "The boy took out the paper and gave it to him." "The woman was never seen again." "And the boy went after the man." "He was found three days later, down by the sea, behind some rocks." "His head was split open." "Dead." "But he came back to say he was given the thing that kills." ""That night I went up the hill, I fell and died." ""But it was he who killed me."" "My condolences, José Alberto." "Is he drunk or what?" "Life nowadays is a funny thing!" "I went working abroad" "The boss gave me the sack" "My wife went and left me" "With but the shirt on my back" "He'll never catch a rabbit like that!" "Your father was a good bricklayer." "He was a good friend." "My father never gave me a thing." "Not even a pair of underpants." "At the weekend he would take all my brothers out and leave me behind." "When he died I was doing time, open system." "They called me to say he had died." "They gave me leave, so I could go to the cemetery." "I saw those men who bury people, the gravediggers," "I took a shovel and buried my father." "You had a fall far from here." "It was Friday." "I was all confused." "I wandered through all that wasteland." "I didn't know where I'd landed." "I didn't know anybody, nobody knew me." "I wandered around for hours." "Night fell." "I found a restaurant and went in to eat." "I ordered soup, food, wine." "They brought it." "I 3128, then stayed there for a while, chatting to the people." "Then I got up and left." "The man came after me," ""You eat, drink, and then leave without a word?"" "He called the police." "The police grabbed me." "They took me away to the station..." "I don't know what they did with me." "They left me lying by the train station, on the wasteland there." "Nobody knew me and I knew nobody." " So, they killed you?" " I don't know about that!" "Look, Ventura, a rabbit!" "That's a female." "Néné used to cook good rabbit for me, with potatoes." " Real rabbit?" " You bet!" "With bay leaf and white wine." "Néné is dead too." "He died young." "Forty-something, wasn't he?" "A bit older, I think." "They didn't bury you with your gold tooth." "They must have used it to pay for the funeral." "Your face was all smashed up." "When I first came here there were no houses." "Those buildings over there?" "At the time you couldn't come here at night." " They would beat you?" " Beat you, kill you!" "Whites or blacks?" "The white guys were doing it." "HOME OFFICE IMMIGRATION OFFICE" "José Alberto Tavares Silva, born 17/08/1976, a Cape Verdean national resident at Rua de Fontaínhas, no. 49 is hereby summoned to present himself for the purpose of a hearing with respect to the Expulsion Order against him." "The citizen has taken knowledge of the contents hereof, which were read to him in Portuguese, and which he has signed in the presence of witnesses." "Lisbon, 10 January 2007" "Thank You"