" Who is it?" " Good evening." "I am the foreman of Quinta das Portas." "And what do you want?" "The lady of Quinta das Portas asked me to bring a photographer urgently." "At this hour?" "Yes, it's for now." "But... at this hour?" "Yes, it's for now." "The photographer is my husband, but he is out." "He's out?" "So I have to wait until he comes back, madam." "How come?" "He went to Porto and he'll be back only the day after tomorrow." "And couldn't you find me another photographer?" "Well, I don't know any other in the area." "Excuse me sir, I know a fellow that works in photography." "Oh, that is just in time." "Who is he?" "I think... well, he came from the lands of oil." "He is a Sephardic immigrant." " What is that?" " It's a portuguese jew." "He is still young and not here for long." "He works a lot, always taking pictures." "If you want I'll take you there." "That would be wonderful." "If you please." "Dance, oh stars!" "You that follow fixed vertiginous mathematical coordinates." "Go delirious!" "And run for a brief moment away from the trajectory that carries you handcuffed." "It's an angel." "Time, halt!" "And you, yesterday creations wandering in royal celestial roads." "Angles, open for me the doors of heaven, that in me night is day and God is in me." "Mr. Isaac, Mr Isaac!" "What's happening, Miss Justina?" "There is a man downstairs waiting for long." "And what does he want?" "He brings you a message from an important lady." "You have to make a portrait of her daughter." "Over there, in Quinta das Portas." " In Quinta das Portas?" " Yes, it's not too far." " Right now?" " Immediately." " Immediately?" " Yes." "They're in a hurry." "Oh, madam..." "You do as you wish, Mr. Isaac." "But don't forget it is the house of a very important lady." "Very important indeed." "I tell you, Mr Isaac." "All right, all right." "Tell him I'm coming." "I hurry." "You're the photographer, aren't you?" "Please come with me." "It's Angelica, you know." "It's Angelica." "A tragedy!" "We just finished dressing her." "She looked so beautiful... the poor little!" "Mother would like to keep one last memory, even if so sad." "You know, Angelica is my sister." "So sad..." "Poor Angelica!" "And us..." "Please come in." "It's my brother Ant—nio." "His wife is with the ladies, beside Angelica." "His daughters are already sleeping." "My sincere condolences." "A fatality!" "So young... so recently married." "The husband is inconsolable." "Angelica is in the living room, at the bottom." "Come." "It's the poor husband." " Photographer, what is your name?" " Isaac." " Isaac?" " Yes, nun, Isaac." "My name is Maria das Dores." "I am the sister of the deceased Angelica and a devout christian." "One realizes you're a nun for the habit." "I personally have nothing against it." "Good." "I feel more comforted then." "Now, the photos..." "There's my sister." "Besides her, our mother, taking care of her." "This lady is our mother." "My condolences." "Thank you." "Angelica, my dear child." "Come." "From this side." "It would be better from this side." "Look, it seems just fine from here." "But I leave the choice up to your artistic ability." " Did you already take the photo?" " No, I'll need a more powerful lamp." "I'll order someone to get it." "We need a stronger lamp." "Could you please get it?" "Better if you sit for awhile." "How beautiful and peacefully!" "Don't you think?" "Yes, she doesn't even seem dead." "Don't you think, photographer?" " Is it all right now?" " Yes, now it's better." "Did you take the photograph?" "So..." "Yes or no?" "Yes." "I mean... no." "I mean, not yet." "I am looking for a better angle." "All right, we'll wait then." "Come in, please." "Binoculars?" "!" "I was observing the men plowing." "Oh my God, Mr. Isaac!" "Tired as you've been..." "You didn't even go to the dinning room!" "And there you are, looking through binoculars to such an old-fashioned work!" "Nowadays, just very few farms employ it." "That's precisely why it interests me!" "But, Mr. Isaac, this work is seldom done around here, now everything is done with the machines!" "And it's this kind of old-fashioned work that I like." "I'm going there right now." "To photograph that?" "To photograph that, Miss Justina." "Well, go if you want." "But first have your breakfast, made with much affection." "I even brought you a flower." "I have to go before they finish." "Go then." "May God be with you!" "And I go on with my affairs." "Hey, mister, mister!" "Be so kind to give a coin to this poor wretched man." "May Virgin Mary keep you in her glory!" "So beautiful!" "So beautiful she is!" "True." "And also a beautiful dress." "A wedding dress." "Happily smiling, as if about to get married." "She seems an angle of heaven." "We celebrate this mess for our sister Angelica." "Anything to this poor wretched man?" "You again?" "I gave you a coin just a little ago." "May God protect you for your compassion." "Time, halt!" "And you, yesterday creations wandering in royal celestial roads." "Angles, open for me the doors of heaven, that in me night is day... and God is in me." "Oh, it's you." "I brought the photo proofs, as the lady told they were urgent." "Wait..." "Very well, they've been delivered." "Angelica!" "Angelica!" "Was... this strange reality... an hallucination?" "But so alike this present moment." "Might it be an entrance to the space of the absolute, as I often heard?" "And which dissolves itself... like cigarette smoke." "Yes... because this enchantment wipes every anguish I have." "Might it be madness?" "God!" "Why all this?" "He is not well at all, and works to much, I say." "Who are you referring to, madam?" "Your guest, Mr. Isaac?" "Yes of course, there's no one else." "Not in this pension, but outside there are others." "You're right, you're right." "But don't you thing this gentleman is behaving strangely?" "He always seemed to me a very private person, a bit self-absorbed." "Or at least that's what he has become." "That's right." "Many times I told him not to waste time taking photos of that people." "Do you mean the diggers?" " Sure." " And why?" "Because these old-fashioned vineyards are very rare, nowadays everything is done with machines." "But he didn't listen to me." "Do you know what he told me?" ""It's the old-fashion way that interests me!"" "And then he left!" "And I was not told what exactly interests him." "He has become very strange." "I know, yesterday I saw the photos hanging in his room." "Holy God!" "Horrible diggers together with the portraits of the dead girl." "Poor thing!" "Girl, madam?" "She was married and people say she was pregnant even." "We should pity her husband though." "I don't know that people." "But, Mr. Isaac... is becoming enigmatic." "That's right." "Going around taking pictures everywhere, like a madman." "Like a madman, well said." "One cannot understand the sudden change of behavior of this gentleman after having photographed that lady." "The deceased." "It's true." "And what has happened there?" "No one knows, too." "When cleaning his room yesterday" "I was astonished with the photos hanging." "Holy God!" "Side by side with the ones from the deceased girl." "Who was a beautiful lady, by the way." "And how were the photos?" "They were threatening!" "My God, a digger holding his hoe high up." "Terrible, Dr. Matias." "Terrible!" "That only shows the despair." "My despair?" "!" "Not yours, Miss Justina." "Mr. Isaac's." "Despaired?" "Why?" "I don't know." "Everyone mind his own business." "And he doesn't confide." "True." "The very truth is that no one knows about his past." "And what's the importance of that?" "Ortega y Gassett said it:" ""man and his circumstances"." "What are you referring to, Dr. Matias?" "To what is happing here now... and to what has happened to him there." "Oh, my Goodness!" "Heavens!" "Poor Mr. Isaac." "Poor him?" "Poor all of us!" "He said it very well, Ortega y Gassett:" ""man and his circumstances."" "I see that you are a bit dispirited today, engineer." "I am, my dear Matias, and I have a good reason." "You don't say!" " Guess what just happened to me?" " Tell us." "I and a famous colleague of mine from Brazil were invited to give our expertise concerning a new long bridge over Tejo." "And why did they call both of you?" "I believe it was in order to have a safer, more prudent opinion, and that's why they called the reputed brazilian." "She is a prestigious engineer." "And it was not approved?" "It didn't happen, even though it was approved." "That's great!" " But what happened then?" " Yes, it would be great, but..." " But what happened?" " The project was cancelled." "Cancelled?" "Why?" "Because of the current economic crisis, the difficulty in obtaining the required capital for building it." "And there were even people talking about the floods, which have now become so frequent." "That they might be an hindrance, or even stop the works." "Ah, I'm glad you came." "I was about to bring you breakfast like the other day." "I thank you for your care, madam." "But I didn't want you to bother with me." "Please take your sit." "I'll serve you in an minute..." " Good morning to all." " Good morning." " Here's your breakfast." " Thank you very much, madam." "Oh, Mrs. Clementina!" "We were supposed to meet at your hotel." "I know, I know." "But I wanted to meet Dr. Matias on site, the same way, engineer, you have introduced me the slopes... of this beautiful region." "I wanted to come here, I even knocked at the wrong door before arriving." "Finally, here I am!" "Miss Justina, I'd like to introduce you Mrs. Clementina." "An engineer as myself, but prestigious." "The person we were talking about just now." "Miss Justina is the owner of this pension." "Very nice to meet you, madam." "Very nice to meet you too." "Please, madam, have a sit next to the gentlemen and eat with us." " Thank you very much, I already ate." "But I accept a coffee." "I have the pleasure to introduce you to my dear friend..." "Mrs. Clementina." "Miss Rosa." "Mr Isaac." "And my old friend Matias." "Nice to meet you, Miss Rosa, Mr. Isaac, and in particular Mr Matias, about whom I always... hear words of admiration." "I don't even have to say who speaks them!" "Our pleasure." "But, please sit here besides us." "Excuse me." "I anxiously expected to meet you, Dr Matias, right in your quarters." "Thank you." "I know that you also are concerned, madam, about the present problems of the world, which may even be the reason for your project to be cancelled." "All because of the economical crisis and the chaotic situation the world is facing." "Exactly." "And about that same economical crisis" "I recently had a special meeting with an old colleague of mine." "The truth is that people nowadays speak a lot about our difficult economical crisis, but more serious than that is the chaotic and pollutant threat around us." "There are already numerous studies and a lot of doubts about what the future holds, as for certain societies, as for certain countries." "It's curious what Rui Cardoso Martins tells us about the "seven mosquitos of the Apocalypse"." "In any case, he says the risk is not very big, because, as you know, we shouldn't separate these chaotic situations from the cosmic situations." "He speaks of the hypothesis." "Exactly." "He observes that in the highest layers of the atmosphere, of cosmic rays, collisions are produced which are millions of times more energetic than the LHC, and until now nothing has happened." "So what?" "According to him there was not enough anti-matter created." "A good day, everyone." "I must go." "Good day, Miss Rosa." "Back to the subject, he says that never was created anti-matter one could see with the eyes, and in principle it should be similar to matter." "The secret surrounding anti-matter is the fact that it is so unstable and therefor so rare in the universe." "Anti-matter does not eat matter!" "When a particle finds its correspondent anti-particle, they embrace... and melt into their most pure essence: energy." "Matter is nothing more than a kind of spirit." "Energy..." "Spirit..." "The most dangerous form it allows..." "Angelica!" "...is not seven archangels of the Apocalypse playing horns," "...but seven flying mosquitos." "If a 75 kg living being would enter a particle accelerator in its full power, what would happen?" "According to him, a burning on the belly." "Or a hole." "The energy of the proton is not very high, it corresponds to seven flying mosquitos, but the density is enormous!" "I believe no one thinks much about what would happen, but it wouldn"t be anything spectacular, anything like the special effects of Hollywood." "There are images of bright stars extinguished millions of years ago, coming to us." "But the first photos of the space, shot from Hubble, date approx. 500 million years after the Big Bang." "Right." "It is getting time for us to leave..." "Well, I'm ready." "You are very knowledgeable." "We just know what we know, madam." "What do you still have to learn?" "Much more than what we already know." "Go, may God be with you!" "I don't understand a thing of what you were talking about." "It is nothing that you'd miss at all, madam." "That gentleman is strange." "Very." "We all think the same." "Very nice to meet you, madam." "My pleasure, madam." "My little thing!" "Little thing of mine." "Little thing." "There you are, holding that coffee cup, Mr. Isaac... and you haven't yet eaten a thing, you have not even sat." "you work too much, and snore all night, I could not even sleep!" "Groans..." "Forgive me please but I have to tell you, Mr. Isaac, you can't go on with such excesses." "It ruins you, for God sake!" "Don't worry about me, madam." "I am fine this way." "I'm saying this as an advise, it's for your own sake." "Please take good care of yourself, I ask you." "And now I have to go." "This guest came up suddenly and without notice, but he never seemed to me a bad person." "He works too much and worries about something." " This boy worries me." " You're talking about Mr. Isaac, right?" "Yes, of course." " You worry about him, don't you, madam?" " And what's wrong with that?" "There you have him." "Good morning, ladies and gentlemen." "For the ladies, all right, but as you can see, the gentleman aren't here anymore.." "That's right, Mr. Isaac." "And I was about to bring your breakfast to the room." "Always bothering about me, madam." "Today was like this." "Take your seat and I will serve you in a minute." " Good morning, Miss Rose." " Good morning." "Today was like this." "I'll come back later to clean the table." "Mr. Isaac... they have come again from Quinta das Portas." "Who?" "That presumptuous maid?" "No, not her." "It's the foreman, asking you to go there because the ladies want to order the photographs before they leave." " I believe they go to Lisbon today." " I'll speak to him." "He is gone already." "He just left the message." "Then I'll go there." "Angelica's husband." "Ah!" "Isaac..." " Angelica..." " Angelica?" "Mrs. Angelica is dead." "I..." "I know." " I come because of Angelica's photos." " Finally!" "The ladies have waited you for long." "Come in and wait in this room." "You're very late, Mr. Isaac." "My life is a bit..." "is a bit...." "I've been absorbed, please forgive me." "Well, let's get to the point." "The photos of my dear child Angelica." "These are the ones we're interested in." "This one." "Here." "Where she seems to be smiling." "I want one of this in large format." "The others in small size for the family album." "Including that one where she seems to be smiling." " Did you hear what I said?" " Yes, I heard." "The one with the smile in large format, and the others for the family album, as you asked." "Exactly." "For this album." "Angelica was 3 here." "This one was taken by her brother, outside in the yard." "Children!" "Look at your state!" "Take your hand out of the mouth." "Take your hand out of the mouth!" "Come." "Come." "They are my granddaughters, of my Antonio." "We're going with him for some days to Lisbon." "Mother we have to go, it's a long trip." " I wish you ladies a good trip." " Thank you." "May God be with you." "Angelica!" "Angelica..." "Mr. Isaac!" " Oh, the photos." " You've left them on the table." "Right." " But it's not what I was looking for." " How come?" "It's the photos the lady has ordered!" "Yes, of course." "A dime..." "Angelica!" "Poor little thing!" "My poor little thing!" "No wonder, madam!" "You only gave it boiled egg." "It was too much." "What are you saying?" "It's witchcraft." "It's a curse that came in this house." "If you love the bird so much, why don't you embalm it?" "Good heavens!" "Poor little..." "Why not?" "Embalmed, you could keep him around." "That is true." "But to embalm the poor little thing..." "No, I can't do that." "Oh, my poor goldfinch." "Yesterday night, strange things happened." "Groans, and strange noises, that seemed to come from Mr. Isaac's room..." "I even thought he had dared to bring the minx to his room." "What minx?" "The maid from Quinta das Portas." "Impossible!" "I see in Mr. Isaac a respectful and serious man." "Without a doubt." "It's exactly what I think." "So do I, so do I." "But then these strange things..." "It seems witchcraft." "If I believed in witches, I'd say they were hanging out with him." "It's what Galicians say:" ""I don't believe in witches, but for sure they exist."" "I don't like this talk about witchcraft." "In the holy name of Jesus!" "What happened to the little bird?" "Oh, Mr. Isaac, he was found dead in the cage." "What have I done wrong?" "But what is this?" "He must be crazy, to run this way, for no reason." "Who knows why he runs..." "One sees such things here." "Oh, well..." "Call an ambulance!" "Calm down, calm down!" "Go ask for help!" "But why?" "Why have you brought him here and not to a hospital?" "Oh, poor Mr. Isaac... and poor me!" "But what were they thinking?" "Couldn't they see he had to be taken to the hospital instead?" "Calm down, madam." "We're here to help." "I know, doctor, I know." "Mr. Isaac was not well for long." "I knew it." "I sensed it." "I just didn't know exactly what." "But I sensed something, doctor." "Madam, we're here to take care of everything." "I'd ask you to leave now, madam, so I can work peacefully." "But I can help you, doctor!" "It's not necessary." "The nurse is arriving, she has the right credentials." "And you, madam, have certainly a lot more else to do." "Please, go." "And don't worry, we'll take care of everything." " Anything, call me, doctor." " All right, madam." "Here I am, doctor, sorry for being late." "Look!" "You're just in time to help me." "He came up and then fell here." "Help me to take him to bed." "Call Ms. Justina right now." "Is he dead?" "Yes, he's dead." "May God have him in his glory!"