Free The Day I Killed My Father by Mario Sabino Page B

you still at the bureau?’
    â€˜I am, but I’m getting ready to open my own office. I’ve rented a place with a partner.’
    â€˜A partner. Right. What’s his name?’
    â€˜It doesn’t matter. You don’t know him.’
    â€˜Let’s see if I don’t know him … Is he …?’
    â€˜Coffee’s ready.’
    â€˜You cheated on me.’
    â€˜Antonym, please don’t make things any more difficult.’
    â€˜You cheated.’
    â€˜It’s a woman, Antonym.’
    â€˜What’s her name?’
    â€˜â€¦â€™
    â€˜It’s a guy. You’re a terrible liar.’
    â€˜Get a detective to follow me. Aren’t you going to drink your coffee?’
    â€˜I’ve got plans, too, you know.’
    â€˜Great.’
    â€˜Hemistich wants me to go into business with him.’
    â€˜To be a partner in that restaurant of his?’
    â€˜I’m not exactly sure. To be honest, he only said he wants me to work with him. We’re going to discuss it a little further down the track.’
    â€˜I went to Hemistich’s restaurant a while back. I didn’t think it was anything special.’
    â€˜That’s because you didn’t go to what he calls a “closed-door event”.’
    â€˜What’s a closed-door event?’
    â€˜A special dinner he throws once a week. I’m always invited.’
    â€˜Is the food any different?’
    â€˜The food, the drinks, the people; everything is different from normal. These events are a real epiphany. I’m completely hooked now. When I’m there I have really intense, incredible feelings. I think I even have visions.’
    â€˜Visions? And here I was, thinking you’d stop at paranoia … You thought I wanted to kill you, remember? By pouring lead into your ear while you were asleep.’
    â€˜That was just a fantasy, Bernadette, which I never should have mentioned. But these visions … Those paintings of fauns and nymphs that come to life and skip down from the walls.’
    â€˜I didn’t see any paintings of fauns or nymphs on the walls.’
    â€˜That decor’s only used for special events; it’s the same with the bullfights in the bar and the biblical quote at the door. Hemistich has spent a fortune installing moveable panels and walls and other contraptions. Curious, isn’t it?’
    â€˜Indeed. It sounds like the normal restaurant’s just a façade for these events.’
    â€˜Doesn’t it?’
    â€˜â€¦â€™
    â€˜â€¦â€™
    â€˜Your coffee’s waiting. One-and-a-half spoonfuls of sugar — is that still right?’
    â€˜Yes. Bernadette, do you … No, forget it …’
    â€˜What?’
    â€˜Bernadette, you believe in God. Do you think Evil is an integral part of His nature?’
    â€˜What?’
    â€˜Just answer …’
    â€˜It’s strange you should ask me that.’
    â€˜Why?’
    â€˜You, who’s always said religion should be classed as fantasy fiction.’
    â€˜That’s actually an adaptation. Someone once said that metaphysics should be considered fantasy fiction.’
    â€˜Have you become religious?’
    â€˜Let’s just say I’m tinkering with the subject. Come on, answer my question.’
    â€˜Isn’t it God’s will that even the innocent — including children — suffer in order to fulfil his plan?’
    â€˜Ivan Karamazov.’
    â€˜Yes. That’s about as far as I can get.’
    â€˜Some scholars say Dostoyevsky meant that God exists because evil and pain exist. If the world were good, in essence, God wouldn’t be necessary. From this point of view, therefore, I think one can say that Evil is an integral part not only of the divine plan, but also of His nature; God’s nature.’
    â€˜You needn’t have asked me anything.’
    â€˜The day I was fired from the paper, I remembered