I didn’t say anything and the doctor signaled to the nurse, who stood up from the table. I also stood up. Before leaving me, the police officer asked if I would see about the funeral and I said yes. Then I followed the nurse into the corridor with the patients at the windows. At the end of the corridor was a staircase that led to a sun-drenched courtyard full of parked cars and we made our way through them with some difficulty until we came to the door of a low, ivy-covered building. Inside, it was cold, or so it seemed to me after crossing that sunny courtyard. The door led straight into a very large room. Sheets lay in the corners, heaped up any old way. There was a single table, right in the middle, with something on it wrapped in a sheet. I went closer. On the floor were dark patches of something I assumed was blood, which suggested they’d dragged Graziano in order to get him on the table.

Graziano was there, in the sheet. His face was uncovered, and also part of his chest, protruding in a ghastly way. All the parts of him that could be seen were swollen. For a moment it crossed my mind that this was all a mistake, that it wasn’t him, that he was on a cruise, as he was supposed to be. He was hard to recognize at first because they’d scraped back his hair, revealing his forehead, but then I recognized the curve of his nose and his thin, motionless lips, and then the two hunger scars on his stomach. I felt like crying, but I didn’t. I was aware of the nurse waiting at the door and would have liked to tell him to leave, but I didn’t feel like speaking. So I reached out a hand to the sheet and shifted Graziano’s legs. They were colder, under the sheet, than the air in the room. When I’d made enough space for myself, I sat down on the marble table.

“You can’t do that,” the nurse said. I looked at him. He was small and thin. He was about to say something, but then just raised his hand and went outside.

I was glad to be alone. The cold of the marble was pleasant, and I lit a cigarette, looking at Graziano.

“Who is it?” I said when I heard the door open again.