A monk with a big purple cross on his chest came forward, moving between the sheets heaped up on the floor. “Come down off there, my son,” he said, putting a hand on my arm. His beard smelled of wax. Which floor is God on? I took my arm away from his hand. I kept my head down so as not to look him in the face, and the smoke from my cigarette got in my eyes. “Why don’t you try to pray?” the monk said.

“I don’t pray,” I said. “At most I say please.”

He stood there looking at me with his hands clasped over his belly, then he shook his head and walked out. In the silence, I heard a fly buzzing. It must have come in when the monk opened the door. It flew around a few times and came to rest on my hand. I brushed it away and it landed on Graziano’s chest. Again, I chased it away, but it came back immediately, landing on his lips this time. So I got down off the table, covered his face with the sheet, and left.

The old Alfa Romeo was scorching hot and I had to lean forward in my seat as I drove in order to avoid burning my back. At Graziano’s, the doorman was there. He was mortified. He couldn’t forgive himself for not going to see when he heard the noise. “I didn’t even know he was home,” he said. “I thought he’d left with the signora.” I had him give me the keys and went up to the second floor. I had to try the whole bunch before I found the right one. Inside, the only window now open in the apartment was the bedroom window. It looked out onto the courtyard and I didn’t go near it. I started searching everywhere until under the Ping-Pong table in the entranceway I found his notebook with the telephone numbers. I went through it without finding his father’s number, he probably knew it by heart or maybe he never phoned him. Instead, I found the numbers of a few people I also knew, most of them by sight, and those of a few mutual friends. Mine was there too. I called all of them on the phone in the living room, but not a single person was home. Then I put the notebook in my pocket and went to the newspaper.

“How come you’re so early?” Rosario said. “Did something happen?”

“No,” I said, “nothing.”