“From the last of the Mohicans?” I said.

“Yes, from the last and most fucked-up of the Mohicans. When are we making our movie?”

“Tomorrow,” I said. “Let’s start tomorrow. This time for real, but right now let me take you home.”

“Home? I’m not going home,” he said, raising a finger. I told him he could come to my place if he wanted and he looked at me genuinely touched. “What would I do without you?” I tried to help him up, but he wouldn’t let me. “Impossible,” he said. “Why don’t you sit down instead? I have some things to tell you. The time has come for you to know, my boy … Have you ever watched butterflies in the spring? Well, with children, it’s different … No, that wasn’t what I wanted to tell you. For some time now, I’ve been thinking I have some things to tell you. What were they?… Oh, yes, I had a declaration to make to you. Leo, you’re a great guy. Don’t say ‘no,’ let me speak. You’re a great guy because you have to be a great guy to quit drinking. How’s it done?”

“Try to pray,” I said.

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

“All right, now let’s get out of here.”

“I told you no. I told you I have a declaration to make to you first. Then we’ll go to your place. Or wherever you like. You’re a great guy, but I already told you that. You’re a cat. You keep to yourself and you could care less about this dirty, low-down, fucked-up world. You don’t need a rich wife. No kidding, I admire you a lot. If I were a fag, I’d fall in love with you. Wouldn’t we make a lovely couple?” he said as I put his shoes on him. “It’s the Appendage that bothers me, the Inert Appendage, the Irreversible Pendulum. Am I turning gay? Sometimes I think I am and I’m scared of turning gay. Why don’t you turn gay too? You can do it for a friend. What do you have to lose? We’ll turn gay and then at least we’ll be something. This way, what are we now? We’re nothing, not even fags.”

“We’ll take our time and think it over,” I said, “tomorrow,” meanwhile cursing myself for having left the car so far away. I knew I wouldn’t manage to get him all the way to the parking lot, so I got him to sit down on the sidewalk at the far end of the square, repeating to myself that he wouldn’t move. Then I ran to fetch the old Alfa Romeo.