-18-
Bernini
They'll all tell you that, straight off and no question about it. We go right on in the lives of others and there's no end to it for sure.
On a late winter morning so brilliant it could only be found in Attica, the flat white sunlight hard on the glittering sea, a small dark man made his way slowly down a beach near Piraeus to the spot where a small dark boy stood scaling stones out over the water. About five yards away the man sat down on the sand and shaded his eyes.
Hello there.
Hello yourself.
Good day for that. The sea's just right
That's what it is.
What's your record then?
Nine so far but I'll get up to eleven or twelve, I always do. Say, what's that funny old uniform you're wearing?
Officer of light cavalry, acquired in the wars.
Must have been a long time ago to look that old and ragged and have so many patches on it.
It was. I was just thinking so myself as I was walking down the beach.
And the uniform doesn't even fit you. It's too big in the chest and you've had to roll up the sleeves.
I know it. Maybe I was bigger once.
You mean you've shrunk.
Well as a matter of fact it wouldn't surprise me at all to hear that I've shrunk or grown, one or the other perhaps, but both is far more likely. After all, genies do that so why shouldn't we? They go from being great huge giants striding across the earth from Timbuktu to the Hindu Kush, talking to everyone along the way more or less, to being so small and quiet they can spend seven full years in a tiny Sinai cave, speaking only once in all that time and then only to a mole. Sure, that's what they do.
The boy laughed. He scaled another stone out over the water and held his breath. He clapped his hands.
See that? Eleven, what'd I tell you.
A good one all right. You're getting there.
That's a funny accent you have. Is that from the wars too?
Sometimes I think it is, one war or another. Seems likely don't you know.
Do you always talk like that?
How?
Kind of around and around.
Don't know that I do, can't say that I don't. Must be that I circle things sometimes, because it's hard to get your hands on them. Tell me now, would you happen to be knowing the woman who lives in that small house up there on the edge of the beach? Maud's her name.
Of course I know her, she's my mum. You work in town with her or something?
No, I knew her a long time ago. In Jerusalem it was. Yes that's right, lad. I'm your father.
Bernini's hand held a scaling stone in the air. He smiled and there was nothing but joy in his face.
Are you really Father?
I am, lad. The very one.
Bernini shouted and laughed. He lunged toward Joe who swept him up in his arms and swung him around. They fell together on the sand, laughing and breathless.
I knew you'd be coming soon. I didn't say anything about it but I knew.
Of course you knew it, lad. What else would I be doing?
Were you famous in the wars? Is that where you've been?
Nothing of the sort. When I was fighting, back before I met your mother, nobody knew my name or even knew I had one. I wore a flat red hat then, and a green jacket, and shoes that had buckles on them, and I stayed up in the hills of southern Ireland with my old musketoon, talking to no man, hiding during the day and on the run through all the hours of darkness. And because of that, you see, they thought I was one of the little people when they chanced to catch the barest glimpse of me far far away in the distance at dusk or dawn, and because I was at least getting on toward being the size of a man, as I still am, they came to call me the biggest of the little people. The little people have no names, you see, and the farmers didn't know who it was up there in those hills who was helping them out by arching bullets into the air from a great distance, in the manner of a howitzer, so that the bullets came down to strike the enemy from above, thereby putting the very fear of heaven in the hearts of the enemy, maybe even the fear of God if they believed in one. No, the farmers didn't know who it was, but they certainly liked what that unseen presence was doing, so they paid me a great compliment and called me that.
But who are the little people really, Father? Are they elves?
Well they wouldn't take kindly to being called merely that, because they're so much finer and grander and cleverer than any elf could ever be. Who are they then? They're wondrous beings and spirits with the most mysterious of manners. And besides that, behind and beneath it all, they really run the land and the country.
Any country?
Joe looked thoughtful.
I'm not so sure about that. I wouldn't say all that much, I don't believe. But they do run the land and the country where your forebears on my side came from. Secretly of course. I don't have to tell you that.
Why secretly?
Because that's the way of the world, lad. Isn't it always so?
I don't know. I thought kings and parliaments and presidents ran countries.
So it seems from afar, but that's only for the sake of appearances, only on the surface of things. In actual fact the little people are in charge, always have been and always will be. But you don't ever see them, so much as experience them. When you're out in the woods you hear them whispering and dancing and playing their games, but you daren't go investigate the event right then, because they wouldn't like it. They don't take kindly to people peeking in on their revels and games, that just won't do. So you tiptoe away and come back the next day to have a look around in that glen or dell, and one glance is enough, one glance tells all, you know immediately they've been there. You can see that all right, but of course you haven't seen them. And so it goes, and that's the way it always goes. Never in your whole life do you actually see them, but that doesn't mean they're not always out there, just out of sight, whispering and humming and singing and carrying on in general, playing away and mischievously passing the ages the way their kind does, feasting and dancing and holding their hurling matches brazenly on the strand, at night of course, in the soft moonlight, when you're at home in bed falling asleep and can't catch them at it. And they're not alone out there. There are pookas and banshees and the whole lot of them, all of them passing the ages in the ways that amuse them. But tell me something frankly, lad. Before I ever mentioned them, didn't you already know about them?
Bernini smiled.
Why do you say that?
Just wondering, just guessing. Well?
I've never told anyone, whispered Bernini seriously.
Of course you haven't
It was a secret.
And it's a good one. Well?
Bernini nodded. He smiled.
You're right, I did know they were there. I didn't know that's what they were called, and I didn't know what they wore, but I knew about them.
Well it's a pretty outfit, isn't it. Just right for ones so fine and grand and clever, so mysteriously watching over us in their pursuits. Although it's also true the ones you know may wear quite a different costume.
There's no limit, of course, to how they can carry on.
Bernini was smiling rapturously now.
Will you tell me all about them, Father? About the games they play and the dancing and the singing and all of it?
I will, lad. From beginning to end we'll discuss their sly mischievous ways, always off where they can't be seen having their fun and winking at the sky as they tip their heads so gaily and set their feet to flying in a whirling whirligig so fine, so grand, the very sunshine itself flutters and laughs.
Bernini clapped his hands.