Full transcript
0:00the night school by Thomas lagari
0:06instructor car Niro was holding class
0:09once again I discovered this fact on my
0:12return from a movie theater it was late
0:15and I thought why not take a shortcut
0:17across the grounds of the school this
0:20thought led to a whole train of thoughts
0:22that I often pondered especially when I
0:24was out walking at night mainly these
0:26thoughts were about my desire to know
0:28something that I was sure was real about
0:31my existence something that could help
0:33me in my existence before it was my time
0:35to die and be put into the earth to rot
0:38or perhaps have my cremated remains
0:40drift out a chimney stack and Sully the
0:42sky
0:43of course this desire was by no means
0:47unique to me nonetheless I had spent
0:49quite a few years my whole life that
0:51seemed seeking to satisfy it in various
0:54ways most recently I had sought some
0:57kind of satisfaction by attending the
1:00classes of instructor Cornero though I
1:03had not attended his classes for very
1:04long he seemed to be someone who could
1:06reveal what was at the bottom of things
1:09lost in my thoughts then I left the
1:12street I was walking along and proceeded
1:14across the grounds of the school which
1:16were vast and dark it was quite cold
1:18that night and when I looked down the
1:20front of my overcoat I saw that the
1:22single remaining button holding it
1:24together had become loose and possibly
1:26would not last much longer so a short
1:29cut on my return from that movie theater
1:31appeared to be the wise move I entered
1:35the school grounds as if they were only
1:36a great park located in the midst of
1:38surrounding streets the trees were set
1:41closed and from the perimeter of that
1:43parcel of land I could not see the
1:44school hidden within them look up here I
1:48thought I heard someone say to me when I
1:51did look up I saw that the branches
1:53overhead were without leaves and through
1:55their intertwining mesh the sky was
1:57fully visible how bright and dark it was
2:00at the same time bright with a high full
2:03moon shining among the spreading clouds
2:05and dark with the shadows mingling
2:07within those clouds a slowly flowing
2:10mass of mottled shapes a kind of unclean
2:13out poor
2:14from the black sewers of space I noticed
2:17that in one place these clouds were
2:19leaking down into the trees trickling in
2:21a narrow rivulet across the wall of the
2:23night but it was really smoke dense and
2:27dirty rising up to the sky a short
2:30distance ahead and well into the thickly
2:32wooded grounds of the school I saw the
2:34flames of a small fire among the
2:36trees by the smell I guessed that
2:39someone was burning refuse then I could
2:42see the misshapen metal drums spewing
2:44smoke and the figures standing behind
2:46the firelight became visible to me as I
2:48was to them classes resumed one of them
2:53called out he's come back after all I
2:56knew these others were from the school
2:58but their faces would not hold steady in
3:00the flickering light of the fire that
3:02warmed them they seem to be smudged by
3:04the smoke greased by the odorous garbage
3:07burning in that dark metal drum its
3:09outer surface almost glowing from the
3:10heat and flaking off in places look
3:14there said another member of the group
3:15pointing deeper into the school grounds
3:18the massive outline of a building
3:20occupied the distance a few of its
3:22windows sending a dim light through the
3:24trees from the roof of the building a
3:26number of smokestacks stood out against
3:29the pale sky a wind rose up it drones
3:33noisily around us and breathed the
3:35crackling life into the fire and the
3:37decayed metal drum I tried to shout
3:39above the confusion of sounds was there
3:42an assignment I cried out but they
3:45appeared not to hear me or perhaps were
3:47ignoring my words when I repeated the
3:50question they briefly glanced my way as
3:52if I had said something improper I left
3:55them hunched around the fire assuming
3:57they would be along the wind died and I
4:00could hear someone say the word maniac
4:02which was not spoken I realised either
4:05to me or about me instructor Kearney
4:09arrow in his person was rather vague to
4:11my mind I had not been in his class very
4:14long before some disease a terribly
4:16serious affliction one of my fellow
4:18students hinted had caused his absence
4:21so what remained for me was no more than
4:24the image of a slender gentleman in a
4:25dark suit a gentleman with a dark
4:27his complexion and a voice thick with a
4:30foreign accent
4:31he's a Portuguese someone told me but
4:34he's lived almost everywhere and I
4:37recalled a particular phrase of her
4:39proof he used to single out those of us
4:41who had not been attending to the
4:42diagrams he was incessantly creating on
4:45the blackboard look up here he would say
4:48if you do not look you will learn
4:50nothing you will be nothing a few
4:54members of the class never needed to be
4:55called to attention in this manner a
4:57certain small group who had been
4:59longtime students of the instructor and
5:01without distractions scrutinized the
5:03unceasing series of diagrams he would
5:05design upon the blackboard and then
5:07erase only to construct again with
5:09slight variation a moment later although
5:14I cannot claim that these often complex
5:16diagrams were not directly related to
5:18our studies there were always extraneous
5:21elements within them which I never
5:22bothered to transcribe into my own notes
5:24for the class they were a strange array
5:27of abstract symbols frequently geometric
5:30figures altered in some way various
5:33polygons with asymmetrical sides
5:35trapezoids whose sides did not meet semi
5:38circles with double or triple slashes
5:40across them and many other examples of a
5:42deformed or corrupted scientific
5:44notation these signs appeared to be
5:47primitive in essence more relevant to
5:50magic than mathematics the instructor
5:53marked them in an extremely rapid hand
5:54upon the blackboard as if they were the
5:56words of his natural language in most
6:00cases they formed a border around a
6:02familiar diagram allied to chemistry or
6:04physics enclosing it and sometimes it
6:06seemed transforming its sense once a
6:10student questioned him regarding what
6:11seemed his apparently superfluous
6:13embellishment of these diagrams
6:15why did instructor Carr narrow subject
6:17us to these bewildering symbols because
6:21he answered a true instructor must share
6:23everything no matter how terrible or
6:25lurid it might be as I proceeded across
6:29the grounds of the school I noticed
6:31certain changes in my surroundings the
6:34trees nearer to the school looked
6:35different from those in the encompassing
6:37area they were so much thinner emaciated
6:40and twisted like broken
6:41bones that had never healed properly and
6:44their bark seemed to be peeling away in
6:46soft layers because it was not only
6:48fallen leaves I trudged through on my
6:50way to the school building but also
6:52something like dark rags strips of
6:54decomposed material even the clouds upon
6:58which the moon cast its glow were thin
6:59or rotted unraveled by some process of
7:02degeneration in the highest atmosphere
7:04of the school grounds there was also a
7:07scent of corruption an enchanting
7:09fragrance really like the multi rod of
7:11autumn or early spring that I thought
7:14was emerging from the earth as I
7:15disturbed the strange litter strewn over
7:17it this odor became more pungent as I
7:20approached the yellowish light of the
7:22school and strongest as I finally
7:24reached the old building itself it was a
7:28four-story structure of dark scabby
7:30bricks that had been patched together in
7:32another era a time so different that it
7:34might be imagined as belonging to an
7:36entirely alien history one composed
7:39solely of Knights well-advanced and
7:41After Hours history how difficult it was
7:45to think of this place as if it had been
7:46constructed in the usual manner far
7:49easier to credit some fantastic legend
7:51that it had been erected by a consort of
7:53demons during the perpetual night of its
7:55past and that its materials were
7:58pilfered from other architectures all of
8:00them defunct ruined factories ravaged
8:03mausoleums abandoned orphanages
8:05Penitentiary's long out of use the
8:08school was indeed a kind of freakish
8:10growth in a dumping ground a blossom of
8:13the cemetery or the cesspool here it was
8:16that instructor Cornero who had been
8:18everywhere held his class on the lower
8:23floors of the building a number of
8:24lights were in use week as guttering
8:26candles the highest story was blacked
8:28out and many of its windows were broken
8:31nevertheless there was sufficient light
8:33to guide me into the school even if the
8:36main hallway could hardly be seen to its
8:37end and its walls appeared to be tarred
8:40over with something which exude the same
8:42smell that filled the night outside the
8:44school without touching these walls I
8:47used them to navigate my way into the
8:49school following several of the greater
8:51and lesser hallways that burrowed
8:53throughout the building
8:55room after room past on either side of
8:57me their doorways filled with darkness
8:59or sealed by wide wooden doors whose
9:02coarse surfaces were popped and peeling
9:04eventually I found a classroom where a
9:06light was on though it was no brighter
9:09than the swarthy illumination of the
9:10hallway when I entered the room I saw
9:14that only some of the lamps were
9:15functioning leaving certain areas in
9:18darkness while others were smeared with
9:19the kind of greasy glow Buch Euler two
9:21old paintings in oil a few students were
9:25seated at desks here and there isolated
9:27from one another and silent by no means
9:30was there a full class and no instructor
9:32stood at the lectern the blackboard
9:35displayed no new diagrams but only the
9:38blurred remnants of past lessons I took
9:41a desk near the door looking at none of
9:43the others as they did not look at me in
9:46one of the pockets of my overcoat I
9:48turned up a little stub of a pencil but
9:50could find nothing on which to take
9:51notes without any dramatic gestures I
9:55scanned the room for some kind of paper
9:57the visible areas of the room featured
9:59various items of debris without offering
10:01anything that would allow me to
10:03transcribe the complex instructions and
10:05diagrams demanded by the class I was
10:08reluctant to make a physical search of
10:10the shelves set into the wall beside me
10:12because they were very deep and from
10:14them drifted that heady fragrance of
10:16decay to rows to my left's at a man with
10:20several thick notebooks stacked on his
10:22desk
10:22his hands were resting lightly on these
10:25notebooks and his spectacled eyes were
10:27fixed on the empty lectern or perhaps on
10:29the blackboard beyond the space between
10:32the rows of desks was very narrow so I
10:35was able to lean across the unoccupied
10:36desk that separated us and speak to this
10:39man who seemed to have a surplus of
10:41paper on which one could take notes
10:42transcribed diagrams and in short do
10:46whatever scribbling was demanded by the
10:47instructor of the class pardon me I
10:51whispered to the staring figure in a
10:54single sudden movement his head turned
10:56to face me I remembered his pitted
10:58complexion which had obviously grown
11:00worse since our class last met and the
11:03eyes that squinted behind heavy lenses
11:05do you have any paper you could share
11:07with me
11:08I asked and will somehow surprised when
11:10he shifted his head toward his notebooks
11:12and began leafing through the pages of
11:14the top list one as he performed this
11:17action I explained that I was unprepared
11:19for the class that only a short time
11:21before did I learn it had resumed this
11:24happened entirely by chance I said I was
11:26coming home from a movie theater and
11:28decided to take a shortcut across the
11:30school grounds by the time I was
11:34finished illuminating my situation the
11:36other student was searching through his
11:38last notebook the pages of which were as
11:40solidly covered with jottings and
11:42diagrams as the previous ones I observed
11:45that his notes were different from those
11:46I had been taking for instructor Connie
11:48arrows course they were far more
11:50detailed and scrupulous in their
11:52transcriptions of those strange
11:53geometric figures which I considered
11:56only as a decorative intrusion in the
11:57instructors diagrams some of the other
12:00students notebooks pages were wholly
12:02given over to rendering these figures
12:04and symbols to the exclusion of the
12:06diagrams themselves I'm sorry he said I
12:10don't seem to have any paper I could
12:12share with you well could you tell me if
12:16there was an assignment that's very
12:19possible you can never tell what this
12:21instructor
12:21he's a Portuguese you know but he's been
12:24all over and knows everything I think
12:27he's out of his mind the kind of thing
12:30he's been teaching should have gotten
12:31him into trouble somewhere and probably
12:33did not that he ever cared what happened
12:35to him or to anyone else that is those
12:39that he could influence and some more
12:41than others
12:41the things he said to us the lessons in
12:45measurement of cloaca forces time as a
12:48flow of sewage the excrement of space
12:50scatology of creation the voiding of the
12:53self the whole filthy integration of
12:56things and the nocturnal product as he
12:58called it drowning in the pools of night
13:02I'm afraid I don't recall those concepts
13:05by confessed you're new to the class to
13:10tell the truth you don't seem to
13:11understand what the instructor is
13:13teaching but soon enough he will get
13:15through to you if he hasn't already you
13:18can never know he's very captivating the
13:20instructor and
13:21always ready for anything I was told
13:26that he recovered from the sickness that
13:27caused his absence and that he was back
13:29teaching oh he's back he was always
13:33ready did you know that the class is now
13:36being held in another part of the school
13:38I couldn't tell you where since even I
13:40haven't been with instructor Cornero as
13:42long as some of the others to tell the
13:45truth I don't care where it's being held
13:47isn't it enough that were here in this
13:49room I had little idea how to answer
13:53this question and understood almost
13:55nothing of what the man had been trying
13:56to explain to me it did seem clear or at
14:00least very possible that the class had
14:01moved to a different part of the school
14:03but I had no reason to think that the
14:05other students seated elsewhere in the
14:07room would be any more helpful on this
14:09point than the one who had now turned
14:10his spectacled face away from me
14:13wherever the class was being held I was
14:16still in need of paper on which to take
14:17notes transcribed diagrams and so forth
14:21this could not be accomplished by
14:23staying in that room where everyone and
14:25everything was degenerating into the
14:27surrounding darkness for a time I
14:31wandered about the hallways on the main
14:32floor of the school keeping clear of the
14:34walls which certainly were thickening
14:36with a dark substance and odorous SAP
14:39with the intoxicating potency of a
14:40thousand molting autumns
14:42or the melting soil of spring the stuff
14:47was running from top to bottom down the
14:48walls leaking from above and dulling the
14:51already dim light in the hallways I
14:55began to hear echoing voices coming from
14:58a distant part of the school I had never
14:59visited before no words were
15:02decipherable but it sounded as if the
15:04same ones were being repeated in a more
15:06or less constant succession of cries
15:08that rang hollow in the halls I followed
15:12them and along the way met up with
15:14someone walking slowly from the opposite
15:16direction
15:16he was dressed in dirty work clothes and
15:19almost blended in with the shadows which
15:21were so abundant in the school that
15:22night I stopped him as he was about to
15:25shuffle straight past me turning in in
15:28different gaze in my direction was a
15:30pair of yellowish eyes set in a face
15:32with a coarse patchy complexion the man
15:35scratch
15:36at the left side of his forehead and
15:37some dry flakes of skin fell away I
15:40asked him could you tell me where
15:42instructor Cornero is holding class
15:44tonight he looked at me for some moments
15:48and then pointed a finger at the ceiling
15:50up there he said look up there on which
15:56floor the top one he answered as if a
16:00little amazed at my ignorance there are
16:03a lot of rooms on that floor
16:05I said and every one of them is his
16:07nothing to be done about that but I have
16:10to keep the rest of this place in some
16:12kind of condition I don't see how I can
16:14do that with him up there the man
16:17glanced around at the stained walls and
16:19let out a single wheezing laugh it only
16:22gets worse starts to get to you if you
16:24go up any farther listen here the rest
16:27of them then he groaned with disgust and
16:30went on his way but by that point I felt
16:35that any knowledge I had amassed whether
16:37or not it concerned instructor Cornero
16:39in his night classes was being taken
16:42away from me piece by piece the man and
16:45dirty work clothes had directed me to
16:47the top floor of the school yet I
16:49remembered seeing no light on that floor
16:51when I first approached the building the
16:53only thing that seemed to occupy that
16:55floor was an undiluted darkness a
16:57darkness far greater than the night
16:59itself a consolidated darkness something
17:02clotted with its own density the
17:05nocturnal product I could hear the
17:07spectacled student reminding me in a
17:09hollow voice drowning in the pools of
17:12night
17:14what could I know about the ways of the
17:16school I had not been in attendance very
17:19long not nearly long enough it seemed I
17:21felt myself a stranger to my fellow
17:24students especially since they revealed
17:26themselves to be divided in their ranks
17:28as though among the degrees of a secret
17:30society I did not know the coursework in
17:33the way some of the others seemed to
17:35know it and in the spirit that the
17:36instructor intended it to be known my
17:39turn had not yet come to be commanded by
17:41instructor Cornero to look up at the
17:43hieroglyphs on the blackboard and
17:45comprehend them fully so I did not
17:48understand the doctrines
17:50Trulli septic curriculum the science of
17:52a spectral pathology philosophy of
17:54absolute disease the metaphysics of
17:57things sinking into a common
17:58disintegration or rising together
18:00flowing together in their dark
18:03rottenness above all I did not know the
18:06instructor himself the places he had
18:09been the things he had seen and done the
18:12experiences he had embraced the laws he
18:16had ignored the troubles he had caused
18:18the fate that he had incurred gladly
18:21upon himself and others I was now close
18:26to a shaft of stairways leading to the
18:28upper floors of the school the voices
18:31became louder though not more distinct
18:33as I approached the stairwell the first
18:36flight of stairs seemed very long and
18:38steep not to mention badly defined in
18:40the dim light of the hallway the landing
18:43at the top of the stairs was barely
18:45visible for the poor light and
18:46unreflecting effluvia that he removed
18:48even more thickly down the walls but it
18:52did not appear to possess any real
18:53substance no sticky surface or viscous
18:56texture as one might have supposed only
18:58a kind of density like heavy smoke
19:00filthy smoke from some smoldering source
19:03of expansive corruption and it carried
19:06the scent of corruption as well as the
19:08sight only now it was more potent with a
19:11nostalgic perfume of autumn decay or the
19:13feculent muskiness of a spring thaw I
19:18climbed another flight of stairs which
19:20ascended in the opposite direction from
19:22the first and reached the second floor
19:24each of the four storeys of the school
19:27had two flights of stairs going in
19:29opposite directions between them with a
19:31narrow landing that intervened before
19:33one could complete the ascent to a new
19:35floor the second floor was not as well
19:38lighted as the one below and the walls
19:40there were even worse their surface had
19:43been wholly obscured by the smoky
19:44blackness which seeped down from above
19:46the blackness so richly odorous with the
19:49awful of worlds in decline or perhaps
19:51with the dark compost of those about to
19:53be born the primeval impurity in which
19:56all things are founded the native
19:57Putridity on the stairs that led up to
20:01the third floor I saw the first of them
20:03a young man who was seated on the lower
20:05steps of this flight and who had been
20:07one of the instructors most assiduous
20:09students he was absorbed in his own
20:11thoughts and did not acknowledge me
20:13until I spoke to him the class I said
20:17stressing the words into a question he
20:21gazed at me calmly the instructor
20:24suffered a terrible disease a monumental
20:26disease this was all he said
20:29then he returned within himself and
20:32would not respond there were others
20:35similarly positioned higher on the
20:37stairs or squatting on the landing the
20:40voices were still echoing in the
20:41stairwell chanting a blurred phrase in
20:43unison but the voices did not belong to
20:46any of these students who sat silent and
20:48entranced amid the scattered pages torn
20:51from their voluminous notebooks pieces
20:53of paper with strange symbols on them
20:55lay scattered everywhere like fallen
20:57leaves they rustled as I walked through
21:00them toward the stairs leading to the
21:02highest story of the school the walls in
21:06the stairwell were now swollen with a
21:07blackness that was the very face of a
21:09plague postulant scabbed and stinking
21:12terribly it was reaching to the edges of
21:15the floor where it drifted and churned
21:17like a black fog only in the moonlight
21:20that shone through a hallway window
21:21could I see anything of the third floor
21:23I stopped there for the stairs to the
21:26fourth were deep in blackness only a few
21:29faces rose above it and were visible in
21:31the moonlight one of them was staring at
21:33me and without prompting spoke the
21:37instructor is holding class again
21:38despite his terrible disease
21:40can you imagine he is able to suffer
21:42anything and has been everywhere now he
21:45is in a new place somewhere he has not
21:47been the voice paused and the interval
21:50was filled by the many voices calling
21:52and crying from the total blackness that
21:54prevailed over the heights of the
21:55stairwell and buried everything beneath
21:57it like tightly packed earth in a grave
22:00then the single voice said the
22:03instructor died in the night you see he
22:05is with the night you hear the voices
22:08they are with him and he is with the
22:10night the night has spread itself within
22:12him he who has been everywhere may go
22:15anywhere with the disease of the night
22:17listen the portuguese is calling to us i
22:21listened and finally the voices became
22:24clear look up here they said look up
22:28here the fog of blackness had now
22:31unfurled down to me and lay about my
22:33feet gathering there and rising for a
22:36time I could not move or speak or form
22:38any thoughts inside me everything was
22:41becoming black the blackness was
22:43quivering in my bones eating away at
22:45them making everything black within my
22:48body it was holding me and the voices
22:50were saying look up here look up here
22:53and I began to look but I aborted my
22:58gesture before it was completed
22:59I was already too close to something
23:01that could not endure that I was not
23:03prepared to endure even the blackness
23:06quivering inside me could not go on to
23:08its end
23:08I could not remain where I was nor look
23:11up to the place where the voices called
23:12out to me then the blackness seemed to
23:16exude from my being washing itself out
23:18of me and I was no longer inside the
23:20school but outside it almost as if I had
23:23suddenly awakened there without looking
23:26back I retraced my steps across the
23:28grounds of the school forgetting about
23:30the shortcut I had meant to take that
23:31night I passed those students who were
23:34still standing around the fire burning
23:36in an old metal drum they were feeding
23:38the bright flames with pages from their
23:40notebooks pages scribbled to blackness
23:42with all those diagrams and freakish
23:44signs some of those among the group
23:46called out to me
23:47did you see the Portuguese one of them
23:50shattered above the noise of the fire in
23:52the wind did you hear anything about an
23:54assignment another voice cried out and
23:56then I heard them all laughing among
23:58themselves as I made my way back to the
24:00streets I had left before entering the
24:02school grounds I moved with such haste
24:05that the loose button on my overcoat
24:07finally came off by the time I reached
24:08the street outside the grounds of the
24:10school as I walked beneath the
24:14streetlights I held the front of my
24:15overcoat together and tried to keep my
24:18eyes on the sidewalk before me but I
24:20might have heard a voice bid me look up
24:22here because I did look if only for a
24:25moment
24:25then I saw the sky was clear of all
24:28clouds and the full moon was
24:30in the black spaces above it was shining
24:33bright and blurry as if coated with a
24:35luminous mold floating like a lamp in
24:38the great sewers of the night the
24:41nocturnal product
24:42I thought drowning in the pools of night
24:45but these were only words I repeated
24:47without understanding my desire to know
24:50something that I was sure was real about
24:52my existence something that could help
24:54me in my existence before it was my time
24:56to die and be put into the earth to rot
24:59or perhaps have my cremated remains
25:00drift out of a chimney stack and Sully
25:03the sky that would never be fulfilled
25:06I had learned nothing and I was nothing
25:09yet instead of disappointment at my
25:12failure to fulfill my most intense
25:13desire I felt a tremendous relief the
25:17urge to know the fundamental things was
25:19now emptied from me and I was more than
25:21content to be rid of it the following
25:23night I went to the movie theater again
25:25but I did not take a shortcut home