Upon her return, she found Mirlo sitting on the couch with the book he liked. She filled the tub and began to heat the water with an electric resistance. It was a long process and not very efficient, but after half an hour or so the water was warm, and with some purifying powders she hoped to at least eliminate certain toxins. She told Mirlo to please go to the bathroom and left him a sponge there. Alondra closed the door and left Mirlo alone. She went to work in the laboratory. Three hours passed and Mirlo did not come out of the bathroom. She suddenly got scared. While she was listening to the heavy rain, it occurred to her that maybe Mirlo was not very well. She was aware that it had been days since the last time she had asked herself why he was in her house, how he had gotten there, or why. And she realized that she had stopped asking him. What's more, at no time had she done it kindly. The reasons why Mirlo was there might not have been suspicious, but traumatic. After all, since his arrival there had not been any new threat that Alondra had not expected. Either the evil nature of his presence was still far from being unleashed, or there was no such nature. And in this second case, Alondra had done nothing to try to understand what he was doing there.
"Now I'm kind to him," she thought. And she came to the conclusion that perhaps this was the first step, and that she should not rush things. But Mirlo did not come out of the bathroom and Alondra remembered the painting of The Death of Marat, from the 18th Century, of which there was a reproduction in one of her grandmother's art books, and she imagined Mirlo as Marat in the bathtub. Suddenly very scared, she opened the bathroom door. Mirlo looked at her with the same big sad eyes as always. He was inside the tub, hugging his knees to his chest. The sponge was where Alondra had left it.
– Are you okay?
– Oui.
Alondra sat in front of him, on the toilet, and handed him the sponge. Mirlo looked at the outstretched hand, at the sponge, and back into Alondra's eyes. After thinking about it for a few seconds, apparently with great mental effort, he extended his right hand and took the sponge, showing it to Alondra in the same way that she had done to him.
– The water should be ice cold again. I leave you, then. Come on. Here is the towel.
– L'eau devrait être à nouveau glacée. Je vous quitte alors. Allons. Voici la serviette – said Liuben. Mirlo looked up at the ceiling, as if it were Liuben's place. He had already gotten used to its presence, but he continued looking for them with his eyes.
Alondra returned to the laboratory. The laboratory, just as Samira had said, was her great inheritance. She had been lucky and privileged to have a formal education, which her grandmother had given her. Since she was little, her grandmother had taught her mathematics, chemistry, neuroscience, and computer science and, thanks to her, Alondra had acquired a skill and depth in these fields that were far out of reach for the vast majority. She collapsed on the chair in front of the machines and her tests. She imagined Mirlo freezing in the water on the other side of the wall. And then she reflected that if he was in shock, as she had been considering for a few days, the best thing she could do was try to talk to him directly. Because, as she had been talking to Liuben, in those types of states, simply letting people go little by little at their own pace could become eternal, since their rhythm was a pause in some unknown place in the past, and silence. This seemed to fit Mirlo’s behavior perfectly. She opened a desk drawer, and took out something shaped like a rectangular prism wrapped in a cloth. She knocked on the bathroom door.
– Oui?
– You have to heat that water again or you're going to get sick.
– Vous devez chauffer à nouveau this eau ou vous tomberez malade.
Mirlo had not moved a millimeter, and he had the sponge in his hands, on his knees, which he continued to hug in the same position.
– Liuben, I'm going to tell him about grandma. Translate for me, okay? …
Alondra looked into Mirlo's eyes with an expression of great understanding:
– I came here by chance. When I was three or four years old, my parents died in the war. I was alone, they say I lived in one of those buildings that cover the big tower. I was about to die when my grandmother found me on the street and brought me here. She wasn't my grandmother. She didn't even know my family. She was a woman who had lived here alone since before the war. They say she had worked for the government. She educated me. Liuben was already with her at that time. Right, Liuben? Liuben is over a hundred years old! …When Grandma died, I was twenty-five years old. I was very lonely here in the apartment. But since then I have always continued with her research, and with her ideas. She was a respected person in the building – Alondra held out the bar of soap she had brought and showed it to Mirlo in a very solemn manner –. Look: I made this soap with her body when she died.
– Alondra, are you sure that this way you are going to help the child with his state of shock?
– Liuben, shut up and translate!
– Moi, je suis venu ici par hasard. When there are three or four years, the parents are dead during the war. J'étais seul là–bas, ils disent que j'ai vécu dans l'un de ces bâtiments qui couvrent la grande tour. J'étais sur le point de mourir lorsque grand–mère m'a attrapé dans la rue et m'a amenée ici. Ce n'était pas ma grand–mère. Je ne naissais même pas ma famille. She was a woman who lived after the war. Ils disent qu'il avait travaillé pour le gouvernement. Elle m'a éduqué. Liuben était déjà avec elle à ce moment–là. N'est–ce pas, Liuben? Liuben a plus de cent ans! … Lorsque la grand–mère est décédée, j'avais vingt–cinq ans. J'étais très seul ici sur le sol. More later, I continued with his researches and ideas. This is a person who respects the environment. Regardez: j'ai fait ce savon avec son corps de ella quand elle est mort.
Mirlo looked at her with wide eyes, and then looked at the ceiling with wide eyes as he heard Liuben. Alondra moved her hand on which she was showing the bar of soap as a sign of wanting to give it to him as a special gift. Mirlo looked at the bar intently. He took it and put it in his hands along with the sponge, while he looked at Alondra in astonishment. Alondra knelt next to the tub, took the resistance, which consisted of a metal rod that was heated by a rope, and put it into the water. She wondered if she had gone too far by revealing such personal facts, and especially if it had been a good idea to give him her grandmother's ashes to wash with. Not because she had any greed or proscription about them, but in case this, instead of triggering some kind of reaction, would sink Mirlo even deeper into his state. In any case, it seemed that the boy had been impressed by the giving, because he did not dare to use the soap, which he continued to hold on his knees along with the sponge, in absolute silence. Alondra worked hard to run the water around his body, patiently warming him, until about forty minutes later it was reasonably warm. Mirlo, who had obviously been shaken when she had entered the bathroom, now seemed more relaxed, and then Alondra, in an impulse that could only be interpreted as childish, snatched the bar and sponge from him, pushed him into the tub, laughing, and began to tease him, to which he, at first scared and then amused, responded in the same way. After Alondra judged that they had wasted enough water, she put her hands on his shoulders and calmed him down. He ended up running the bar of soap all over his head to wash his hair. While she soaped him, Mirlo looked at the soapy water and said:
– Je ne comprend rien.
- He said that…
– Yes, I understand, I understand Liuben. How do you not understand? Comme que tu ne comprend rien? Tu ne parles pas français?
Blackbird answered upset.
– Oui…..? Non? … Un peux?
– Eh… So, you haven't understood about grandma, have you?
– Comment?
– Quelle est ta langue?
– Eeeeh… le Français?
– Grandma… – Alondra said “grandmother” and pointed to the soap.
– “Grand–mere” Liuben supported.
– Grand–mere?
Mirlo seemed increasingly confused. Alondra was disappointed to learn that Mirlo had not understood anything of her sincere monologue. But this opened up an even bigger mystery. Maybe he came from even further away, and he had learned a few words along the way. But if Mirlo wasn't actually French, why did he speak French? Although he had said that his language was French, it could very well have been because they were not understanding each other. Alondra smiled and made friendly gestures so he wouldn't worry. She continued washing his hair. She rinsed it for him. She helped him out of the tub, and wrapped the towel around him. It was the first time she bathed someone, in fact, she had only bathed once in her life. It was, in fact, a luxury she gave herself after Grandma died. A few days after her death, when she was left alone in the apartment, ten years ago, one day, completely exceptionally, it had rained a lot. On that occasion the rain had lasted only one day, and everyone considered that the water would be cursed because it was so contaminated. At that time, in the middle of the war, that rain was considered not only toxic, but probably a chemical weapon. For some reason, Alondra did not believe it, she stored it and bathed in it, since she took this rain as a sign from her grandmother, who was watching her from the sky. Time had proven her right. That rain had probably been an announcement of the rain now.
While she remembered that bath, Alondra stood with her hands crossed behind her back, looking out the large window at the thick, heavy rain that covered the city. Although it was daytime, it seemed as if night had fallen over the buildings as far as the eye could see, while in the distance, to the East, on the horizon, an enigmatic line of clarity opened up. Blackbird arrived covered with the towel and also looked out the window. The sound of the rain was thunderous, only partially muffled by the insulation of the building, and very relaxing. The clouds were very low and covered almost all the neighborhoods to the north. Only the crown of the great communications tower could be distinguished above the brightness of the clearing in the line of the mountains.
