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I ARRIVED HALF-HOUR in advance. On route, I had a series of confused and unoriginal ideas. I had to stop writing because I could not go on like this, I did not understand why I kept writing one book after another, just like Pisces, It scared me to end up like him in a madhouse, and then I thought again that it could be a good argument for a book, the writer is his characters, but where was the plot? All we had were characters, and although at first it was an interesting character I lost all interest in Pisces after a few thousand words, and the end I had thought, despite being a surprise (and I do not write here or it would be a spoiler) did not give a good end to the book. And then it was there: the narrator, the writer (?), Eva, I could add Pisces’ wife, if I was going to look for her, and I had no intention to do so. Lextra seemed fatal to me as a character. Who throws an alien in the middle of a metaliterary story? Who would think such a thing? In addition, there we had his books, not very good books, with pleasant and minimally processed plots and one–dimensional characters. He was no Kafka, but Kafka was not Kafka when he was alive, so who knows, maybe others saw in his work something I could not see. I heard that he was often translated: German, French, and even Korean. Who knows why Korean? Richard Brautigan was also a big star in Japan when none of his books were selling in the U.S. Hispanic readers was not interested in the books of Pisces. Books are not interesting characters. We still have the city as a character. Irxal (pronounced IR–SHAL), the x in Spanish is a mystery, you can pronounce Irjal, Irshal, Irkhal, Irsal, arrived.
The first thing I said was to be careful if one day Pisces said his name is Claudio.
—He never says his name, — she answered.
—Better ask.
—Why Claudio?
—He may commit suicide, if he calls himself Claudio. And if that day he is Claudio, I think he will say his name. At least he will say: I’m Claudio, he’ll say something.
—How do you know?
—I shall explain that to you one step at a time.
—Today he was crazy, he said he was a woman and only used his right hand, when asked why he said he only had one hand; he cried like a child, he was very depressed, until he fell asleep.
—Yes, that is a part of A Parisian Month.
—What?
—It’s a character in one of his novels. See, this is what I wanted to explain to you, according to my theory he reincarnates every day as one of the characters in his novels.
—There are many days that he is the same personality, weeks sometimes.
—That’s what you think, because there are characters that appear in several novels, they are similar but not quite the same, many are writers, he wrote many novels.
—Perhaps, but from a psychiatric point of view, it is of little importance. He still is a schizophrenic, and that does not depend on where he gets his personalities.
—From a literary point of view it is very important.
She was well dressed in a one-piece brown colored suit that made her look thinner. I asked her if she wanted an ice cream, to which she said she had more time than last time but not that much, and she had to go home to see her ten year old daughter. Didn’t she say her daughter was 12 years old? Wasn’t that what she had told me the last time? Maybe she did not speak with me about her daughter, and this is pure imagination of mine, I am not sure. Although she had no reason to give me any explanation, she was the owner of her life and her time.
—Would you mind informing me of Pisces daily character?
—I am not sure it’s possible, I only work four days a week and he is not my patient.
—But remember what I said about Claudio.
—If you want I can put you in touch with the nurse who takes care of him.
—No no, it is better few people are involved, or else they may hospitalize me.
—Yes, that makes sense.