Lanark_ a life in 4 books - Alasdair Gray [201]
“But if a place is losing people and industry how can it afford new buildings?”
“Ah, I know too little about chronology to say. I feel that what happens between hearts matters more than these big public ways of swapping energy. You tell me, no doubt, that this is a conservative attitude. On the other hand, radicals are the only people who’ll work with me. Odd, isn’t it?”
Lanark said irritably, “You seem to understand my questions, but your answers make no sense to me.”
“That’s typical of life, isn’t it? But as long as you’ve a good heart and keep trying there’s no need to despair. Wer immer streband sich bemüht, den können wir erlösen. Oh, you’ll be a great deal of use to us.”
Rima suddenly leaned on a stone and said quietly, without bitterness, “I can’t go on.”
Lanark, alarmed, clasped her waist though it worried him to be clasping two people instead of one.
Ritchie-Smollet said softly, “A giddy spell?” “No, my back hurts and I … I can hardly think.”
“In my missionary phase I took a medical degree. Give me your pulse.”
He held her wrist in one hand, beat time with the other, then said, “Eighty-two. Considering your condition that’s quite good. Could you manage down to that building? A sleep is what you need most, but I’d better examine you first to make sure everything’s in order.”
He pointed to the cathedral. Rima stared at it. Lanark murmured, “Could we join hands and carry her?”
Rima pushed herself upright and said, “No, give me your arm. I’ll walk.”
The clergyman led them down dim weedy paths past the porticoes of mausoleums cut into the hillside. Gleams of light from below lit corners of inscriptions to the splendid dead:
“… His victorious campaign …” “….. whose unselfish devotion …..” “… revered by his students …” “….. esteemed by his colleagues …..” “… beloved by all …”
They crossed a flat space and walked along a cobbled lane. Ritchie-Smollet said, “A tributary of the river once flowed under here.”
Lanark saw that a low wall beside him was the parapet of a bridge and looked over onto a steeply embanked road. Cars sped up this to the motorway but there seemed to be a barrier: after slowing and stopping they turned and came back again. A tiny distinct throbbing in the air worked on the eardrum like the point of a drill on a tooth.
“What’s that noise?”
“There appears to be a pile-up at the intersection: a burst transporter, one of these huge dangerous God-the-Father jobs. The council ought to ban them. The city looks like being sealed off for quite a while. However, we’ve adequate food stocks. Come through here, it’s a short cut.”
The parapet had given way to a wall screened by bushes. Ritchie-Smollet parted two of these uncovering a hole into brighter air. Lanark helped Rima through. They were in the grounds of the cathedral where gravestones lay flat like a pavement. Vans and private cars stood on them against the surrounding wall, and Rima sank down on the step of a mobile crane. Ritchie-Smollet thrust hands into trouser pockets and stared ahead with a small satisfied smile.
“There she stands!” he said. “Our centre of government once again.”
Lanark looked at the cathedral. At first the floodlit spire seemed too solid for the flat black shape upholding it, a shape cut through by rows of dim yellow windows; then his eye made out the tower, roofs and buttresses of a sturdy Gothic ark, the sculpted waterspouts broken and rubbed by weather and the hammers of old iconoclasts.
“What do you mean, centre of government? Unthank has a city chambers.”
“Ah, yes, we use it nowadays for property deals. Quite a lot of work is done there, but the real legislators come here. I know you’re keen to meet them but first you’ll have to sleep. I speak as a doctor now, not as a minister of the gospel, so you mustn’t argue with me.”
They walked over inscriptions more laconic than in the higher cemetery.
“William Skinner: 5½ feet North × 2¼ West.”
“Harry Fleming, his wife Minnie, their son George, their daughter Amy: 6 feet West × 2½ North.”
They reached a side entrance and crossed a shallow porch