The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway [55]
I was introduced to the people at the table. They supplied their names to Mike and sent for a fork for me.
"Stop eating their dinner, Michael," Brett shouted from the wine-barrels.
"I don't want to eat up your meal," I said when some one handed me a fork.
"Eat," he said. "What do you think it's here for?"
I unscrewed the nozzle of the big wine-bottle and handed it around. Every one took a drink, tipping the wine-skin at arm's length.
Outside, above the singing, we could hear the music of the procession going by.
"Isn't that the procession?" Mike asked.
"Nada," some one said. "It's nothing. Drink up. Lift the bottle."
"Where did they find you?" I asked Mike.
"Some one brought me here," Mike said. "They said you were here."
"Where's Cohn?"
"He's passed out," Brett called. "They've put him away somewhere."
"Where is he?"
"I don't know."
"How should we know," Bill said. "I think he's dead."
"He's not dead," Mike said. "I know he's not dead. He's just passed out on Anis del Mono."
As he said Anis del Mono one of the men at the table looked up, brought out a bottle from inside his smock, and handed it to me.
"No," I said. "No, thanks!"
"Yes. Yes. Arriba! Up with the bottle!"
I took a drink. It tasted of licorice and warmed all the way. I could feel it warming in my stomach.
"Where the hell is Cohn?"
"I don't know," Mike said. "I'll ask. Where is the drunken comrade?" he asked in Spanish.
"You want to see him?"
"Yes," I said.
"Not me," said Mike. "This gent."
The Anis del Mono man wiped his mouth and stood up.
"Come on."
In a back room Robert Cohn was sleeping quietly on some wine-casks. It was almost too dark to see his face. They had covered him with a coat and another coat was folded under his head. Around his neck and on his chest was a big wreath of twisted garlics.
"Let him sleep," the man whispered. "He's all right."
Two hours later Cohn appeared. He came into the front room still with the wreath of garlics around his neck. The Spaniards shouted when he came in. Cohn wiped his eyes and grinned.
"I must have been sleeping," he said.
"Oh, not at all," Brett said.
"You were only dead," Bill said.
"Aren't we going to go and have some supper?" Cohn asked.
"Do you want to eat?"
"Yes. Why not? I'm hungry."
"Eat those garlics, Robert," Mike said. "I say. Do eat those garlics."
Cohn stood there. His sleep had made him quite all right.
"Do let's go and eat," Brett said. "I must get a bath."
"Come on," Bill said. "Let's translate Brett to the hotel."
We said good-bye to many people and shook hands with many people and went out. Outside it was dark.
"What time is it do you suppose?" Cohn asked.
"It's to-morrow," Mike said. "You've been asleep two days."
"No," said Cohn, "what time is it?"
"It's ten o'clock."
"What a lot we've drunk."
"You mean what a lot we've drunk. You went to sleep."
Going down the dark streets to the hotel we saw the skyrockets going up in the square. Down the side streets that led to the square we saw the square solid with people, those in the centre all dancing.
It was a big meal at the hotel. It was the first meal of the prices being doubled for the fiesta, and there were several new courses. After the dinner we were out in the town. I remember resolving that I would stay up all night to watch the bulls go through the streets at six o'clock in the morning, and being so sleepy that I went to bed around four o'clock. The others stayed up.
My own room was locked and I could not find the key, so I went up-stairs and slept on one of the beds in Cohn's room. The fiesta was going on outside in the night, but I was too sleepy for it to keep me awake. When I woke it was the sound of the rocket exploding that announced the release of the bulls from the corrals at the edge of town. They would race through the streets and out to the bull-ring. I had been sleeping heavily and I woke feeling I was too late. I put on a coat of Cohn's and went out on the balcony. Down below the narrow street was empty. All the balconies were crowded with people. Suddenly a