The old man searchs his old pipe in the pocket of his frayed jacket, but it’s not there. He looked more carefully, now surprised, in his other pockets. On one of his hands there are some dirty springs that had been attached to his slightly sweaty skin, but not the pipe. It was neither in any of the multicolored pockets of the shirt, nor in the pants, where he ends up looking in distress. The pipe remained nowhere to be found.
He was sixty five years and for twenty years he had been dragging the same pipe from his lips to his hands, from his hands to his lips, with brief stays in the depth of the right pocket of his jacket, which strongly smells of nicotine, a rough old nicotine smell. In all those years he had changed jacket four or five times, not more, and with every change the smell would install there, unchanging and persistent. Only he had gotten used to it. Not his young daughter. She had not been able to get used to that ocre stench that would stir her guts every time. Not very often, she would take the jacket for a was. The stench did not fully go away, but the piece as a whole was more presentable. Not that it mattered much. That was above such things. His temper was naturally philosophical and when, later, due to health issues he had to stop working in the construction business to become a gravedigger, this innate disposition grew accentuated by the imperatives of the trade.
He took the episode of the lost pipe badly, despite his philosophy. It was an old friend that would not be easy to replace. Buying a new pipe was easy enough, but it took time to get used to it, to get it used to him. First it had a certain taste or aftertaste of wood, something extremely unpleasant only removed by the days and years. There was nothing like an old pipe, blackened and burnt. He had lost it, it was evident. He returned early enough, retracing the path that he had walked an hour before, to the foot of the niche, and there he began to think about the circumstances of his departure, the gestures he had made, the moment he had put the pipe in his pocket for the last time, since it was not there, when he had removed the pipe from the mouth to leave it in a place he could not figure out. He could not remember it well.
He went out of the cemetery, crestfallen and melancholic, because only there he could have lost it. One last time he went back, as he came to think that he would say the keeper that if he found a pipe of its kind it was his. But the keeper knew the old man’s pipe by heart, and no descriptions were needed. He wasn’t very concerned anyway. If he found it by chance, fine, but if he didn’t, he would not think about it that much.
Later the old man thought about whether to also warn his colleagues, but they were already far ahead. He would tell them tomorrow. It would be strange if the pipe wasn’t recovered. They would certainly not understand his anxiety. None of them smoked a pipe, and they did not know what such an object could mean to someone after twenty years of uninterrupted use. He would warn them anyway. And if they found it, they would give it back to him. He was sure about that. But they would not spare a joke or two.
Day: December 28, 2014
50
El vell cerca la pipa en la butxaca de la seves esfilagarsada americana, però no la tenia. Cercà més curosament, però ja sorprès, en altres butxaques. D’una d’elles la seva bruta de molles resseques que s’eren apegat a la pell lleugerament suada, però no la pipa. Tampoc era en cap de les butxaques de la camisa a mostra multicolor, ni en les dels pantalons, on també acabà cercant en el seu desempar. Però la pipa va romandre introbable.
Tenia seixanta cinc anys i en feia vint que arrossegava la mateixa pipa dels seus llavis a les seves mans, de les seves mans als seus llavis, amb breus estades en la profunditat de la butxaca dreta de l’americana, que sentia fortament a nicotina, a aspra i revellida nicotina. En tots aquells anys havia canviat quatre o cinc vegades d’americana, no més, i en cada canvi l’olor s’instal·lava allí, inalterable i persistent. Només que ell hi estava acostumat. La seva jove no, la seva jove encara no s’havia pogut habituar a aquella bravada ocre que li regirava les tripes cada vegada que, no molt freqüentment, agafava l’americana del sogre per a donar-li una rentada. La sentor aquella no se n’anava, ben entès, però la peça en conjunt, quedava més presentable. No que a ell li importés massa. Estava per damunt d’aquestes coses. El seu tarannà era naturalment filosòfic i quan, més tard, degut a la salut hagué de deixar de fer de paleta per fer-se enterramorts, aquesta disposició innata s’accentuà, per imperatius de l’ofici.
L’episodi de la pipa perduda, el suportà malament; tot i la seva filosofia. Era una vella amiga a la que no seria fàcil de substituir. Comprar una pipa nova, prou, era fàcil, però es necessitava temps per a acostumar-s’hi, per a acostumar-la. De primer tenia un cert gust o regust de fusta, quelcom en extrem desagradable i que solament els dies i els anys anaven matant. No hi havia res com una vella pipa, renegrida i cremada. I l’havia perduda, era evident. Prou tornà enrere, desfent el camí que havia fet una hora abans, fins el peu del nínxol, i allí comença a pensar en quines circumstàncies sé n’havia allunyat quins gestos havia fet, quan es posà la pipa a la butxaca per darrera vegada, ja que allí no hi era, quan es va treure la pipa de la boca per deixar-la en un lloc o altre que no podia esbrinar. Però no aconseguia recordar-ho bé.
Tornà a sortir del cementiri, capcot, melangiós, car només allí podia haver-la perdut. Encara una vegada retrocedí, al acudir-se-li que podia dir al porter que si trobava una pipa així o aixà, era la seva. Però el porter coneixia abastament la pipa del vell i no necessitava descripcions. Tampoc tenia la intenció de preocupar-se’n. Si la trobava bonament, per casualitat, molt bé, però si no era així ni hi pensaria més.
Després, el vell pensà en la conveniència d’avisar també als companys, però aquests ja eren lluny. Els ho diria demà. Molt seria que la pipa no fos retrobada. Cert que no comprendrien el seu desfici. Cap d’ells fumava en pipa, i no sabien el que un objecte així pot arribar a significar després de vint anys d’us ininterromput. Amb tot, els advertiria. I si la trobaven, li donarien, d’això n’estava segur, encara que no mancaria una broma o altra.