page25 (1/2)

The result was that the scheduled execution of one of the est orgy the world had seen since the second century before Christ Respectable women ripped open their blouses, bared their breasts, cried out hysterically, threw theazes stu flesh; with quivering fingers they tugged to pull from their trousers their members frozen stiff by soroan and copulated in the randfather with virgin, odd-jobber with lawyer’s spouse, apprentice with nun, Jesuit with Freemason’s wife—all topsy-turvy, just as opportunity presented The air was heavy with the sweet odor of sweating lust and filled with loud cries, grunts, and moans from ten thousand human beasts It was infernal

Grenouille stood there and smiled Or rather, it see, the , and at the same time most seductive sly, cynical s both his total triumph and his total contempt He, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, born with no odor of his own on the , and putrefaction, raised without love, with no war solely on i, sly, shunned, an aboed to make the world admire him To hell with admire! Love him! Desire him! Idolize him! He had performed a Pro, he had obtained for hiratis in the cradle of every other hu but withheld from him alone And not merely that! He had hireater than Prometheus He had created an aurahad ever possessed before him And he owed it to no one—not to a father, nor a racious God—but to himself alone He was in very truth his own God, and a more splendid God than the God that stank of incense and was quartered in churches A flesh-and-blood bishop was on his knees before hihty, proud ladies and gentle in adoration, while the co them the fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters of his victiy in his honor and in his name A nod of his head and they would all renounce their God and worship him, Grenouille the Great

Yes, he was Grenouille the Great! Now it had become manifest It was he, just as in his narcissistic fantasies of old, but now in reality And in that reatest triumph of his life And he was terrified

He was terrified because he could not enjoy one second of it In that ht sunlight of the parade grounds, clad in the perfume that made people love him, the perfume on which he had worked for two years, the perfu … in that moment, as he saw and s speed it spread and made captives of the people all around hiain within him and completely soured his triumph, so that he felt not only no joy, but not even the least bit of satisfaction What he had always longed for—that other people should love him—became at the moment of its achievement unbearable, because he did not love them himself, he hated theratification in love, but always only in hatred—in hating and in being hated

But the hate he felt for people remained without an echo The more he hated them at this moment, the more they worshiped hirant disguise, his stolen perfume, and it was indeed a scent to be worshiped

He would have loved right now to have exter, eroticized one of them, just as he had once exterminated alien odors from the world of his raven-black soul And he wanted the that it was the only emotion that he had ever truly felt, to return that hate and exterinally intended For once in his life, he wanted to empty himself For once in his life, he wanted to be like other people and empty himself of as inside him—what they did with their love and their stupid adoration, he would do with his hate For once, just for once, he wanted to be apprehended in his true being, for other hus to respond with an answer to his only true emotion, hatred

But nothing ca could ever come of it And most certainly not on this day For after all, he was masked with the best perfume in the world, and beneath his mask there was no face, but only his total odorlessness Suddenly he was sick to his stoain

Just as it had back then in his cave, in his drea was rising, the dreadful fog from his own odor, which he could not smell, because he was odorless And just as then, he was filled with boundless fear and terror, felt as if he were going to suffocate But this time it was different, this was no dream, no sleep, but naked reality And different, too, because he was not lying alone in a cave, but standing in a public place before ten thousand people And different because here no screaht would rescue hiood, orld For here and now, this was the world, and this, here and noas his dream come true And he had wanted it thus

The horrible, suffocating fog rose up from the iastic and orgas up to hirandstand so violently that his black hat toppled fro, he fluttered across the parade grounds like a raven or an avenging angel It was Richis

He is going to kill ht Grenouille He is the only one who has not let himself be deceived by my hter is clinging to nize ot to do it

And he spread his ar down upon hier or sword tickling so wonderfully at his breast, and the blade passing through his arht to thein his heart, so other than himself! And he sensed his deliverance already at hand

And then, suddenly, there was Richis at his breast, no avenging angel, but a shaken, pitiably sobbing Richis, who threw his arht, as if he could find no other footing in a sea of bliss No liberating thrust of the dagger, no prick to the heart, not even a curse or a cry of hatred Instead, Richis’s cheek ith tears glued to his, and quivering lips that whiive me!”

With that, everything within him hite before his eyes, while the world outside turned raven black The trapped fog condensed to a raging liquid, like frothy, boiling ainst the inner shell of his body, could find no way out He wanted to flee, for God’s sake, to flee, but where… He wanted to burst, to explode, to keep fro on himself Finally he sank down and lost consciousness

50

When he again ca in Laure Richis’s bed The reliquary of clothes and hair had been reht table The as ajar, and he could hear the exultation of the town’s revels in the distance Antoine Richis was sitting on a footstool beside the bed watching hi it

Even before he opened his eyes, Grenouille had checked the at was quiet within hi or bu

rsting His soul was again doht, just what he needed for a frosty and clear conscious mind to be directed to the outside world: there he sed Its peaks had leveled off so that the core of Laure’s scent e fire He felt secure He knew that he was unassailable for a few hours yet, and he opened his eyes

Richis’s gaze rested on hiaze: tenderness, compassion, the empty, fatuous profundity of a lover

He shtly, and said, “It will all turn out all right The istrate has over-turned the verdict All the witnesses have recanted You are free You can do whatever you want But I would like you to stay here with ain you as my son You’re very much like her You are beautiful like her, your hair, youryour hand all this time, your hand is like hers And when I look into your eyes, it’s as if she were looking at me You are her brother, and I want you to become my son, my friend, my pride and joy, my heir Are your parents still alive?”

Grenouille shook his head, and Richis’s face turned beet red for joy “Then will you beup froe of the bed and clasp Grenouille’s other hand as well “Will you? Will you? Will you have ! Don’t speak! You are still too weak to talk Just nod”

Grenouille nodded And joy erupted from Richis’s every pore like scarlet sweat, and he bent down to Grenouille and kissed him on the mouth