“Who would do this?”
“You lie,” cried Lodovico, “you tell fantastic lies to protect your cohort and who knows what sins you’re guilty of together.”
“Then eat the caviar,” I said. “Eat not just one small spoon of it, as you try to feed to your brother, but eat all of it, and we shall see if the truth doesn’t come out. And if that is not sufficient, I will take you all down and reveal the plant to you, and reveal its powers. Find a pitiful mongrel in the streets of Rome and feed him the seeds of this plant and you’ll see him quiver and shake and die immediately.”
Lodovico drew his dagger from out of his sleeve.
At once the priests shouted for him to be still, to restrain himself, not to be foolish.
“You need a dagger to eat the food?” I said. “Just take the silver spoon. You’ll find it easier.”
“These are lies that this man tells,” cried Lodovico, “and who under this roof, who would do such a thing to my brother? Who would dare! And this caviar has come from the kitchen of the Holy Father himself. This is vile, I tell you.”
A silence fell as if someone had rung a bell.
Signore Antonio stared at his natural son who still faced me with his drawn dagger. I stood as before, the lute slung over my back, merely looking at him. As for Vitale, he was white and shaken and on the verge of tears.
“Why did you plot this thing?” Signore Antonio asked in a soft voice, his question clearly aimed at Lodovico.
“I plotted no such thing. And there is no such plant.”
“Oh, but there is,” said Signore Antonio. “And you brought it into this house. I remember it. I remember its unmistakable purple flowers.”
“A gift for us from those dear kindred of ours in Brazil,” said Lodovico. He appeared wounded. He appeared sad. “A beautiful blossom for a garden of beautiful blossoms. I made no effort to conceal this plant from you. I know nothing of its powers. Who does know of its powers?” He looked at me. “You!” he said to me, “and your fellow Jew, Vitale, your fellow cohort in this plot. Are you worshippers of the Evil One together! Did the Evil One tell you what this plant could do? If this caviar is tainted, it’s with the poison you both put into it.” His wonderful copious tears were flowing again. “How vile of you to do this to my brother.”
Signore Antonio shook his head. His eyes were fixed on Lodovico. “No,” he whispered. “Neither man could have done this thing. You brought the plant. You brought the caviar into the house.”
“Father, they are witches, these men. They are evil.”
“Are they?” asked Signore Antonio. “And what friend of ours from Brazil sent us this unusual flower? Rather, I think you purchased it in this very city, and brought it home and placed it very near the table where you do your writings, your translations.”
“No, a gift, I tell you. I don’t recall now when it came.”
“But I do. And it was only a short time ago, and at the very same time that you, my son, Lodovico, hit upon the idea that caviar would sharpen the attitude of your weakened brother.”
All this while the patient had watched these proceedings with horror. He’d glanced to the left at his father, to the right at his brother, he’d studied the priests when they spoke. He’d stared at me with piercing horrified eyes as I spoke.
And now he leaned forward and picked up the bowl of caviar in his quivering hand.
“No, don’t touch it!” I said. “Don’t let it near your eyes. It will burn them. Don’t you remember this?”
“I remember it,” said the father.
One of the priests reached for the dish, but the patient had set it down on the mount of brocade coverlets, and he stared at it, as if it had a life of its own, as if he were looking at the flame of a candle.
He lifted the small spoon in his hand.
His father suddenly seized it from him and threw the caviar to the side where it fell on the coverlet and stained it black.
Lodovico, before he could check himself, moved back from the bed where the caviar had spilled. He stepped backwards instinctively. And only then did he realize what he’d done. He looked up at his father.
He still held the dagger in his hand.
“You think me guilty of this?” he demanded