The Rise and Fall of Comrade Zylo

1.

Everything had become clear. That slender curtain of doubt was torn. Araniti was officially informed that he was to be promoted to the post held by comrade Zylo.The people congratulated him for the new post, expressing their pleasure with a lot of praise. Araniti, self-controlled and as always cold-blooded, thanked them and left with his eyebrows knitted. Comrade Zylo was handing over his dossier, explaining the instructions and plans .He was trying to be calm and friendly .He did not want to have any new conflicts with this tough person in these last moments. Conflicts in these cases are of no utility; they only cause trouble. Hence, the advice he was giving to Araniti was careful, well-thought-out, and tactful. How careful was comrade Zylo! He could have left without giving any advice and without showing so much care. Nothing! I am leaving! Good luck, Aranit, in your future job waiting here for you! But no, comrade Zylo could not leave without advising the new clerks. He was tormented about how things would go in the place he had directed himself, in the place where he had put so much effort, had shed sweat and left a part of his mind.

After having done all the hand-over to Araniti, he called me and told me to prepare a short speech, that he would deliver at the cocktail party organized in the reunion hall to honor him as he left his post .He told me where I had to concentrate and added:

-I want it to be sketched around only four or five topics, and then I will extend it myself as I speak…

-Ok, comrade Zylo,-I said.

Then, he took down from the shelves the books he had brought from home and those he had checked out from the library, put them on the table, sighed deeply and said:

-So many years, Demkл, so many years! A man feels sorry to leave his job!…It is not little effort we put in this, it is not little sweat we shed!

Comrade Zylo called the cleaning lady and showed her the books .She understood. She should take the books to his house a few at a time, because they were a lot. Most of them were in a hard cover, thick, in foreign languages and the rest were in the mother tongue.

When the cleaning lady went out, he looked at the books moved.

- Demkл, I could have left them to Araniti, but he does not know these languages and would keep them only to decorate the shelves. But I had never liked to see the book as a piece of furniture. The book does not fall in the category of usual belongings. It seeks to move. If you leave it there, sedentary, you commit the worst sin ever and deserve a curse for it. Do you understand, Demkл?

-It is like that, -I said.

-If I leave them to Araniti, I will destroy him, because he will be cursed. I am not a believer. I believe only in books. But let us understand each other: there are books that can never be trusted.

Comrade Zylo shook his hands off the dust of the books and papers he was taking out of the drawers. Holding his hands away form the suit he was wearing, he stared at the walls of his office and the table in the shape of a big T.

-How many debates have we had at this table! But why have we had so many debates, Demkл? In vain? For the sake of work, of progress!

Afterwards he sat on the chair. He held his beard on the palm of his hand and looked out of the window. These were the moments when comrade Zylo was thinking and I did not dare break the thread of his thoughts. And what other thoughts could comrade Zylo have, besides those for the future of the sector he had directed for such a long time?

But the thread of those thoughts was interrupted by the phone