Eternity is not the inexhaustible sum of all the centuries, quite the contrary —it must surely be this absence of time. Absolute calm (which can be more than a little dull!).
I continue not to believe, neither in God, nor in humanity. Since Phantom died I have worshipped His spirit. I talk to Him. I believe He hears me. I believe this not through an effort of the imagination, still less intelligence, but by engaging another faculty entirely, which we might call unreason.
In a way I imagine eternity must be a little like a photograph (a place without time) of the good and bad times we have lived through. And thus, for eternity, we will be living through them for ever, Hell and Heaven at once. Those months I lived beside Fradique will be my Heaven, the time I lived as a slave to Gabriela Santamarinha my Hell.
God invented music so poor people could be happy.
