The Last Samurai

Then they went into the town to have breakfast. They talked about this and that and from time to time the man would observe that his hands were tied and Red Devlin would agree that they were. At 9:00 the man suddenly remembered why he had given his driver the day off. He began to laugh, and he said a lot of things to Red Devlin which he left to the imagination when he later told the story in ‘My Biggest Mistake’. Then he called his secretary on his mobile to tell her he had food poisoning and could not make his meetings. He hung up and (as he explained in ‘My Biggest Mistake’) said some more things to Red Devlin until the air literally turned blue. He pointed out that Red Devlin did not know the first thing about business and Red Devlin agreed that he did not. The man said My hands are tied and Red Devlin said Your hands are tied.

They walked around the town. There was a wall along the seafront with some rocks at the bottom, and a village green a few feet across. They went back to the field and saw mothers with small children; they went away for lunch and when they came back they saw boys playing football. The man said it was too late to go back. Red Devlin agreed that it was too late to go back. But even though it was too late to go back the field was developed in a much more modest way than originally planned, and though the businessman knew he was every kind of fool he cancelled the supermarket and improved the site only by adding a set of goalposts and some swings and slides. Later the man would occasionally have a drink with Red Devlin and reminisce about Wales and turn the air blue again for old times’ sake.

I remembered this story and I remembered stories about really terrible people Red Devlin had known. There was a story no one knew much about, only a few details had come out after the man in question had been found stabbed to death in a Bangkok canal, and there was a story about a man who had owned a carpet factory in Pakistan a man who prided himself on the quality of his carpets naturally he regretted the necessity but the fact was if you did not use children you did not get the same quality he was a simple businessman his hands were tied and yet one day he set aside the business habits of a lifetime.

I was down to my last chip when I thought I knew what to say.

I said: What if a person was doing something terrible because everybody else did it or anyway some people did it, and then they stopped even though everybody else was doing it and it was dangerous to stop? Wouldn’t that be a dazzling act of goodness?

He said: It could be.

I said: But in that case don’t you see that all the time? Or couldn’t you if you wanted? I thought

I didn’t know how to go on, I was embarrassed to mention all the insane things people had done because they’d talked to Red Devlin.

Red Devlin didn’t say anything. He looked at me, and then he looked at two or three people walking by, and then he looked at the ground.

After a while he said

All I have to do is open my mouth.

He said

That’s what I thought when I was locked up I thought I had to get out because otherwise—

He walked on for a while and then he said

—and when I got out I saw that was what everybody thought they were waiting for me to—

He stopped suddenly on the pavement. He looked at me and he said:

Open Sesame.

I said What?

He said Open Sesame. Here I am back at last to say Open Sesame so people who were just doing what they had to do because everybody has to do what they have to do because everybody is waiting for somebody to say Open Sesame and it’s not a thing that just anybody can say so here I am and I’m saying it and they can stop

I said: I just meant that there was a possibility

He said: That people will do something if they hear the magic words? Or that they will by miraculous dispensation do without the magic words?

I said: That’s not fair. Suppose you were born into a society

He said: Most people are

I said: A slaveowning society

He said: A society of slaves

I said: All I meant was

He said: I liked the Bad Samaritan better. I suppose a Good Samaritan sleeps better nights.

We had turned into his street again, and now he talked to me patiently. He had been saying things that he wanted to say but now he said things he didn’t especially want to say but which he thought would make me sleep better nights. He said patiently