Treating With Silence Chapter 22

I nodded -- then I found something in the painting that I hadn't noticed before. I leaned forward and looked carefully. In the background of the painting was a table with a bowl of fruit on it -- a pile of apples and pears. On the red apples were some indescribable little white spots -- slippery white stuff that had gotten into the fruit or stained it. I pointed at these things.

"these are...?"

"Maggots?" Jean-Felix nodded. "Yes."

"Incredible. But I don't know what it means."

"It's amazing. A masterpiece. It really lives up to its name." He sighed, looked at me from the other side of the painting, and as if afraid Alicia could hear him, he lowered his voice and said to me, "It's a pity that you didn't know her at the time. She is the most interesting person I have ever met. You know, most people don't really live their lives - they are like sleepwalking through their lives. Alicia lived passionately and unrestrainedly... It's hard not to look at her." He turned his head to the painting and looked at Alicia's naked body: "It's so beautiful."