Chapter 7 Chapter 06 Grand's Secret

Dr. Rieux thought of this, and someone told him that Joseph Grand was coming.Although this city government employee holds many positions, he is often called to the statistics department regularly to manage the household registration.He thus had the opportunity to count the deaths, and he was so courteous that he had promised Rieux to send him a copy of the statistical report himself. The doctor saw Grand come in with his neighbor Cottard.Grand held up a list and told Rieux: "Doctor, the numbers are going up: eleven dead in two days." Rieux greeted Cottard and asked how he was feeling.Grand explained that Cottard would come to thank the doctor and apologize for the trouble he had caused him.But Rieux stared at the statistics table.

Rieux said: "It seems that it may be necessary to decide on the name of this disease. Until now, we have hesitated. Come with me, I will go to the laboratory." "Yes, yes," said Grand, following the doctor down the stairs. "Whatever it is, it should be called. But what is this called?" "I can't tell you, it won't do you any good anyway.'" "You see," said the clerk, smiling, "it's not that easy." They walked to the parade ground.Cottard remained silent.There are more pedestrians on the street.Here the short twilight is coming to an end, night is approaching, and stars are beginning to appear in the sky where the daylight has not ended.The street lamps were soon turned on, the sky seemed to be darkening, and the voices of the conversation seemed to raise their pitch.

In the corner of the parade ground, Grand said: "I'm sorry, I'm going to take the tram. My evening time is sacrosanct. As people in my hometown say: 'What should be done today must not be delayed tomorrow……'" Rieux had already noticed that Grand, who was born in Montélimar, had a habit of using idioms there, adding a few banal clichés without provenance, such as "dreamy hour" or "fairy lights" and so on. . Cottard said: "Oh, that's true. You can't drag him out of the house after supper." Rieux asked Grand if his work was for the municipality.Grand replied no, he did it for himself.

"Ah!" Rieux asked casually, "how is it going?" "I've worked on it for years, and I'm bound to gain something. But it can be said that there is not much progress" "What is it about in general?" Rieux asked after a pause. Grand adjusted his round cap over his large ears, and spoke indistinctly.Rieux vaguely heard something about the development of personality.By this time Grand had left them and was walking down the Rue Marne under the fig tree.When they reached the door of the laboratory, Cottard told the doctor that he would like to talk to him and ask some questions.Rieux, who was fumbling with the statistical form in his pocket, asked him to come to the clinic for an interview, then changed his mind, saying that he was going to Cottard's district tomorrow, so he could see him in the evening.

When the doctor left Cottard, he found himself thinking of Grand and imagining that he had been caught by a plague, not a trivial one like this one, but a historic one. "Such people are spared." He remembered reading in books that the plague often spared the weak and especially damaged the strong.Thinking, thinking, the doctor suddenly found that this civil servant seemed a little mysterious. At first glance, Joseph Grand was indeed a proper municipal clerk, and his appearance and demeanor fully indicated his status.He was tall and thin, and he wore dangling clothes, which he always purposely wanted to be extra-large, thinking they would last him longer.He still has most of his teeth in his lower gums, but the upper ones are all gone.When smiling, the upper lip is mainly raised, so the mouth looks dark.If you add the monk-like walking posture, the habit of sneaking in the door against the base of the wall, and the smell of cigarettes and alcohol on his body, as well as his lacklustre expression, then we can only imagine that this is a figure lying on the desk, with one heart and one mind. Checking the rates for bathrooms in town, or gathering references for new tax rates on trash removal for the young workers who compile the tax.Even an unbiased person could see that he seemed to be born to be a city assistant, earning sixty-two francs and thirty cents a day, doing those obscure but necessary jobs. .

This is how he filled in the "good at" column of his employment registration form.After he was admitted for a bachelor's degree twenty-two years ago, he had to drop out of school because of financial difficulties and accepted the job.It is said that at that time people once gave him the hope of "transferring to be officially hired" soon.Of course, it will take a period of assessment to prove that we have the ability to deal with some difficult administrative problems in our city.He was then assured of a position as a clerk in which he could live a more comfortable life.Of course, Joseph Grand did not do things out of the desire to become famous, which can be confirmed in his wry smile.But the prospect of being able to rely on legitimate means in exchange for a stable material life so that he can engage in his beloved work with a clear conscience is very yearning for him.Therefore, he accepted this assignment with an honest motive, which can also be said to be out of loyalty to his own ideals.

After many years, his temporary job has not changed, but the cost of living has risen sharply during this period.Although Grand's wages had several general increases, they were pitifully small.He had also complained in front of Rieux, but no one seemed to pay any attention to it.Here lies Grand's eccentricity, or at least one of his traits.He could have demanded, if not his entitlements--he was not sure of any--at least the fulfillment of past promises.But the leader who had hired him had been dead for many years, and he himself could not recall how the previous promise was made. In the final analysis, Joseph Grand lacked proper words.

It was this last characteristic which best characterized our compatriot, and Rieux could see it too.It is also for this reason that he has been unable to write an application he has been planning for a long time, or to wait for the necessary activities.According to him, the word "entitlement" is particularly difficult to utter, and he does not insist on it; nor is the word "promise" appropriate, since it would imply an obligation on the promisor and would not appear too Presumptuous, not commensurate with his humble position.On the other hand, he refused to use words such as "care", "request", "grateful" because he felt that such words were less than personal dignity.It is precisely because we have not found the right words that our compatriot continues to do this mediocre job until he is now old.Moreover, as he often said to Dr. Rieux, after a period of getting used to it, he found that his material life was finally guaranteed, as long as he lived within his means.The mayor—one of our town's industrial magnates—had a well-known saying, which Grand thought was true: In the end (the mayor puts a lot of emphasis on this word, because therein lies the whole truth), in the end , have never seen anyone starve to death.In short, although Grand's life was as hard as an ascetic's life, it "in the end" relieved him from this aspect of anxiety.He continued to refine his words.

His style of life, from a certain point of view, can be said to be worth learning.He has always had the courage to stand up for what is right, a man not often found in our town or anywhere else.In the few words he confided about himself there was a kindness and an empathy which, in this day and age, one dares not admit.He confessed without shame that he loved his nephews and his sister, the only family he had, whom he visited in France every two years.He did not deny the fact that his parents had died when he was very young, and thinking of them made him sad.He confessed that his favorite thing was to listen to the soft and moving bells in his district that came from his district at five o'clock every afternoon.Although the feeling is so simple, how much effort is needed for a single word!Inadequacy of expression is actually his biggest worry.Every time I met Rieux, I always said to him: "Oh! Doctor, I still have to learn how to express my heartfelt feelings."

In the evening, the doctor watched the civil servant go, and suddenly thought of what Grand was going to say: he was writing a book or something like that.Rieux walked, thinking, all the way to the laboratory, and this thought reassured him all the way.He knew it was foolish to have such an impression, but he would never have believed that with such austere civil servants whose hobbies were beyond reproach, the city could be hit by the plague.To tell the truth, he could not imagine such idiosyncrasies appearing in a plague-ridden environment, so he did not think that the plague would actually spread among our inhabitants.