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There is who smiles at the owner for fear that
the dog jumps on himself. And there is also who smiles at the dog
for respect towards the owner. Fortunato belonged to this second
human type.His longing to be pleasant was so much that he learnt
to "wear every suit" naturally.He always succeeded in
being emboied in the idea that the others had of him. For this
reason he felt loved and could have sweet dreams. But that day
the fate had a nasty joke for him.Someone asked him
unintentionally to be what he couldn't ever be. Perhapes himself,
who knows.
Finally, when at this point he was sure to be on the wrong road,
he saw the junction with the stone-madonna. He turned and found
in front of him a slope with the asphalt disconnected. Up on the
left, surrounded by poplars, appeared a monumental convent, as
austere as the face of an old man. Without stopping Fortunato
looked at the map drawn with a pencil on a paper,slackened the
speed and went through a steep mule-track, just on the right. He
closed the windows because the wind was blowing the dust raised
by the wheels. Behind that dust the sun turned yellow. A dry
shrub bounced off the bonnet and flew away. At any moment he was
waiting for a big melted-iron gate, with red-granite little
pillars.
It appeared right behind a bend, it was opened and Fortunato ran
across tha path that separated it from the house. Arriving in the
courtyard he was sure to find someone waiting for him and got
disappointed finding himself alone in front of an old
green-wooden main door,partially covered by ivy.No bell but a
simple clapper with the head of a lion. He felt the sensation
that the sound reverberated along the walls. He waited for some
minutes while the evening was now taking its shape. A creaking
and the door was opened by a little girl who, with a faint voice,
asked him to follow her and took him into a room. Looking around
he waited for the arrival of the Mother Superior engaged in the
college. He wasn't at his ease in an atmosphere so austere and
far from his world, but he needed to work and the offer to look
after the garden, in exchange for free room and board with a
small pay in money, seemed good to him. The Mother Superior' s
arrival confirmed the cold feeling he felt crossing the main
entrance. He was greeted very kindly but he didn't see a sign of
smile on that face. Since it was late sister Agnese let him be
taken to the caretaker's house where he would live, on his own.
The little girl herself drove him through a long corridor to the
kitchen and, once opened the door, pointed to him a little house
just outlined in the darkness. He ran over the park, imagining it
full of colours with the day-light, and in short arrived in front
of the house. The background was comfortable: a small
living-room, a kitchenette, a bedroom and a bathroom.
The following day Fortunato was called from the Mother Superior
and it was said to him which job he had exactly to do. The
house's courtyard turned out as a surprise for the variety of
plants in it and he was happy to have accepted that job. Passing
the kitchen Fortunato met sister Letizia, the cook, who gave him
something for breakfast. He had the chance to know that the house
accepted a college for children.
He went around on patrol and started to work trimming the
rhododendrom's hedge, because the branches were invading the
small pass. The pruning took a long and it was almost lunch-time
when he finished to clean tha path from the out branches. Once
crossed over the lawn, that separated him from the house, his
attention was drawn to a noise coming from behind the hedge, he
approached and saw a crouched kid swinging and singing a
sing-song whose words he couldn't understand. Fortunato
recognized sister Letizia's voice calling him and made his way
towards the kitchen. He ate with very good taste and, once drunk
the coffee, came back to work without thinking about the kid ha
saw anymore.
He spent the rest of the day between mimosas, birch and
roses,admiring the beauty of the waterlily in a pond placed in
the center of the big park. The days looked full of thingh to do
and their rhythm was scanned by the ringing at lunch-time and by
the darkening which didn't allow to work in the open-air.
On the fifth day, coming back home, once watered several hedges,
Fortunato listened again to that muttering which attracted him
the first day. This time it came from the stairs taking to the
secondary entrance. After arriving he saw that child; perphapes
he was ten: tiny, pale, with blond and curly hair. He was sitting
on a step and swang repeating always the same sound. He called
him, but the kid didn't ever raise his head. He listened to tha
stairs' door opening and sister Letizia appeared, calling the
child: Francesco.
Both they came back home and Fortunato still had to do the same
thing. But that evening he couldn't refrain from thinking about
that little boy, while he was trying to watch TV. He wondered why
a so handsome baby held aloof and why, then, he swang in that
way.
The following day, once awake, he went to sister Letizia, to know
something about Francesco: he was orphan, he had been living
there since he was three and was affected by autism. Everybody
was in difficulties to communicate with him and so he greated his
own world. They tried to impose him a different way of living but
he refused, kicking and biting everyone around him and himself,
too, so they let him live as he wished. Fortunato felt sad, He
went out to go to look after a hybiscus' plant.
While he was working, he tried to imagine a world as lovely as
Francesco's one and he couldn't belive a person could live apart
in that way, even if the kid suffered to have lost his parents,
feeling neglected. He was visited by a lot of doctors and went
through with several therapies, but without achieving any
improvement. In the following days Fortunato had the chance to
watch him from far off, to don't disturb him, but also for the
incapability to stay near him, for fear that Francesco could hit
or scratch him as he did with everyone who bothered him. Inside
himself he didn't feel safe and said to himself that it wasn't
his matter, he had been there for too short time to face up to
that situation: if neither the nuns dealt with it so much, why
did he have to?
Fortunato, that morning, woke up soon with a pleasant feeling on
account of the lovely day, after a week spen between the rain and
the overcast and threatening sky. He devoted a long time in
trimming the hedge bordering the college's wall. Suddenly he
listened to a noise from a spot not vety far from him, he
approached and hold out his hands behind the hedge: someone bit
his hand that at once, scared, he drew back. He looked carefully
between the leaves and saw a little puppy, he tried to let him
out but achieved just to be bitten again. He ran to the house and
took a bowl of milk, put it on the ground near the hedge and went
off a little bit to see if the puppy would go out of his hiding
place. After a moment of hesitation, the dog came up to the bowl
and started to lick the milk. He did it keeping on looking at
Fortunato and every time he tried to drew near, he moved back.
Once finished the first bowl, he poured again other milk. The dog
restarted to drink, but without looking suspicious anymore, so he
let Fortunato stroke him. He followed him to the main entrance.
He wavered in going in, afterwards let every fear drop: since
then he became Fortunato's shadow. Sometimes they didn't
understand each other and Fortunato found himself with some
little bites on his hands, but he was glad to have found company.
He called him Cicca and it seemed that the dog accepted the name.
The days went by while he was teaching him some games: now he
could bring back small pieces of wood which Fortunato threw him
during the break. Cicca grew up and gained more and more the
appearence of an adult dog: he had to be a sort of german
sheepdog, with black and glossy hair.
It appeared at dawn in a rainy morning that Fortunato woke up for someone knocking at the door. Still dazed from the sleep he went to open: it was sister Letizia talking nervously. They couldn't find Francesco anymore: the bed was stripped and nobody saw him going out. Fortunato joined the nuns to look for the kid, keeping on to the evening without any result: Francesco disappeared without leaving a trace.
Where could he go? Why did he go away? The
darkness hindered the search. In a quiet moment Fortunato noticed
that, since he got up with a rush that morning, he didn't see
Cicca. Of course he was so busy in looking for Francesco that he
didn't fay attention to it, but now he wondered where did the dog
end up. They decided to start again the child's search: it was
assigned to everyone an area and to Fortunato fell the one
surrounding his house. Excluding to find Francesco inside the
house, he took to rummage between the bushes bordering the
woodstre's wall. The darkness and tha rain didn't make the things
easier. Fortunato was coming back home, when he listened to a
barking and thought about Cicca. He went near the woodstore and
opened the ajar door, he found the dog suqtted down a heap of
sawdust, wet and cold. He approached and, heartfelt, caressed
him. The dog looked at him grateful but with an unexpected
movement got up and went near a pile of wood. Fortunato followed
him and looking in the darkness saw Francesco's blond curls: the
kid had wet clothes, he trembled and had a part of the pile
collapsed on his legs: he couldn't move and he was looking at
him, scared. He couldn'tcry for help because he didn't utter a
word sine a long time and even now he couldn't say anything to
Fortunato, he looked at him silently, sometimes lowering his
eyes.
Recovered from the surprise, he went near the child, caressed his
curls and tried to comfort him with his look. Suddenly Francesco
gave a big smile and for the first time he saw the kid's eyes
shining. Little by little Fortunato removed all the wood setting
his legs free but he realized that Francesco couldn't move.
Fearing a fracture, he tried to blockade his leg with two wooden
splints and with his shirt, once made some slips of it, then he
held him in his arms, for fear that the child refused the contact
with him: in great surprise he found his neck surrounded by
Francesco's tiny arms.
Soon he took him to the nuns. It was called the
doctor who noticed a considerable contusion on the right leg but
declared there were no fractures, he gave a light sedative to the
kid in order that he could have a rest and recover from the bad
adventure. Tired for that endless day everybody went to sleep.
Fortunato came back to look at Francesco, he kept vigil at a part
of his sleep and fell asleep next to him. He awoke at daybreak
and found the child's little hand near his: they just skimmed
along. Francesco opened his eyes and looking at him turned
another smile. Then it happened that Fortunato started to cry
thinking he had to leave the college, the job and Francesco.
The following day while he was going off along the trodden track,
he saw the big gate closing behind his back. Still before
arriving at the road-fork with the stone- Madonna he caressed
Cicca, and gave a big smile looking at the driving mirror: he was
bringing much more than the company of a dog.
© Ginevra 1997
