Tradotto dall’autore – Copyright: ©Paolo Giovannetti, 2024
Un incontro inaspettato durante la pandemia…
(Il racconto originale in italiano è stato pubblicato nella raccolta: “Hotel Belvedere e altri racconti”, self-published, Amazon KDP, 2023)
«May I help you, madam?»The grocery bag had opened and the oranges had spread at the entrance to the supermarket. Of the face, covered almost everything by the pink mask, only the eyes could be seen, brown, deep, long eyelashes. He had immediately noticed them. The rest: brown hair gathered behind the neck, a slender and well-proportioned body, underlined by black leggings, and a narrow white crew neck at the waist. Gino used to go to that supermarket downtown almost every day. He wore a green mask and a blue jacket and despite, his gray hair, he still looked youthful. On the form he had always carried with him since that epidemic had broken out, “situation of needs” was written.
«Thank you, very kind, but stay at a safe distance, you never know with this damn virus.» She had bent over to pick up the oranges but then immediately retracted, and as she spoke she was intuited to be smiling under her mask. Of course, people were living badly, always anxious to be infected and to risk fulminating pneumonia: physical distancing was the only defense as the media repeated every day. «Of course, you’re right, we have to be careful, but it remains a nice annoyance. You think the other day I met an old friend and barely recognized him by his voice.»
Gino had finished collecting and had left the bag on the ground near the owner. «The same thing happened to me and to think that until recently, in some places, it was forbidden to enter with your face covered for safety reasons, now it is mandatory to hide your face, the world changes quickly!»She had taken the bag, got up, and was about to leave a little uncertain when he asked her: «Where do you live, far from here?» She turned her brown eyes and adjusted her mask: «Not much, past the square up there.» «I am also living nearby but I have never seen you, it will be because before this plague I used to shop farther. Now you have to do everything quickly, without straying too far… do you want me to accompany you for a while? Always at a safe distance, of course!»
Gino began to have some doubts about the identity of the stranger, his voice, although modified by the personal protective equipment, reminded him of someone. Women can change looks and hairstyles… «All right, Gino, I recognized you almost immediately, even if it’s been a while. I am Ada your first love, certainly a little changed, I darkened my hair and I have a few kilos less, we lost sight of exactly twenty years ago, I got married and then separated, you know things that happen…»
He had the instinct to get too close but then he held back: «Seriously, Ada! You know I was about to recognize you, of course, it’s been a while, I got married too, but then I lost my wife in an accident and I was alone, no children.» The guard at the supermarket entrance was watching them, maybe they were too close. «I’m alone now too and my parents live in another town, impossible to see them in this situation.»
Then they both started in the same direction, crossing the deserted square with the pavement still damp with disinfectant, remaining more than a meter away.
Le Mie Storie 