“This is what I want to, that’s all.”
“This… what?”
“That you sit here and talk to me.”
Nico sighed and thought he understood. “It’s not what you think.”
He just raised his eyes from the cup to spy on him, but the man did not say anything to interrupt him.
“I didn’t mean to do any theft; I was just looking. I’m not a bum, a starved, nor a drug addict. I have a family! I was just curious, that’s all. I wouldn’t have done anything.”
The man smiled. “See? That’s what I meant. Just speak.”
Nico shook his head. “He did not understand. I do not need any help. I feel good. I’m fine, and I’m not a thief. You would have thought… but that’s not true. I understand that you care, you do it for my good, but it is not necessary.”
The man pulled out a cigar, in spite of the ban on smoking that stood right on top of him. A waiter noticed it but said nothing. Maybe they were accustomed. He passed it through his fingers with loving care, as if it were a precious commodity, so he spun it and turned it on.
“You don’t mind, do you?”
Nico hated them. Some of the worst memories of his life linked to the nauseating smell of cigars.
“No,” he replied.
The man stared at him for a few moments, then turned the cigar on the plate and looked back at him.
“The pipe?” He studied his reaction and seemed pleased. “Yes, let’s go for the pipe.”
He picked up the tobacco bag and a decorated pipe from his pocket and started filling it with care.
“Did you hear? Did you understand what I said?”
The man lit it, a long and complicated operation, and an aromatic smell invaded the environment. Nico had never felt anything like this, but he did not find it unpleasant.
“I have time,” said the man. “I have no hurry. For you is the same, right?”
“What?”
“You’re in no hurry to go home, right?”
Nico did not even look at the wall clock in front of the bar counter. He had an internal clock that was never wrong: it had to be almost eleven in the evening. No, he was not in hurry, but a good boy of his age, as he would have pretended to be, he ought to be.
“I must go home,” he said.
“Wait. Finish the ice cream.”
He did, and then put away the dish, as if he did not want another.
“So what do you want to talk about?”
The man raised an eyebrow.
“He said he wanted to talk; I’m here, let’s talk. Not about me, I do not want to talk about me. Who are you?”
Nico himself was amazed at his courage. He had been there for quite a while, and nothing had happened.
“What would you like to talk about?” asked the man.
“About you. You said that you live alone?”
The man chuckled. “You’re trying to know if it would be convenient to steal at my house.” Without giving him time to deny, he continued: “I never thought of it. Yes, I think so. I think it would be a good shot; you might find some bucks. Is that how it is said?”
“Did you finish waving your money in my face? What do you want?”
The man shrugged. “Nothing. I observe. I am a good observer.”
Nico frowned. “You observe me?”
“I look at the world. The others. You too are part of it.”
“And that’s all you do, observe?”
He puts down his pipe for a moment. “I have nothing to do; I have time. I just watch, yes.”
“What you did before is not called to observe.”
“Yes, sometimes I happen to interfere. But these are sporadic cases, I assure you.”
Nico shook his head incredulously. “A damn angel. Is this what you believe to be? Do you feel proud of what you did? And what do you think you did? Avoided a theft? Do you think you have brought me back on the right track?”
“Let’s say I kept you out of trouble. But only this time, I still cannot do miracles.”
“You are an asshole!”
He had not shouted, he said with a calm voice, but he believed it. Nico was tired; he could no longer stand the fact that everyone tells him what he was supposed to do, filling him with sermons. They were pieces of shit with a black conscience like coal. Even that had been a useless night. For a moment he had let himself be curious, he hoped that there was something different in that man. Mysterious. But he was wrong.
“Perhaps we started with the wrong foot, boy.”
“Nico,” he said, even though he could not understand why he was saying his name. Maybe because that man no longer frightened him, he had lost all his power.
“My name is Nico. And we did not start anything at all. Nothing happened; there is not much between us two.”
“I don’t think…”
This time he was interrupted by attacking. “You’re an asshole. An unnamed asshole. I told you mine, and if you were just a decent person with a minimum of education, you should do the same. Or don’t you think I am at your level?”
The man burst out laughing. “To think that until a little while ago I had to struggle to tear off a word from your mouth!”
He never mentioned his name, even on that occasion. “Who are you? Do you want me to ask you again?”
“You see who I am. I’m standing here, and I’m talking to you. My past? Do you want to know who I was? Who cares about the past, I asked about yours?”
“Why me? Why not bother a little girl? Or someone of your age, it would be even better.”
“Do you think I’m bothering you?”
“You do that, do you? Get people on the street. This is not the first time!”
“Uhm… yes sometimes it happens”, muttered the man.
“Why?”
He remained silent for a few moments, expelling a puff of smoke. “It can happen to meet someone special. Someone who I would love to know.”
Nico looked at him skeptically. “Me?”
“What’s wrong? Did I bother you?”
“You don’t know me. You don’t know anything about me. I won’t tell you anything.”
“That’s what you think. You’ve told me many things before. I think I know you well.”
“What would I have said to you? We almost did not speak!”
“And yet I feel like I know you. I know what you are, what you want. I know what you like and what you’re afraid of.”
Nico stepped back with his chair and started to stand up.
“You’re crazy, and believe me; I have a long experience of fools.”
“Where would you go?”
“Home! It’s time to go back home.”
The words of the man scared him. “You can’t. It’s too early; you can’t go home yet.”
He returned the fear of that strange man, who was still smoking the pipe. What he knew of him, of his life? He found the courage to ask him.
“You will pay… will you pay?”
He had no idea how much he had consumed, and he was not sure his money would be enough. The man remained silent, and then Nico turned and walked away.
“Stop, stop!”
But Nico didn’t stop. “Go away.”
“Stop pretending! If you wanted to leave, I would not find you here. You would have run like hell.”
Nico slowed down and felt the man approaching.
“Do you have a place to go tonight? You can come and stay at my house if you want.”
“I wouldn’t set foot in your house, not even dead!”
The man chuckled, approaching to his side. “You shouldn’t say such a thing. Sooner or later you will I am sure.”
“What do you know about me? What do you know?”
“I’m a good observer, I told you.”
“And what did you see?”
“You never checked the time, not even one time. You don’t have to go home; no one is waiting for you.”
“I have a house!”
&nb
sp; “Undoubtedly, I’m sure. But not tonight.”
“What do you know? I may have changed my mind and decided to return.”
“No, you can’t.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know why, but you can’t. Or should I say you don’t want? No, I think you can’t, it’s different.”
“Do you enjoy doing these little games with people?”
He chuckled. “To tell the truth yes.”
“And what else do you enjoy doing?”
“Nothing about what you imagine. After all, I’m an innocent type.”
Nico stood looking at him as if it were the first time. He saw it, as a person, and it wasn’t a common type. Prematurely white hair gave him a wise and mature look; his face always smiling instead rejuvenated him. He could not figure it out; he was different from anyone else he’d ever known.
“Do you think you know everything about life, right? And you’re terrified of it.”
Nico could no longer stand that man digging in him like that. It was disturbing. He shook his head. He passed him and accelerated.
“Not everyone is like this, Nico!” the man shouted after him. “They are not all as you think.”
Nico lowered his head, trying not to hear. Who was that crazy, what did he want from him, why did not he let him alone?
“It’s possible, I swear to you! Whatever you want is possible!”
But he didn’t want anything; there wasn’t anything that he wanted. Even if there were something, he did not realize. He just wanted to be left alone. He walked faster, and when he turned the corner, he began running. And he ran until he felt tired. Then he looked back over his shoulder.
He made it the man had disappeared. The nightmare was over.
Or maybe not. It was almost midnight. Nico did not know that city, he was afraid.
“Ah, it’s you!”
He had not even opened the door, just a slit; Nico could see the hooked chain.
“It’s too early? Is there still someone?”
His mother answered with a grunt, and then she closed the door, but opened it almost immediately, wide open.
“Come on, quick.”
Nico hurried inside. He glanced at the double bed and sighed relief, seeing him empty. Then he looked at the bathroom door, but it was closed and did not filter any light.
“There is no one, don’t worry,” said his mother closing the door. He heard her put back the chain.
Nico didn’t feel like talking. He wasn’t interested in knowing anything about his mother’s work and her customers. He hurried to the door of the storage room and began to untie the twine that blocked the mattress. Katia appeared on the door behind him.
“You can come over there with me. The bed is big enough for both of us.”
“It makes me sick!” he hissed Nico without looking back.
No slap came, unlike the other times. But it was true; he was disgusted. Those beds smelled of sperm and sex, could not stand the idea of lying where those men had been.
“Don’t worry; the bed is a virgin. That shitty bed is still a virgin.”
Hearing his mother laughing in that strange way, Nico turned his head. He gasped.
“What happened?”
Katia had a black eye and a cut on his head. Had a nasty bruise on her arm and her semi-transparent robe she wore allowed him to see injuries in various parts of the body?
“It was one of them?”
Katia shook her head, retreating. Nico followed her.
“Who?”
Katia shrugged, meaning she did not know, not even her.
“I went to the wrong place, it happens. Now I know I will not make the same mistake again.”
“What does it mean?”
“I’ve wandered into someone’s territory. It can happen when you arrive in a new city. This is not the first time.”
“Other… whores?”
She shook her head.
“Pimp?”
She spread her arms. “They surely did not come to tell me their names. They just gave me the advice to move away. And rather abruptly”, she sighed. “They took everything away. All I had earned.”
She looked at herself in the mirror. “And now how I can work?”
Nico went close and almost stretched his hand, but couldn’t touch her. It was a lot of time he could not do that anymore. She kept looking into the mirror, checking the bruises. Then she turned to look at him.
“You must be tired. Would you like me to prepare something for you?”
Nico shook his head.
She giggled. “Better, because we have nothing at home. We are without a penny, and now it’s even worse.” She glanced at him. “And to you, how did it go? Better than me, I hope.”
Nico felt uncomfortable and stepped back. He ran to the storage room.
“You can stay with me!” his mother yelled at him, in a tone almost appealing.
“No! I don’t want to!” Nico answered by closing the door.
“Excuse me.”
“What do you want?”
Nico thought he was wrong to get in there. Maybe it was a stupid idea. Maybe that man had also noticed that he had spied on his shop the night before.
Abdul was a middle-aged man and, although dressed in eastern European style, had a beard and a goatee that stood on his dark skin. The store was filled up until the ceiling of worthless junk.
“Do you have to sell something?”
Nico did not know how to start, Abdul put him in awe. Before entering the shop, he had waited until there were no other customers. He shook his head.
Abdul raised an eyebrow, skeptical. “Do you want to buy?”
Nico pointed out the house in front of the showcase. “That house there, do you know who lives there?”
Abdul leaned over to look, and then shifted his gaze to him, thoughtful. “Do you know him?”
Nico nodded.
Abdul went back to his desk, pensive. Nico waited, he had not given him an answer, on seeing that the man did not intend to talk, and he went on.
“Do you know him too?”
“Everyone knows him in the area. He has lived there since he was born. Longer than me.”
He was apparently reluctant to talk about him. But so far he had not been rude, and Nico needed to know a lot.
“How is he? Is he dangerous?”
“Dangerous,” Abdul murmured. “Have you had any problems with him?”
Nico sensed he made a mistake; he got into trouble. He improvised. “He offered me a job. I wanted to know more about him if you can trust him.”
The shopkeeper looked surprised. “A job? I would never have believed it! No one has set foot in that house since his mother died twenty years ago.”
“What’s he like?”
“Half crazy, if you listen to what they say around. With me, he has always been a perfect neighbor. He is a very kind man.”
“What does he do?”
“Nothing, he doesn’t need it. His mother left a lot of money to him. Or at least that’s what they say around.”
It wasn’t enough; it didn’t explain anything. Nico was still uncertain, confused.
“But what kind of person is he?”
“Did he offer you a job? What kind of work?”
Nico’s mind busy thinking. What job? Take care of the garden? That was not a garden! Waiter, bellboy. Commonplace, he would never believe him. He did not even know what that man did; he did not tell him anything about himself! Or maybe he did.
“Books! I have to put in order his collection of books!”
Abdul burst out laughing, and Nico felt the tension loosen. “Books, yes, his house is full of them! All he does is to buy new ones! Even me I sold some to him! No, don’t worry; it’s not a dangerous guy, despite what they say around. He is a true gentleman. You have no reason to worry.”
“Thanks,” murmured Nico, he escaped by a miracle and couldn’t wait to leave the shop.
“By the way…,” said Abdul,
then he started to mess about on a shelf behind him. “I just got these, which he had ordered to me. If you could bring them to him…”
They were just two books, and they looked old. Nico looked at them as if they were slimy slugs.
“I don’t have the money to pay. I haven’t…».
Abdul burst out laughing. “Don’t worry; he already paid them. You just have to bring to him.”
Nico sought a plausible excuse, could have said he had changed his mind and did not want to accept that job. But those books could be useful to him as they gave him an excuse to knock on that door. A reason a bit pathetic, yes, but better than nothing.
He nodded and watched Abdul pack them with care.
He took the package without a word, but once outside he felt the shopkeeper’s eyes on him. He was spying on him, to make sure he went through the road. Probably his recital had not convinced him.
In front of the gate, Nico wondered what he was doing, how much trouble it would be driven out by that. That man was confident he’d be in his house sooner or later. Was he playing a game? But what was it, what did he want from him?
The gate opened quietly just grazed, and after a few steps, he found himself in front of the door of the house. There he sought the courage to knock the door, but without success. When he was about to give up, the door opened by itself. The man was in front of him, smiling.
Nico was not even surprised, for he had admitted that this was his primary activity: to observe. He should have seen him get there.
The man bowed his eyes to the pack he held in his hand and took it with a sudden move.
“It is for me?”
Nico tried to answer firmly. “The pawnshop man in front gave them to me. They are books; he said you had ordered them.”
The man raised an arm with a greeting, and Nico thought that Abdul had probably spied on the showcase until then.
The man opened the door. “Come in, come on.”
In the end, he was there just for that, to enter the house. He could not stop right now. And then he had no choice.
“There!” pointed the man, showing him the way.
The Prison Page 2
