In this moment, in one moment, everything changes. His skin is no longer slimy, but soft, other lips brush against mine. There’s a body in my arms, a human body.
The cavernous tree scream-witch is terrifying, the branches leave me instantly. I find myself on the ground, gasping for air. I hear the creak; antique wood falling apart behind me. Just looking.
The witch is dying. That restless spirit, that monster of rage and hatred, is ceasing to exist. The trunk of the oak seems to burst into a thousand pieces, the lymph nodule, red as blood. The roots are detached from the soil, crumbling.
The spell is broken forever.
Abandoning what remains of that monster to its destruction, and I watch Frog in front of me. His black eyes are fixed on mine and he smiles.
I am surprised, confused. Not what I was expecting, absolutely not, not a prince charming. How could he be? The witch was just the midwife of a small village, had no prince to bewitch, her hatred was directed towards those who had driven her off, who were the poor peasants. It was avenged, all right, but on their children.
Probably not the only one, but it’s the only one that has survived up to now. The only one who has perpetrated the curse, for centuries.
In front of me there is only one child: small, fragile, and naked. He can be seven years old, eight at most, and the look that I addressed you love, adoration. There is so much joy in his eyes, so much happiness.
No, it’s not prince charming, but do not feel any disappointment. I’ve never tried any prince, after all, I already have Mario that loves me.
The child tries to raise, to walk, but he can’t. Then jumps out to me, just like a frog, and launches, clings to my neck and shakes in an embrace. I can feel his head leaning on my shoulder, and talks. With effort, one word, almost inaudible, a word which comes from a remote past, yet is universal. A word about to change my life forever.
“Mom!”
November 2009
RABBIT
Translation by Talida Mantegna
“Here. It’s perfect!”
Andrea put his arm around her waist and bent down to kiss her. Lisa’s lips were soft and damp, a paradise that was about to open only to him.
They were on a glade in the middle of trees, In the thick of the woods. They had been walking for a long time, hand in hand, and even tighter, exploring each other without words.
As soon as Andrea saw that place he realized it was perfect, the ideal place to stop.
Hidden by the bushes, illuminated by the sunlight that was crossing the trees. He would soon see her naked, finally, in all her splendor.
Lisa was the most beautiful girl in the school, the most intelligent, the most spirited, and he was a true, tall, muscular athlete who was collecting medals continuously.
It had been almost an obligation for them to become a couple.
Andrea laid a tablecloth on the ground, even though he did not have any intentions to make a picnic. The only thing he wanted to eat was Lisa. See her undressing, and then becoming his, completely his.
A distant laughter distanced him from his thoughts.
Andrea twist a lip. “Wait.”
Lisa sat down on the tablecloth, then lay down and smiled. A smile full of overtones. “Do not take long.”
Andrea walked through some bushes and, not far away, found another glade, broader. With a large green field. He saw children playing.
Some of them ran here and there, shaking their arms up and down. Andrea shook his head, feeling too big to act in that absurd way.
He looked at them again for a moment, without being noticed, then he went back.
Those children would not be a problem, absolutely no. They would try to make as little noise as possible, even though he doubted they would hear them in any case. And if they had seen them, what would have been wrong with them? They would only have an accelerated course of sexual education. Certainly, they would not be sorry.
He had a mischievous smile in his face when he reached Lisa. She noticed. “What did you see?” He knelt beside her and put a hand on her arm, caressing her soft skin. “I saw you.”
Then he bent down and kissed her.
The little girl was sitting on the ground with her legs crossed, watching the other four running and laughing.
She was the smallest, the others were all taller, they were about ten years old.
“Enough!” she shouted. “I’m bored.”
The games blocked. The guys were still laughing, trying to get back serious, then turning to her. They were males, all four, and ran in bizarre ways, as if they were pretending to be birds.
Marco and Sandro were schoolmates, and they just finished to attend fourth grade. Michele was Sandro’s younger brother and had a year less than him. The last one, Luke, was the smallest of all, and he also seemed younger. She was actually Michele’s schoolmate.
They swirled all four around the little girl sitting in the middle of the field. They laughed again.
She looked annoyed. “Enough! Stop it!”
They slowed down and slowly stopped.
She invited them by widening their arms. “Sit down.”
They sat down one after the other, cross-legged, just like she did. A couple were giggling again.
She studied them one by one, thoughtful, then decided. “Let’s play another game.”
Now nobody laughed, they began anxious. Michele dared to talk. “But this is cool. It’s funny.”
The little girl snorted. “I don’t have fun anymore.”
She was strange, with those braids tied by red ribbons, and that white dress all lace and crochet. She looked like a doll. She did not look more than seven or eight years. Her voice was lamentable, but her eyes were watchful, black wells that never left the four little boys.
“What do you wanna do?” asked the bigger Marco.
And she: “I wanna play Rabbit.”
They looked at each other, confused. The discomfort was slowly coming up, because that word had raised concern. Marco braved and asked: “Could we do another game?”
She screamed: “Rabbit! I said rabbit! I want to play rabbit!”
All eyes lowered and stared at the bottle pouring in front of the little girl. A green, empty, dirty glass bottle.
She impressed it with the movement and the bottle began to rotate.
It turned around, turned around, turned around, and everyone’s eyes followed it.
Only she disinterested, preferring to study the expressions of her companions. She saw them hold their breath.
Then the bottle slowed down and stopped shortly.
In front of Luke.
Now the child seemed even smaller, he clutched on himself. He did not speak, he said nothing.
“You’re the rabbit”, said the little girl.
Then she looked up at the other three. “And you are the dogs!”
Luca was quick, jumped up, stepped back and ran.
The little girl ordered, “Dogs! Take the rabbit!”
The three children jumped to their feet.
Luca had already crossed half a lawn, and ran looking behind.
The three children started chasing, with gloomy eyes, yowling.
Luca ran, desperate, without saying a word.
Andrea was shirtless and Lisa’s blouse lay on the tablecloth. She was wearing a bra and Andrea was trying to unfasten it. But he was inexperienced and too busy to kiss her.
The contact with her body excited him crazy, so he could not unhook it in any way.
Lisa seemed to have fun, seeing him clumsy, and tossed him even more, embracing him and caressing him. Her hand went down more and more.
It was at that moment that a crazy train seemed to overwhelm them.
Actually, it was only a child who had jumped out of the bush and was plunged between them. He stomped the tablecloth, hooked his foot to Lisa’s blouse, almost stumbled, recovered the balance at the last instant, and released it with a kick.
Lisa was astonished. “What?�
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Andrea, interrupted in that crucial moment, was less prepared than the girl: he felt confused, he just did not understand what was happening.
Then the invasion was complete.
Three little kids came from nothing. Two plunged directly into them, but they were fast enough to avoid them. A third went around the bush and appeared to their right.
Andrea became furious. Not against them, but to himself. He knew that they were there, he had seen them. They should not have stopped there. He got up and shouted, “Go play on another side!”
No one listened to him.
The first, the smallest one, was still running, turning on constantly. That’s why he stumbled and rolled to the ground.
The other boys conversed with him without slowing down. None of them despised apologizing to the two lovers for that invasion. They ignored them beautifully.
“Send them away!” Lisa shouted. Then she looked horrified what looked like a rag on the ground. “My blouse!”
Walking on her four paws, she reached her. She took her hand disgusted. “Nooo!”
Andrea went to the four boys. “Did you hear me? Go away! You have all the wood available! Move.”
It was as if he had not even spoken, no one listened to him.
The smallest, back on the ground, backed back like a shrimp, then turned and crawled. He saw a fallen trunk and tried to reach it, to hide under it.
The others hurled. The greatest, which was also the fastest, came to his shoulders and grabbed him for his shirt, almost snapping it off. Then he grinned and bite his naked shoulder.
Another hurled on his legs and bite his thigh.
The boy made a chilling cry as the crawling of a chalk on a chalkboard.
Andrea was paralyzed, open mouth. Lisa abandoned for a moment her attempt to clean her blouse and turned to look at them. “What are they doing?” she asked.
They were biting him, almost as they wanted to eat him.
Andrea was horrified. He saw the trail of blood on the baby’s back and even on his thigh. He kept launching those strange screams.
The third came as well, and he drove into the pile.
Lisa had leaped up and was looking incredulous. When Andrea stepped forward, he shouted, “No! Stay away! Do not immerse yourself!”
But Andrea had already launched. He had always considered the good, the hero, the champion. He would soon go to college and had a sports career ahead of him. He was strong, really strong. So he could not escape to intervene, he would lose the respect for himself.
He reached the heap and grabbed the first little boy he had. He coughed at the last one. He pushed him away with ease, then grabbed the bigger and there he was upset. The baby had a deep bite on his shoulder, and his assailant mouth wide open and his teeth dirty with blood.
He threw him, with strength, horrified. The boy flew into a tree.
Then he kicked the third, but he did not seem willing to give up. He was biting the baby’s thigh, screaming. He also looked like a monster, his face splashed with blood.
Andrea seemed to have fallen into a nightmare, no longer knowing what to do.
Far away, Lisa kept shouting. “Let it be, do not care!” Then added something absurd: “They only play!”
He raised his eyes to answer her and immediately someone jumped over him, behind. He was the first kid he had rejected. He felt his teeth sink into his neck and began to bend over his side, trying to scroll it out.
The wounded child continued to crawl to the ground, clinging to every tip, trying to reach the hide under the trunk, but the remaining aggressor was still attached to his thigh and kept biting him, screaming at him.
Even the little boy he had thrown against the tree resumed and jumped over to Andrea. He felt a painful bite on his naked flank and shouted.
At that point he got angry, pulled a fist at the boy’s head that had sunk his teeth in his flesh, then, seeing that he had not achieved any results, he pulled others up until he saw him roll on the ground. Then he continued to shake himself and rolled back against a trunk. The one clinging to his back was crushed and yelp.
Andrea finally managed to get rid of him.
Lisa had not moved, and in return she kept complaining. “What are you doing! They are children! You’re hurting him! We can go somewhere else!”
Andrew took advantage of that moment of respite and drove toward the child who was dragging on the ground. He grabbed it under the armpits and raised it, pulling at the same time a kick in the face of the aggressor he was still biting.
He raised the child as high as possible and put him on his shoulder.
Lisa looked like a broken disk. “What are you doing? Let him go!”
They had taken all three, and they were encircling them.
They were impressive, so covered with blood. The blood of their prey had mingled with what was flowing from the wounds they had reported. They snarled, just like animals.
Andrea stepped back toward Lisa, always clutching that kid in his arms.
She became hysterical. “Leave him! Leave it right now! Don’t care, come on!”
Andrea did not have time to listen to her. The boys were still willing to attack him, but he had proved to be the strongest and had already hurt him. Still, they did not seem ready to desist, waiting for the right time, something that would have given them an advantage.
Andrea shouted, without turning: “Let’s go! Soon! Let’s go back to the motorcycle!”
Lisa did not understand, or did not want to understand. She wore his dirty blouse and tried to snap it, then picked up the tablecloth.
Andrea reached her as she was bending it and gave her a boost. “Way, I said! Run, stupid!”
Lisa looked at him offended, then saw the baby in her arms, all trembling with her eyes wide in terror. She also saw the bites, and the blood he was losing.
She turned back disgusted and only then did she notice that those three boys surrounded them.
“Give him to them!” she yelled hysterically. “If they want it, give it to them! We have nothing to do, they are done!”
Andrea was doubly ill, for Lisa was not the princess he had dreamed of, and because those hungry beasts around him were just babies. Children different from any other he had ever known, but still children, and he did not know what to do.
He shook the little boy he held in his arms. “Who they are? Do you know them? Why do they have it with you?”
He only emitted a strange scream, when he touched him. He was upset, so shocked not to think anymore. Andrea could understand it, but he would like some answers.
“Stay next to me”, he told Lisa. “Let’s try and get away.”
Lisa did not want to know, she had already moved away from them. “I do not want to have anything to do with it! Let him stay and go away with me!”
Nobody looked at her either. The three boys only pointed to Andrea and his guarded.
Lisa moved away even further, shaking her arms, hysterically. “I’m leaving! I do not want to know anything! Anything!”
Andrea looked at her incredulously, then the astonishment left place to the disappointment, and the disappointment with the disgust. “Lisa!” he called.
She kept back, shaking her head. “And you should do it too! Put that baby up and get away! Come with me!”
Those terrifying little kids were getting closer and more and Andrea did not have time to talk to Lisa.
They faked to attack him, forcing him to retreat. When he could, he raised his eyes again but Lisa had disappeared. She left him there.
He still shook the baby. “Who they are? What do they want?”
At that instant, the three attackers threw themselves at the same time.
He felt pushed against the bush and lost the balance. He fell to the ground. The boy shouted, because someone had attached to his leg and started to bite his calf.
Andrea was crushed by their weight. He tried to protect himself with one arm and the bigger sank his teeth in his f
lesh. Andrea started screaming.
The third was pointing at his throat.
Andrea had gone mad with pain and fear. What did those kids do? Were they affected by some illness? Were they infected? Did they have anger? Could they infect him too? He was still trying to think rationally, to cling to logic.
In the end, he started to punch them, without further reasoning. They continued to bite and he filled them with fists. He struck blindly, where he was. He heard them yelp.
He could not stop anymore. He continued to beat them.
Suddenly he found himself free, no one was bothering him anymore. He saw them drag away, two of them, injured. Then he noticed that the third was still there, above him.
Immobilized, with his face covered with blood. He recognized him: that was what he had dragged from him to his throat and repeatedly struck in the face.
His nose was crushed, some broken teeth. He also noticed a fractured cheekbone and his jaw hanging strangely.
Andrea screamed desperately and shook him, but that body did not give signs of life.
A child! He had killed a child! Andrea felt crazy. Whatever the reason was, he had killed a child and his life was now destroyed. All his dreams, his hopes. Why did he do such a thing? He was strong, much stronger than they, so why does he get violent in that way, then?
He started crying, desperate, and embraced that lifeless body, reduced to a puppet in his hands.
They arrived. They jumped from behind, sinking their teeth in his back. Andrea screamed with pain.
They pulled it fiercely, as if they wanted to eat it. And while they bit, they growled.
“Angry dogs!” Andrea shouted. He bent his shoulders, frantically, to get rid of them. “Cursed bastards!”
He could turn around and find them in front.
There was nothing human in them, they were covered with blood, their teeth grizzled, with a look of pure hatred.
He continued to punch them, and when one of them tried to escape, he grabbed him and crushed him to the ground. He could not stop, hit him on his back and hips.
As long as he did not move anymore.
Then he stopped, panting, looking horribly at his dirty hands.
The Prison Page 21
