Beyond The Horizon E-Book

Vito Favia

• Herausgeber: Youcanprint
• Kategorie: Sachliteratur, Reportagen, Biografien
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

1993, summer. Final exams are over and Vito has to decide what to do with the rest of his life. He chooses to join the Arma, the Armed Forces. He ends up in Benevento, where he attends the Scuola Allievi Carabinieri Ausiliari, the School of Student Carabineers. Afterwards he is sent to a village he really doesn’t want to go to. He is sent to the Stazione Carabinieri di Satriano di Lucania. He is unhappy and lonely about that, but there’s nothing he can do to change things. He faces Fate and leaves home, headed to that small village. He experiences many unforgettable moments and he builds an extraordinary relationship with the Marshal. Their friendship is deep and true, and it grows more intense each day. The Marshal, coming from that very same village, seems to be able to read Vito’s mind. He teaches him what bravery is and he helps him in reaching his dream. He is a role model. “Promises are made not to be broken”, he says. On his graduation day, Vito will have to remember that. Beyond The Horizon, there’s something that can change your life.

Leseprobe

INDICE

PREFACE

1. Summer, 1993

2. The School of Student Carabineers

3. The Oath and the Cresima

4. Final exams and a new start

5. To Satriano di Lucania

6. The First Day

7. Meeting Donato and a couple of important calls

8. The Marshal: his life and my being shy

9. A major accident and a few connections

10. Graffiti, feelings and sleepless nights

11. A tour about the station

12. Becoming a Marshal and moving to Viggiano

13. Brienza and my friendship with Giampiero

14. San Rocco and the end of summer

15. The Marshal’s leave

16. Christmas

17. An awkward story and a refusal

18. The Leave

19. An unexpected gift

20. My graduation and my traineeship

21. An awkward click

22. Officer in ferma prefissata: a new oath

23. Applying for permanent service

24. Up on the hills

Vito Favia

Beyond The Horizon

“A true story”

Youcanprint Self-Publishing

Title | Beyond The Horizon

Author | Vito Favia

ISBN | 9788892648364

© All rights reserved by the Author

No part of this book may be reproduced without the prior permission of the Author.

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To my father who left us too soon but keeps watching over me.

To Marshal Gerardo Sausto, whose affection I cherish and whose courage I admire. Thank you for everything you have been teaching me.

PREFACE

I couldn’t let the chance that I was offered slip through my fingers. Captain Vito Favia, when giving me a copy of his book as a gift, was well aware that he was giving me something precious. I read the story at once and savoured each and every word of it.

It was an amazing one that has taken me very far both in space and time. It was like being finally hit by a ray of light on the very first summer day, on top of a mountain. I was taken aback in many ways. I could picture the places the story was set in and go back to a time when I was younger.

Though the novel was set in my hometown, I felt like seeing it for the first time, because I was looking at every inch of it through the eyes of someone else, someone who didn’t quite belong there. The village was a small and unknown one. When Vito Favia first came here, he had just become a carabineer and this place was like a death sentence to him. He just didn’t get the village nor its pace. But in the end things became familiar to him and, to an extent, beautiful. The charm of this place hit him. Things were finally coming alive to his eyes as well.

This book is about relationships. People making friends, people getting to really know each other. The young carabineer and the Marshal of the station clashed since the very beginning, but as time went by they became way more than acquaintances. They became true friends and started valuing each other. In the end, their paths separated.

This book is a beautiful fresco that shows the wonders of this place. It’s a portrait of life, as vivid as it can be. It’s a moving and compelling story. It’s a true story.

Michele Miglionico

Major of Satriano di Lucania

1Summer, 1993

I was walking on the beach. It was winter. And I could smell the summer. The waves’ lullaby seemed to caress my steps. As throwing stones into the water, my thoughts went back in time. I let them to. The wind was allowed to carry them as far as he could. He could push them to the horizon and beyond. They were allowed to reach places that I was not really able to picture. They would go far and I was happy with that.

I knew I was going to be asked a taugh question.

“So you’re going to study Business at university, right?”, the headmaster of the school asked me. He looked quite self-confident, as if asking was a mere matter of politeness, rather than a real desire to know the answer. He was acting as if he already knew what I would say. And he thought he did, I guess.

“I don’t think so, no”.

“Will it be Law, then?”, he smiled. He was still very self-confident.

“I’m afraid, no”.

“Is this some kind of joke?”

He wasn’t anymore.

“It most certainly isn’t. I want to be a carabineer, so I guess I want to be part of the Armed Forces. I already applied for that. Should I be accepted, I will do my very best to start a career in the gendarmerie”.

Exams were finally over. Maturità, as we called it, was a turning point in the life of a teenager and my presentation had just been remarkable. I was done with high school, finally. But still, I had said something that wasn’t quite expected from me. I has said something that had left everyone open-mouthed. The smiles on the professors’ faces fade away. They were stuck and could barely believe what I had just claimed to be willing to do with the rest of my life. I could tell they were disappointed.

I didn’t see why, though.

“I will be following my dreams. I’ll be doing what I’ve always wanted to do!”, I said.

The headmaster shook my hand coldly. “Good luck, then”, he said dryly.

I thanked him and said goodbye. Then left.

I had the most relaxing and carefree summer of my life. I spent most of my days enjoying the sun and the sea. I rode a lot, because it was something I had always loved doing. My bike was a life companion to me.

I was waiting for my application to be rejected or accepted. I used to think about that a lot. Possibly more than ever. Certainly more than I had ever been thinking about anything.

I loved the uniform. Divisa, as we call it. I loved it. I wanted to be one of them. That was where I belonged. I was pretty sure of that.

I had taken the chance. It was a risk, actually, and a very big one. Taking the test to became a carabineer meant that, should I fail it, I would be forced to join the Army for one year. Taking the test meant making a commitment that would affect my whole life, like it or not. It wasn’t something one could underestimate.

I had taken the first test. There would be several others, because it was a very selective process. As far as concerned the first test, thought, I found it quite feasible.

But I was anxious anyway. There were so many people. Even if there were many places available, we still were a considerable amount of people.

Summer was over. The wind had blown it away and my dream was still there, stronger than ever. I was waiting for a call. I was waiting for a letter. I was waiting for something, any kind of reply. I was waiting and that was everything I could do.

There were times I felt my dreams were way too huge for me. I wondered if I was illuding myself. But that illusion was everything to me. It was in every part of my body and soul.

Autumn came. As the leaves started falling from the trees, my hopes fell too.

I decided to study Law while waiting.

I attended classes for one month, possibly the worst one of my life. I used to wake up at sunrise. I took the bus while it was still dark. Classes were noisy, even early in the morning. People were always arguing about where one should be seated. People chattered about their nightly adventures.

I felt like it was a huge waste of time. I was being stolen preciuos moments that I wouldn’t be getting back ever again. Lecturers, or professori, were always late. Sometimes they didn’t even bother to show up. Classes were useless and didn’t really teach me anything. I decided I would be studing on my own, alone. I didn’t need to attend such classes. I started with Diritto Costituzionale and Filosofia del Diritto.

February came. I loved the subjects but still, I was headed somewhere else. I was still hoping the commission would get back to me with an answer. “Why is it taking so long? Will they get back to me?”, I wondered.

Something wasn’t quite right. I felt like I was waiting for something that would never happen, or that would not be happening as planned. I was then told something. It happened entirely by chance. My father’s acquaintance told me that candidates, even the ones that would be joining the Army instead of the Armed Forces, would be put into two lists. The lists would be published on the newspaper. It was 1994 and March was just beginning.

My father was in a bad mood on that day, when he got home. He was sort of smiling, though. He looked quite proud, but worried at the same time. He came to me and handed me a newspaper’s page.

“Were you waiting for this?”, he asked me.

“What’s that?”, I asked him back.

“Just read it”.

It was not an article. It was not a common newspaper’s page. It was a list of names and surnames.

“Is this...?”, I murmured. I read it all over again. “I just can’t believe it!”

I would be leaving on March the 16th to start training for joining the Armed Forces. I felt like crying, but didn’t. My tears were not brave enough to pour out of my eyes freely, but they came to my eyes nonetheless.

On the same day I got a call from the Stazione dei Carabinieri, the Carabineers’Station, in my village. My mother picked the phone up.

“It’s the Marshal, Vito! He’s looking for you”.

“Hello?”

“Start packing, Vito. On the 16th you will have to be in Benevento. Good luck, boy”.

I didn’t know how to feel. I was happy. It was my dream and it was coming true. I was scared and quite excited. I had started to believe that I would need to forget everything about it, and now I was back on track. My dream had come to take me. And it would take me pretty far. I started making plans. I had never left home before, not for such a long time anyway. I would need to pick what to bring carefully. I didn’t have much time.

It was an intense week. All I did was focus on myself. I got things ready. I had always been careful. My mother helped me very much, though. I couldn’t have made it, hadn’t it been for her.

I can still see her eyes. She was incredibly happy and proud. And sad. An awkward mixture of feelings I will never be able to forget.

I said goodbye and kissed her. Then kissed her again. I hugged her.

“I will be calling you”.

“Please do... Good luck”.

“Thank you”.

2The School of Student Carabineers

The train was silently approaching its destination. It was night and I was travelling on an Intercity. It usually is quite a noisy train, but on that night it was incredibly silent. I didn’t sleep at all. I was too busy thinking how my life would be changing. I looked outside the window. My thoughts went back in time. Back to when I was a child.

“What do you want to become?”, I was always asked.

“A carabineer or a policeman, because I want to catch thieves!”, I used to reply quite naivly. I had always been living completely immersed in my dreams.