The refusal and other stories E-Book

Andrea Benigni

• Herausgeber: Edizioni Esordienti E-book
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012

Beschreibung

Eight short stories, often built on dialog, to tell about some aspects of life in today's world, its contradictions and, above all, the difficult search for new values.The tale "The Refusal", which gives the title to this short collection, was written in the aftermath of the fall of the Twin Towers: the episode is present in watermark, it could be any other situation of war and violence to which, unfortunately, we are too accustomed nowadays, but that people cannot accept, because the normality are not death, violence or massacre, that make people lose their reference points, as it is also stated in the tale "War". In an absurd world where the only parameter for the evaluation is the high efficiency in our job (as it is ironically stated in "The Zoo" and "The new Managind Director" ), perhaps all is not lost: there are still stories of love and jealousy ("Annalisa"), the natural instinct arrives yet to prevail on our rationality ("The Jump"), the people try to build new relationships, to find new formulas to love each other and live together: see for example the stories told in "The Foreigner", which presents the difficulties, but also the beauty of a relationship between people of different nationalities and cultures so distant as Italian and Somali, or even "On the edge of the bed", which describes the formation of a family quite different from the pattern we are accustomed to consider, with the common life of a husband, a wife, the husband’s lover and the two children that the man has had with the two women.

Leseprobe

Andrea Benigni

The Refusal and other stories

EEE-book

Andrea Benigni, The refusal and other stories

© Andrea Benigni

First published 2012,  Edizioni Esordienti E-book

Original title: Il rifiuto e altri racconti

Cover: Canstockphoto

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced by any means without the prior written permission of the author.

The Jump

I was a fool to let them into the house.

Since then I kept cursing myself, and I wondered what it was that pushes people to upset their peaceful daily lives, the delicate equilibrium gained year after year, with so much difficulty.

I looked into the mirror of my pale, sunken face.

My resigned and unkempt appearance made me feel very uncomfortable.

It was because of those two.

The tranquillity, reached with so much difficulty and only in part after the event, has now disappeared.

I wandered around the house, a prey to anxiety, and when dusk arrived I could hear them calling.

“Come on, don’t be afraid, it’s just a jump, a little jump.”

My eyes opened wide as I watched them with horror and anger.

I was the one who had brought them into the house.

Crazy! I was a fool.

I stared at them, shaking like a leaf. They were there, motionless, waiting. I knew only too well that they would wait years for me. The devil twins.

No noise was able to cancel their insistent taunting voice.

“Come on, jump down! Come on, it only takes a moment.”

Then I turned towards them and shouted “leave me alone! I am not going to jump. I can’t. I never will.”

“Go on, sooner or later you’ll jump. Do it now.”

They urged me on, they wanted me.

I pressed my hands over my ears, so as not to hear them. I screwed up my eyes so as not to see them.

I kept screaming no. Their words weakened my resolve. I was confused. What perverse instinct destroys an equilibrium gained after so many sacrifices?

My long suppressed anger surged upwards and made me jump. My arms embraced all the energy of my body and, like two springs, they flung me off my wheelchair. I fell heavily onto the floor.

My two shoes were there, just a few steps away from me. I squirmed along the floor and slid them onto my feet.