When they arrived, Grandma was chasing away the flies with a towel. She quickly realized she wasn’t very efficient, because the light was attracting more and more insects inside the summer kitchen. The sounds of the early night were combining in a pleasant and familiar way with the guests’ voices and the noise coming from the TV and radio.
He was intoxicated with the smells and sounds of that part of the countryside. Crickets, lonely birds, the chickens settling down in the coop, the two new puppies playing… The pollen of the trees was a sweet heavy burden for his nose. The tree canopies were rising up everywhere around him, like dark thick smoke. Not far away, the vineyard was falling asleep, tired of waiting for something to happen.
The sky was clear, and the stars were visible. They had no intention of changing their position or communicating with each other. They had chosen to be numerous, but lonely.
‘There’s an interesting program at 10’, he heard his father’s voice. ‘The one about supernatural beings?’ Grandma asked. ‘Yes’, said the child. ‘It’s not just about supernatural beings’, his father added. ‘It’s about ancient religions and myths, too’.
Mom went into the kitchen to help Grandma. The two puppies were mock-fighting. Their fights were shorter and shorter, because it was getting late and they were starting to feel sleepier and sleepier. From time to time, a dog’s bark or the call of an owl caught their attention and they raised their heads to connect to reality.
The boy felt a little bored, because his cousins had left earlier and he had nobody to play with. Somewhere in the distance he could hear rhythmic thumps. As he didn’t understand what was going on, he pricked up his ears and listened carefully. Then he heard traditional orchestra and violin music, and realized people were dancing in a house somewhere.
Some of the thumps were on-beat and sounded very solid. Others were off-beat and those moments he had the impression that reality got suspended in mid-air.
He couldn’t imagine himself dancing. In the past, people used to dance wearing masks of gods. Dance and music seemed to be about religion, not about fun, like today. He couldn’t imagine himself dancing, alone or with a girl.
He could hear his parents talking about the TV program they were waiting for. Far away, over the fields and hills, somebody had started a fire. He could not see the people, because they were too far, but they were certainly there. The fire itself was like a lost human being, standing under the cold stars.
Reality became a wave of beauty and loneliness.
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