IN THE SQUARE AT NIGHT AFTER THE SHOW

The celebrations, the enthusiasm, and the euphoria were over. The big show with singers, musicians, and dancers had lasted for six hours. The large audience had been thrilled, had screamed and yelled“ Hurrah” and “WOW” and demanded encores. Now the stage was empty and almost anyone who had attended the show had also left, leaving paper cups, bottles, cans of beer and Coca-Cola, bags of popcorn, confetti, and streamers to clutter up the vast space of the stalls that was a large square.  In the center of the square stood the monument of Garibaldi horseback. Not all the spectators had left the square at the show's end. Some had lingered to talk. Others, like Richie and Gretel, had decided to spend the night in the square in their sleeping bags. They, Richie and Gretel, had placed their sleeping bags under the monument of Garibaldi on horseback and they were about to go to sleep when they were reached by a boy who asked them to help him find his lost watch. Although reluctantly they started looking for the watch among the rubbish and papers and plastic scattered in the square, they looked also in the rubbish bins, but they didn’t find it. The boy who had lost his watch, whose name was Paul, screamed that he would not leave the square until he had found the watch that he cared about very much. “ Since you haven’t been able to help me,” He said to Richie and Gretel, “ I’ll ask Garibaldi for help! “ Paul seemed very exalted and a little tipsy. He climbed Garibaldi’s monument shouting: “Hero of two worlds, help me find my watch! I can’t resign myself to losing it! It’s a gift from my great love. Inside it his heart is enclosed, his love for meeeee!” But not only to Garibaldi, but Paul began to ask to find again his precious watch also to the moon. “Oh Mother, Sister Moon that goes through the skies mysterious and placid, come to help me! Let me find my love’s watch!”

Meanwhile, some boys and girls, who had remained in the square, went up ( took) the stage and began invoking the moon: some asked her to find love, some success, and some to become a billionaire. Paul kept asking to find his watch.

In all that hubbub Richie and Gretel couldn’t sleep and they were about to leave in search of a quitter place when Madame Luna descended on the stage in the midst of the boys and girls who invoked her. At first, they can’t believe their eyes in front of that BIG LADY made of a light as clear as water and all waving. To tell the truth, they did not want to believe was SHE, THE MOON, that continued to shine in the sky. Oh, Madame Luna said, laughing” How naïve you guys are! Don’t you know that the Moon contains, includes in herself different appearances or characters one could say? Here, I am one of her appearances…Oh, just because you are naïve you have the privilege, granted to few, of being able to meet me. Oh, you have moved me with your pleas, above all those of you who invoked me to find love! What children you are! Don’t you know that love gives great joy but also the greatest pains?” Madame Luna said, who continued to float, irradiating them with her clear and soft light.

“ I who have lost all that was left of my great love, I know!” Paul shouted. “ My beloved Gabriel who gave me the watch I lost killed himself because his parents didn’t accept that he loved me!” He said, crying.” Garibaldi, you too should understand my pain, you who lost your beloved Anita shot to death!” Paul’s screams rose from the square. Garibaldi, like the Moon, could not remain indifferent. So the shadow of him, which was perhaps his soul, went to the stage next to Madame Luna, while Paul continued to shout: “ Give me back the watch where the heart of my lost love is enclosed!”

“ We have to help this dear boy find his watch, “ said Garibaldi’s shadow to Madame Luna.

“ I don’t think it will be easy,” she said.

“ But you with your powers can make an all-out patrol of the square,” Garibaldi said.

“ Yes, but perhaps his watch is not in the square because instead of having lost it was stolen and taken away”  For their part, all the boys and girls on stage ___also Richie and Gretel had gone on the stage ___assured that none of them had stolen Paul’s watch that they remembered to have seen hanging from a chain around his neck.

“ The watch is the treasure chest of my love!” Paul kept yelling ( screaming) “ My beloved Gabriel died but his love remained inside that watch! It’s his love that moves its hands! As long I had that watch Gabriel stayed with me! I can’t lose it! I lost it in this square and this square must give it back to me!”

Garibaldi, or rather his shadow kept asking Madame Luna to let Paul find his watch, while the boy’s heartbreaking screams filled the square.

“ We can invoke the Great Mother Moon that is shining in the sky and of which I am only one of the appearances…On, let’s try, and dance, please, while we invoke HER!” said Madame Moon, starting to dance. Also, the shadow of Garibaldi started to dance and it was a spectacular show to see his shadow lapped by Madame Moon’s luminous flutter. “ Hail to you, Great Mother, big, prodigious Moon! Precious Moon, help us to get back to Paul, a soul in pain, his watch which contains the eternal love of his boyfriend  who killed himself for his thwarted love!” They all on the stage, dancing, started to sing in chorus to the Great Moon up in the sky. The Great Mother Moon was moved and she rained bright moon drops on the square that was wonderful, under the shower of light.

With a jolt, Garibaldi’s horse detached itself from the pedestal and went onto the stage. Paul’s watch, the casket of his love, hung around the horse’s neck.