THE GIRL WITHOUT NAME

THE GIRL WITHOUT NAME

 Since he had received the invitation he had kept on wondering whether to go there or not. Of course, Alex and Victor were his friends and he knew they wanted him to attend the party they were going to give to celebrate their wedding. Eh, it had taken a long time  for the right to marry between persons of the same sex could be recognized  in their country. It had been a great civil achievement , for which they, Alex and Victor, who had been together since almost twenty years, had fought hard.  David knew that they had always refused to go to marry abroad, in one of the countries which had already recognized , since years, the right to marry between persons of the same sex. No, they, even if they lived together, had waited to get married until that right had been guaranteed in their country.

David, who knew them since years, could not help but be moved thinking about their story, the difficulties, the obstacles they had to face in order to be accepted and respected.  So, on, he asked himself, why he kept on wondering whether or not to go to their party? But, on, he should go there without any hesitation, since he was their friend, a very friend of Alex and Victor, and he could only be happy for their happiness.

The evening before the day Victor and Alex’s wedding party would have taken place____their wedding had already been a month ago in a very confidential form_____, his friends, the newlyweds, phoned him to make sure he would be present  at their party , and also to say , to remember him how much they cared about his presence. “So we’ll be waiting for you tomorrow at The Seven Chimneys. The party starts at five, but you can come even earlier….We can count on your presence, can’t we?” They said. The Seven Chimneys was the name of the villa with park , which they had chosen  as the location, as the setting for their party. David had assured them that he would have gone ( he would go) , and yet, even after ensuring his presence, he was not at all sure he could have been present.  David was almost forty and it was almost twenty years since he had no more gone to a party. The last party he had attended had been that in occasion of his twenty first birthday, The party had taken place in the house of his fiancée, Agnes, the girl he would marry a few months later. They had already established  the date for their wedding, which would never be there. Yes, since at his birthday party , while they were sitting at the table for lunch, he, Peter , was sitting next to Agnes, while everyone was talking , joking_ ____everyone seemed very satisfied, indeed happy, of the party and of being in that company____there had been a dull , croaking sound and, before they could realize what it was ( had been), Agnes had bowed her head on the table, indeed her head had dropped right into the plate. That sound, a kind of crack, had been a shot. Someone had fired from the window and had hit Agnes in the head. Agnes  had died instantly.

The death, indeed the killing of Agnes had upset David. It had never been discovered who had fired that fatal shot, even if  soon everyone seemed convinced it had been a tragic accident, that is, whoever  had shot had not done it to kill someone, much less Agnes.

He, David, had continued to think about it , and at times he had seemed, or he had had the impression, the feeling that, instead, who had shot had done it because he wanted

( had wanted )to kill someone of them , gathered to celebrate his birthday. Maybe it wasn’t Agnes he had wanted to kill, maybe he had hit the wrong person. And who knows, since Agnes was sitting between him and her father, maybe the shooter would have wanted to kill Agnes’s father or, maybe, him, David.  Since that black day David not only hadn’t given a party anymore, he hadn’t attended a party anymore too. So that since years no one had even invited him anymore, assuming ( knowing) that he would not go. . 

But now, on, he couldn’t miss Alex and Victor’s party. He knew how very important it was for them to have their friends close to celebrate what had been an achievement for them, reached after many years of hard battles.  Missing the  party for their wedding, on,  it would have been an offense to them, it would have been like saying them that he didn’t care that they had had finally recognized the right to marry.  Not to mention that theirs had been one of the first marriages between same sex partners in their country.

So David decided to go to Alex and Victor’s party. He  should absolutely go there since ( because) he couldn’t miss it.  Yet, while he dressed up, when he went out home, and then when was driving his car to reach  the villa where the party took place , he felt in him an unpleasant tremor, which seemed as if it was warning him of an imminent danger. On, come on, it wasn’t going to happen, but it couldn’t happen, but no, what had happened twenty years ago at his birthday party. And yet, while he was walking through the park, crowded with guests, while Victor and Alex were coming to meet him, all cheerfully, smiling, he saw , in a flash, Agnes’s head again falling on the table. SHOT! DOWN !

That of Alex and Victor was really a great, magnificent party.  The villa, but also the park , had been adorned magnificently, even spectacularly, with installations of colored lights, with garlands of flowers, with ribbons. One not small orchestra lined up under the trees of the park was playing music continuously, it was able to play all kinds of music, from pop to jazz to classical music. Anyone present at the party could require the orchestra to play their favorite music.

In the park also a stage had been set up, where dangers and actors were performing, so that you could pass from Hamlet monologue to cabaret jokes, from West side story to the Swan lake.

Even all the partygoers were very pleasant, also those of them who were more extravagant for their dresses and ways of doing.

When David arrived many of them were dancing , both in the park and in the large room at the first floor of the villa. Some of them were dancing also on the wide staircase that led to the entrance of the villa. They were wearing very extravagant, colored dresses. They all seemed to be very enjoying, to have a lot of fun.

David talked with Alex and Victor, toasted with them, he also conversed with some partygoers he didn’t know , but with whom he got along very well. Of course he did not fail to taste the delicacies which abounded on the beautifully set tables in the villa and also in the park.

Then he remained still to listen to the 7^th symphony  of Beethoven  which he loved so much. And here that, during the Allegretto, just at the moment when the melody rises and then releases a song , which can also be a cry, also a lament, the smiling, radiant face of Agnes again appeared to him, and soon after Agnes’s head fell on the table. SHOT! DOWN!

David started to walk alone in the park, looking for the most hidden, most sheltered corners. And, step by step, he continued to feel not only agitated, he had the feeling something bad was going to happen. Yet he didn’t feel like leaving the party. So he kept on walking through the park.

It was now evening, David was wandering in the park , when she appeared to him, In a dim lit corner. She, a tall , slim young woman, all dressed in black, with a silver sash around her forehead. Although the long black dress she was wearing was an elegant and austere dress, a lady’s dress, the woman had to be very young. She had a very young face, as David could see, while he, hesitantly, was advancing towards her. She, the girl, stood out under the foliage of a lime tree, her still body upright seemed painted, only her arms moved harmoniously, rotating around that black silhouette that was her thin body. It seemed that she was dancing with his arms or, perhaps, that she was trying to fly. “ Hallo, I’m David….who are you?” He asked, enchanted, in front of what wonder! that she seemed to him a vision. “ Who am I?” the girl chirped. “ I’m that one who appeared in the evening ( when the evening is coming)” She said, in a suddenly serious, almost somber tone of voice.   “ Ah, yes….but what is your name?” David asked.    “ I have no name” the girl said, in a voice that seemed to come from under the ground.

 “ Ah, you want to joke, don’t you?” David said in a forcedly joking tone. He had felt a shiver go through his back at hearing her deep voice.  

“ Oh, joking? But I’m not joking at all. It is you who don’t understand, I see…indeed you don’t want to understand” The girl spoke again in a very deep voice.

“ And what is it that I should understand?” David asked, thinking that girl had to be under the influence of alcohol or of some drug.  “ That you don’t need to ask me for my name: that’s what you don’t understand.” As the girl was saying these words, her face started to change under David’s eyes. First her eyes, then her smile seemed to be those of….” AGNES!” David cried. Just in time to see her arms fluttering around . The girl was gone.

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