THE DISAPPEARED GIRL

THE DISAPPEARED GIRL

Alice B., a twenty years old girl, who studied foreign  languages and literatures at the university, had disappeared from Turin, the city to which she had moved for about a year  to study at the university. It had been a month since she disappeared. Her parents, who lived in Catanzaro, her brothers who had moved to Germany for work, and also her university friends had kept on looking for her. They often appeared in television broadcasts, where they talked about her, Alice, and also they addressed to the missing girl,  begging her, at least, to be heard, to let them know that she was alive. Even if she had decided to leave and to never come back, even she wanted to not have more anything to do with all them, parents, relatives, friends, at least she had to let them to know if she was fine,  getting in touch with someone of them or even sending a message on social networks. Since of Alice, despite the research and investigation of the police, despite the appeals from her family and friends, there was still no news, her parents and her friends feared that something bad had happened to the missing girl, that she might even be dead..

Even on the social media there was talk of Alice B., of  her mysterious, inexplicable disappearance. Also  from the social networks her parents, her friends______but also the waiter of the bar where Alice went every morning for breakfast,  and a clerk too, of the supermarket where the girl went shopping____had made heartfelt appeals for the missing girl come back or, at least , she would give news of her. From how many people were looking for her, from the appeals they addressed to her, it seemed there was no doubt that Alice had lived, both in Calabria, where she was born and grown up, and in Turin , where she had moved a years earlier, always surrounded by people who appreciated her, who esteemed her, who loved her.

Then one day, on the social network where Alice had been most talked about, also making hypotheses about her disappearance, on the social from which  had started the most heartfelt and moving appeals to invite her to come back, a guy, with the nickname Zero 3000, had written that oh, but all they stopped  ( had to stop) with the story of that disappeared girl!  But if he had seen her, Alice B., that very day at a great party for a birthday! He had seen her in the company of young women and men, and they all, Alice and the young in her company, looked like to have a great time.  After this announcement of Zero 3000, who had also posted a photo of Alice while she, all smiling, sporting great party clothes, was toasting together with other young people of her age, other interventions followed which claimed that the girl’s disappearance would be all a bluff, that Alice B., in according with her parents, relatives, friends, would have organized this farce  for advertising purposes.  Alice B., in fact, they all argued , she would soon become ( would have become) a well known television personality ( character) , all the televisions would have competed for her. She would participate ( would have participated) in talk shows and talent shows, she would have conducted television programs too.

The interventions of those who claimed that the disappearance of A.B it was just a farce, a media show, organized in according with popular television programs, such as WHERE ARE YOU?, which dealt precisely with missing people, obviously arouse the resentful protests of Alice B.’s parents and friends,  who shouted their indignation  for this clique that allowed itself to make fun of their apprehension , of their suffering, speculating without restraint on a disgrace, on a tragic event, because ( since) Alice had really disappeared , and, since she could not be found ( they continued to be not able to find her), the worst was feared for her. But the members of the clique that claimed that Alice B. had not disappeared at all, that instead she, in agreement with her parents, relatives, friends, and even acquaintances, had decided to pass herself off as missing, for advertising purposes, since she intended to become a television star, ( they) continued to rage with their interventions , and even posting photos of Alice B. There was even Zeta EFFE who posted a video in which Alice performed in a striptease in front of the large audience of a night club.  Alice’s parents protested very strongly, indeed they got very angry, and threatened lawsuits. They firmly claimed they were sure   that the girl in that video could not be their daughter. If the video, like the photos of Alice, that had been posted, was not a photomontage, then the girl who was doing a striptease had to be an Alice lookalike . But she could not at all be their Alice, who had disappeared, they continued to repeat, about whom they were so much worried.

But as the dispute between those ( people) who claimed that the disappearance of Alice B. it was nothing more than a farce for media and television use and who instead, like Alice’s parents and friends protested very indignantly at that uproar unleashed by a clique of insane and even delinquent people who had no qualms  in spreading an absurd and shameful lie for to impress in the world of social media, since it was they who wanted to impose themselves with blows of lies, to get credibility and, therefore, a lot of followers, there was a really unexpected twist. A girl, whose nick name was Summer MOON, intervened with a revelation , a real bomb, that displaced both parties in fierce dispute ( about Alice B. disappearance). She, Summer MOON claimed in fact that but what were they fighting about the disappearance of a girl, who, of course she could not have disappeared, since there was no Alice B., born in Catanzaro and enrolled at the university of Turin ,where she would have lived for a year. “ It is your dispute that is a great, colossal media farce , with the complicity of the media, especially of television” Summer Moon claimed. Ah, they, televisions_, as you know, __she added___are in constant need for misfortunes, indeed they cannot do ( live) without misfortunes. So, when there are not earthquakes , floods or attacks they throw themselves on  murders, but also on mysteriously missing people. And, oh, the suspense that release the stories of missing people, expertly told, oh, with the right shots! ( in important television broadcasts ). The suspense, together with the hypotheses that can be made about the missing people, and together  always very moving appeals that are addressed to missing people, indeed sometimes they are shouted and cried, the appeals to come back ( praying them to come back)  ensures that viewers remain glued to the story, so that the broadcast gets high ratings.

Obviously Summer MOON’s intervention  caused an uproar which was even bigger than the one started with ZERO 3000. The mother of Alice B., she felt even sick , when she learned of it. If it had been ( was ) already an unbearable, unheard insult what those bullies   of Zero 3000 clique claimed, that Alice  had not disappeared, oh, now this here., this MOOOON…But how could she say that Alice did not exist, that there was no Alice B.?

The dispute ( discussion) concerning Alice B. , of which the ZERO 3000 clique continued to maintain that girl had not disappeared at all, while Summer MOON’s thesis, that Alice B. was only a media invention, since such a girl did not exist and she had never existed , found many supporters ( followers),  that dispute went on for a long time, becoming more and more fierce. Televisions and newspapers also intervened regarding the matter. They, almost unanimously, kept on speaking of Alice B. as a girl who had mysteriously disappeared , and for which, for her fate , her parents, her brothers, her friends were in great anguish. Despite the position taken by  the press and television, the diatribe on the social media gradually managed to assure supporters even to those who claimed that the girl’s disappearance was just a farce, a show, and even to those who argued that there was no Alice B. , that she had never existed.

The diatribe( controversy) was still raging when Alice B,, who had been missing for more than an year, was found dead in a wood. The autopsy established that the girl had been stabbed to death immediately after her disappearance. On the social network the ZERO 3000 clique continued undaunted to claim that it was still the sequel, to the farce, the show or the television drama on Alice B.  that continued to  be bioadcast.  The news of the finding of Alice B. killed instantly made the supporters of Summer MOON disappear.  She, Summer MOON , now alone, kept on reiterating that oh, but Alice B., she was just an invention, she never existed, so she never even disappeared, and she couldn’t even be killed.

The investigations led to  the discovery that to kill Alice B. had been three young people of the ZERO 3000 clique.

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