UNKNOWN DESTINATION (  WALKING ON THE WRONG  WAY)

The road ( path) was that, but sure. He recognized the stones, even the vegetation was the same. So WHY that feeling of being lost suddenly? With a few more steps and on the right he would have found the oak tree confirming that he was on the right path. But why wasn’t the oak there? Why couldn’t he arrive at the oak tree? The oak couldn’t have disappeared if the road was the right one. If the oak wasn’t there it meant that he had gone the wrong way. Yet he was sure he was on the right track when he set out early in the morning.

Klaus liked very much walking in the greenery with the light of the newly risen sun which glimpsed, acquits, and was very clear among the vegetation, a really magic charm, a promise of happiness.

How was it possible since he set out, early in the morning, on the right path, now he found himself on the wrong way? The right path ( road) was the one that would have taken him, after hours of walking, around noon, to Alice’s house, where Alice lived in the company of animals, goats, sheep, horses, rabbits, cats, and dogs,

If he had taken the right road ( path) and now he found instead himself on the wrong way, he had to have been distracted along the way and have turned, at a certain point, on the wrong side. Sure, he was distracted because he had been all absorbed in his thoughts.  He would have seen Alice again after so many years. Alice had been his girlfriend when he was young. Then, after they broke up, they lost touch. He had known again about her only when he returned from his last trip. Klaus was an archeologist and an explorer. He had learned that she (Alice) lived alone in a small house in the mountains surrounding the town. Alice lived not exactly alone since she was in the company of a lot of animals. Klaus had been seized with a great desire to see her again.

He hadn’t announced himself, since he wanted to surprise her. Most of all he wanted to see how she would welcome him when he suddenly, completely unexpectedly, reappeared.

Klaus hadn’t informed Alice that he was going to visit her, but he had cared to know in detail about the way to reach her. And NOW, when he was sure he was going to her, he suddenly realized he was on the wrong way.( path/ road) What could he do? He should have gone back to where he had turned into the wrong road and resumed the right path, this he said to himself, but meanwhile, he continued to go forwards on the wrong road. And he looked around wondering if he could from where he was, without having to go back, find again the right direction. And meanwhile, the questions began to crowd in his mind. Why, if he really wanted to see Alice again, he had taken the wrong road when he had decided to go to her? And that having taken the wrong way could be a sign of destiny? Something that warned him against seeing Alice again? Or could it be the sign that they two, if it was destiny met again, they would have met anyway, even if he was walking on the wrong road?

A long time ago, when they broke up badly, Alice had said to him: “ I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN”

Where had he turned when he had ended up on the wrong road? If he had turned right, he had to go back to the left, and then he could get back on the right track. But if he had turned left, he should have gone back to the right instead. In his indecision about what to do, Klaus kept going down the wrong road. Would have he been able to get to Alice even if he had taken the wrong road? He wondering. Since no one took away from his mind that having taken a wrong turn, it was a sign of destiny. But a sign in what sense? this he could not understand.

Would Alice have been happy to see him again or would she have chased him away as badly as she had done when they broke up? In the latter case, it wouldn’t have been such a bad thing to have taken the wrong road. Yes, it would have been instead providential.

A hare crossed the road close to his feet. At the same moment he heard the shot of a rifle, that did not hit the hare, which slipped away in time, but the tip of his shoes, grazing, without wounding him. The shots followed one another. Klaus had the sensation they were coming at him. He began to run on the wrong road, then, still running, he come back. He went a little to the left and a little to the right, trying to avoid the shots. When the shooting stopped then he really didn’t know where he had gone to end. He continued going ahead. On the sides of the road he saw many dead animals: hares, rabbits, peasants, goats, lambs, sheep…Maybe they had been killed, but he didn’t stop to look. He kept going on. He didn’t know where he would have ended up. He kept walking by inertia. Until he came to a little cottage in the wood which, yes, could be Alice’s house. The cottage was enveloped in a surreal silence. He knocked at the door, called “ Alice!”. No one answered. The door was not locked, he entered the cottage.

There, surrounded by killed sheep, goats, and rabbits, he found the killed woman. She had been shot, like the animals. Was it her, Alice or was it an unknown woman who, like Alice, had chosen to live alone in an isolated place? Klaus was too shocked to establish it. At times she seemed to him Alice, at times instead a complete stranger. He kept thinking that having taken the wrong road was A SIGN of DESTINY.