WELCOME SPRING

 WELCOME SPRING

It was the first day of Spring and in the large park of the small town a great party had place, the party to welcome Spring.  The park was magnificent, even Strunz was a small town, it had a wide green park where, together pines and cypresses , there were also cherry trees, pear trees, peach trees, apricots trees, almond trees. All these trees were now just in bloom, or their flowers were about to bloom at any moment. The flowering foliage of the trees ,which looked like soft, light, almost diaphanous clouds, gave to the park the look of an enchanted garden.

The Spring festival  had to be held before the trees faded, this was what not only the environmentalists, but also the parents of many children had asked insistently. They, as everyone, knew well that the trees in bloom would last a few days, soon, too soon those wonderful  flowering foliage would have disappeared, their flowers would have fallen at the first blow of wind. Trees, as they seemed to bloom from one moment to the next, unexpectedly, that their blooming always did to think of an apparition, and also of a miracle, so, even faster, and even more unexpectedly, they faded.

Almost at the centre of the park there was a wide pool , which was called the lake of the park, although it was not a lake, but rather a swimming pool.

For the Spring festival the small orchestra was placed just behind the so called lake. The small orchestra could play all kind of music, from a Schubert’s quartet to pop music. There was also a solo singer and a choir of three voices. They could sing  an aria from an opera by Verdi, as well as children songs and even lullabies , yes, since at the great Spring party there were not only babies of a few months, but there was even a lottery for babies with  considerable sums of money at stake.

Along one side of the so called lake a long table had been set up, on which there were, in great abundance, the most varied foods: from spaghetti with tomato sauce to roast chicken, to stuffed sandwiches, to the most greedy and even spectacular desserts. There were cakes which looked like Gothic cathedral  and fruits compositions which seemed to be inspired to the painting by Arcimboldo.

The  participants  in the party, who had arrived in large numbers, had been greeted by the warm welcome of the mayor, of the councilor for culture and sport, as well as don Mario, who was the priest of the parish , or fraction, where the park was located.

Don Mario had just finished to address his fraternal, affectionate greeting to those present, that many people started to dance, while the orchestra was playing well known songs, which  had been playing since long time,songs as ___A  roundabout   on the sea___ and ____The sky in a room____

In the meantime, in other areas of the wide park,  there were people who played bowls, and other people who were challenging each other in games of billiard.

Some of the older men had started playing cards. Some of them were playing sitting at a table, but there was also those who had sat on the lawn for a game of cards, as Aldo, Karl, Frank and Mark had done. They had sat at the foot of a great oak and were playing broomstick when they glimpsed a man coming towards them with small steps, as if he hesitated to keep on walking, even as if he didn’t know where to go. That man, who seemed almost old, was walking a little bent, with his head down, as if he didn’t want to show his face. The man was holding a cap pressed on his chest with one hand. “ Hey, look at that guy….” Aldo said , when that man, who kept on walking with the same hesitant, indecisive steps, passed by them. “ I seem to know him…oh, but I cannot remember who he is”    “ But of course, I’m sure too I’ve seen him before….

Ah, it seems to me that he is someone I have only seen on television….But I don’t remember who he is” Frank said.

“ Oh, my God! But sure, now I remember ! I would swear that he is the Pucci! I too have only seen him on television” Aldo stood up and shouted at the old man: “ Hey, Pucci! You’re Peter Pucci, aren’t you?” That man continued to walk but, turning his head slightly towards them, he brought his index vertically on his mouth, while he was just shaking his head.

“ What did I say you? It’s really him! He is the Pucci! That Pucci! But he doesn’t want anyone can know that he ‘s here!” Aldo shouted. “ Oh, what are you saying? Pucci, don’t you remember? He died two or three years ago” Karl said, perplexed.

“ Yeah, I ‘m sure, too. Pucci is dead since time. I remember they talked about him when he died” Frank agreed.

“ Ah…and yet that there ( that one) looked like the Pucci to me” Aldo reiterated, his eyes on that man, who was keeping on walking with an uncertain, awkward step. “ What would you say if we went to talk to him?” “ On, don’t you want to ask to him if he is…the Pucci!” Frank gasped.

Peter Pucci, from Vizzy, a village near Strunz, was a man of advanced age who, some years earlier, had been tried and convicted , in the first degree trial, for a series of crimes of very young girls whose bodies, after killing them, the maniac had made a horrible slaughter. Peter Pucci had been sentenced to many life sentences for those crimes of which, however, not everyone thought he was guilty. There were those who had claimed that he was only  the scapegoat to offer to people who clamored, since time, that the culprit of those atrocious crimes was found.

While Peter Pucci was waiting for the appeal process, which many thought would have seen him acquitted of the charges for which he had been convicted, he died suddenly, while he was in prison. There had been many doubts about his death, just before the appeal process began. The suspicion had been advanced by many that Peter Pucci had been killed to prevent him from revealing what he had to know about those crimes, perhaps even the name of the real killer.

“ Hey, Pucci, did you come here looking for girls? Ah, but yes, you have to come hunting some girls! Ah, ah, you can find a lot of beautiful girls here….Oh, but you cannot kill any girl!” Aldo shouted. He had reached the man he believed was Peter Pucci and he stood beside him, grabbing him by one arm. The man, keeping his head down, shook it vigorously, while he tried to cover his face with his cap, and he also tried to run away, to get away from Aldo as quickly as possible, but he was not able to run.

“ What are you doing, Aldo? Are you crazy? Leave him ( alone) . He can’t be Pucci!” Karl, Frank and Mark protested, screaming, after him. But there was no way to make Aldo desist from his firm, irremovable conviction that the man was really Peter Pucci.

 In the meanwhile , hearing the exclamations , especially of Aldo, with that name screamed ;the PUCCI! Peter Pucci! , other participants in the party had rushed up, and they had arranged themselves around that man who Aldo insisted was the Pucci who had been condemned as the maniac killer for multiple murders of young girls. Among the newcomers, who were becoming more and more numerous, who now had surrounded the almost frightened old man, as if holding him in a siege, there were quite a few that , however unreasonable, believed that, yes, that one

( that there) was really Peter Pucci!

While only a few people tried to reason, who  argued that it was absurd he was Peter Pucci. They remembered that , oh, everyone knew well that he, Pucci, was dead, in fact there was his grave in the near cemetery. And then, on, even admitting, absurdly, he was not dead , why he would be free instead of being in jail, since he had been convicted for those horrible crimes? But these few people were not even listened to .

Those who believed they were in front of Peter Pucci were becoming more and more numerous.

They asked : why was this man afraid? Why was he trying to cover his face if not since he didn’t want to be recognized? Why was he trying to escape? If he wasn’t Pucci, he had to prove it!

Among the people crowded around the man, who by now most of them thought (he) was Peter Pucci soon there were those who not only inveighed against him, shouting at him “ Murderer! Monster!” ,and “ It would take the death penalty for you!”……, but there were also those who started kicking and pushing him, and spitting on him. To spit on him, giggling, they were mostly, the children, who seemed to be having a lot of fun. To the cry of “ We want the death penalty for this murderer! For this monster!” a tall, massive, young man came out with a big rope  in his hands, which, while shouts and even applauses continued , was tied tightly around the neck of the man , who now seemed they all believed to he was  the terrible killer of so many poor girls. Then a heavy stone, handed by another man, was also tied to the rope around his neck. Pulling him by the rope, and even keeping on kicking him, amidst shouted invectives and shouts of jubilation ,the man was dragged to the lake, near which the small orchestra continued to play a cheerful and melodious music and there were people who continued to dance. The man , by now more dead than alive, was thrown into the lake, which was almost deep, while his executioners, men and women of all ages, and even children, continued to shout accusations and insults against him, but also exclamations of satisfaction:

“ Very bad murderer! Damned bad killer finally you have the ending you deserve!” “ We take care of doing justice!”

The poor man’s body sank amid shouts, dins and even music, since now the orchestra was playing a cheerful tune, that was : TIP TIP TIPPETE TAP TAP TAPPETE____

As  the body of the man was sinking , and even after it went to the bottom , the participants to the spring festival continued to throw stones into the lake.

The mayor, like the other authorities present at the great spring festival did not consider it opportune  to intervene to prevent that lynching, indeed that execution of that poor man, who  had the fault, or the misfortune, of looking like Peter Pucci. All of them, mayor, councilors, commander of the municipal police, police commissioner , agreed to let the participants in the party act freely.

When the body of the man, believed to be Peter Pucci; was pulled to the surface and placed on the ground, don Mario blessed it and he invited those present to pray for the dead man’s soul.