THE INTERVIEW

He, Karl K., was a world-famous figure, a successful singer for, at least,   twenty years, beloved by audiences of  young, old and even children, when, with what he told, or rather, confessed in that interview, he shocked everyone, indeed he knocked everyone out. Ah, who would have expected from someone like him, who had always been told as a very sunny person ( man), with a great charge of humanity and sympathy, that he could have committed something so terrible. The bomb of such great revelation ( confession) had exploded in a very popular television broadcast in which, every time, on a weekly time, early in the evening, a very well-known character (personality)____above all they were  men and women from the world of the entertainment ____ was invited to tell of an episode in his ( her) life that had remained unknown until then, ( until that moment), better if it was a bad  deed that he had committed.  “ TELL US THE TRUTH” was the title of the show.

Until  he, Karl K., was the protagonist of the broadcast ( show) ___someone would have remembered that it was a Friday the 13^th___all those well-known guests, who had been protagonists of the show, had told certainly episodes, facts, actions very attractive, palatable for  (to) the hungry television audiences. But, above all when they had told deplorable actions committed by themselves, it had never been anything very heavy. They had confessed lies, oh, but said for good, or betrayal against their partner, or having taking drugs, and even thefts…but, however, nothing that could have, even remotely, the same shocking impact that he, Karl K., had provoked , pouring out his secret. The interview had begun with the usual pleasantries. Karl K., a good-looking-forty-year old, dressed in the same brightly colored clothes he wore when he performed, in full voice and dancing, on the stage, was sitting in the studio in a tall white armchair, in front of the presenter, an elegant, and somewhat skittish young woman, who had the reputation to be witty. She, the presenter, Madame Claire V., who was also witty, was sitting in an armchair much lower than the one in which the big star was sitting, so that she seemed to be in adoration of the flamboyant, towering Karl K. After the dutiful tributes to a singer, indeed to an artist like him____oh, what a fortune for our country, oh we have to thank heaven, yes, indeed God, for having such wonderful, amazing singers like you….____Madame Claire V. had introduced the revelation of such genius. With a voice which seemed whispered, insinuating, she had urged Karl K. to tell…his secret.

“ This evening, our great Karl K. is here with us, since he wants to tell us something of his life that no one ever knew….until this evening, right Karl?” She asked, smiling. “Yes, that’s right” Karl K. crossed his long legs  and reserved a bright ( dazzling) smiling to the viewers.

Madame Claire was smiling too, seraphic. “ So Karl, if you agree( if that’s okay with you), do you want to start by telling us to what period of your life this your secret, which you, very generously, have decided to let us know, dates back?” She asked.

“ It goes back a long time ago, to my childhood ’’ Karl kept smiling, but a little less radiantly.

 “ Ah, to your childhood!” the interviewer exclaimed exultant, as if Karl’s childhood was something of extraordinary, or even as if only he, the great star, had had a childhood. “ Well, you always said that you had a happy childhood, didn’t you ?”  “ Oh, well, that’s what I’ve always said…You know, when you are a singer who cares to be successful, to meet the favor of the audience, well, in short, it often can happen that…you need to adapt to what your audience expects from you’’ Now Karl was no longer smiling. He was massaging his arm with one hand, with an absorbed, thoughtful air (expression). Yes, he seemed to be in difficulty , embarrassed, that, in short, he no longer felt so sure of himself.       “ Sorry…do you mean that….?” Madame Claire V. just said, with her face stretched out   towards the great star, with an air of apprehension on her face. “ Yes, I meant ( want to say) that a showman like me, who cares of being a darling of his audience , can also find himself having …to adapt his biography”     “ Of course, we can understand ‘’ Madame Claire V. said, nodding to Karl and, soon after, turning a reassuring smile to the viewers, ah a smile which could also have been an invitation, very polite, to ….stay calm, stay good, not to get upset ( not to worry).

“ So, Karl, after this clarification that, very sincerely, you wanted to make, do you want to tell us…..?” She asked   “ Ah, look, what …what happened that day, I think (it) must be framed in what was my daily life in those years…between my five and my ten years ‘’ Karl suddenly fell silent and ( he) ran one hand through his hair, which were thick and rather long. “ So….mine wasn’t at all a happy, serene childhood, as I instead told many times…for the reason ( the matter) I mentioned earlier…Then, my father , an alcoholic, was every day yelling at my mother heinous insults and terrible threats, since there was always something to blame her for…

Ah, and he, the bad bastard, beat my mother too…. ‘’ Karl sighed and remained silent for a few moments, during which he leaned hard, with his hands, on the armrests of the armchair. You couldn’t say if it was to take courage, or because he wanted to get out of there.

Since the show ( broadcast) was live, she, the presenter, was evidently embarrassed, despite she was a woman with a lot of resources, and probably even the director had to be in difficulty. It seemed he didn’t know who to frame, if Karl, who kept turning and turning again on the armchair, or madame Claire V., the presenter, who kept smiling and repeating: “ Sure, a situation like this….yes, a very difficult situation…”    “ I remember, among the terrible threats he, my father screamed at my mother, every day, there was: “ I THROW YOU DOWN THE STAIRS!” And often he shouted this threat at my mother, chasing her on the stairs. I, who was present, felt my heart in my throat…I expected that the bastard was really going to throw her down the stairs ‘’ Karl  concluded his remembrance by breathing a great sigh , after which he remained with one hand on his forehead as if to support his head. Madame Claire V.’s beautiful faces darkened at Karl’s words but she, who was also witty, kept smiling. “ I understand…a very unfortunate situation, Karl…And, sorry, excuse me, if I ask you…yes, then you’re too young ( a little boy), but didn’t you have anyone to ask for help? I mean…grandparents, uncles…other relatives ‘’ She asked, speaking with compunction, impassibly . Only her eyebrows  , they were just slightly frowned, as the situation, but indeed the transmission required. “ Pfu” Karl snorted, raising an arm. “ My grandparents ? My uncles? Pfu! Those people were all lined up in defense of that drunkard of my father…And they all could not suffer my mother, ha, I never understood why. So, oh, I’m sure, if he had really thrown her, my mother, down the stairs, they, all my relatives, grandparents, uncles, aunts would be ( would have been) happy. Yes, they hoped that my father really throw mom down the stairs”

At this point, after what Karl had told about the difficult, indeed unhappy period of his childhood, everyone, that is all the viewers, could expect that the secret that so far no one knew of the life of the great pop star was about Karl’s father, something that Karl, as a child, must have done against his father. Indeed, to tell the truth, many viewers expected Karl to reveal ( to confess) that he, as a little boy, had killed his father. She, Madame Claire V., like the other producer of the program, of course , had been made aware of the secret Karl would reveal. But she too, there in the studio, sitting opposite the great protagonist , had to seem not to be aware of it, which she also would have known ( learned) only by Karl, that evening. “ Ah, really a painful situation for you…I can imagine, Karl…oh, poor child! Since you were a child…oh , what could you do to protect, to defend your mother?” Madame Claire asked, in a voice vibrating with emotion, insinuating, as her question had to be, since, in fact, had been prepared.  And the answer which Karl gave was also prepared. But, of course, it had to appear that it was not such, that it was instead completely spontaneous and unexpected. “ I could kill my father” Karl said, very calmly, intertwining the fingers of a hand with those of the other. And after a moment of silence, he said: “ I thought I’d do it. I wanted to kill him, that bastard”

A few moments of silence, during which only he, Karl K., was framing, sitting in the high armchair, one elbow on the arm of the armchair, his fist under his jaw. “Instead I killed Martha” Karl said in a firm voice, which betrayed no emotion. “Oh! Who…who was Martha?” the presenter asked the question with wide eyes, to simulate a surprise which she did not feel , since she was well aware of the schedule of the show.  “ Martha was a little girl, of my same age, a playmate”

“ So we can say Martha was a friend of yours” Madame Claire suggested.  “ Well, in a way, yes, she was” Karl ran his hand on his outstretched chin. “ And how it happened that you, as you said, killed her? Was it an accident?” Madame Claire asked, in an apprehensive tone. “ Oh, no, it wasn’t a such murder…it wasn’t a  manslaughter , it wasn’t an unintentional murder at all. When I threw Martha down the stairs, I wanted to kill her ‘’ Karl asserted confidently, without hesitation.

“ And WHY did you want to kill her?” Madame Claire asked, with a face and a voice that were meant to express disbelief. “ Ah, that little girl was a torment, a real pain in the ass. I always found her between my feet” Karl K. said.  His confession shocked the audience, Karl’s fans, but it did not turn them away from him. He nevertheless continued to be very successful, even when he was accused of pedophilia, and was also tried for this crime. Karl K. was acquitted and it was established that the charge of pedophilia had been a slander. Shortly after the acquittal, Karl K. fell down the stairs of his villa and died.