THE MAGIC IN THE BOX ( MAGIC IS IN THE BOX)

The cellar was the coolest room ( zone) in the house. It wasn’t certainly a room where to stay in winter. But however, there was a sheltered place there in the cellar which, besides being suitable for hiding, was almost warm. It was not a warmth for heating, it was rather the warmth of the hot drinks in winter . It was in fact the old vat, no longer used now for years, where her grandfather had crushed the grapes and fermented the wine.

That afternoon __it was a Friday in February___ Nicholas was reclining on the cushions he had arranged at the bottom ( on the floor)of the vat and was reading “The Count of Montecristo”. The light was beginning to fail, to be not sufficient for reading. He had just turned on the small flashlight he had brought ( with him) when he heard little voices, voices of little girls approaching. SOMEONE was coming to the cellar. The vat was his secret hiding place but Nicholas feared someone could discover it. So he turned off the light bulb that he had just turned on and looked from a crumb of the vat.

“ FRIDAY is the best day to succeed in it,” A little girl’s voice said. It was Lucilla, his sister Therese’s friend. Lucilla was coming into the cellar holding a big cardboard box before her, leaning it against her body. His sister Teresa came after her, carrying a white rabbit in her arms.

“So, where do we stand(set)?”   “I’d say to stay here in front of the window,” Lucilla said, placing the big box on the floor( in front of the window).

 “It’s not very light…shall we turn it on?” Teresa asked anxiously. “ No, it doesn’t need. Look, light like this is just fine” Lucilla said ”Rather can we be sure that no one will come to disturb us?” she asked. “ Oh, I’d say we’re safe here….Only rarely someone comes into the cellar. Anyway, for more security( tranquility) I can lock the door.” Teresa said. “ All right, lock the door, then we can begin” Lucilla opened the big cardboard and held it in front of Teresa ( and showed its inside to Therese)

 “LOOK: what’s in this box?” she asked. “ I see nothing. The box is empty” Therese said. “ Okay! Now give me the little animal “ Lucilla said and she took the WHITE RABBIT in her arms. She grabbed the rabbit by the ears and held him up, with his body stretched out and dangling. Then she held the rabbit by the hind legs and held him upside down for a few minutes. She then put the little animal inside the big box, closed the box, and clapped her hands. 

“ But the poor rabbit will be afraid,” Therese said in a trembling, moved voice. “ Ah, my dear, you mustn’t think ( worry) about the rabbit,” Lucilla said firmly.  Lucilla stood in front of the box placed on the floor and, with her eyes closed, extending her arms above the box, she began to whisper incomprehensible and absolutely meaningless words for Therese but also for Nicholas who, from one crumbling of the vat, holding his breath, was watching attentively Lucilla’s performance.

“Sciscia sciascia rumbete rombete timmete ombete JAH!”  Lucilla started repeating, whispering, incomprehensible words, of which only JAH was shouted.

Therese too, very moved, also embarrassed, holding one hand with the other, was watching Lucilla in her performance. Her friend(Lucilla)had only recommended she remain absolutely silent during her performance( the propitiatory rite, as she called her performance) since it would have taken even a slight cough or a sneeze to frustrate her efforts and….the experiment would not have succeeded .

The LIGHT in the cellar, coming from a small grated window that was never opened, was scarce and rather dim. It was the gray light of a foggy winter afternoon. And the crumbling of the vat from which Nicholas was watching Lucilla’s performance did not let the smoothest of the visuals. Nicholas was very excited, impatient to see what would have happened….he was even sweating with tension.

After a few minutes that Lucilla, with her eyes closed and her arms stretched above the big box, with the white rabbit inside, had continued to repeat incomprehensible and, for him, absolutely meaningless words, which perhaps were propitiatory or…magical formulas, Nicholas seemed to glimpse with the tail of the eye SOMETHING like A SHADOW, ball-shaped, coming or rather slipping from the closed window in the cellar. It seemed also to him that the ball-shaped shadow rested just for a moment on the big cardboard box placed on the floor before sliding on the ground and disappearing. Lucilla bent down on her knees and slowly, with precise and measured gestures, she opened the big box from which a black kitten came out, who was curled up, taking the shape of a ball ( that he had almost the appearance of a little black ball).

 “ On, you wanted the cat, didn’t you? And here is the cat for you!” Lucilla said, bringing the cat and handing him ( it) to Therese who, trembling, took the pet in her arms.

“ What is it? ( what is wrong with you?)WHY are you making that face now, eh? You wanted the cat and here, now you have this wonderful cat! It seemed to me that you should be happy….and you should also thank me, here!” Lucilla said, piqued.

“ Oh….you promised me a WHITE CAT….yes, white like the rabbit….And then I’d like where now the rabbit is” Therese said, stammering.

 “Oh, but listen to this insatiable (uncontactable)….I don’t think you really have to complain…This black kitten, yes, he (it) is BLACK instead of WHITE….ehm, because sometimes the color changes, it is not what we had planned ( expected). Yes, the cat came out black instead of white…But, hey, look at him: this little cat is gorgeous, is a true wonder…is a jewel ! He even has green eyes! But how can you complain with a kitty jewel like this?” Lucilla said, rather angry.

“Okay….sorry, excuse me. Oh, this little cat is true love, even if…..unfortunately, he is black”

Therese said with a piping voice.

“Wow! In short: do you want this cat or not? Because, look, if you don’t want this cat, oh, there is no problem, do you know? ( you have to know). It means that then I’ll take him, this beautiful black  little cat!” Lucilla said, more angrily than ever. “ Oh, no, I want this cat instead!” Therese said, squeezing the pet at herself ( at her chest) “ I have already found the name for him…Oh, sorry again because I haven’t thanked you yet…sorry…sorry….I’ll do it now: THANKS, Lucilla! A lot of thanks!” Therese said, as her face was becoming red (was rubbishing) for embarrassment and emotion. “OKAY, you’re right…I mustn’t complain. But I would like to know what happened to….to the white rabbit. I see it’s gone in the box…and I don’t see it anywhere. Where did it end up?” Therese asked.

“Oh, but you’re a very gloomy girl, do you know? You don’t have to think about the rabbit anymore! It doesn’t matter what can have happened to it (him), do you want to understand it or not?   What does matter is that you had the rabbit but you wanted the cat, right? Here, now you have the cat, don’t you? Then stop asking questions about the rabbit!” Lucilla said, sighing in exasperation. Therese made a wrinkled face, a shrinking face too for the disappointment and also for fear. Yes, because when her dear friend Lucilla treated her like this….that is like someone who could not understand everything that she instead understood, and knew, and did, she ( Therese) felt not only a great sadness but also a certain fear ( a no little fear)

That evening Lucilla was at Therese and Nicholas’ house for dinner. They ate roast rabbit. Who knows if any (one) of them thought of the WHITE RABBIT that Lucilla had made disappear….

transforming it into a nice little black kitten….

Therese called the black kitten Aimone. He was a delightful creature and she, Therese no longer thought about what had happened to the white rabbit. The one who kept thinking about that white rabbit was Nicholas. And of course he thought about it, since he continued thinking and thinking again about the magic he had seen Lucilla do. That little girl was just A MAGICIAN. Nicholas would have liked he too could do magic like Lucilla’s. Ah, how he would have liked to turn his gloomy, petulant sister into….into a horse, that’s it ( here). Oh, if instead of Therese there could have been a beautiful WHITE HORSE! He thought he should put his sister in a box like Lucilla had done with the rabbit and then recite MAGICAL FORMULAS, that is, say incomprehensible and incantatory words as Lucilla had done. Of course, it would take a bigger box than the one where Lucilla had closed the white rabbit.

One day, when they were alone in the house, Nicholas managed to lock Therese in the closet.

So that she didn’t start screaming, attracting the attention of the neighbors, he first took care to put her to sleep. He put a sleeping pill in her tea. Then he placed her sister asleep in the closet and locked closet. Soon after Nicholas began to recite all the formulas he could remember.

“Jumbete jambete….iumpete cioppete….trantantan….je!”, “ sciaronski scironski iammete iammete”, “ ADENA Christena Svletana Cusinkova”………

In his heart he hoped and invoked that the much coveted WHITE HORSE would come out of the closet instead of Therese who had to disappear, disappear forever, as it happened to the white rabbit.

But no white horse or any other animal came out of the closet. Therese didn’t even come out because when Nicholas opened the closet….oh, no, she hadn’t disappeared, she was dead.

Nicholas put Therese’s body in a bag and carried it to the garbage dump. To his parents, who would be back the following day, he would tell that Therese was missing and he didn’t know where she was.

Days, weeks, and months went by. Her parents and her friends kept looking for Therese, wondering where she was, and what had happened to her. Nicholas seemed to have even forgotten of her, that for him Therese, his sister, had never existed.

One night he dreamed of the WHITE HORSE. He saw the horse running, and jumping. The animal was near, even close to him but Nicholas couldn’t reach it, couldn’t touch it, couldn’t ride it. In the morning, when Nicholas, as soon as he woke up, opened the window he saw the WHITE HORSE go by in the street. Therese was riding the horse which leaped, lifting off the ground, as if it were flying. And as if in flight, astride the white horse, Therese was very close to the window where Nicholas was looking out, and she said (to him): “ THE WHITE HORSE that you so much wanted to have now is mine”