Starless Night
Freesia was quietly lying down
on her bed, when she suddenly heard the children making noise
outside, in the little square of the village: they sounded happy...
It has been a lot… too much time since she had heard someone
laughing. Everyone and everything was grim because of the war, the
destruction and the worries that plagued the people of that poor,
tired planet. What's more, the winter was so cold… the quiet and
immovable, but icy and sharp air froze her fingers and her little
turned-up nose was all red. She felt a shudder to her heart… That
damned winter did not just make her shake and sneeze; it seemed to
freeze her spirit, her heart, the little part of her which was still
sensitive, sweet, docile and feminine in her pitiless warrior
temperament. Nevertheless, in hearing the children laughing outside,
she didn't have the courage to show herself at the little
misted-glasses window: all of a sudden she realized how fragile and
scared she was. Scared? Why? She didn't know nor could she explain
her odd feelings. The door was suddenly opened: Tarragon appeared on
the doorstep, a cheerful smile on his face, inviting her to go out
with a fast, fortuitous gesture of the hand. She agreed and sighed in
seeing her half-brother so carefree and joyful. Her eyes were
half-closed and absent, fixing the ground, while she was walking out
of the small house, asking herself why the kid was so different from
her, what determined the radical difference in the way they reacted,
faced life… He showed his own thoughts and feelings… He could do
it without feeling ashamed. She sighed long and deep, finding herself
in the centre of the square: she almost forgot how she got there.
"Don't you think it is absolutely wonderful?" he asked her
unexpectedly, awaking her from her heartbreaking nightmares.
"What?"
she asked incredulous, when she admired the sky and the candid
snow-flakes that danced, lightly and slowly, in the nocturnal air.
"I
have never seen it before: it is wonderful! My mom says that it has
been fifteen years since it last snowed here!" exulted Tarragon,
running toward his friends, leaving the poor, upset and overwhelmed
Freesia fixing her opened palms on which the white flakes gently
settled.
The beautiful girl raised her eyes to the compact and
overcast sky: it was nearly red, she could have said, although it was
late evening, … And it reminded her something far away and lost, an
absence of life, no… A passed life of which her mind had a confused
memory, enclosed in some remote angle of her subconscious.
She
shook.
"My mom says that it has been fifteen years since it
last snowed here!" Tarragon had said a little before.
"It has
been fifteen years since the last time that snow has fallen here!"
she whispered slowly: " It has been fifteen years since the last
time dad has been here!", and the tears filled her dark eyes: she
couldn't withhold them, although she tried so hard to stop them.
Realizing her fragility, she was ashamed of that, even if no-one was
looking at her.
The candid flakes melted on the palms of her
small, delicate hands and they stirred to her crystalline tears: how
could her roaring warrior spirit, her fearless and imperturbable
heart, her lucid and daring mind… How could they pour pathetic,
pitiful tears of pain and compassion? She shrugged her shoulders,
shaking like a leaf for the shame.
This starless sky… What a
sadly wonderful night!, she thought walking along the path that
led to the forest.
Tarragon turned, perplexed in seeing her going
all alone, in the middle of the night, towards the forest:
"But
where is she going, mom?" he asked, confused and hesitating,
letting a note of worry vibrate in his voice.
Emeraude, beside
him, put her warm hands on his shoulders, looking seriously at
Freesia, who disappeared along the path. She smiled then and her eyes
became misty with an infinite melancholy:
"Poor Freesia!" she
whispered.
"Dad… Dad…" the young woman
called with a hoarse voice: "Where are you? Why don't you come
back home?… Dad!" she called out, while the tears were falling
along her reddened cheeks.
The path was veiled of a white mantle,
as the crushed and ruined stairs of the old deconsecrated church.
Tottering and staggering like her, it didn't want to surrender to
the threats and the violence of life.
The lass fell on her knees,
tortured, on the stairs, shaking visibly:
"Father… I beg
you!" she cried.
Affections survive: death cannot destroy
them! , she was astonished of her own thoughts, Starless
night… Give my father back to me! .
A shudder caught her
and she realized, without knowing why, that her father was right
there in that precise moment… Just in front of her.
She jumped
on her feet and precipitated within the tottering building, following
that crazy sixth sense that had saved her many times.
And her
father was there, seated to earth, under the half-destroyed statue of
the angel and he was gladly looking at her.
"You're here for
me, my little Freesia" he whispered her with quiet and serene
voice: "You've grown up so much: you're absolutely
wonderful!".
Freesia fell on her knees in front of him: she
would have liked to embrace him, but her temperament didn't allow
her to; she would have liked to insult him for having left her alone,
but the traditions of her people demanded inviolable respect for
parents; she would have liked to hold his hand… But she had
understood. She didn't want to believe it, she was scared and
saddened. The figure in front of her was not her father… Yes, it
was, but not in the flesh.
"I thought you had abandoned me… I
thought you didn't give a damn about us…" she whispered with
hoarse voice: "Would you have returned, if the destiny had
prescribed you a long life? Or was it in your intention to disappear,
to go away and never return?".
Her father smiled and shook his
head, his raven hair danced on his shoulders:
"Could I? Could I
have abandoned such a beautiful daughter? Why are you crying? There's
no need to.".
Freesia smiled, drying up her tears:
"I
didn't think you were so comprehensive and affectionate." she
asserted and they stood silence for some minutes, looking at each
others.
Freesia stretched her hand towards the father, who had
jumped on his feet:
"Don't go, I beg you!".
"I have
to. I don't have other choice.", he answered and stretched his
hand toward hers, barely smiling. For a moment their fingers nearly
seemed to touch, as Freesia perceived the paternal heat diffusing in
her body, enveloping it.
She followed her father to the doorway
of the enormous portal of the temple.
She watched the high and
muscular figure of the father going away along the white path, with
long, uncombed and rebellious hair, pushed out from the icy, but
light wind. He turned to watch, serious and resolute:
"Some day
I will return." he promised and her heart fell apart.
"Goodbye,
dad… Goodbye!" she whispered.
And Raditz' ghost disappeared
in the darkness of that starless night, leaving her under the reddish
sky which rocked her with its candid snow… Alone but proud that
some superior being… Of which she didn't even know the existence
had allowed a dead person's spirit to go to her, little and
dispersed being in the immense and eternal universe.
[And so, what do you think about it? Review, review, review: comments and criticism (constructive, please!)..
