“Lady, what do you do? Get away, right away!”
I reached the current circuit breakers. The sledge cable hung to the ground, emitting sparks. It was isolated from a plastic jacket.
I paused for a moment the scene a few minutes earlier, when the liquid out of the well hit the cable, dropping it and bringing the darkness into the house. A moment before the darkness wound it, I had seen the thing go away from the source of electricity, from the source of the… pain!
I prayed I was not wrong. I grabbed it firmly, be careful not to touch the bare part of the shield.
Let me strike with all my strength, trying not to lose the grip. The nails went up, along with crusts, leaving a bad diagonal injury along the wall.
While the cable was free, more functional.
Take a step forward.
The cops understood what I was about to do.
“What does you do? It’s crazy! It will not work for anything!”
But I felt an incredible force inside me, and I was determined not to lose, not yet.
“It’s an animal, only an animal. And like organic beings, it suffers. The current will make him suffer.”
“But it’s liquid, it’s just a mud.”
They could not understand it, it was too absurd to be credible, even if it was clear, always in front of their eyes.
“You do not understand, you’re blind! This is his tongue, like that of the ant-bear. That hole is his mouth and down there, in the pit, there’s his stomach. It stuck, under the house, like a baby at a baby bottle. And he stretched his tongue to take food.”
The cops were astonished. I made another step forward, brandishing the electric cable.
“We are food, just us. It only wants us. There were cats, but it ignored them, he seeks men, hears our smell and wants us alive. Look, they’re still alive! He ignored the old woman corpse, food must reach its stomach still alive.”
A horrible picture almost blocked me and almost I did not faint. I imagined my husband, I saw him go down into the pit, to the terrible end that was waiting him there. I imagined his terror, I felt his death physically. I tried to move away from those nightmares and forced myself to continue talking, to exorcise them.
“It had eaten, it was satisfied. But then that agent fell into the pit, inside him, and he awoke. There was still food to be taken. So, he stretched out his monstrous tongue again.”
The jelly continued to fall. For a moment, I saw the terrified face of the old agent, then disappeared into the well.
Hold that substance with the cord. There was a scourge of burnt matter and a sharp smell invaded the environment. The gelatin retreated.
I went on and hit it again. The jelly twisted, gathering over the well. It seemed that a wall of water, contained from invisible walls, overhangs the well.
It continued to descend. I saw Andrei: he seemed to swim, desperately trying to approach the edges. I moved to him: then, with all my strength, I planted the antenna inside that sticky substance.
I will easily penetrate, without finding any obstacles. It did not hurt that being. I saw Andrei grab the end and shouted at the other agents.
“Soon, I took it, come and help me.”
The two ran to our rescue. They grabbed the other end of the auction, leaving my hands free and pulled with all their strength, but Andrei was imprisoned without hope. Then I got the gelatin and immersed the electric cable inside her. It withdrew and Andrei’s hands appeared: immediately the cops abandoned the rod and grabbed him by their wrists. As a fool I jumped around them, continuing to strike the jelly with the cable. I realized that it did not do much to hurt her, rather than just give her a careless annoyance. But that was enough, I could not kill her, and my purpose was not that, though I did not want anything else. Andrei was already free for half and screamed, with all the breath that had left him. A scream that had been forced to repress too long.
The cops were exhausted by the effort to fight that substance. They could not completely release him. The jelly was drawing and dragging Andre’s legs down into the pit. I continued to strike her without stopping. At every stroke, she took a little more, gradually releasing the unfortunate. Eventually, the grip was less and Andrei was free. The thrust rolled the three policemen up to the wall.
The liquid disappeared, completely swallowed by the vortex.
With a yell of triumph, I let go of the cable, which slipped into the well, striking the walls.
The whole room began to shake. Slowly the hole closed. A thick black cartilage replaced the floor. He looked shiny and brilliant like the wings of a beetle.
“It goes, it’s moving!”
Then the hole closed completely. The vortex had disappeared, and within it the ugly jelly. The room, the whole house, trembled more and more. The floor, the creature, everything was moving, was going down.
The danger was immediate.
“We have to go out right now! Everything here collapses!”
The two policemen grabbed Andrei firmly and dragged him to the stairs. I followed them trembling, the forces had abandoned me and I was exhausted, destroyed. Only now did I realize the terrifying power against which I had beaten and suddenly I found myself as useless and stupid ant.
The house was collapsing. The creature had demolished walls and foundations, and now that it was missing, the building collapsed in the remaining hole.
The climb to the stairs was a nightmare. The walls that cracked and opened, revealing dark shadows. Steps that one by one precipitated in the void. Then, finally, the landing and the exit. The plans that, sequentially, collapsed on the underlying, while the rubble filled up that terrible hole that seemed endless.
We got out and continued running again, trying to get away as much as possible.
There was nobody in front of the house. The curious had already fled, the few remaining cops waited for us on the other side of the road.
The house collapsed, almost disappeared. In less than a minute, the rocks of the roof were like a cover of the vault.
We landed, exhausted. Andrei struggled to breathe, sobbing.
I embraced him, forcefully.
I managed to give him the warmth he needed. His breathing became more smoothly flat and the sobs ceased.
We stayed so long, while the confusion came back around us. They were all agitated and scared. But by now they had realized that that terrible night was over.
Now it was all but waiting for dawn.
January 2000
DOLLS
Translation by Alfio Loreto
The woman stood for a moment to look at the shop window before coming in. I could not help but notice its elegance and beauty, even though the last few years that these attributes were indifferent to me. From Rosa’s death every desire lessened, even though I was only sixty years old.
There were no children with her, and that was unusual. Mine wasn’t a simple toy shop, my dolls were craftsmanship, built with the care of past times. Special dolls, tailor made for their little masters, exclusively made on order. It was a craft that was fading and that maybe it would end with me.
She came decisively and walked on like a model on the catwalk. Very tall, a slim body, pointed stilettos on which she moved with ease. And then the dress, red and gaudy. I wasn’t an expert, but it was obvious that it was an exclusive model, created for her shape.
She was very concise. “I want a doll.”
Thin lips, a delicate makeup, green intense eyes and a black hair’s cascade like the night itself.
I was not surprised by such a simple request. “Do you have something special in mind?”
She had it, no doubt. “I want an eight-year-old girl who looks a bit like me.”
It was a confusing request, which I tried to interpret. “Do you want a doll that resembles you, and she has an apparent age of eight?”
“It must be perfect, it must look real.”
I sigh lightly. “I do not deal with such bulky articles. As you can see my dolls are small
er. Won’t it be better for you to look into a toy store? Dolls of all sizes are easily found there.”
She did not blink. “They do not look like me. I did not even find one that resembles me.”
“You want her to be realistic, is this what you’re saying? That looks like a real little girl? Like a manikin?”
She shook her head. “I do not want a dummy, I want a doll.”
I tried to explain the difference. “Madam, in this shop we sell the best dolls you can ever find. But they are dolls, they cannot look like real children.”
“They told me that you are able to satisfy any wish.”
And she was convinced, she did not say it just to flatter. “Eight years are a lot, I don’t think I can reproduce the exact proportions.”
“It must look like me. I want it to be like me.”
She did not understand, or did not want to understand. “I don’t think I can…”
“I need it, you have to do it.”
Under the coldness of her voice I perceived despair. I asked myself what she needed it for. It wasn’t for her daughter, no, I doubted that this kind of woman could have children. Or perhaps she had a daughter and had lost her, and that doll has to replace her. Whatever the reason that pushed her, however, that woman stirred me.
“I will not accept a negative answer”, she added.
Could I do that? Certainly, I was able to do it, even though it annoyed me to please her.
“I’ll have to study the measures carefully”, I said.
Even in victory, the woman continued to be impassive. “I want her tall, and lean, just like me. Even the hair must be black, like mine…”
It took me three weeks.
I was impressed by my work: she really looked like a little girl. She was not dressed like a doll, the woman had brought me the clothes she had to wear, and they were as expensive and stylish as the woman’s.
She was tall and slim, with long black hair and green eyes, just as she had asked me. Her lips were rosy and fleshy.
The woman came to pick her up after two days, almost at the closing time of the store, when the darkness had already wrapped the city.
She studied it for a long time, turning around, to the point that even my proverbial patience came to an end. “Then? Is that what you wanted?”
She did not give me the satisfaction to answer, pulled out a roll of money from the microscopic handbag and paid. Then she took the doll by hand, she must have been thinking she would follow her with her legs.
I perceived something pathological, unpleasant. At the same time, I felt sorry for her, because it was clear that she had suffered, and was still suffering now. The doll was special for her, she should have replaced someone who was gone.
I tried to bring her back to reality. “Do you want me to wrap her?”
I saw her confused, for the first time. Then she shook her head and lifted the doll from the waist as if she were a suitcase.
She did not answer my greetings and went away.
The story could have ended there, if a couple of months later I did not find myself walking the streets in center town. I was immersed in my thoughts when I raised my eyes and found myself in front of them: the woman and the little girl.
There were two mannequins, in a beautiful display in a shop window. The bigger one looked exactly like the woman who came to my shop. She also wore the same outfit. She held a little girl in her hand, which was indisputably the doll I had made. She even had the clothes I put on.
I looked at the sign: it was Scallis’, one of the most exclusive boutiques in the city.
I stayed for a long time to fix the two dummies, increasingly disconcerting. I found it unpleasant, not to say disgusting, that my doll was on display in the eyes of everyone. I had always put all my love in building them, and in love they would have to live. The love of a little girl who would have filled her with attention.
I would never have done it if I only suspected what its use would be.
It was indignation to push me into the shop.
It was not a place where I could feel comfortable. The two shop assistants seemed model themselves, in their elegant clothes.
They weighted me, I think, because it was the oldest one of them to come to me.
“How can I help you?”
I pointed to the showcase. “That mannequin…”.
She smiled. “You have a great taste, sir. An exclusive, unique model in the world.”
At the risk of being pointed as crazy, I had to ask her. “The dummy who wears it… I’m sure I’ve seen it before. It reminds me of someone, someone I met.”
Her reaction surprised me, because she turned to look at her colleague. The other woman nodded almost imperceptibly.
There was a bit of embarrassment in the woman. “Mrs. Scallis, yes. The owner of the boutique. It was her choice that mannequin. It has been made to measure. She found it funny.”
I had a different feeling about it. “Could I talk to her?”
Women’s uncertainty was more evident now. “I’m afraid it’s not possible, sir.”
Before I could insist, she continued: “Mrs. Scallis is in America now. She’s on vacation.”
I hid my disappointment. Certainly, I could not blame them, they could not understand. So, I greeted them with courtesy, and then left, determined to face that woman once she came back from vacation.
It was a month, and I almost forgot about her when Mrs. Scallis returned to my shop.
It was more controversial than ever, in a flamboyant spring turquoise dress. This time she had her hair in a croc and a semi-transparent cap.
She came straight to the counter and went straight to the point. “You have to make me another doll.”
I shook my head, but she did not let me talk. “My daughter wants a little brother, she feels alone.”
Those words confused me. Could it be that I was wrong and that woman really had a daughter? Then I remembered the use she made of my first doll and shook my head.
“Please, you must help me.”
The closing time had come and tried to take advantage of it and I asked her to leave. I found her presence increasingly annoying. “Tonight, I can’t, madam, please come back next time.”
She did not even listen to me. “Must be younger, six or seven years old. And blond, I want blond hair. Can you do it with blue eyes? She likes blue eyes so much.”
I turned around the desk and took her by an arm. “Please, ma’am, it’s too late, I must close the shop.”
She continued to speak as I led her to the door. “You must hurry, she needs it. she asks me continually.”
When I got her out, before closing the door, her voice came again. “Will you do it fast? I’m counting on it. Remember that I’m counting on it.”
Still today I don’t know why, but I did it. Yet the woman never came back after that time and I could have forgotten everything. Indeed, I had not promised her anything, but I could not resist.
I put all my love in it, I picked the best material and after a dozen days the baby doll was ready. He was still naked, because I had no dress to make him wear. He looked like a baby, a handsome six-year-old boy with blue eyes and a blond haircut.
That woman was not normal, I knew that by now. Those mannequins in the shop window concealed something else, a trauma of some kind she tried to live with. Perhaps I was just stoking her obsession, but the despair she displayed in our last meeting made me look at her with more humaneness.
She came that same evening, bringing the little boy’s dress, with the certainty of finding him ready.
The gentleness and the love with which she dressed him on one side made me more disturbed, but on the other hand, rewarded me from all the efforts. That doll would have been loved, I was sure.
She gave me satisfaction. “It’s just what I wanted. You managed to do a miracle.”
I could not hold back. “What do you need it for?”
She bowed her head, suddenly tired, and her voice
weakened. “It’s horrible to be alone, don’t you think?”
Her mask had fallen, and in the end, I could understand her too. Yes, it was not pleasure to live alone. And as the dolls could help me survive, why was it wrong if they could help her too?
Those deep green eyes seemed to want to penetrate my mind. “I could not continue this way, do you understand?”
I couldn’t say anything, then she took the doll, this time with tenderness, as if he was a true kid, and went away.
Two weeks passed before I decided to come back to center town.
I was not surprised to find three mannequins in the shop window. This time, Mrs. Scallis’s simulacrum held both my dolls in hand. She had changed dress again, now she was wearing a beautiful black dress, with a long skirt to his ankles, and a necklace of diamonds on her neck.
I kept looking at that inanimate family, but in the end, I could not resist and I went back in the store again.
The oldest sales woman immediately came towards me. “I would like to see Mrs Scallis”, I asked.
Like the other time, she was uncertain and turned to look at her colleague. In this case, however, the other assistant came to her aid and took over the situation. “I am Mrs. Bassi, I’m in charge of the boutique while Mrs. Scallis is absent. Could I get the message?”
I shook my head. “I really have to see Mrs. Scallis, it’s a personal matter.”
“Mrs. Scallis is not available now.”
“When should she be back?”
A shadow passed on her face. She seemed torn. “Do you know her well?” she asked.
Did I know her well? Maybe yes, maybe even better than them. I knew her torment, her suffering. “I’m her friend”, I said.
This seemed to convince her. “We have no idea where Mrs. Scallis is”, she said.
Now it was my turn to be confused. “Is she gone away again?”
The woman grimaced. “She never came back. Maybe it is not even gone. We have no idea what happened to her.”
There was no sense in what the woman was saying. “She was on holiday in America, I recall.”
The Prison Page 55