The house of seven dead
by
PierAngelo Piccolo
In
a dark age, In the mists of time, there was an ancient house in a
solitaire, fearful place in a Venice`s lagoon, off in the coast of a
small town, called Clodia.
In
this dwelling, a hunting lodge in straw built over some stilts, like
all the buildings in Venice, a little child habited, a puppy of man,
distant and abandoned from his cruel parents.
He
was hungry and desperate; the only thing awaiting him was death.
In
a obscure, horrible and icy night, during a terrible storm, when the
Venice`s lagoon was spectral, the unlucky child listened to the noise
of a boat bringing between the cold waves. In the vessel there were
seven men, seven sailors vicious and strong, fishing in the night.
While
working, they met a corpse of an old man, floating in the dirty
water. His beard was white and his body was swollen, it was quickly
determined that the man drowned in the lagoon for a couple days.
The
seven men, so, decided to recover the horrible corpse and then headed
towards the house on the stils, believing it was uninhabited.
But
it wasn’t.
They
entered and saw the child, hungry, terrorized and dirty. He asked for
food with a hopefull glim in his eyes, thinking they could help him.
But
the sailor cruelly ignored him.
They
lighted a fire and cooked polenta and fish. Then ate and ate again
seeming unaware of the little boy. The small whelp cried and begged
again and again. The men laughing and joking the more the boy plead.
Two hours later, while the child continued to requested food from
them, a sailor said:
“Ok
kid, if you go call our friend who is sleepin in the boat, we’ll
give ya somethin to eat”.
He
ran out and went to speak to the corpse:
“Please
sir, head to the house, come eat with your fiends”.
But
the dead can’t answer.
So,
he then came back and said that the uncoherent friend wasn’t waking
up.
All
the sailors laughed once more. A man, sadistically, told him:
Try
again, boy”.
But
it was useless. The boy became really desperate and a sailor repeated
laughing:
“Please,
try again”.
The
third time, the child returned smiling and satisfied:
“Hey
guys, your friend, his awake!”.
What
appeared to them was a nightmare.
The
huge corpse with the white beard entered in the room, and the smiles
of giggling faces of the fishers were transformed in faces of horror.
The tall spirit looked at the sailors and spoke:
“Men,
you shall not have the ability to trick children further more.”
He
raised his hand and trasformed them into seven horrible stone
statues.
Today,
many, many centuries later, if you are able to visit Venice`s
lagoon, off the coast of Clodia, in a ancient building you can
witness seven man of stone, set down around the table, stone, like
their hearts.
Now,
in our era, journalist and people from different country can swear
they have seen, in Syria, Iran, Kurdistan, Nigeria, Somalia and in
other horrible war zone of our planet, many, many, many soldier
shooting innocent children. Soldiers, which no longer saw themselves
as humans, but dull stones.
Perhaps
transformed by the same, frightening spirit.
But
… who is really the spirit?
The
man drowned was San Theodore, the patron saint of the Venetian people
and of all the poor children of this cruel world.
To
remind us all to respect and love the priviledge that is childhood.
PierAngelo
Piccolo.
Piccoli acini
