Page 5 of The hands of Leo


  "Now I give him a beautiful bite, to that intruder" I thought" so it leaves us alone."

  However there was something that didn't return me; the other chimpanzee was exactly dressed as Giotto, and as him you/he/she held in hand an almost empty bottle. To get up to go to verify from near he/she didn't speak really, I knew that also striving I would not even have succeeded me in straightening me on the legs. I licked me for well the anterior legs for then to rub me her more times on the eyes and I checked again. Nothing to be done, were still both there. Then I had a lightning of genius, I tried to close an eye and I finally succeeded in gathering the two chimpanzees in a solo, that was stretched to earth on a dollop of hay with the cross hands behind the head in the meantime. The rosy skin of the face, completely depilated, it made to jump his/her red hot cheeks because of the wine. Meanwhile you/he/she had stopped raining and he looked at the sky by now starry, returned clear as in an evening in summer. Started to do me some gestures, the drunkenness had made him philosopher! How many the stars but the Earth and the Sky are who has created them, et cetera. We went on to common places for some.

  "If it continues so we end to speak of politics" memory that I thought.

  «Thing thinks of it of the human beings?» he/she asked me instead of a line brusquely changing matter.

  I looked at him/it perplexed for some instant.

  «I don't know him/it! With my job I have known so many of it, and each seems to belong to a different race. But not from out, from the of inside. I am not as us. it looks at us: you will be always to monkey, as The wills be always to dog. With our merits and our defects. Them no! They becomes of time in time lion, dog, monkey, mouse, rabbit, according to the situation and of whom have of forehead. And then they always look for the answers for everything, they are obsessed from the because and they continually look for the perfection. But they will never succeed us because they don't have our ability to perceive to let us drive from the elementary things of the nature as the odors. The most greater part of them succeeds in seeing only solid and very great things.

  Chapter 21. The reflections

  «This is true them to want to look for for strength the answers also irritates me! And then, because they do him/it?»

  «Because I am full of fears.»

  «You are perhaps right, but even if did they discover the origin of the Life and the universe thing they would do? They say to love the nature and they try everything instead to kill her/it, to destroy her/it to defend himself/herself/themselves from her. They don't do whether to cut trees for then to race to confine him in their absurd boxes of cement.»

  «Already! Among a few years, to make our needs, us dogs we will have to be satisfied us with bushes built in factory, or worse of a hydrant or of a lamp-post paintings of green.»

  «Was alone that! They behave as if on the planet there were only them. Every day that passes removes more and more from us space, more and more food. In a place that calls China, even they feed him of us!»

  I looked him/it at stranito, as if the greatest lie of the world had told me.

  «No, this is too much big! I don't believe you» I told him.

  «It is so, I tell you. I have seen him to the television. They eat both the monkeys and the dogs. And then, some kill even us to get away the skin, to make himself/herself/themselves some suits.»

  «I cannot believe there.» The commenteds mentally annotating that The hads to remember to never bring me me in Slope.

  «But you/he/she is not ended; they cultivate the mushrooms, they raise the fishes, they are vaccinated. And instead of being to the Sun to enjoy its beneficent heat, even some good air breathing, they confine him to listen to music in of the kinds of coffins for then to go out all reddened ones of it.»

  «. thing is that they I give?»

  «But where have you lived till now?» he/she asked me surprised of my ignorance.

  «From the, it allows to lose.» it added then seeing that The hads remained badly there.

  «However it is true, you/they are making to become everything forgery, everything artificial.»

  «Really this way! We live all seized to a gigantic bead of soap that you/he/she could be swept away in any moment from a sneeze of the Sun... even we am for the Sun what is a flea a small organism that belongs to a greater organism for us. Even one day will arrive of sudden a gigantic insecticide cloud, and then. for this The don'ts succeed in understanding their absurdity attachment to the things, to the objects.»

  «Have said well! Also I am jealous of my bone: I hold him/it to me there, I look me at him, I sniff him/it to me. But only for some, then I eat him/it. I enjoy him/it to me! And if I bury him/it, I eat him/it after two days. I don't let him/it decay from some part without remembering where, even happy for the fact that even if it won't be mine you/he/she cannot be of any other.»

  «Yes, you are right. They are really strange. The ams burdens marvelous ones of it, others The ams really of the great carcasses.»

  «And indeed the strange thing is that the same person can be the most generous of the world and the next day the more egoist today. This way, apparently without motive.»

  «It is really this way. I knew how much I have seen of it, turning with the circus and doing the street life, before being captured by those of the laboratory.»

  «Because, their way of giving the value to the things seems yourself normal?»

  «I already know him/it, what you want to say. the money.»

  «Yes, really that! That colored leaflets. if there is to thing that The have never understood, it is to thing they serves him. To have of it more than they are able they make the most absurd things. They humiliate itself same and the others, some are killed among them, or they simply kills of job. And then thing does us? They use him/it to perfectly buy us useless things, or that you/they could go to take him in a wood, or they hold him/it hidden under to the mattress. At times I think that the only feeling that you/they have preserved, of all those that had when they have come to the world, a great fear is alone. Fear of everything. Of the other men, of the nature, of themselves. Otherwise he doesn't explain, because they behave in this way.»

  Chapter 22. The confessions

  We stayed a few minutes in silence, each lost behind his/her own reflections. My eyelids started to make himself/herself/themselves really of lead and I hoped to succeed in dozing off me at least for a few minutes.

  «But were you a dog police officer indeed?» Giotto asked me after having screamed again to recall my attention making to jump me for air for the fear.

  Bored, I again tried to threateningly look at him/it, but in that state I was not very believable. Under those conditions I would not even have frightened a dwarf cat, lame, and without claws.

  «Already, really this way.»

  «And you were not afraid when you went in search of bad?»

  «Some that I was afraid. And also my companion had of it! Had felt as changed the odor of Steve when were about to enter action, at times became unbearable! But he succeeded in giving me safety and me I gave to him some, and when the moment arrived we became an alone thing as an united man to its reflex to the mirror. It is difficult to explain, but two so different beings became of hit an animal solo. We were accomplices and you win at least how much the bad ones.»

  I considered to that damned evening and I realized me whether to remember still hurt her/it. A mixture of sense of guilt, of impotence and of void they kept on oppressing me. Definite to change matter, Giotto had never told me nothing of itself.

  «And you, instead? Is Qual your history?»

  «As I have already told you, I worked in a circus as tamer of hens. I was well and I had a good time, I turned the world and his/her children stravedevano for me. I was a true star, I would not have been able to desire more.»

  «But the hens.» it came me to ask him, but him having realized what The wanted to know it interrupted the question on to be born.

  «They
are not stupid as it is said.» it simply said.

  «And to the laboratory as you are ended there? Do they have you pensioner?»

  «Macché pension. even if for the world of show business The starteds to be vecchiotto, The wases always the best!»

  «And has thing happened then?»

  «A banal thing. The have fallen in love» it said looking himself/herself/itself at the shoes.

  «From when to fall in love himself/herself/themselves is a banal thing? Fall in love himself/herself/themselves happens to everybody and is very beautiful! He/she thinks, I find a new love in every road, in every district. Of hit I take no interest me of my pupazzettis, of the cats, of the tennis little balls to be caught. At times even of the croccantinis and of the cartoons. but The don'ts as at all to dismiss me!»

  «I know him/it, also to me had already happened. but that time was different, and The have not resigned.»

  «Yes, it is all right, I also tell always it me. Every time the new chosen person is the best. You are different, beautiful, sensitive, special. nothing to whether to see with the others. But at all you/he/she will have been the queen of the monkeys!»

  «It was the trapeze artist!»

  «. the trapeze artist?» I asked, not convinced to have understood well.

  «Yes. you would have had to see how beautiful was. When it entered scene it seemed to shine of proper light, with all that sequins I set. When I saw up there her in top, illuminated only by the eye of ox, the heart beat madly me.»

  «You were in love of a woman?» I asked again him, still incredulous.

  «Already. today The don'ts understand yet as is been able to happen, yet it is this way. Does it seem stupid, true?»

  «No, it doesn't seem me stupid, it simply seems me impossible. What fascinating human beings exist I don't doubt him/it, that can be loved him, even; my companion was for me more than a brother. The would have given my life for him and he for me.»

  «Cannot compare a male to a female! The females are sweet and they know how to conquer you, and she loved me! It cuddled me, it chose and the best food brought me, it played with me.»

  «I understand you, believe me.»

  «And does thing find us of then strange?»

  «The physical aspect. I don't succeed in understanding how you can find attractive a woman. Everything you can say some human beings, except that they are beautiful. They have only a thing that I envy him. rather three: two hands and the word. And doesn't they realize which great treasure you/he/she has given him the nature, but is this another discourse. as you/he/she has gone to end?»

  «I have tried to kiss her/it.»

  «You say seriously?»

  «Yes. The have seen him make thousand of times in TV, it is their way of proving him the love. An evening I have also seen that it did him/it with the tamer of lions and I have not seen us more from the jealousy, I have feared that he would have brought away me him.»

  «And therefore?»

  «I have told you him. That same evening has brought me the supper, then you/he/she has started to make me the usual compliments, the little darlings, the grattinis on the back.»

  «And you?»

  «I/you/they have been to the game for some, then I have thrown her to me and I have kissed her!»

  I looked at him/it curious.

  «You/he/she has started to shout as if the same making who knows thing, I have had to escape because the tamer would have killed me» concluded, then you/he/she was hissed of hit and you/he/she settled to look at the sky with melancholy air.

  «Baaau (I am sorry it, I am sorry indeed. but let's rest now us burdens, that is almost time to go)» The said after burdens instant of silence.

  Chapter 23. To the shed

  We allowed to still spend some time, each absorbed in his/her own melancholy thoughts, sign that the ciucca had not passed entirely still. The silence was broken only to be dripped some water that on top of the eaves was picked up for then reverting in a small puddle, the air you/he/she was been cold and I imagined that Giotto was regretting the beloved fur of which had been deprived. The time had come to put on in walk and me I still had that fixed nail in head, that is to recover that metallic pillbox in the shed, but I didn't know just as to do for convincing Giotto to lend me a hand. I would have minded telling him a lie, it was a good chimpanzee and it didn't deserve him/it. And then I had a dilemma; if we were free it was also and above all thanks to him, that right had to again put him/it in the troubles? Then however I thought that, considering that it was abandoned, probably the shed would have been desert and we would not have taken some risk. Definite to tell him a lie, once recovered what served me to make to pay her/it to the assassin of Steve would have explained him everything and would have found the way of doing to forgive me! This way, accomplices the residues of the alcohol, invented me a small lie, and Giotto accepted to help the object of the desire to look for me. I had told him that owed to recover a rubber bone that had been removed by me by a big dog and I wins when I was still pup. You/he/she had asked me because I wanted really that, since you/he/she could get how much I wanted of it, and I had responded him that it had an affective value, that had given me him Steve. Once resolved that small problem we would have thought about the future. We started there toward the city that by now it was late night, both laboring to walk on-line straight line. Fortune wanted us to find us to pass really from the parts of the industrial zone; I immediately recognized the roads, the factories, the malodorous chimneys. It didn't stay us that to look for our shed. As I am a provident dog and I knew not to be endowed with big memory for the places, when I approached me in some new place I never skipped to leave a signal of my passage. This way I put me to the work; after having sniffed the pees of mine similar I found again mine, and shortly after we arrived to the shed. Giotto meanwhile it looked me disgusted and it kept on complaining about himself/herself/themselves for the tiredness, the ache of feet, and above all for the circle to the head. On the railing there were still the seals of the big pieces of yellow ribbon with some black writings. My companion looked around him, then a hand beat me on the shoulder. I turned me.

  «Horizontal closed fist that rotates on itself same in front of my nose, then hands open with the palms toward of me (it is closed. you/he/she cannot be entered, gives you see? What do you want to now do?).»

  I made an expression of superiority and with a sign of the head I pointed out him to follow me. Sure of I went me to me on the back, looking for the scatolonis that had served me the other time to enter, but unfortunately you/they had been soaked from the storm and now you/they were reduced marcescente of brown color to a heap. The finestrone was always to its place, with the glass still broken, but that height was impossible to also be reached for Giotto. We returned in front of the principal entry.

  «Bau (there is an only possibility)» I said inserting the face in the crack between wall and gate, and then pointing out the metallic guide to earth.

  «Finger index turned verse of me, then to his/her temple, then it oscillates me before, finally closed fists and cross wrists (You are crazy, I don't want at all to go to the jail!)»

  «Grrr.? (But jokes? Are you afraid, that the imprints take you of what?)» I answered crushing a leg in the mud to leave a track. Then I looked at him/it with the blocked eyes, scotendo slowly the head.

  «Iiii iiii.? (And if someone sees us?)» churches him worried bringing himself/herself/itself the fingers index and middle of the right hand in front of the eyes.

  Chapter 24. In the shed

  «Bau bau grrrr (But who want that I/you/he/she see us, here, to this time at night? I have understood, you are a fifone. it is all right, you also go, The I give halo)» The answereds annoyed inserting again the torch in the hold crack and making strength in the attempt to make to flow the heavy gate.

  Giotto was immovable to look me at braccia conserte, scotendo the head, I kept on insisting making strength and I yelped for the pain. I
was already given me a wound close to the right eye, the gate you/he/she had not stirred of a centimeter but me I didn't release.

  «Iiii. (My goodness, is only to bone! But because you have to be so stubborn? Before, get away.)» it told Giotto angry tone.

  It drew near and it threw there away me of, then removed the adhesive ribbon and it started to push the gate. Not few laboring we had succeeded in opening an enough great small opening to allow us to pass. I slipped in the courtyard and I looked at him/it.

  «Bau bau! (Before, it enters that we owe riaccostare)» I called him/it looking at the door of the shed.

  «Finger index that his/her own feet point out, then spread out braccia along the sides, belly inward, immovable head (I stay here, I make the pole).»

  «Bau (you Have to also come you, your hands serve me)» I answered lifting me on the back legs to shake those anterior.

  «Iiii. (Accidentaccio! I have told you that I don't want to enter us, there inside.)» it complained him beating an earth foot.

  After a long psychological war I succeeded in convincing to enter him/it, and if had had the hands would have used the back to cleanse me the forehead! We closed again the gate and we penetrated there in the old store, that seemed me very smaller than as I remembered him/it. There was an ample space surrounded from pillars and on a side there were so many stanzettes. The sky was again covered, the little light of the lamp-posts that entered from the finestronis now all it took is for allowing us to direct well us.

  «Iiii. iii» it said Giotto the hand beating himself/herself/itself on the wrist. The door pointed out me, then it made to turn the arm on itself same, turned upward, and it made a grimace (we Do soon, I want to go. I don't like this place!).

  Definite then to submit again me to the my infallible nasone. I started to walk along the wall looking for a trace, hoping that the time and the job of the men had not cancelled entirely the odors. Looking for looking for, I found the exact point where Steve was fallen when you/they had shot him. There was still a chalk sketch from the faded contour that reproduced his/her figure to earth. The tears climbed me to the eyes. I stretched me in the sketch, the last place where we were greeted there, to feel its odor. To feel nearbyer it.