My Brilliant Friend

Once we hit him in the right calf, and I say we because I had handed Lila a flat stone with jagged edges. The stone slid over Enzo’s skin like a razor, leaving a red stain that immediately gushed blood

I did many things in my life without conviction; I always felt slightly detached from my own actions

We lived in a world in which children and adults were often wounded, blood flowed from the wounds, they festered, and sometimes people died

But I did it without conviction: I did many things in my life without conviction; I always felt slightly detached from my own actions

When you haven’t been in the world long, it’s hard to comprehend what disasters are at the origin of a sense of disaster: maybe you don’t even feel the need to.

But in a confused way I felt that if I ran away with the others I would leave with her something of mine that she would never give back

Up or down, it seemed to us that we were always going toward something terrible that had existed before us yet had always been waiting for us, just for us

Children don’t know the meaning of yesterday, of the day before yesterday, or even of tomorrow, everything is this, now: the street is this, the doorway is this, the stairs are this, this is Mamma, this is Papa, this is the day, this the night

Adults, waiting for tomorrow, move in a present behind which is yesterday or the day before yesterday or at most last week: they don’t want to think about the rest. Children don’t know the meaning of yesterday, of the day before yesterday, or even of tomorrow, everything is this, now: the street is this, the doorway is this, the stairs are this, this is Mamma, this is Papa, this is the day, this

seemed to us that we were always going toward something terrible that had existed before us yet had always been waiting for us, just for us.