I was born… well I don’t remember when I was born. Or from whom. I can just recall a smiling mouth, of the same colour of the roses, over my eyes. But my very first memory, is more beautiful, and exciting. I’ve always been a joyful child, one of the kind that love to run under a bridge, or on a green lea. I can recall, in fact, that one time I was trotting down the street, I could barely stand on my feet, when I saw a big, warm and brown thing, just in front of me. I was used to the smell of fresh horse’s shit, but I didn’t know that it was a bad thing to “swim in it”. The next thing I can remember, is my sister screaming at me, picking me up, with disgust on her face, and taking me home. If I can call that a home. It was a dark and little hole hidden in some basement, along the Iron street. There were just a dirty bedstraw and a chair, and also a long chest, where my sis and I kept our poor goods.
We didn’t have much. Thinking about it, I can’t even say how we survived, after the death of our mother. I only know, that at morning my sis went out, and returned at night. With food. Sometimes a little coin. During the day, when I was too little to care about myself, I stayed at home, watched by our neighbour, miss Goney, a wretched old woman, with just one eye. She taught me the art. The rudiments, at least. When she was bored, and I was too tired to play, she hid something in her pocket. Than, I had to find a way to take that thing, non-seen; I still remember the beating, when I failed.
So, after a while, when I started to walk right and firm on my feet, miss Goney sent me out, for my first job. Of course, she organized everything so that my sister would have been out all day. She was a good girl, and she would never have permitted that her little brother could steal. But I wanted to try: after all, I was already quite good. And also, I wanted to earn something more, to have a better life, for me and for my sis. I loved her, in my way. Very much. Last but least, it was funny, funnier than every game I’d ever played.
As every good thief, I still remind my first masterpiece.
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