Yes! Yes! Yes!
Cut! Cut! Cut!
It had to bleed, that was nothing to worry about. Whenever an infected wound is being cleaned it bleeds, so why should he not be bleeding?
He would cut off his shirt, too!
And his y-fronts! He must not forget those! He had to cut off everything old!
Max was still in one of his rare good moods.
“Hey,” he said to Samo, “didn’t Alfonz say something about a birthday?”
“Yes, tomorrow.”
“It must be tomorrow now.”
“It is.”
“Let’s surprise him.”
Raf listened and made a firm decision to stop any practical joke the other two might come up with.
Surprisingly, it seemed as if Max was not up to one of his usual tricks.
“Let’s do what they do in American films,” he said. “Let’s turn off the light and wait for Sad Alfonz. When he comes in, we turn on the light and shout SURPRISE! What do you say?”
“Alright,” nodded Samo.
“Good, I think it’ll make him happy. He looked a bit sad earlier, before he went out,” agreed Raf. “Even more than usual.”
“We’re all agreed than?”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah.”
“Raf, you’re the nearest to the switch, move your chair and turn the light off. Did you understand? We wait and when you hear his steps you turn on the light and we all shout at the top of our voices. Is that clear? Go on, turn it off.”
Raf did as he was told. They sank into a complete, all embracing darkness.
“He’s not a bad guy, that Alfonz, even though he’s a bit of a peasant,” Max went on being nice in the dark and Raf thought he must be really pissed – he had never seen him like that before.
“Let’s call him,” added Max and started shouting.:
“SAD ALFOOOOOOOOOONZ!!!”
“SAD ALFOOOOOOOOOONZ!!!”
“SAD ALFOOOOOOOOOONZ!!!”
“SAD ALFOOOOOOOOOONZ!!!”
They’re calling somebody again, decided Alfonz, still waving his knife in the air while striding around the meadow in front of the house.
They are up to something again, those guys with names.
He stopped and became very sad.
That was how they had called him once, too. Sad, they used to say he was sad. What else could he be, what with his guilt because of the stolen money eating away at him all the time? During school lessons he would be wondering whether his parents had found him out yet. He imagined the reception he would get. He would be walking home, see the village — would he know immediately that he had been found out? Did everybody in the village already know about his sins? How could he be happy with all that on his mind?
And anyway, how could anybody without a name ever be happy?
That was what those shouting in the house were thinking. But what did they know about darkness, woods, fear and the pain of those who were different? What did they know! Nothing! Nothing!
Shouting, that was the only thing they could do.
He would show them that even the nameless could be happy. Those pushed away, the outsiders could enter with a smile. Break with the past and change. Start again!
With a never-ending smile.
He went over to the window of one of the rooms, which was in darkness, and had a look at his face in the glass. Whoever he was, he really did look sad. It was time for laughter, like the laughter Max, Samo and Raf were capable of. Mouth wide open in joyfulness.
He would laugh and join them. They would accept him as one of their own.
Those who laugh are always popular.
Looking at himself in the mirror, he took his bottom lip and pulled it with all his strength. Then he cut it off with one single sweep of his knife.
There, that was better.
He tried holding his top lip but it kept escaping from his fingers, slimy with blood. He tried a few more times,
- they were still shouting from time to time in the house; he said: I’m coming, I’m coming, but they probably did not hear him, just the glass in front of him got sprayed with tiny red droplets -
and then he realised that that was not the way to do it. He would swap hands. He was able to get a good grip on his lip with his right hand, but his left hand was not quite so adept with the knife and he had to create his smile in stages.
He tried to wipe the drops off the glass with the palm of his hand to see himself better, but all he did was make it even messier. He decided to bend over and look at himself in the corner of the window pane which had no blood on it yet.
Excellent.
“SAD ALFOOOOOOOOOONZ!!!”
“No more, no more,” he spat on his image again and added: “I’m coming, I’m coming.”
“He’s coming,” whispered Max, “get ready.”
Raf too could hear steps in the hall.
“I’m ready,” he said.
“Shhhhhh” came from the other side of the darkness through which a few shapes were just beginning to become visible.
The steps halted in front of the door. Raf had his finger on the switch, waiting. Outside the crickets sang, he could hear his heart beating in his ears and his own breathing sounded very loud.
Hey, he said to himself, this is a pleasant surprise, not an ambush. There is no need to feel worried.
The door opened a little.
Alfonz was surprised by the darkness. A ribbon of moonlight stole into the room.
Then Alfonz opened the door fully. Raf saw the outline of the shadow with a gentle light behind it and there was something strange about it.
He needed time to think, to take a good look.
“Come on,” hissed Max from the right.
Raf switched on the light.
All three shouted simultaneously from the bottom of their lungs just before the light came on fully:
“SURPRISE!!!!!!”
Aco was resting at the junction. Below him shone the lights in the campsite: a few lamps, in two rows with tents under them. The receptionist was reading the newspaper.
Peace and quiet. Normality. A glimpse into another world.
Maybe he would find something similar at the villa and the boys would call him a senile old lunatic. Let it be so, he said.
