Antonio Tabucchi - Time Ages in a Hurry

— What happened to tu ? the man replied.

Isabella didn’t answer right away.

— The thing is, I’m naturally shy even if I don’t seem so because I talk too much, I asked you, sir, if you destroyed houses once too.

— Not personally, no, said the man, and neither did my soldiers, to be honest, mine was a war mission for peacekeeping, it’s kind of complicated to explain, especially on a day like this, but, Isabèl, I’d like to tell you one thing that maybe they didn’t tell you at school, in the end the story can be summed up like this: there are men like your father whose profession is to build houses, and men of my profession who destroy them, and things go on like this for centuries, some build houses and others destroy them, build, destroy, build, destroy, it’s a little boring, don’t you think?

— Very boring, answered Isabella, really very boring, imagine if there weren’t ideals, fortunately there are ideals.

— Sure, confirmed the man, fortunately in history there are ideals, who told you this, the president or your teacher?

Isabella seemed to mull this over.

— Now I’m not sure who told me.

— Perhaps the president gave the input, said the man, and what can you tell me about ideals?

— They are all respectable if one believes in them, answered Isabella, for example the patriotic ideal, then maybe someone makes a mistake because he’s young, but if his intentions are good, the ideal is valid.

— Ah, said the man, this is something I need to think about, but it doesn’t seem the right day for it, today is so hot and the sea looks so inviting.

— Then get in the water, she prodded.

— I don’t really feel like it, responded the man.

— That’s because you aren’t motivated, I think your problem is stress, you can’t imagine the negative effect of stress on our spirit, I read it in a book my mother keeps on her bedside table, would you like me to get you something at the hotel bar, something for stress? As long as it’s not a Coke, that I wouldn’t get.

— This you’ll have to explain, you really must, said the man.

— Because Coke and McDonald’s are the ruin of mankind, said Isabella, everybody knows it, at my school even the janitors know it.

The man dug into his bag and took another pill.

— You sure take a lot of stuff, exclaimed Isabella.

— I have an hourly schedule, said the man, my prescription calls for it.

— All these pills can’t be good for you, she stated with conviction, Italians take a ton of pills, they said that on television, what we should be doing instead is tuning our spirit to the positive forces in the universe, that’s why we should avoid certain foods and drinks, because they carry negative energy, they aren’t natural, am I being clear?

— Isabèl, can I tell you something in confidence?

The man wiped his forehead with a handkerchief. He was sweating.

— Coke and McDonald’s never took anybody to Auschwitz, to those extermination camps you must have learned about at school, but ideals did, have you ever thought of that, Isabèl?

— But those were Nazis, objected Isabella, horrible people.

— I totally agree, said the man, the Nazis were truly horrible people, but they too had an ideal and went to war to impose it, from our point of view it was a perverted ideal, though for them it wasn’t, they had great faith in that ideal, you have to be careful with ideals, isn’t that true, Isabèl?

— I need to think about it, answered the girl, maybe I’ll do it at lunch, it’s twelve thirty, before long they’ll serve lunch, you’re not coming?

— Maybe not, said the man, today I don’t have much of an appetite.

— Excuse me for repeating this, but in my opinion you take too much medicine, you’re doing the same as all the Italians who take too many pills.

— So are you Italian or not? the man repeated.

— You already asked me that and I already answered, replied Isabella, irritated, I’m totally Italian, maybe even more than you, anyway if you don’t come to lunch you’ll be missing out, today there’s a buffet lunch at the hotel and after that Croatian stuff they’ve been giving us, they’re finally going to serve fettuccine all’arrabbiata , actually on the menu it says fetucine all’arrabbiata , anyway it should be ours, sometimes when you’re abroad you have to forgive spelling mistakes, but sorry, why do you take so many pills, you aren’t a deviant like those guys who go to discotheques, are you?

The man didn’t answer.

— Come on, tell me, insisted Isabella, I won’t tell anybody.

— I’ll be sincere, said the man, I’m not a discotheque deviant, a doctor prescribed them to me, they are legal pills, they just make me less hungry, is all.

— They make you throw up too, said Isabella, I realized that, yesterday you came for lunch and at a certain point you got up and ran to the bathroom and when you came back you were white as a corpse, I bet you went to throw up.

— You’re right on target, said the man, I really did go and throw up, that’s the pills.

— So why take them? Don’t take them, she concluded.

— That would be logical, the thing is, on the one hand they’re good for me, but on the other they’re bad, maybe pills are a bit like ideals, it depends who you force to swallow them, I don’t push them on anyone else, I’m not hurting anybody.

The girl kept making squiggles in the sand.

— I don’t understand, she said, sometimes it’s hard to understand you adults.

— We adults are stupid, said the man, we’re often stupid, however, sometimes you wind up having to take pills regardless of whether you’re Italian or not, but you, Isabèl, since you say you’re totally Italian, will you tell me where you were born? Look, it’s not fundamental, I for instance was born in a country that’s no longer on any maps since they call it something else now, but I’m Italian, to the point where I am, or rather I was, a captain in the Italian army, and to be a captain in the Italian army you can’t be a foreigner, does that seem logical to you?

Isabel nodded.

— And where were you born? she asked.

— In a district that was just invented now, have you heard of Walt Disney?

Isabella’s eyes shone.

— When I was little, I saw all the Disney movies.

— Right, it’s a place like that, a wonder-world, all made of crystal, a crystal that’s actually ordinary glass, from a realistic point of view it’s in northern Italy, in the same way Tuscany is in central Italy and Sicily is in southern Italy, but at this point geography has become secondary and so has history, better not to talk about culture, what counts today is the fable, but since adults aren’t just stupid, they’re complicated, I don’t want to complicate things any more, let’s get to the point, the question I first asked you, where were you born?

— In a little town in Peru, said Isabella, but I became Italian really soon, as soon as my parents adopted me, that’s why I feel Italian like you.

— Isabèl, said the man, to be perfectly honest, I did realize you weren’t Aryan like me — anyway I’m white as a corpse, you said so yourself — whereas you’re a little bit darker, you’re not pure Aryan.

— Which means?

— It’s a nonexistent race, answered the man, some fake scientists invented it, but you know, if the people with these kinds of ideals had won the war, you wouldn’t be here now, or rather, maybe you wouldn’t be at all.

— Why? asked Isabella.

— Because non-Aryan people wouldn’t have had the right to exist, dear Isabèl, and people with skin that’s a little dark, like yours, which actually has a very beautiful color, especially now with the bronzing cream, would’ve been …