The Day I Killed My Father by Mario Sabino Read Free Book Online

of the mirror, rehearsing expressions that would inspire fear in lazy students, like a Caligula of the education system. At least, this was the rumour at the school run by Italian monks that Antonym had attended.
    â€˜So it is you, Antonym! What a nice surprise! It was God who guided my eyes to the pew you were sitting on. I haven’t seen you since …’
    â€˜â€¦ Since Monsignor Salviati’s funeral.’
    â€˜Salviati, a good servant of God … “Remember you will die”.’
    â€˜Remember you will die.’
    The old ecclesiastical expression that Salviati had loved made them laugh.
    â€˜How are you, Antonym?’
    â€˜I’m not sure, Father.’
    â€˜That’s the right answer, son. I have a feeling I was placed in your path to help you.’
    â€˜To help me …?’
    â€˜To help you.’
    â€˜I don’t think it would hurt to talk to you.’
    â€˜Why don’t we go into the sacristy?’
    â€˜No. Wouldn’t you rather have lunch with me?’
    â€˜Is that an invitation?’
    â€˜Of course.’
    They chose a small restaurant, already half-empty at that hour.
    â€˜My marriage is over and I was fired. That’s it in a nutshell. All very banal, I’m afraid.’
    â€˜ I guai vengono bensì spesso, perchè si é dato cagione.’
    â€˜ Ma la condotta più cauta e più innocente non basta a tenerli lontani.’
    â€˜ Però quando vengono, o per colpa o senza colpa, la fiducia in Dio li raddolcisce, e li rende utili per una vita migliore. ’*
    [* Father Farfello and Antonym are exchanging lines here from the famous Italian historical novel The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni (1827): ‘Troubles certainly often arise from occasion afforded by ourselves; but the most cautious and innocent conduct is not enough to keep us from them; when they come, whether by our own fault or not, confidence in God alleviates them, and makes them useful for a better life.’]
    â€˜Manzoni would be a checkmate, Father Farfarello, if I weren’t an atheist.’
    â€˜Not even the Devil is an atheist, son. If you were really an atheist, you wouldn’t be discussing your concerns with a priest.’
    â€˜Your order, if I’m not mistaken, practises exorcism. That must be fun. It’s even become a spectacle for television.’
    â€˜Don’t underestimate the Devil. He is part of God and was born of His boredom, which survives inside each and every one of us. How many err just to escape their own routines? Most, to be honest. For this reason, too, God is able to forgive. He himself sinned when He gave in to boredom and created Evil, thus becoming the Creator of sin.’
    â€˜That’s heresy.’
    â€˜No, far from it. God sinned and, in this manner, created sin, because it was part of His plan. And the boredom that moved Him was another of His creations: something we mortals are able to understand, bearing in mind that not everything that stems from the divine will is within our grasp.’
    â€˜These theological somersaults should be an Olympic sport, don’t you think? But no one can break the record of Saint Augustine, who invented Original Sin. It was him, wasn’t it?’
    â€˜Do you know the basis for original sin, son?’
    â€˜I’d like to know.’
    â€˜Augustine saw sexual motivation in Adam’s fall. It was carnal concupiscence that led him to sin. And this sin is repeated every time a man and a woman make a child. Because, in order for there to be birth, there must first be the same carnal concupiscence that was Adam’s undoing. The concupiscence that means selfish desire. The Bishop of Hippo didn’t invent original sin; he merely revealed it by the grace of God.’
    â€˜As I was saying, Saint Augustine is unbeatable. Actually, the fact that he was so extraordinary … Africa in the fifth century must have been pretty boring. Maybe he