Time Ages in a Hurry by Antonio Tabucchi Read Free Book Online

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 doyou 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 forinstance 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,