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A small stone fountain, a roar of water diving into other water. Beside it, a wooden bench. A photograph shot exactly there. Smiling faces of twenty years before. Past and present blend in her mind: she can see herself beside that fountain, her flowered dress, her slightly ruffled hair, the happy look turned towards the lens, as if she wanted to pass through them, reach the person who was shooting, the one who would become her husband. Maria's face darkens for an instant, her smile becomes bitter, sad.

She drinks some water and sits on the bench to rest for a while before starting her walk again. She still suffers for the way their lives had divided. After three years, she still can't understand in which moment they had begun to build a wall that, as time went by, became taller and taller, thicker and thicker, too big to pull down when they became aware of it.

But after all, in some way, she feels good. A part of her feels guilty for this, she blames herself, she can't understand why she can feel good and still love her husband despite their divorce and all the sorrow that derived from it. She still feels deeply attached to him, but, finally, she also feels free from his shadow and from the shadow of their separation.

In the distance the bells of the church ring. It is time to go back home.
She stands up.
A last look at the fountain, at the bench.
That old photograph has yellowed with age and is just the past now. She feels ready to let those shadows that still accompany her days flow away, light as the water of that fountain. She has finally found the strength and the confidence inside her.

 

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Written by Marta, 07th December 2007

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