Caterina

“Caterina…?!”
She turned her head slightly, half-closing her eyes on a past which, now, she realized was rapidly disappearing. She stopped dead still for a moment, enough to realize the strangeness of the voice and she seemed to be living in a muffled, melancholic dream.
That same voice, years ago, had pronounced her name in quite a different tone and, perhaps, with different feelings from those of the present moment.
“Caterina!” repeated the male voice.
A soft breeze upset her long hair which framed her face and gave off the perfume of spices and honey. She must have seemed very lovely to him because her face was really more beautiful and fascinating than it had ever been in her uneventful life.
Caterina had met him by chance as nearly always happens when our destiny has nothing better to do. On that occasion it was her who fell in love with this person who, at first glance, was not particularly handsome and certainly not brilliant, neither was he very genial…..he was obviously not as much in love as she was….
In the end everything was consummated; she dried up her tears and left off weeping..
So she decided. She made up her mind realizing that the moment had come to make everything clear, she reflected carefully on every little detail that could testify her suffering, her desire to get her own back, all the love she had not received.
One morning, while getting out of bed, she felt electrified by the fact that she hadn’t slept a wink. She had spent all night meditating, thinking of every move she was about to make regarding the decision she was soon about to take. She turned her gaze towards the other side of the bed which had not been slept in and then, She had no intention of leaving behind any trace of herself in that house.
“Caterina” slowly this time, she repeated as if to encourage the decision that had already been made. She had already got used to keeping herself company and for a while now she no longer feared being on her own. Solitude was her only faithful friend.
She put her left hand on the handle and the first warm rays of the sun, together with the fresh morning air fell on her full cheeks and nose colouring them immediately…
Just three steps separated her from a new life. Three downward steps. She counted their number thinking that it would be a lucky sign and because she could descend them rapidly and with perfect ease.
She half-closed her eyes to protect them from a ray of sunlight reflected from the chrome fittings of a passing car and that moment reflected her whole past and a glance into her future.
She was awakened by a voice she knew “ …Caterina, has she gone out already? asked her husband. She smiled at him with no bad feelings.
That morning she was already off…forever!