22 The basketball court

After he finished hanging the posters, Matteo had also another task which was to prepare the venue for the speech. Lina told him before that there were two squares in the town and both of them were enough big to contain the number of people they were expecting to come, but the question remaining was which one would be the most suitable for such an event.

At that moment he was heading for the second place after having already visited the first one. It was a vast court equipped with a wooden stage at one side, he thought that it was a simple spot and it would be easy to prepare it since he would only have to install the seats as, the stage was already equipped with all the materials needed and even if it had to last until the night there were some projectors already provided. He remembered that Natasha once mentioned the fact they used to organize some activity to cheer up the morale of the townspeople who were still carrying the trauma of that night, he deduced that it was the place they used to host their events that would explain why some of the materials were already there.

For a moment he thought he didn't need to go check the other spot as he was fine with that one already, [well, anyway I don't have anything else to do, I can just go to take a look] he said to himself when he decided to go, [moreover I rather prefer hanging out, alone, in the town than going back to the city hall and being a spectator to both Natasha and Lina's quarrels] he declared.

The place he was heading was at the east of the city, where the majority of the new citizens were living, Matteo thought that it was the only advantage it had over the first spot. He thought we would keep the latter as his first choice until he arrived at the second place where he nearly changed his mind.

The square itself was in reality a vast outdoor basketball court which was surrounded by bleachers superimposed on each other so that it formed kind of stairs with the court staying in the bottom at the center of the stairs.

Matteo reached the center of the court and turned around himself slowly to have a good view of the place and as he was observing he slowly started to reconsider his decision. Even though it would need for him a little more effort to make it ready for the announcement, it didn't bother him he had already made up his mind to work on it as he was convinced that it would definitely look better than the first place he had visited.

" The way it is set, it has the style of the ancient Greeks' parliament when they used to organize their popular assembly, " he said to himself to justify his decision. " It will definitely look good if we do it that way ".

A rapid calculation of the number of seats the bleachers could and he was reassured. As Lina said the square was enough big to receive all the guests, " well now I have decided on the venue let's go looking for the materials we will need, " he said enthusiastically.

He returned to the first venue with the intention of taking, from there, all the stuff they could use and move them to the basketball court, however, once he arrived he was already facing another problem. They were too many things which were also too heavy for him to carry them all.

[ I need a vehicle ] he thought and the only solution that appeared in his mind was to go ask for Lina's car, " I don't even know how to drive, " he recalled suddenly, " and I can't ask her or Natasha to give me a ride since they must be already busy repeating her discourse " he sighed as he didn't find any idea, " I don't have any other friends here to help me either. "

Suddenly, a group of teenagers, who looked to be his age or a little older, came before him.

He stepped back cautiously and said " Hello, is there any problem guys? " The truth was that they didn't look scary at all, he just didn't have the habit to interact with people of the same age as him.

Matteo had a childhood very uncommon, he started to work early at his younger age so he used to be in professional circles where he was surrounded exclusively by adults with whom he could talk. Because of that, he had been regretting his precocious maturity, he would have wanted to hang out with some friends, going out with girls, and just living a careless life for some years before growing up, like a normal boy.

They were staring at him for a little while awkwardly silent until a tall boy stepped out from the small crowd. He was a little more intimidating than the rest of them and before he started talking, Matteo had already assumed that he was the chief of the crew. however, before he did so, the girl who was next to him in front of Matteo, who was, by the way, gazing at him intensively, rose her hand on the side to stop the big guy, which made Matteo immediately changed his mind in regards of who was the leader.

" We saw you hanging posters all along with the city, " she first said, while showing around, the places where the posters were hung. " It says that there is a big announcement this evening, " she paused to look deeper into his eyes, " what is it about? " She was standing in a way she was putting the weight of her body in one leg and the other a little forward, her hands in the pockets of her jacket while chewing what seemed to be a mint gum.

Meanwhile, Matteo had the time to calm down and took back his normal character after the effect they had had on him a few seconds earlier passed, he was no more overawed by them. He slowly straightened his body, he took his favorite condescending facial features and maintained the girl's gaze as he said, " first of all, let's introduce ourselves properly, I'm Matteo and I'm working fo- with the mayor, Lina, " he moved his hand forward toward the girl, " what about you? "

He wanted to judge whether they were some small thugs or not as normal ones hated being looked down and they would normally react aggressively. Matteo expected them to be, at least, a little reluctant to answer, however, they nodded and one by one, they introduced themselves starting from the big dude until the girl who was leading them. Matteo heard them without paying too much attention, though he well memorized the names of them, especially the girl's, [ Dana, she said, I have to admit, it quite suits her ] he thought.

" Now tell us, what is the big announcement the mayor intends to do? " Dana asked him one more time but with a little more pressure in her tone.

" I'm sorry it's confidential information for the moment, I don't have the authority to tell you, " he gently answered even though Lina never mentioned that it should be secret, he just esteemed that the information should not leak until the moment of the announcement so that they could hit them with the element of surprise.

Dana nodded, " hmm, I see, but at least can you tell us where it should be? In your posters there was no specific venue mentioned, it only said that it would be tomorrow ".

To say the truth, Lina wanted at the first time to hold it the same day, she suggested that it would be better if they did it as soon as possible and it might enhance the effect of the pressure. But he managed to convince her to postpone it at the next day to let him have the time to prepare it, he also added that, for the moment, they should let the information that some of the people were proposed to get a job spreading out among the people, " we will make use of their envy as they may be jealous and envious that such an offer has been proposed to someone else and when, tomorrow, we will ask them if they want to join they will not hesitate, " he said to support his arguments.

In the end, she accepted his plan, " OK, we will do as you say, however, I would want you to print two kinds of announcements. The first one it will be indicated only the date and you will hang them this morning and the second one you will print it after you added the venue you would have chosen and you will disperse them at the afternoon ".

At that moment he couldn't understand the reason for this odd request, and when he asked her for some more explanations she just told him to do so. Now he had this group in front of him he started to get it [ she just wanted to stroke people's curiosity ] he finally figured out.

Suddenly, an idea came to his mind, " well, the venue huh? That's such a coincidence, I was intending to go there, " he pointed to the wooden stage on the side, " but I have a problem I need to carry all those stuff to install them there for the preparation of the invent ".

They all turned to the direction he was spotting and the materials he was mentioning, " you want us to help you? " Dana asked him.

" Yes, if you don't mind of course ".

" No, it's not a problem, " she turned her head to her crew, and with a movement of her head, she ordered them to go start moving the materials, and Matteo, impressed by the authority she had on them, followed them a few seconds later.

The group was composed of about 11 people without including Dana, the five boys who were looking sinewy, carried the heaviest machines, the tallest dude who carried two big projectors by himself. The six girls remaining transported only some iron bars and curtains and stuff. They took care of almost the totality of the materials, Matteo found that he had only the microphone in his hand with the bar which usually supported it. Dana intentionally slowed her pace to walk by his side and since she was carrying anything, her two hands remained hidden in the pockets of her jacket.

On the way she was all quiet, he noticed that she wanted to say something or rather to ask him about something but she seemed to be hesitant so he chose to take the first step " what is it? "

" huh? "

He sighed and rolled his eyes, " you want to ask something, don't you? So just go ahead and tell me ".

She looked a bit embarrassed but it didn't last long, she took a deep breath and said " You know him, don't you? This famous man everyone in here is talking about, Jamal. I mean before you told us I had already figured out that you're working at the city hall and it said that the mayor is a close friend of him so you must have met him or just seen him even once, don't you? "

For a short moment, Matteo was speechless about many things concerning what she said, he was firstly stunned by the sudden change of personality, few minutes before she was walking like a charismatic gang leader with the hands in her pockets who opened her mouth only when it's necessary while now she was acting like a groupie. The second thing was he didn't imagine that Jamal was such a celebrity, of course, he knew that he was a big person in the whole Stainfall but he didn't expect him to be so popular that even people were always talking about him in the streets, he was almost like a rockstar and as he imagined that a worrisome thought came within his mind [ if he is so much considerate by his people how will they react when they will hear that he left the city? ].

While he was lost in his thoughts Dana continued staring at him with her eyes wide open as if she wanted to figure out the answer by analyzing his changes of expression, " so is it true? Do you know him personally? "

He sighed as he couldn't just turn her down after all the amount of energy she made him save or the amount of work she relieved him off, he owed her at least a correct answer. " Yeah I know him, " he declared, " so what? is there anything more to add? "

Meanwhile, it happened that they already arrived at the square. Matteo told the crew to leave all the stuff they were carrying on a corner of the court. When they finished they stepped out of that place, except Dana. While her buddies were leaving she stayed there facing Matteo and once they were alone she told him " we didn't finish talking yet ".