Awakening (I)

The darkness that enveloped her body was cold, oppressive. It reminded her - albeit vaguely - of the harsh winters spent in childhood, when there was too much frost and too little wood. In those years of hardship and suffering she had always thought that the fingers of her hands would come off, by dint of digging in the rigid earth in search of bitter roots to feed on. In the end, it had never happened and this - for her - turned out to be a real relief. That way, she'd been able to dig harder the following year, and the next.

Immersed in that darkness, she did not realize the memories that, with arrogance, came back to her mind. She was focused on trying to see a light, a mere glimmer of life that could lead her out of that darkness.

Finding nothing, she wondered what the place was, if she got lost in some remote place, wandering through the night in search of food.

She tried to scream, hoping someone could hear her voice, praying someone would rescue her.

Yet, despite all the efforts, her voice just did not want to know, to be heard.

Was she blind, dumb and ... deaf?

Really she could not hear anything, or maybe it was the nothingness that surrounded her so insistently?

She didn't have time to give herself an answer.

From the darkness, a small flame appeared. Trembling, uncertain. Then a voice, gruff and scratchy, almost irritating to hear. She shivered, assuming that it was still possible for her to feel a certain reaction on a physical level.

With slow shyness, then, as if wanting to dispel the sensation of annoyance caused by that unknown voice, a song expanded in the dark. Joyful, with childish and cheerful tones. And then more laughter, fragments of lost life of who knows who.

The young woman suddenly felt safe, enveloped - now - by a pleasant sensation of warmth, similar to that of the spring sun, which with its delicate rays incites the first buds to open.

She let an invisible hand caress her face, soft and attentive, in a gesture full of love. Sensing such a contact - sudden, but not invasive - she wanted to delude herself that she had closed her eyes and was fully delighted with that cuddle.

She felt her heart invaded by an affection that she had never before been able to feel and, enveloped in that tenderness, she woke up.

♦♪♦♪♦♪♦♪♦♪

She found herself bathed in light, inside a room completely unknown to her.

She didn't remember falling asleep, nor did she remember lying on a bed the night before.

Thinking about it clearly, trying to clear the fog of sleep, she realized she couldn't even remember her own name distinctly.

She remembered, albeit in a confused way, her condition of poverty, fatigue, hours of hard work added to little sleep and the desire to escape, to be able to live a new existence, far from misery and loneliness. Yet, despite this, it was impossible for her to remember the name her parents had given her at birth.

The thought made her shiver with guilt. Was she numb to the point of forgetting something so important?

She forced herself to sigh, trying to get rid of the unpleasant sensation. She had to do something concrete and feeling sorry for herself was not the best choice.

She lay on the bed, motionless for a few minutes, as if she wanted to search and recall the voices of her past life, of that existence from which she had been - presumably, judging by the environment completely unknown to her - torn away.

Despite the growing confusion, the feeling of being out of place, in a place unsuitable for her and somehow wrong and out of proportion to her essence, she was able to gradually relax, intoxicated by the sweet scent of fresh flowers.

Slowly, feeling a growing calm expand within her chest, she decided to sit up. At first, she met with opposition from her own body.

She felt heavy, as if her limbs - not recognizing her - perceived her as a kind of parasite. It was a feeling of suffocating captivity.

After an initial refusal of the body to cooperate, it took another handful of minutes to fight against the dizziness, which invaded her the moment she managed to sit up on the soft mattress.

Having overcome even that feeling of unease, she allowed herself a long and thorough analysis of the room in which she was.

-Where did I go?-

She asked herself, for the first time letting herself go to a concrete and actual thought, ignoring the continuous and pressing call of the past.

She tried to remember the events of the previous evening, in vain. Once again, she couldn't come up with anything.

-Was I kidnapped...?-

The sudden thought startled her.

Out of nowhere, a sensation of sudden panic made its way into her heart - until then enveloped by a kind of pleasant numbness, able to make a long shiver go through her entire spine.

-I have to go.-

That vague intention was enough to make her body move.

Even before she could fully realize it, she had moved the covers, ready to jump up and run away.

Just as she was about to set foot on the floor, the door to the room opened with a faint sound of rubbing wood.

Could her tormentor have come?

In that instant, she realized she was short of breath and heart in her throat.

She could no longer think straight. She had to calm down, or at least force herself to regain some control.

She took a deep breath, trying to regulate her heartbeat.

While she was intent on doing so, a slender figure peeked through the door, elegant despite her unkempt hair and untidy clothes.

She was amazed at the sight.

Everything could have been expected, except what she was witnessing.