Symmetry only lasts one minute

3. The Hospital

Needless to tell about Eleusi's plaster on her right foot, due to a sudden necrosis of the heel, discovered by chance. It is of very little interest, I would say. Or am I wrong?On that occasion, it could be said that she missed for a long time her dear bicycle "Aurelia", bright red, with which she had seemed so many times to dive, like Bastian in flight on the Dragon of Fortune of the Neverending Story.But not moving away from the health sector, we cannot omit, instead, a fundamental experience of her life, on which indeed it would be appropriate to join, almost politically, with many other voices still unheard.Eleusi had lived her First Communion with devotion, composed and more at ease than usual, almost like St. Maria Goretti herself!By her turn at the prayers, reading correctly and expressively into the microphone, she had made all of her parents smile, if not giggle.- Dear Jesus, I don't ask you anything for me. I just thank you. I am a lucky child -Mama Clara's lesson had been learned all too well.But, after the evening celebrations, something bad happened.What Eleusi remembers could, in fact, fall within the so-called near-death experiences - but any doctor would deny without appeal.Shaken by violent tremors, she called out to her mother as she heard her own voice grow fainter and fainter.Bruno had run as quickly as possible to the child, still covered by the sheets, but he didn't seem to realize immediately.Then, in her perception, it all became unspeakable.Certainly there was total relief from the great fright and cessation of pain, but no proverbial light at the bottom of a notorious tunnel.It was as if the senses were darkened, to the exclusion of powerful hearing.Eleusi, in fact, could hear the voice of her father, but far away, confused with other surrounding ones closer to her.A particularly unforgettable one. A deep masculine voice, which spoke with an almost angry tone.-You shouldn't be here - he told her.Then, the same person (whom, I repeat, the child could well hear but not see), calmed down, began to count backwards, until he revealed: - You are about to wake up.And the awakening was very painful, she later said: the air "scraped her lungs".So much so that Eleusis wept, first of her supine on the bathroom floor, then welcomed into the arms of her father.Clara was beside, still shaken and inconsolable.But she would have a chance to react better later.In the hospital, the doctors' diagnosis was precise and sounded terrible to the ears of the two young parents: a life of constant anxiety and severe limitations was foreshadowed for them and their little girl.The ward corridor was long, gray and cold.Some depictions on the walls, including that of a dragon, were not enough to brighten its appearance.Frugal meals based on tea, broth and boiled chicken, every single day.- Two drugs are too many! Yesterday she was very bad: she was absent, not even she answered me! - Clara told to the doctors. And she got the better of it, even realizing which was the dangerous drug.One evening, neither Clara nor Bruno could keep the little girl company, and she was alone for hours.Then Eleusi, in order not to suffer from loneliness, decided to write - to write, in the sense of her creating, composing something.She came up with, in a notebook, something of a considerable length, and with rhymes and assonances.Something confident and optimistic that, if written by an adult, would be the object of the worst ridicule. But Eleusi was only nine years old!The little girl woke up that same evening, while her mother was reading the writing to an aunt. Many compliments ensued.The large room of the ward that housed it soon filled up.Thus it was that Eleusi discovered VideoMusic and a strange music for her, made of daring combinations of sounds, with psychedelic images: a beautiful blonde girl, in fact, seemed almost addicted to that channel.Then two others arrived: an older boy and a girl of the same age of Eleusi, Giovanna."Don't run through the corridors," Clara recommended, in vain, to the two girls.How many daily frontal clashes with people in scrubs and white coats!- Don't use the elevators! -They broke one.With the boy, however, Eleusi remembers playing guessing words.Giovanna was from central Sardinia. She had a very funny accent. She was characterized by a slight squint, but she was pretty.-Sometimes it seems to me that I have swipes in the brain - she had revealed. But she was soon discharged, before Eleusi.Once they both returned home, Giovanna telephoned her.Then she never heard from her again.After hospitalization, she began the day-hospital care.Eleusi's schoolmates, who boasted muddled information about her health, did not reserve her any particular welcome in seeing her again.But there was no flaw in her school performances, once again.- Tell the doctor what you often dream about - Bruno recommended to her for a visit.Eleusi replied, embarrassed: -I dream that someone is behind me, scaring me, then chases me and I have to escape ...The doctor kindly asked for an interview with the child alone.-Your dad is worried - she said, smiling, once they were alone.- Why? -- Because he thinks you want to get away from him, from your parents.You know, there is nothing scarier, more painful than this for a parent: a child who, in some way, goes away.- But it's not him, it's not they who frighten me - explained the little girl - It's something I don't know and I don't understand. Besides, I can't choose what to dream about.The doctor seemed impressed and often manifested it in the course of their conversations.Any topic could be discussed with Doctor Carlotto.Eleusi did not mind her questions, always delicate and never intrusive, nor her wise considerations.She was beginning to vaguely guess, through her figure, what it means to do a job well, almost embody it.But if she thought of herself honestly, nothing, nothing besides writing captured her longing for her future.What else? Teaching? Advocacy? Medicine, in turn? She couldn't convince herself.The years passed, the visits and specialist examinations constantly thinned out.Until, one warm May morning, Carlotto turned his direct gaze to the teenager Eleusi, now fourteen, and a few words of farewell:- For a long time now, all your exams have been perfect.Eleusi, I don't want to see you here ever again! Ever. Is that clear? -