{The chapter title is a quote by William Faulkner, from his work Requiem for a Nun. Publication date: 1951}
The town that God built by Sandra Owen.
The town of Il Cuore di Dio is an interesting tale from a piece of history. What I had learned in that awful place, dear reader, has chilled this reporter to the bone.
This disgusting tale started on a warm Monday in June when I got the call.
Ring! Ring! Ring!
After being startled awake by the ringing of my phone, I tried to regain my senses. As I leaped out of bed and began desperately digging around through a pile of dirty clothes for it. I must have gone through ten pairs of jeans before finally fishing it out of the pockets of my favorite pair of light-wash skinny jeans. Checking the Caller I.D. and groaning at the sight of my editor Karen Walawits's name flashing on the screen.
"Bonjour, Karen! What's up?" Trying to sound as pleasant as I could without showing my growing annoyance.
"Bonjour Sandra, sorry to call you on your day off, but I just caught wind of a huge story!". Hearing her cheerful voice this early in the morning truly was the most obnoxious thing. However, those words always piqued my interest.
"Oh yeah! What is it?" I say heading into the bathroom to start a shower.
"Ok so like apparently about fifty-ish years ago or something like that this whole town, like totally closed itself off from the rest of the world." She laughed, and I could hear the faint sound of her nail file in the background.
"Why?" I asked, rubbing my eyes to get rid of excess sleep.
"Oh, nobody really knows why." Karen scoffed.
"Ok, so what's with the history lesson then?" I groaned and scowled at the tiled floor.
"I'm giving you a rundown on what is known about the place. Anyway, rumor has it the reason behind it closing its doors is because the patients went nuts and killed the whole town! After many years now, they've decided to suddenly open their doors to the public again or to us at least, so you need to go and interview the town priest and confirm or deny this rumor and the others that I'm sending to you." Karen sighed at the faint sound of her nail file again in the background. "So yeah that's the gist of it is that the town used to be an insane asylum built in Italy forever ago got turned into a town, closed their doors, and now they're opening up!"
"What! really, but why close themselves off in the first place? And why open their doors back open now?" I cried out. I sensed something fishy at the time but I could have never imagined what had been waiting for me then.
"That's for you to find out sweet pea! Tata for now, oh and before I forget your plane leaves at twelve!" With that, the phone clicked off leaving me sitting in stunned shocked silence.
"Oh, Putain de merde!" I curse, setting my phone down on the bathroom sink and stripped out of my pajamas, and stepped into the shower.
After adjusting the water so it's on the warmer side than hot or cold I start shampooing my hair. Then I wash my face with my back to the stream so the water rinses the shampoo out before re-shampooing my hair while rinsing the soap off my face. I then wash and shave my body and condition my hair, once everything is rinsed off I step out of the shower and wrap myself in a towel.
After about five minutes of towel drying myself, I go over to the mirror. I stare into my reflection and what looks back at me is a twenty-five-year-old half-white/half-black woman with short wavy brown hair and chocolate-brown eyes. I'm not the prettiest thing in the world but I give myself a pass in the looks department. Sighing I brush my teeth and put on some makeup before heading back out to my bedroom and over to my closet. I accidentally threw the door open with too much force and ended up leaving a hole in the wall. Drywall and chipped yellow paint scattered across the floor. Sighing to myself as I'll have to sweep that up later. I begin sluggishly moving aside clothing to pull out my old blue suitcase. It's a bulky thing with a wide frame and upright poster, though it's rather ugly being an old shade of blue with gold elephants dotted around it like chickenpoxs.
Truly this thing is cringe-worthy, but despite all that it still makes me smile. A sentimental gift from my Bibi shortly after I graduated.
YOU ARE READING
The Town that God built.
Bí ẩn / Giật gânA young reporter is going to a seemingly normal town for an interview, but after learning the town's dark past decides to take the opportunity to capture the scoop of a lifetime and makes a documentary instead.
