costing me a few thousand euros. They told me that she could have broken down any minute causing damage to I don’t know how many components: she was making a loud noise, quite low, that could be heard from outside.»
«Now the matter is clearer to me.»
«Why? I didn’t know you had a great interest in my car fleet.»
«I was just curious. You know that I love cars, so I was a little worried for your old 911, completely black, which I liked very much.»
The notary stops the waiter who is hanging around the girls’ table and asks for two more glasses of wine.
«I have always liked it myself» then he says, «do you like it even if it is metallic black and not matt like your car?».
«Matt black is quite a recent obsession: the shiny varnish on your 911 looks definitely beautiful too.»
«Brando, do you think that your fuchsia car mirrors make your car look serious?»
«Serious maybe not but the mirrors with a different colour than the upholstery was an optional and I could not resist: I was in two minds whether to go for orange or that one. As a matter of fact, they are a bit tacky.»
«Just a bit» the notary laughs. «At least they stand out from your sombre and gloomy appearance.»
«That’s right. Also, I went in to order it by myself, with no female presence by my side.»
The waiter drops over two new glasses of wine three quarters full and takes the empty ones.
«True, black is a constant with me» I say grabbing the glass. «So, in the end you have held on to the 911 and you don’t use it anymore, for fear that it will self-destruct at any moment?»
«I still use it now and again. I have brought it to several garages, after I got the new one: the two Anyauto partners seemed to be the most reliable, actually they are very good indeed. They advised me to allow them to open it up and in the end they were able to solve the problem by changing just one bearing of the differential gear and the noise went completely. At that point, while I was at it, I followed their advice to put in a new exhaust pipe because the standard one reduces the engine power. And the one that they put it has a sound really...» the notary said, pausing.
«Really what?»
«I wouldn’t know how to express it: really harmonious.»
«Quite a story! Like the euphonic ball?» I ask laughing, while he stares at me with a strange look. «Anyway, I didn’t think that the staff at Anyauto were so cutting-edge» I say quickly.
«Yes, they are really great» the notary says reaching out for his glass. «Somebody told me that they have started to provide a breakdown service in the last few months: they take turns, making themselves available at any time, day or night.»
«They are great» I say. «They keep themselves very busy.»
«Yes, at least they keep themselves going with some ideas» he replies. «They live opposite their garage: they have a barn, where they work, and a two-storey building in front of it, which is a bit neglected, where they both live, each of them with their own families.»
«Great idea, I’d say: home and work close by» I answer staring at the glass in front of me. If they have both of them in the one place, they have less hassle: they avoid being in and out, they save their energy and can allocate time for their pastimes. Such a life would not be bad. It is a shame that for me it is unachievable.
⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎
The voices of the girls are louder and louder; the girl who is sitting at the head of the table, ducklike and half naked like the others, but with almost pleasant plumage, picks up her smartphone, while the others are posing stretching their bodies over the table with their arms straight and holding their glasses.
The notary is monitoring what is happening.
«I wonder whether they are immortalizing a memorable event» he asks.
«Yes, probably they need to keep in their minds the unrepeatable opportunity to drink some liquids in this bar, this very evening.»
«More than anything else, they will record it in the memory of their smartphones, rather than in their minds» the notary says.
«Correct» I reply. «And then they will post this unrepeatable event on the social media too.»
«There are things that I don’t understand anymore: I feel like a stranger in many situations» the notary says. «It is probably down to age.»
I grab an olive. «I don’t think it is a matter of age. Probably I feel already too old, that’s why I feel uneasy like you in these situations.»
«Come on, Brando, were you born in 1979, right?» I nod while I chew on the olive.
«So, you are fourteen years younger than me: it is quite a bit.»
«Yes, half a generation, I’d say.»
«What do those girls look like? Do you find them attractive?» the notary asks.
I take a glance on my left and I examine once more the five diners at the table beside ours, without lingering again on the girl who is sitting at the head of the table, I have already x-rayed her before. They are dressed and made up according to manga cosplayer style: tight-fitting tops, micro-miniskirts, leather shorts, knee-high boots. Pity that they are not at Lucca Comics.
«I don’t know: there’s a fair chance that they look attractive to people their age. Personally, I don’t find them so attractive. If I take into account the tone and the pitch of their voices, I’d say that they are a real pain...» I stop and take a sip of my dry wine. «A bit like your Ferrari.»
The notary smiles, looks again at the table beside ours and take another sip of the wine. «They could be my daughters, but I would feel awful to have given life to those things» he says with some melancholy in his voice.
«If they were your daughters, you would look at them in a different way.» I grab a sliver of parmesan cheese, while the notary is staring at his glass. «Actually, if they were your daughters, I doubt it very much that they would be like that. You know, the genes... At the end of the day, each of us is born with well-defined genes; certainly, the social environment and the world around us do all the rest. I do think though that what you are, that is your own genes, always win over everything.»
«It is all in the genes, is it what you are saying? So those five girls, who I don’t think they are sisters, had a common destiny to inherit a gene for silly photos, shrill voices and tarty clothing?» the notary asks.
«Tarty?»
«Yes» he replies, laughing.
«It’s a nice definition» I smile and take another sip of my wine. «However, it is possible that they were all unlucky. Certainly, the environment plays a big role too: the upbringing, that’s what it is. You would never allow your daughter to be so loud. Bad-mannered, I’d say.»
I look at the bubbles in my glass; the shrill voices of the girls seem to have lowered a bit, while the notary is silent and grabs an olive. «However, in my opinion,
