smile with teeth so white that lessen the blue brightness of her eyes.
This magnificent creature gets into the lift before me and stands on one side; I position myself at the bottom, as I do every morning.
The cosiness of this tiny space is suddenly filled with a delicate scent of bitter orange and cardamom. I lose myself in this aroma, while I ask her what floor she is going to. «Seventh floor, please» she says. I press the button, lingering among her sea like and icy colours.
I watch her bring her right hand as far as her shoulder: she twists a strand of her light brown hair around her index finger varnished in black; the other hand slips into one of the pockets of her dark jeans.
She has a delicate, gentle and regular face. She seems to shine with positive melancholy. Number seven lights up; the doors open.
«See you.»
«See you, have a good day.»
The lift goes up as far as the 11th floor.
No, I have never seen anything so bright blue.
1.2 LIFE
1.2 LIFE - ONE
A few more seconds in the lift and I reach my floor. I open the front door; the darkness of a February early morning envelops the office. Before me, a dim and foggy light shows behind the reception desk. A sequence of nine large windows, each measuring one metre and a half in width: beyond the windowpanes and the mist, in the distance, the castle towers over the city.
It is 7:30 am and nobody else is in the office, apart from the notary public, of course. His Ferrari California was already in the car park, like every morning, parked with the front of the car towards the exit, keeping the same distance from the two lines painted on the ground.
I took my jacket off and I hang it in the closet placed at the side of the desk. I get across the room looking at the castle in the distance from the windows on my right and I go for my self-stirring mug in my office. I go into the little room in front of my office and I wait for the kettle to boil. I pour some hot water onto my dissolvable Colombian coffee. I switch on my mug and I walk to the end of the corridor. The door of the notary’s office is open and he is busy reading something on his 29-inch computer screen.
«We need to take care of that issue I mentioned to you earlier on» he says looking up, after greeting me.
«What issue?» I asked, I am puzzled.
«That matter regarding that couple: that lady, or as you refer to as, well...»
«Alright, I get it: the slut.»
«That’s it, later we’ll get to it» the notary replied with a big smile. «Stop stirring that thing, please.»
«Sure, I am sorry» I say keeping a straight face while pressing the button on the stirring mug that I am holding in my hands, to increase the speed.
«Brando, tell me: the golden teaspoon that I gave you did not suggest anything to you? Did you think that that gift could have some sort of a secret meaning?»
«No, I did not think much of it: should I have? I thought it was just a present from our fat-bellied client from the valley».
I go away while I hear Alessandro grumble behind me and I unwillingly get back to the main room to drink my coffee, admiring the castle and the mist from the windows.
I wonder if she smiles at everyone this way: it won’t certainly be the first time she smiles and I won’t certainly be the first person she has turned to with such innocence. On the seventh floor there are a financial company and a language school: I would go for the first option.
I hear the door open behind me. I greet Domenica who is coming in, dragging a heavy bag. She strides to her office. Busy day with real estate deeds today, like every Tuesday. I glance at the big silver clock in the waiting room near the door: it is 7:51am. I don’t really feel like working. I take a glimpse at the city again: I can only see the blurred shape of some buildings. From here, it looks so quiet and it is hard to think that there are thousands of people there stuck in the morning traffic and busy trying to start their day.
I need to file several documents from last week. Later this morning then, there will be two extra tasks which are all set since yesterday. Luckily today there won’t be any legal counselling service, however after lunch there will surely be half the documents to be filed, which will take up a lot of my time. Also, all the real estate deeds which will be signed in the afternoon: Domenica will ask me without fail to do something like some missing energy certificate. Around 7:00 pm the documents to be filed will not be all done and that will mean that I have worked for eleven hours in a row, I will be tired and ready to dream of the lift to start my journey home. The slut comes back into my mind now. She was unconsciously being left out of the daily agenda through some mysterious brain function: I guess that the matter will be somehow included before the evening, following the notary’s request.
At around 6 pm already, I probably will start thinking about the lift going down and maybe stopping on the 7th floor. Maybe she finishes working at 7 pm too. She has made a big impression on me: a glow blended with a touch of melancholy which does not overshadow her light but it makes it brighter.
I leave the window and I go towards my burial recess. The purple light shows that the computer has been switched on and Windows is loading... the working day is about to begin. User ID and password: I am ready.
Registering corporate deeds is one the tasks I carry out in the office, among many others. It is quite a repetitive job but after all it is also soothing and relaxing because I don’t need to interact with other people directly and it doesn’t imply any online verbal conversation.
I open the list made by Tamara: last week several companies were registered, some statute regulations had been modified, there had been a merge and five share transfers. It comes to a total of fifteen files to submit to the Board of Trade and this amount doesn’t brighten up my negative thoughts from earlier on, making me take into account the possibility to finish my work before the evening, including all the breaks.
As I usually do, I start with the share transfers which are not too technical and they take me less than half an hour each.
The first one concerns a company owned by several people from the one family whose founder is now in his seventies and is trying to leave the business. I fill in the fields concerning the new capital stock, I grant the father a smaller share and the daughter a bigger one, I check their personal details and I consider the first file already done.
Check. Sign. Send. Amend. Sign. Check. Send. File registered: I will be sent the receipt shortly.
While waiting, I type Sbandofin Brescia in the search box and I press enter: the name is fascinating and I have always noticed it on the plates placed in front of the reception desk. Who we are, where we are, what we do, loans for your residential home, for your holiday home, debt consolidation, business funding, consumer credit, liquidity problems consulting. I stop midway through the page: the company does financial mediation for every need.
I stare at the screen. That girl, or woman, could persuade a penguin too from the Antarctic to purchase an air conditioner: she could manage to grant loans to people looking for cash to pay off other debts. Despite its name, I think that the company is a trustworthy mediator. Maybe she carries out a very boring job dealing with central credit register inquiries, looking for better spreads,
