They let Paolicelli out of the cage. He still had to be taken back to prison to go through the formalities of release, but they didn’t put his handcuffs on, because he was a free man now. He came towards me, surrounded by the guards. When he came level with me, he embraced me.
I responded graciously to the embrace, patting him on the back and hoping it would soon be over. After me, he embraced his wife, kissed her on the mouth, and told her he would see her at home that evening.
She said she would come and pick him up but he said no, he didn’t want her to.
He didn’t want her to go near that place even for a moment. He would come home alone, on foot.
He wanted to prepare himself for seeing his daughter, and a walk would be the ideal way of doing that.
Besides, it was spring. It was a nice thing to walk home, free, in the spring.
His lower lip was trembling and his eyes watery, but he didn’t cry. At least not while he was still in the courtroom.
Then the head of the escort told him, gently, that they had to go.
One of the guards, a tough-looking old character with very blue eyes and a scar that started under his nose and went across his lips all the way down to his chin, came up to me. He had a voice roughened by cigarettes and thirty years spent among thieves, dealers, traffickers and murderers. He was a prisoner, too, who wouldn’t finish his sentence until the day he retired.
“Congratulations, Avvocato. I listened to you and understood everything.” He pointed to Paolicelli, who was already walking away with the other two guards. “You saved that man.”
And then he rushed off to join his colleagues.
Again, Natsu and I were alone. For the last time.
“And now?”
“Goodbye,” I said.
It came out well, I think. Goodbye is a hard word to say. You always run the risk of sounding pathetic, but this time I hit the right note.
She looked at me for a long time. If I let her image go slightly out of focus and replaced her eyes with two big blue circles, I could see her daughter Midori as she would be in twenty years’ time.
In 2025. I tried not to think about how old I would be in 2025.
“I don’t think I’ll ever meet anyone else like you.”
“Well, I should hope not,” I said. It was meant as a kind of joke, but she didn’t laugh.
Instead, she looked around, and when she was sure the courtroom was really deserted, she gave me a kiss.
A real kiss, I mean.
“Goodbye,” she said and walked out into the deserted corridor.
I gave her five minutes’ head start and then left.