A CHRISTMAS TALE FOR CHRISTMAS I know. I know that for a month this blog is dumb. But I also wrote several times that if you have nothing to say, it's usually better to stay silent. But it is Christmas, and then I want to give to few if any readers left, an old story ... She is thirteen years old, but maybe ...
Who said THAT IS NOT CHRISTMAS? In the village of
Burozia progress had really made great strides.
It began with the normal innovations, such as the many appliances that had facilitated the lives of buroziani to enable them to not have to do anything by themselves, dall'allacciarsi shoes to put their fingers in the nose, because there was the machine suitable for every need. Then he went ahead with the complete automation of all. Everything was programmed from the outside by means of a whole series of remotes that, wherever you were, they were able to transmit their signals. Gradually it had come to what the political class buroziana Given the extreme point: not having to leave the house.
There was no longer needed: in fact, through computer networks, antennas, communication systems at a distance, all they could now do everything without moving. The food was distributed, of course, canned, through a complicated network of pipes that transport had terminals in each home. Went out of fashion laptops and mobile phones, all old stuff, which involved a movement of its possessor, and thus the need to carry around the tools. The newspapers came via fax or modem. And the TV did the rest, becoming the only voice could be heard outside the buroziani.
So people only knew what he was saying on television. And what the TV said was true. So, if you wanted to know something, it was enough that the TV did not say.
One year after a poll on the popularity he had to accept second place after Jesus Christ, the master of all the TV channels decided that it suited him that it was Christmas. And he did so in a way that no one in any broadcast, commercials or news or talk. And so it happened, and it was from then on ...
Anna lived in a village near the borders of Burozia. In the mountains: it was the only place where, believe it or not, television signals did not arrive. And since there was no TV, no one knew that this village existed, and no one cared. Neither the people, not the least being touched by the wave of progress, had continued to live as if nothing had happened. Sure, they were primitive: they continued to cook on the fire, to pick fruit from the trees and enjoy the sun outside the home ... but despite this they were happy.
There was a road from the village down the valley. But no one ever came from there, and none had ever had the urge to go and see where it leads. Until the cat. The cat Anna, a gray tabby cat named Billy, and that was as curious as restless. And
December 22 Billy decided to go see the world as it was done.
Someone had seen him take the road, but no one could stop him. Anna if she wanted was to go and try it, and who knows where he went. The girl did not lose heart, and started to turn to the famous and unknown road.
journeyed Anna arrived in the valley. Billy even a shadow, but not limited to: not a soul was around. In the distance I could see a small country, and it was there that went.
The streets were empty, but emerged from the houses of bluish light. And the roofs on all types of roofs, a forest of antennas. Things that Anna had never seen. Around no one seems to go for a long time. There was a 'car, there was no litter, just a huge layer of dust accumulated, no one gave it clearly to waive the penalty. The people, if there was, was locked in the house.
The thing that struck Anna was the complete absence of any Christmas decoration, despite only three days to Christmas. In his country there was a big tree full of colored lights and a nice crib built right in front of the church. Here nothing. The shops seemed abandoned long ago.
The houses were connected by large blue metal tubes, which were fishing in the soil, roots from which modern evidently fed. Anna traveled
the strange landscape with a little 'fear. He wanted to call Billy, but it seemed unreal in that silence his call would have been almost rude.
Then he saw a little light.
Just down below, under the door of an isolated house, a house that, unlike the others, seemed deserted. Without antennae, no hoses and no bluish light from the windows.
A house unlike any other because it was like she knew to be the case, a light that seemed, somehow, familiar. He walked to the door and knocked.
was to open a middle-aged man, thin and sad-looking.
- Yes?
- Excuse me ... have you seen my cat?
The man's face was painted an entire rainbow of expressions. From wonder to joy, incredulity. Answered, almost stammering. He had obvious difficulty in articulating words.
- Ma .. but ... yes, the cat. I think so ...
stumbling, the man motioned for Anna to come home.
A home decorated with taste, but where everything seemed old and out of place when compared with the outside. There were also many books, all very old.
Billy was in the kitchen, intent on licking taste with a bowl of milk.
- Luckily it came to me. I still have a cow, and fresh milk. But all the other no longer know what that means. All powder! - The man said with a grin.
and told her what had happened in those years.
The man's name was Thomas, and was the only country to have no television. Anna listened with his mouth open.
- I managed to resist, but only because I did not give them trouble. One after another, they all closed in the house, I had no one with whom to discuss.
- Ma .. - Asked at the end - you do not even Christmas gifts?
On the face of Thomas passed a cloud of sadness and wonder.
- Christmas? But it still exists?
- Of course, we celebrate always do the tree, the crib, let us sing and gifts ...
- Well, tell that to the owner of the country. Here what they say in Television does not exist. And if you find yourself. Up in the mountain, as we will reduce. I almost come away with you!
Anna pondered in silence. Meanwhile, the Billy jumped on his lap and started purring.
- If you want you can come ... - He said - but it is better to try to return it right?
Thomas laughed through clenched teeth.
- and I think I've tried there? They got me a fool!
Anna smiled, scratching the head of Billy.
- Why were you alone. Let me call my friends, and you'll see ...
- But how can you call them?
- Well, the phone we we ...
- But I do not! That, too, have abolished when they all related to computer networks! - Said Thomas.
tried a payphone on the street. There was even an old cabin, sagging and crumbling. Anna was able to dial a number and make a phone call, just in time before the device fell to pieces.
Two hours later, a small gang of boys was at work in the town square desert. Mounted a large tree, and decorated with all sorts of decorations. So the fires lit all around, which sheds new life that environment all dusty and abandoned.
- And now ... - Anna said with a wink - How do I remove the power?
Thomas looked at her incredulously.
- There's a switch ... but is protected by sophisticated alarm, there are robot-keepers who control, no one can come close ...
- Show me where it is. - Anna said, sure.
they went. The controller looks like a bunker impregnable. Complete with electrified barbed wire and alarms everywhere.
- In there is a switch that can disconnect power to the entire country. Ma .. Without waiting another
, Anna whispered something into the ear of Billy.
The cat moved quickly, past the barbed wire without moving, and disappeared into the bunkers. Five minutes later, with a hissing sound, all lights, televisions, cars stopped in the country.
The boys, Thomas and the cat ran into the back of the square, around the tree, and here they began to sing, accompanied the sound of guitars in the glow of bonfires, the only ones in the whole district.
not spent more than ten minutes, maybe less.
With a large flicker of blades, a swarm of helicopters appeared in the sky, and stood overlooking the square. Large bundles of white light cut the darkness, and a voice interrupted the music just as sharp.
- Go home! Go home!
The boys were silent, clinging to each other. Thomas was shaking, indicating the largest helicopter.
- and he ... - Babbling - is he in person ...
Meanwhile, the ropes were thrown from helicopters, in which some robots began to get blue. And the voice continued public address system to yelling:
- It's for your own good ... Back at home ...
robots had surrounded the bonfire, and now waiting for a signal to act. Big helicopter came down an escalator, the same as those in supermarkets, and a figure dressed in dark blue began to drop down, while a spotlight shone in upon him. He stopped midway and extending the arms slowly, with a smile that reached from ear to ear, said
- Do not worry, nothing happens. Now put everything in place and everything returns to business as before ... but you have to be good and go home.
The people inside the houses, found itself suddenly in the dark, and many realized no longer be able to see anything. Their eyes do not get accustomed to the darkness, as before, and without that bright rectangle was total blindness.
tried to grope around, getting rid of the tubes that were connected to all the physiological needs, and other bodies were discovered around the same, without being able to see. From their throats
atrophied guttural sounds came out, and a lot of time standing fell to the ground, because they were no longer able to stand upright.
in dark houses, where it was not even a candle as they also did not use more voices and noises coming from outside.
Laboriously, attracted by the sound, some people began to leave the house.
doors and windows were locked, they tried to shoulder, or with a chisel, but at the end of the first test, hairy and pale, face.
people, those who could see something, rubbing his eyes became huge, he saw that scene from the film, brightly lit, with helicopters overhead, the robots deployed all around and he, the supreme head, at half of its escalator in an attitude of blessing. All remotes
had stuck firmly in the hands, who in his right hand on the left who now needed prostheses and inseparable, the most vital organs of the legs or larynx, which in fact showed all their grievances.
A man, obviously annoyed by sudden, violent flare, with a habitual gesture as a nervous tic pointed his remote at the scene. And one of the blue robot disappeared in smoke gray.
- Yes! - Anna shook, enlightening - Yes, that's how we can win them! Guys, these people do not exist! There are only there because television has made me believe! Come on, let's change the channel!
The man on the ladder shook.
- No, do not give her line! What would you do without television? How to spend your evenings? Fermi, come back home ...
robots, threatening, began to reach people.
- Use the remote control! Courage! - Anna screamed.
- Do not you understand ... - Thomas said - must use the only language they can understand ...
And man, gathering all the breath he had, he shouted:
- Advertise!
Instinctively, smashed all the remotes.
A huge cloud of gray smoke enveloped the whole square.
When dissolved, there were no more, no robots, no helicopters, no escalators.
Only the bonfire, the children, Thomas, the cat, the Christmas tree.
And the people who, staggering and with hands, approached the great bonfire, while the memory of something very far away, forgotten somewhere, started to resurface.
(from "It's Christmas - Fairy tales and stories "by F. and D. Maltarello Frasnelli - ed. Gribaudi, 1995)
