Bliss or Curse
   

"Ready? It's your turn." The band was being ushered onto the stage after what seemed an endless wait.

They were waiting! The cheers of the audience could be heard, their voices as one with the singer of the last refrain. A last shout of delirium exploded before the last notes of the song were lost in the air. Now, their first performance in front of a foreign public had arrived.

"Fingers crossed," Leonard, the drummer of the group, whispered to himself.

Jack turned towards him smiling nervously, in his eyes a light of emotion. Their band was introduced. The stage opened in front of them, immense and ready to swallow them.

"Hello everybody," greeted Jack with a slight trembling voice.

The audience exploded. Shouts, arms lifted in the air, hands that agitated trying to be noticed.

Jack had dreamed of this moment for so long, but now it seemed the most extraordinary thing that could happen to him. His dream was there, before him the audience longed for him to open his mouth and sing. God, if it's a dream, don't wake me, it’s too wonderful.

The audience calmed down a little. Lights were turned down low.

Leonard hit one of his drums three times.

Simon and Nathan cast a glance of mutual understanding at each other and lightly brushed their plectra across their guitar strings. The first notes of the song which, in a few months, had taken them to the top of the charts made their audience explode again.

Now it was Jack's turn. While he was singing, his faraway look skimmed their audience. It really was him on that stage! he thought, enraptured. At last, he had freed himself from the cage of anonymity. He was living his real life now. All those people...they were there for them, to hear their music!

Have you ever had an impossible dream to achieve? We all have one. Wouldn’t you tell me...

Jack urged on the audience to sing his refrain with him, but it wasn't necessary. A huge crowd of voices had already risen from the stadium to unite with his. These were his fifteen minutes! He had arrived! Jack smiled enthusiastically. Yes! He was now a winner!

* * *

"Have you ever had an impossible dream to achieve..." Eleonora sang, still ravished by a song which was already 6 years old. She smiled while threading a needle through the piece of cloth, trying to give a regular edge to something shapeless. It was unusual for her to do such things, as sewing and engaging herself in work considered "feminine". Usually, she did it because she was obliged to, not because she enjoyed it. But you could change your viewpoint sometimes.

"Here it is!" she sang out, cutting the thread with her scissors and finishing off with a small, tidy knot. She only had to sew it all on the shoulder bag and her "work of art" could be said to be finished. She looked thoughtfully at the piece of painted cloth she was holding. It was a paradox that one song could have affected her life so much. Sometimes, the most beautiful things happened in the most unusual and unpredictable ways. It was strange to think that later on, that band had split up and, in a way, which left you perplexed and embittered.

Probably she was wrong in taking it all so seriously, but what Eleonora hadn’t understood at the age of 18 she understood now that she was 20. You couldn’t pretend that your actions had not had any influence on others. And today, 6 years later, Eleonora felt ready to walk on her own feet and create something that would represent her real self.

The last notes of the song echoed in her memory. Eleonora stood up and switched off the stereo. She didn’t feel like listening to the other tracks now. She finished her work in silence, aware only of the needle and of the thread which passed from the piece of cloth to the pocket of her shoulder bag. "Hum, yes I like it," Eleonora murmured as she gazed at her little creation. Then she put it on the bed. What is your impossible dream? she read once again before leaving the room.

In the living room, she picked up the phone and dialed her best friend, Susanna's, number .

* * *

The cigarette between his fingers gave him a sort of confidence. It was like doing something while doing nothing. Or while waiting for something to happen, but not knowing what. Sometimes, Giulio thought about it. If his parents and society had been a little different, if only things hadn't gone that way...

He raised the cigarette to his lips and inhaled the smoke. He felt hopeless. He could spend his whole life on these steps in front of the university, waiting for the day to pass, while all those 'daddy's boys' went in to get an education for themselves. Giulio looked down on the majority of them with contempt. They seemed to be so self-satisfied and smugly happy. If only he had known how to live his life differently, maybe now he wouldn’t be waiting for that cigarette to come to an end so that he could light another.

One afternoon, he had seen an insignificant-looking girl, who caused that question to swim around in his head. What is your impossible dream?

That really was the point. If his dream had been possible, he would have exerted himself to realize it but, unfortunately, it wasn't. And he couldn’t help it. There had been a moment in which Giulio had felt he wanted to stop that girl and ask why she had painted that question on her bag. As if she could have answered all his questions! What a fool, he thought, breathing out slowly, his expression lost in the void.

* * *

Have you ever had an impossible dream to achieve? Jack had sung these words six years previously on that selfsame stage. What kind of life did he want to live? He had gone on, already intoxicated by the first on-stage illusions of success. We all have an impossible dream. Wouldn’t you tell me yours? Eleonora had given these words a new life

It’s a lottery, Eleonora supposed. She had decided to take the risk. Your greatest bliss or your deepest curse. It's the choice one needs to make.

- Lara Marzo, with Marta Favro 
Turin, Italy.
http://it.geocities.com/shiningarden