Starting Is Easy
Starting is easy.
Whenever I start telling my story people seem keen to listen to it, I always open a bottle of good wine and wait for the perfect atmosphere before beginning. But as the bottle empties, the ashtray is filled with cigarette ends and I approach the conclusion my guest invariably looks disbelieving and embarassed.
That’s why I decided to start keeping a diary. No one would believe me and I know I’m not telling any lie, I fear I might risk insanity here.
Remember old Winston Smith from 1984? He reaches the point where he has to write his memories down to preserve them from a world that considers them total untruths. Keeping a diary is his first and, by far, most rebellious act.
And keeping a diary is going to be my rebellious act, too. And, hopefully, you’ll hear my story and be more open-minded than the people (who are very few, to be honest) whom I’ve trusted enough to tell them about my past and who haven’t believed me.
It all started in December a few years ago. I was travelling by train. The grass outside the windows was frozen and it was dusk, my favourite moment of the day. I had been working on my laptop for hours and my eyes are sore. I put my glasses down beside the laptop, laid back and closed my eyes. I must have fallen asleep for a while, because when I opened my eyes it was very dark outside, the windows looked like a slab of smooth, transparent black ice and all I could see was my own reflection, which, of course, was very blurry due to the fact that I wasn’t wearing my glasses.
I put them on and went on working. At the time I was writing an extended essay on Pluto, listing all the reasons why we shouldn’t consider it a planet. All my documents were spread on the seat next to mine, a lovely Indian woman wearing a sari was sitting quietly in front of me, shily smiling at me from time to time.
I felt perfectly well, perfectly peaceful, perfectly sane. I had no idea of what was to come, which deserves a good and exhaustive explanation which I will write tomorrow.
Gotta dash right now
