The Second Day…
That feeling… Where am I? What am I doing? Is this a dream? My mind is empty, I can’t remember anything… Something hit meeeeeeee…
I quickly opened my eyes. I was drenched in sweat, as if it had been a muggy summer night. Then I quickly realized I wasn’t in my homeland, Reggio Emilia. And all that sweat hadn’t been caused by the humidity in the valley. It was actually the panic brought about by recent memories rushing into my mind once again.
That strange experience, when I was half asleep and half awake, was an kind of awareness I could not explain. It was as if my thoughts were out of focus and then started to take shape as my mind made great effort to constantly rearrange them, like the lens of an old analogic camera trying to focus on a moving object.
My vision started going back to normal and I became aware of my surroundings. This time I felt a warm, fuzzy feeling, something smooth to the touch placed right in front of me. I was barely waking up when I realized that Angelica and I were in an intimate, intriguing embrace—which was completely unintended.
Once again, I was the first one to wake up, and maybe I woke up more quickly due to my physical reaction to something I could not explain. I was hugging Angelica the same way my daughter hugs her Winnie the Pooh; the thing is that Angelica is no teddy bear, and teddy bears don’t have that disturbingly arousing feminine fragrance. As soon as I regained control of my muscles, my ethics forced me to break away from that pleasing contact and my sudden movements ended up waking her. Beautiful Angelica blushed when she realized what was going on.
I couldn’t avoid any remarks she wished to make, so I tried to organize my thoughts and exorcise my fears.
“This is the second time we fall asleep suddenly,” I started out the conversation. “I just can’t understand the purpose of it. I’m not trying to force a situation, and it’s too early to be sure, but those theories about aliens… Those abduction cases that are so talked about… Who put us in bed while we were both unconscious?”
I felt a shiver going down my spine at the thought of someone making our bodies do something involuntarily at night.
“You’re letting yourself be carried away by your imagination. It could have been a simple technology created by twenty-first century Homo sapiens. How about a colorless, odorless sleeping gas?”
“The thing is that you didn’t witness your dematerialization with your own eyes. You evaporated a few feet away from me when you were struck by that ray. And what was that strange aircraft? And what is this place? Did you take a look at the lake outside?”
“I did. So what?”
“There are no villages along the lake… I’ve never seen a more beautiful place completely void of buildings and human life. Not a single sign of civilization.”
Angelica didn’t want to admit it. Even though she was an open-minded woman, she refused to talk about aliens and abductions.
“You’re scaring me now… Please, just let me be. I have to find something to wear, ‘cause I’m tired of walking around like this.”
She went to her private area, the one only she had access to. I did exactly the same and went to my side of the house. I needed to find answers, and I needed to find them fast.
“I’ll look over here,” I told Angelica. “I want to leave this house and find out where we are.”
As I looked for something to wear, even though I had already searched the house the day before, I didn’t see anything else worth a second look besides those strange devices. I’ll worry about these gadgets later… I need to find higher ground to get a better view of this area, to try to understand where we are.
Outside the house, it was about sixty-eight, seventy degrees. Judging by the position of the sun, it was a day in May or June, about eight in the morning. I couldn’t tell the exact time because I had lost my watch and my smartphone. A nice breeze was coming from the lake and it felt good on my skin, even the humidity in the air seemed ideal. I was surprised to find it all so comforting about that environment. The vegetation was certainly familiar. I recognized the trees and plants, even though I couldn’t name most of them.
I tried to find out where the house was in relation to what I had already seen in that environment. I was standing next to a hill with the oak grove to one side, adjacent to the lake. I wonder what is on the other side of the house.
I crossed the orchid garden arranged in small, colorful patterns, and went up a small hill after walking through a patch of grass. Less than a quarter mile away, I arrived at the top of the hill and could enjoy a panoramic view. On the other side of the hill, there was a large meadow, like that of the first hill, with a few trees here and there and sprinkled with small oak groves, like the one I had seen. I also identified some tamarack, chestnut trees, and other fruit trees.
Despite the seemingly anthropic landscape, as far as the eye could see, I didn’t find any man-made structures: no buildings, roads, or ancient ruins. Nothing at all. It was weird how that house seemed to have been built in the middle of nowhere, in a completely secluded place. I was sure we weren’t in Veneto or Lombardy, two of the most populated areas in Italy, crowded with rural dwellings all over the place. There was no sign of the typical medieval villages Italians are so proud of.
Pay attention to the details—I obsessively kept repeating to myself. Where could you be? Maybe it’s a less inhabited corner of the world. I have this weird, disturbing feeling… I couldn’t put my finger on it, but it was different from how I felt when I first woke up at the shore—then, again, I had probably been too distracted the day before. It was… absolute silence. I let it go for the time being, because maybe I could be wrong.
It seemed like a good idea to walk along the lake and do some exploring until I could reach the mountains. Maybe I wouldn’t find anything, but I could climb up and see more of the area. However, I soon realized my predicament. I’m naked—no clothes, no shoes… Maybe I’d have to walk tens of miles, and that goes without saying that I’d need to carry food and water. How could I survive such a trip? No, that wasn’t the right time to start a new adventure. I better go back to the house. If there’s logic behind it all and we’re here for a special reason, I’ll find out sooner or later.
I sat in the terrace, on a comfortable wicker recliner with soft pillows. I watched as the sun came up and let my thoughts run free like bloodhounds tracking something down. I can’t believe they brought us here to die of hunger and thirst. That thought went on and on in my mind.
I got up from the chair and paced the terrace next to the pool, like a fly going in circles within a room. I knew I’d be able to find clues somewhere about who built that house, whoever was there before us, or even who had kidnapped us.
In the meantime, I would have done anything to get my hands on some cappuccino, maybe a nice piece of erbazzone. My stomach kept reminding me of my basic human urges. It had been at least thirteen hours since we had arrived at that place, and there would soon be some serious consequences. Besides, there was the possibility that we’d have to live with our current birthday suits.
At that moment, I had already given up the idea of wandering far away from the house, so there was no other alternative but to look inside once again. Maybe I went past a pantry without noticing, maybe there’s some coffee… I can already feel that annoying headache setting in due to lack of caffeine. I ended up confirming that there was nothing to eat in the kitchen.
I was happy to find a large bathroom in a corner of the house, though. It was one of those functional, comfortable full bathrooms with a bathtub and shower stall. Dammit, toothbrush and toothpaste are nowhere to be found… There isn’t even any toilet paper! Well, at least I can try to have some privacy with these opaque walls.
I reflected on what Angelica had said, about those symbols