l'ho scritto io (quindi è originale) e si tratta di una "short story" che aveva chiesto il prof di inglese questo anno ad ognuno di noi, per questo è solo in inglese e non esiste una versione in italiano.
inizialmente non sapevo cosa inventarmi, ma alla fine ho pensato di far ricorso ai miei gusti musicali, immersi in una storia malinconica, triste ed anche un po' struggente (quando l'ho raccontata davanti alla clase qualcuno è rimsto secco...)
credo che voi possiate apprezzarlo, soprattutto per le circostanze che ho creato (molto familiari...), a cominciare dal titolo.
spero per voi che capiate l'inglese e... buona lettura!
p.s. mi scuso con l'admin in anticipo per l'uso improprio del nome del suo gruppo!
This is a story of a boy named William, a friend of mine for a long time. He came from Manchester, England and he had a great passion for music and Italy. It was about 2 years ago when he came for the first time to Italy with 3 friends: his girlfriend and 2 boys. He was 19 when he came to Italy in 1999 and had passed his school-leaving exam 2 months before, so he decided to come to Italy at the beginning of August with his friends and go to a beach near Rome. Their holiday was to be long, about 40 days, so they wanted to learn a bit of Italian. They divided their trip up in visiting Rome and enjoying themselves, especially at night, and on the beach. They had to camp in 2 big tents: in one of these William had to sleep with his girlfriend, Nicole, and in the other the 2 friends, Alan and Andy. Anyway, he was a great fan of Supernova, an English band coming from Manchester, his same city; but Supernova was also the rock band that I preferred. The second day he was in Rome, he went to the Internet point where I worked during that period to spend some free time and, when he turned on the computer and he visited the Supernova’s official site, we spoke about this rock-band and we immediately became good friends; so I gave him my cell number and he promised me that he would call the day after. I saw him the day after and often during his holiday, but after 2 weeks his telephone rang: it was his mother, who informed him about his brother, Paul, who had died 2 days before. He was driving during the night when a cat crossed the street, the car ran over it and skidded into the dark forest at the side of the street and crashed into a tree. The police said that the car became like a little motorcycle and caught fire, Paul jumped out the car and was recovered the day after near a little lake far off about 200 yards by 2 fishermen. William was not himself; he was crying, he started to shout to his mother that Paul was too young to drive at night (in fact Paul was 18 and he got the driving license 3 weeks before) and that she hadn’t to premise him to drive at that hour! William, then, became like an animal when she told him that the funeral ceremonies there were 3 hours before the call, so William couldn’t take part in them and he was very, very angry. So, at the end of the holiday I met William for the last time to greet him and he promised that he would write and phone me. In the first months of the new year, in the mail that arrived at my house every day there was a letter from London and it was signed by William Gallagher and I remembered the boy that I met in the summer in Rome some months before. At first, I had the surprise of the place from where it had been sent, because I knew that he lived in Manchester but the letter was from London. After I read the letter I realized that when William came back home at the end of the holiday he had a discussion with his mother and a hard fight with his father John, whose nose he broke. The matter, Paul’s death, made William very crazy and mad. From that moment he left all he had in Manchester and went away to London where he found an independent job in a local gas company and he lived in a little flat that he divided with a boy that worked with him. He never came back to Manchester because he didn’t want to see his father and mother and he lived very well in London. From the words he used I understood that he probably started to take drugs and cocaine, in particular, because he said that his cohabitant used a lot of them and he tried a bit and he felt better. Then he told me that in this time, he wrote 4 letters to his musical idol, the Supernova’s singer, named Julian. He was waiting for only a reply and he was angry with Julian because he hadn’t written to William yet and he considered himself one of the best fans of the band. The next months I replied to his letter and he sent me another; it was about the end of 2000. In this other letter he told me that he moved houses because he had a lot of fights with his cohabitant, so he lived with the girlfriend he had in Manchester. Then he invited me to go to London to stay with him for a few days. I was happy but, before July, I couldn’t accept his invitation. So, at about the end of July in the 2001, I went to London but at the airport William wasn’t waiting for me, but I knew where his flat was and I went there by Taxi. When I was down the flat where he lived, I rang the door-bell, but nobody answered. I tried another time but… nothing. At the third attempt I rang louder and somebody opened the door, but into the house there was nobody, only the silence. Suddenly I heard a scream coming from the other room at the end of the corridor. I ran into and I saw William that was shouting words like: “Shut up! Shut up!” to his girlfriend Nicole. Nicole was scared in the corner of the room; on the floor there was some white dust, I smelled it and I realized that it was cocaine! So William was not himself because of the drug! When William saw me he told me, screaming very loud, that he was tired of Julian because he wrote some letters to him again and he hadn’t received an answer! In that moment he was maltreating Nicole because he took cocaine and she suggested to forget Supernova and Julian in particular. While William was swearing at Nicole and shouting “Shut up, bitch!” he told me that in that moment he was sending the last letter to Julian. I asked him to read it and a sentence struck my imagination and it said: “Who do you want to be? You’re a man like me and like other boys that work every day to buy the ticket to your concerts and your albums!! You must understand that without us, the fans, you’re nothing!!” He sent this letter and he told me to wait for him because he wanted to go to Julian’s house in Manchester and tell him something “face to face”. I tried to persuade him because it was the afternoon and the night was coming, but he didn’t want to hear me. So he took Nicole, bound her and put her into the car! I thought he was really crazy and wasn’t himself. He suddenly started to travel to Manchester; I hired a car and tried to go to Manchester to search for him. In the middle of the night I was in Manchester. In the street there was an accident and I asked someone about it. Near the accident there were the police that told me that probably a cat crossed the street and a car ran over it and “flew” off the street. So I remembered Paul, William’s brother and I saw some commons points in the accidents. In this place there were even some members of the hospital that with 2 stretchers were going near the crashed car. I suddenly thought that there were some deaths. I saw that the car was like William’s, so I worriedly approached it and… I saw William and Nicole’s bodies!!! They died in a few seconds from when the car went off the street! He was probably travelling too fast and he was under cocaine. With tears in my eyes I returned where I took the plane to go back to Italy. Now it’s a month after this dramatic event. I remember this story because two hours ago, I saw on the TV, on the BBC, Julian, speaking about a special fan in particular, named William that wrote to him, in some letters, about his life, his girlfriend, his relationship with the family and the passion for Supernova. In that moment Julian apologized to this boy because he couldn’t answer his letters. I thought that the boy that Julian was naming was my friend William! If he lived, now, he would be proud that an important man like Julian spoke on TV about him! But now he is in the sky and, after an explosion, he fades out. Like a supernova…
