It was strange to find them here, still alive, with their shared bits of past that suddenly counted for nothing.

but his eyes were too dark for her to make out any spark in them

She emptied herself of Fabio and of herself, of all the useless efforts she had made to get where she was and find nothing there. With detached curiosity she observed the rebirth of her weaknesses, her obsessions. This time she would let them decide, since she hadn't been able to do anything anyway. Against certain parts of yourself you remain powerless, she said to herself, as she regressed pleasurably to the time when she was a girl.

Separating them were two layers of brick, a few inches of plaster, and nine years of silence.

Even though he was afraid to admit it, when he was with her it seemed it was worth doing all those normal things that normal people do.

Mattia's voice no longer stirred anything in his stomach, but he was aware of the idea of him and always would be, as the only true benchmark for everything that had come afterward.

She was tired, with that tiredness that only emptiness brings.