Mariano Dammacco
GOOD EDUCATION
Selection Italian Playwrights Project 3th edition (2020/22)
excerpt translated by Thomas Simpson
ONE. ANNUNCIATION.
It was an autumn night
and I was sleeping, I don’t know how long,
when I heard a voice call me from the living room,
but I live alone.
So I took all my courage in my two hands,
I got up and went to see
and there, right in the middle of the living room,
there was an infinite crowd of people and in the front row, in front of everyone
there were my deceased parents,
unnaturally returned to life,
there was the ghost of my parents.
My mother’s ghost had one hand in front of her face and she was shaking
and I couldn’t tell if she was crying or laughing.
The ghost of my father, on the other hand,
unhappy about having come back to terrify me at that time of night,
spoke.
As though he’d ever keep his mouth shut.
He said: my child,
you who in life never took care of anyone,
not even yourself;
you who are letting dry out you're the flower of your womanhood
without even giving me a grandchild;
you who are so useless
you’d deserve a horde of Egyptian locusts
to descend on you and pull out your internal organs,
you, you, you, listen to me.
And he said: from tomorrow morning,
your nephew, our grandchild, blood of our blood,
last heir of our line,
will be your problem.
And my mother added:
I can’t wait to see this, it’s going to be so funny.
Then I said:
thank you, papà, thank you, mamma,
for the support, for the encouragement
and the fait in me you’ve never left me without
and I was going to ask for more information
but they, of course, puff and they disappeared along with all the others.
I tried to go back to sleep
even though, at that point. . .
but I must have fallen back to sleep
because I was awaken by the phone ringing.
A woman’s voice said:
Ma’am, your sister died last night,
she said it like that, a quick phone call,
and then she said:
here’s your nephew,
you have to come get him.
So I rushed to the hospital,
I don’t particularly care for hospitals, especially that department…
And there, outside the room of my now defunct sister, there he was.
He says: Ciao, aunt.
Ciao honey, look how you’ve grown, I say.
Aunt, momma died last night.
I know, honey, they told me.
Honey, let’s go now, you have to come with me.
Okay, aunt, he said, and burst out crying
and I started crying too
Then I took him by the hand, and crying, crying
we went to get breakfast at the hospital cafeteria.
TWO. NOW I CRY.
Attachment number one.
Following the instructions furnished to me
by the Ministry of Economics, following EU guidelines,
I register, in a brief audio introductory note,
a synthesis of the educational project dedicated to participation
to the call for bids for care of minor number ninety-nine, that is nine-nine,
hereafter the minor or the young man or my nephew or the boy or honey,
according to necessity.
OK, confirmed.
I declare that I accept unconditionally all the stipulations of the regulation.
OK, confirmed.
I declare that I take on all responsibility for the temporary oversight of the minor.
OK, confirmed.
I declare that I will raise no legal appeal
no matter what the outcome of the call for bids in the judging process:
economic, psychological, legal evaluations,
jury of experts, voting process open to the public via internet,
or its comprehensive results, concerning whoever my treasure is ultimately entrusted to.
Ok, confirmed.
Now I come, as requested, to the presentation of the candidate.
The candidate. . .
The candidate is now weeping,
she weeps quite a lot, she always weeps,
she’s desperate, even around people who have nothing to do with it.
And everyone is saying: look how good she is, look at that bond between sisters,
but I’m weeping because now I have him in my life,
there’s him there in the next room,
and I can hear him moving, doing things, making noise, living in the other room.
And then, let’s be clear:
if I had to look after someone totally,
if I had wanted to take responsibility for some useless person,
I’d get married,
with a nice ring on my fourth finger,
like mamma and papa so fondly desired,
and then, if I really wanted to overdo it, I’d even have a kid.
But for me, I like being by myself,
I love being on my own,
I like being on my own so much.
And everyone’s telling me:
But being along is awful,
being along is sad, you’re going to regret it, you’ll die alone.
Yeah, they all go there,
waving the scarecrow of dying alone.
Okay, I want to die alone,
with plenty of space around.
Anyway my parents’ expectations are too high.
Everyone telling me: but they’re dead.
Yes, but that’s worse,
they’re still more present.
Before, you knew they were there in their house
and you could relax knowing them at home.
Now they suddenly turn up in my living room
at any hour of the night,
but I have to go to work in the morning.
Plus, I’m just beginning to understand how hard it is,
this business of being a parent,
this business of being a parent is no child’s play,
it’s hard, really hard,
anyway, it’s not for no reason they call it the world’s oldest profession.
THREE. THE INFINITE CITY.
The young man has nightmares
every night.
I hear him, I see him, it’s shocking.
So I touch him, I move him a little,
I speak to him softly
so the words slip in there where he is
to bring him back here,
but without waking him up, without scaring him.
This night, he’s moaning and crying and flailing around,
I can't stand it so I actually wake him up.
He emerges from sleep,
gasps for air
and says: aunt.
And when he says aunt,
it’s like, he says it, in a way
that he says aunt and I burst out crying.
Then he says: aunt, what happened?
You were having a bad dream.
So why are you crying, aunt?
Because I don’t want you to have bad dreams;
and I squeeze him tight and kiss him all over,
on one cheek, on the other, on his nose,
and I laugh and cry
and for a moment, all sleepy
half here half there,
he laughs too.
Then he goes back to sleep, but I don’t
I stay there, incredulous
and, in some mysterious way, no longer alone.
Then I go to the window,
I look out and see the city, infinite,
made up of infinite cities
all made of an infinity made by humans
and I seem to see it for the first time
and I’m afraid.
Whoever has a child hands over a hostage to destiny.
