happy wives Mrs. V. you drag in the pharmacy under the house without stopping to chat, and tells you that at the beginning there was a hat shop. "The hats, you know? It was like being in New York, I bought it at least twice a year, especially when they wear their hair shorter. I still have a burgundy velvet somewhere. " The beginning for Mrs. V. coincides with the year in which she moved, fresh patterns of marriage and with the pack, in this residential area within walking distance from Milan, near the highway, so green, even without real campaign. A choice that proved immediately successful, because "we were beginning few, all newly married couples, some also had the belly. Do you think nice, our children have started dating before birth. " Thirty-five years, and the red brick buildings are only slightly chipped, all side by side, according to an architecture designed little fanciful but with very clear ideas. Especially one: the people here must be so good as to have no desire to go further than the sort of big reception on the horizon, beyond which one can see the weeds and shameless orange bus that makes a back and forth from the city.
"It was a common choice to decide democratically to put the decorations, and made equal for all out the same day. If not you know that mess. " He points to the lights that climb without too much momentum around a white fence and some trees. At the pharmacy queue is long, there is also the numeretto, most of those who wait is over sixty years, and no one complains of waiting. From the windows you see a nice big playground that looks almost new, a bridge on the right side of the same color of the buildings. "You think I exaggerate? If I had not come here I do not know if I'd managed to bring up two children as I did. We're all friends, and then you see the bridges? A fantastic idea. Thanks to those children should not cross the street, are almost always safe. A mother here can be really quiet. " You nod, and think that these children do not cross the road, and that mothers should not teach caution to look right and left and green for pedestrians, and their happy life without crosswalks.
Under the arches, sheltered from the rain and puddles on the city, you walk right. Mrs. V. warmly greets some, while it is a bit 'more off-putting to others who hardly the answer. He smiles a little 'tense, tells me that sometimes can happen in a place so people do not like his integrity and that goes to the meetings of condominium to change this and that, fortunately, that her husband is on the board of directors and until there is things you will do well. The story of the dinner, that of Thursday. Mrs. V. I listen carefully, ask details. It almost seems like the interest really, but while listening to you looks around, nods, nods once too often to mimic a curiosity that does not have. The florist, a guy busy she is addressed as if it were one of his closest friends to whom is entrusted the fate of the children on his deathbed, ordered a centerpiece for himself and one for the wife. "You have chosen to work, is a law firm downtown, is always busy. Poor thing, is not even able to make the tree. I mean, at least for children. We did last week, all blue. Too many colors I do not like, then you do not understand anything. " Can you imagine her gilded life, you do not even think to look for work, children to grow up and lots of free time. But she denies you, says he is always so busy. Mark your calendar for everything, the piece of beef from the butcher to order, the birthday of neighboring, relining the sofa. During the holidays commitments are increasing, the relatives are all here, is so comfortable and she likes to cook. You sly winks and adds: "And so I did not lose the game of bridge on Christmas, that of the club. It's not for the cards, you know? I am one of those that can help it, but it is the tradition. What would think if we went? And so we can get the cards, spend some time 'together. "
At his home, a place that I always envied because it seems like one of those model apartments used by the agencies of luxury condominiums to show how it could be your life if you put your signature here, here and then here, too, gives me a coffee. As the loudly expressed in the cup down, she takes my coat and purse and makes them disappear, as if we were even two of us here in this living room green and beige, with blue lights of the tree, two ceramic angels that hold a candle, an advent calendar with the windows all closed. We go out on the covered terrace, so we can smoke. It is not cold and seats are dry. The phone rings, but after checking the display puts it back on, just by tightening the lips. "It's my mother wants to know if I need help for Christmas Eve dinner. Imagine. " The balconies have near the same sequence of poinsettias, red and white, which has its. We are the first floor of a building which has eight floors. The only reasonable option, according to her. "If you see all that gray on the top floor there in the distance, all that lies beyond the trees. And then down here we are closer to the arcades, and sometimes you hear the people talking. It's like we are never alone. "
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