The future does not stop you

Chapter 11

He continued his work. The last client arrived, he performed the serVice, charged and dismissed him with one of his usual

and dismissed him with one of his usual smiles.

Almost immediately, the doorbell rang again.

He thought: -A possible. I won't get it. I'm exhausted. I can tell my condition is not the same.

is not the same.

He had already picked up most of the room, but decided to open up.

Him again.

Why? Why?

-Doctor...

-It's just... I left thinking... Can I come in?

-He won't resign himself,- Alice thought, hurt. He's either attacking, or he's being vexed. Well, let him attack,

then let him attack.-

-Come in, come in.

Alfredo rushed in, as if pushed by a superior force.

-You see, Alice, I'm going back to the adoption issue. As a doctor who is

involved in all that, I know of many respectable people, of excellent social and economic position, who want a child.

socially and economically, who want a child.

-Come to the lounge, doctor. You'll have a drink and we'll clear these things up once and for all.

once and for all. I still have to tidy up the living room, but I'll get to it. I have the whole night

the whole night.

-Don't you... ever go out?

-Just enough.

The brevity of the answer told him that he shouldn't go out, but he needed to be by her side to check, to know for sure... But what?

But what? What did it matter to him, after all, what he privately or privately knew?

What did he care, after all, what that young woman did privately or particularly?

young woman did? Too young to live alone in a huge capital city. Yes, yes, she had

Daniel as a companion, but it was clear that she had a deep esteem for him, even if she did not love him.

deeply, although she did not love him....

-I think so,- she said, leaning back in the doorway, while Al listened to her standing in the middle of the living room.

She said, leaning back in the doorway, while Al listened to her standing in the middle of the living room, -It seems to me that you haven't understood me. No

I didn't look for the son; that's obvious. He just came along. Neither Dan nor I were

ready to be parents. We had a lot left to do. We had a lot left to do.

business, finish his degree. Find a little house in the country, where Daniel would be

would be assigned if he won the civil serVice exams. Which he would undoubtedly have won,

given the enormous desire he had to leave the asphalt and the pollution and to live

peacefully from his work in the middle of nature. But when I found out I was going to be a

mother I did not renege. I remembered many things... there is no point in mentioning them here.

I set out to be a good mother. When Dan was absent, I went to find a doctor to confirm what I already knew.

I was missing Dan, and I thought, moreover, that I had been vilely abandoned.

I was missing Dan, and I thought, moreover, that I had been vilely neglected. Just another case. Another one of many. Men who appear to be

to be good and are just the opposite...

She walked into the living room and sat on the arm of an armchair, resting one foot on the floor and leaving the other one swinging.

the floor and leaving the other one swinging.

Alfredo sat on the back of a sofa.

He looked at her blinking. Restless and nervous.

Alice, still talking, thought, -He'll never tell me. I don't want him to tell me.

I don't want him to tell me. I couldn't bear to see him as a mean guy, like so many.-

-However, the news you brought me about Dan restored my peace of mind and my

I was reassured and reassured again. Fate stands still, mark.

Evidently, without the news of his future fatherhood, or with it. Dan would have

died that day. And between knowing she was abandoned or alone knowing that Dan had been

run over, she preferred the latter. No, don't say anything. I didn't love him a little, I loved him

very much. Not with an overflowing and passionate passion, no. I loved him only.

But I loved him very much. A thoughtful, calm affection, capable of sustaining a couple, the one that we were

couple, the one we were going to form. Capable of being faithful to him until death and of

and to share with him every minute of my life.

He was silent.

His eyes stared at the tip of his swaying foot.

Alfredo got up and stood before her.

'But,' said Al, altering his voice without realizing it, 'you are too

young and pretty to live without love; only with affection.

-It's enough, if it's deep and honest. Love, passion, goes

fades with time. On the other hand, affection increases day by day, it unites the couple and increases the happiness

couple and increases the happiness that is born of the union. Perhaps I have never been

ever fallen in love. Or rather, I have learned to gauge the security or the pleasurable passion

which usually lasts only a short time.

-You are talking to me like a disenchanted woman.

-Of men, no,- she said curtly, raising her face and looking him straight ahead, -but of life, yes.

-But of life, yes.

-If you are still very young.....

-In appearance. There are people who grow to old age without quite abandoning their childhood, and there are young people who, with the

childhood, and there are young people who at a very young age have so many negative experiences that they mature at the age of twelve.

that they mature at the age of twelve. I, let's say, I matured earlier.

-But...

-But I'm not going to talk about myself, doctor. I'll talk about your idea that I give my child up for adoption, which I won't do.

son for adoption, which I'm not going to do. If when he reaches the age of

understand, as you say, he despises me, it means that I didn't know how to educate him or that he lacks the human values to understand, which I don't know which of the two situations is worse.