The lovely priest

Awakening

The next morning it all seemed like a dream, one of those dreams that were painful to wake up from, but she had to do it, she had to go have breakfast and then groom the horses. How would Roberto greet her? Would he pretend nothing had happened? Would he smile at her? Would he ignore her?

When she entered the common room she hadn’t seen him, no gray or black shirt in sight, no Roman collar, just the usual cheerful chatter that started the day, between coffee and biscuits. Julie didn’t know whether to feel sad or relieved, she wanted to see him again obviously, but she didn’t feel ready to hold his gaze among all those people.

After a quick breakfast she headed towards the stables. Fulmine’s wound was improving rapidly with antibiotic therapy, but she wanted to check on her health right away, also because at 10 the children from the summer camp were arriving for their riding lessons and Tuono wouldn’t have been able to do more than a dozen laps, given the progression of his arthritis.

The morning passed quickly, she enjoyed being with the children and helping them to learn more about horses, to overcome their fears of big and fat animals, she felt that this could have been her life forever. Without realizing it she found herself daydreaming about staying in San Maurizio and taking care of the center together with Roberto, as husband and wife, but it took her a few moments to realize that it was a thought without head or tail.

If Roberto had stopped being a priest, they would have taken away his parish, his center and everything would have gone to pieces and besides, she had her life in Paris: her friends, her parents and the prospect of working in some veterinary clinic in the city… with her grades it wouldn’t have been difficult to get into one of those elegant ones, where she had done an internship.

Better not to leave room for fantasy and just live in the present.

The children left the bus waving bye-bye and Julie finally took a moment to sit down. It was now lunchtime and Ricky had to take off his boots and wash up before going to eat.

“You like children, huh” said the boy

“a lot”

“I can see, you know what you’re doing, you’ll be a good mother”

Julie smiled, that boy seemed to have read her mind.

“Who knows if I’ll ever become one… I’m still too young to think about it, even though 23 years is probably a lot for you”

“Well, it’s certainly not a little” he replied and they both burst out laughing!

It was nice to laugh with Ricky, because they were completely sincere laughs and because you could tell that life – despite having taken so much away from that boy – had not taken away the wonder from his eyes.

When they got to the common room they were all seated, in front of Guendalina’s steaming pasta. Julie, having taken her plate, went towards Laura who had saved a free seat for her.

“I have a lot of things to tell you!” she said excitedly, “this morning I came to have breakfast when you were already at the stables and besides I didn’t want to disturb you, but you have no idea what happened last night!”