Elia and Belinda had met at a picnic organized by a mutual friend. It was Labor Day, the First of May. Elia was on vacation in Sicily with his parents, as he worked in Padua, while Belinda lived in Sicily. Despite not knowing each other, they immediately became friends, because the nice thing about Elia's character was his sympathy, that irony which makes the other person realize there's a thinking brain under a thick head of hair. Initially, therefore, Belinda was intellectually captivated by his ironic jokes, but also by his warm, almost baritonal voice. The first time they spoke on the phone, Belinda had blushed. Elia knew he had a secret weapon with his voice, so much so that he joked about it, calling it: "A vuci di cala mutanni" (The voice that makes panties drop). And this voice was Belinda's companion for months, until Elia returned from Padua.
However, for their relationship to turn into a real love affair, just talking on the phone wasn't enough. That's why Elia returned to Sicily whenever he could; their love was severely tested by distance. Elia eventually moved to Sicily to be with Belinda, who was going through a difficult period due to her mother's health. He always stood by her with patience, acumen, and love. Belinda reciprocated and found in him a safe harbor, a shoulder to cry or rest on, and at the same time a friend, a companion for adventures and laughter.
If life had been cruel to Belinda, taking her mother prematurely, it had not been more magnanimous with Elia. Caterina's illness had been long, debilitating, and had a sad ending: after ten years of suffering, she passed away, leaving a great void in the lives of the whole family. Only six months later, Elia's father passed away, struck by a sudden illness. He died alone in the countryside, under an olive tree, found by Elia's brother who was looking for him at noon on a sad March day.
Life is sometimes mocking and relentless: if on one hand it gives, on the other it takes away. And if it hadn't been love, but true love, the kind that makes the windows tremble like ocean waves in a storm, the difficulties would have pushed them apart. Instead, they continued together, defying the whole world, mocking destiny, and "A sorti buttana" (The bitchy fate), as Elia often says. A love like that between Belinda and Elia cannot be told briefly because it is troubled and profound, made of wounds healed with salty kisses, of wild nights by moonlight outside a hospital door waiting for an end that never came in a slow agony. Of bitter coffees and a thousand cigarettes, of powerful hugs so tight they crushed bones, just not to feel the pain inside the soul. Of romantic getaways to escape reality, a love made of snow and earth, of volcanic lava, of trips out of town on Etna, of plans for the future, realized dreams and shattered dreams. All that life lived together made them both strong like the land of Etna, tough and indivisibly united.
So Belinda, sitting on the steps of her house, waited for her Elia, retracing the stages of their life together. She couldn't wait inside the house: she was in too much of a hurry. She had always been too hasty and impatient. Elia called her "Iattaredda priscialora" (Hasty kitten), but in that case her haste was understandable: it's like when you discover you're in love with someone and you want to tell them immediately, you can't wait another second. She calls it the haste to live. Sitting on the doorstep of the house, it was almost dusk. The sun set reddish behind the hills. The neighborhood cats walked undisturbed and lazy.
Elia returned strolling towards home after a day's work in the office, his head still full of data and figures. Belinda ran to meet him, skipping, with a gesture Elia adored seeing her do, like a butterfly flitting happily.
They embraced and Elia began: "A me fimminedda è felice oggi, fai la farfalla?" (My little woman is happy today, are you playing the butterfly?)
Belinda updated him all in one breath, bombarding poor Elia, who had a heart of butter, with words one after another: "Today I had an epiphany! You don't know what a day it's been, I discovered a new world and another way of seeing and feeling, not with my eyes but with my soul. Elia, it's too important, you have to believe me. It's a path I've just started and I don't know yet where it will lead me. I feel scared and excited, I have a lot to learn, I found so many books to read, I need to educate myself, deepen my spirituality..."
Elia made a gesture with his hand, as if to say slow down, take it easy, then added: "Don't you think you're beating around the bush a bit too much? Why don't you explain and not make me nesciri pacciu?" (go crazy?)
So Belinda took courage and blurted out: "I discovered Wicca, the religion of witches! And I believe I've always been part of it, my love, the signs