A Walk in the Dark by Gianrico Carofiglio

Author:Gianrico Carofiglio
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Bitter Lemon Press
Published: 2011-02-14T05:00:00+00:00

At a certain point in the session, Sister Claudia took a long black handkerchief out of a bag, placed it over her eyes, and knotted it behind her head. Then she assumed a kind of combat position, while the pupil who seemed to be the most proficient of them placed himself right in front of her. He was a dangerouslooking young man with close-cropped hair, over six feet tall.

At a silent, invisible signal, the student started aiming punches at Claudia’s face, and she started parrying them. All with her eyes blindfolded.

I’ve boxed for many years. I’ve seen, given, parried, dodged, and above all taken, a lot of blows. In gyms, in amateur rings, even on the street. Before that evening I’d never seen anything like this.

They were moving in a precise, regular rhythm that reminded me of a documentary on the circus I’d seen many years before. TV was still in black and white in those days. There was a rather elderly, pleasantlooking man who was teaching juggling to a group of young people in the ring of an empty circus tent. He too was blindfolded and kept three, or four, or five balls in the air, never dropping them and maintaining the same precise, regular rhythm throughout. It was as if he had magnets on his hands, and the balls were inevitably, irresistibly attracted to them.

Claudia was doing more or less the same thing, but instead of balls there were punches being thrown at her face. She had magnetic hands, and with those magnetic hands she attracted and repelled the punches, rendering them as harmless as balls made out of rags.

In boxing they’d always told us never to close our eyes. In attack and especially in defence. You must never lose control of the situation. See what your opponent is doing, catch his move with your eyes as soon as it starts, and be ready to react: to parry, or to dodge and counterattack. I’d always felt comfortable with that idea. Eyes open, always. I associated closed eyes with fear, and open eyes, tritely, with courage. Look straight at the problem, or the opponent, or whatever. One of my few certainties.

At a certain point, the regular rhythm seemed to change. Gradually, the punches, and the parries, gathered speed, and then in a moment it was all over. The pupil was on the ground and Sister Claudia was on top of him, twisting his arm and with her knee on his face. I hadn’t really noticed the move that had led to that conclusion.

She took off the blindfold, and all the pupils did relaxation exercises. Then they lined up in front of their master. They bowed slightly in farewell, holding their right fists in the palms of their left hands, their arms flexed in front of their chests.

Only then did she seem to become aware of my presence. She came towards me as the pupils left the floor and headed for the changing rooms.

I stood up, she greeted me with a nod, and I responded in the same way.

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