(by Gianni D'Amico)The day after, since we had played hooky, we continued our inspection in three. Melino had also joined us.

Our insatiable curiosity was now attracted by a small house in the back yard, hidden by some plants and blooming bluebell trees. The ramshackle door was tied up with an iron wire which covered the two rusty screws.

Aware of the risks, but at the same time following my suggestions, we decided to open the small doors. Our greatest fear, apart

We decided to take away all the good things to eat. And here ideas started to contrast, until we decided to throw a coin, found by the radio, which would have decided for us. Luck favoured Melino.

“This is how you do it!, he said, removing the iron wire and pulling the small door towards himself.

Nine large wooden chests appeared in front of us! We decided to open that “treasure”, but only after having inspected the pantry, in which there was only black bread, spicy cold cuts and some milk left from the previous afternoon.

It was hot at that time of the day and our stomachs were so insanely full that we strongly needed to lie down under the bower. The sense of warmth caused by the cold cuts and by the sun high in the sky, required water, a lot of water. What a big mistake!

We started to suffer from severe pain in our stomachs, our breath became short and lying increased our pain. So we stood up.

We understood the situation when we noted a piece of bread, previously dry, but now completely swollen, in the kitchen basin. Just a few drops of water had swollen it, imagine our stomachs! Fear and a sense of nausea made things even worse: we stuck two fingers down our throats and freed ourselves from the painful result of our greed.

Finally exhausted we sat in the shade of the thick bower and feel asleep.

Reassured by our nap and sped up by Franco’s kick, we resumed our programme, interrupted “by an incident”.

… One on top of the other, forming a large cube, there were nine chests. The idea of opening them and taking possession of what they contained, gave us mixed emotions. The front part of each chest showed the usual symbol for explosives. Two words written in large capital letters preceded the symbol : AKTUNG GRANATEN. Fearfully intuitive!

Translated by Chiara Nunnari from John Milton Institute