The Dawn Of Sin. Valentino Grassetti

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СКАЧАТЬ style="font-size:15px;">      Fernando, with his olive skin and black, fiery eyes, after touching everyone with his story, began to sing. He had a rough and engaging voice, and the audience appreciated the performance by peeling their hands with a remote-controlled applause from the leader.

      Three out of four judges found the performance convincing.

      Sebastian Monroe voted against, explaining that in his opinion the boy was barely an amateur, a smartass who wanted to pity them with his sob story. The public booed outraged at that statement, and Sebastian responded with the middle finger. The web went wild. There was a hailstorm of insults on the socials, controversy raged and the share went up half a point.

      Other competitors followed. Some were amazingly good, others were talentless, but eccentric enough to capture the public's attention. The authors of the program gave them a strategic location to raise the audience's attention.

      They spent a few commercials inviting viewers to buy products that were voluptuous, but so seductive and captivating that they were indispensable.

      After a flurry of dream cars, fine perfumes and designer clothes, the live broadcast could begin again.

      The share was around eight per cent when Daisy Magnoli took the stage.

      Her young, perfect, restless face, smiling, shrewd eyes, and short pastel-colour dress immediately attracted the jury's attention. ʺHere we are another creature who could lose his innocence behind the glittering world of show business, the judges thought, more or less, they knew they were looking at a potential character.

      "Hey, everybody! Aren't you going to say anything? Isn't this little girl a beauty?" Sebastian Monroe exclaimed, addressing the audience who responded to his solicitation with a round of applause.

      "Jenny, what do you think of this flower that suddenly blossomed on stage?" Sebastian insisted, repeating the lines on the monitor.

      "A truly splendid lily, Sebastian. But I don't like your tone; it sounds like the hum of a bee hunting for pollen, if you know what I mean. And it's underage” Jenny remarked, scrolling through the lines written on the hunchback by the authors.

      "Oh, come on, Jenny, you know you're the flower of my dreams” Sebastian replied with a resolution.

      Circe didn't read any of the lines, preferring to go on the arm.

      "Come on, dear Daisy. Why don't you tell us something about yourself?"

      "Hello, everyone” smiled Daisy, who, in spite of her age and with some wonder, was not at all uncomfortable. Being the centre of attention always gave her a thrill of pleasure.

      "My name is Daisy. Daisy Magnoli. I come from Castelmuso, a village of 15,000 inhabitants, not far from the Adriatic Sea…"

      Daisy continued by reciting some other banality about her high school life, but without the liveliness demanded by the authors.

      "Is that all?" Sebastian exclaimed, pretending to be disappointed. "I hope that shyness hides a great talent,

      otherwise…" Sebastian spread his arms, as if to say: ʺWhat did you come to do? To disappoint all these people? ʺ

      Daisy knew that the program's set list included a few mandatory steps: the jury would start with compliments, so to boost the share they would provoke her into trouble. All she had to do was stand up to the jurors' assaults.

      It was all planned.

      Now all she had to do was sing I’m Roseand she would become a celebrity.

      6

      Guido felt a chill running down his shoulder blades. Daisy was about to perform in front of millions of Italians.

      "That asshole Sebastian! Did you see how the hell he treated her? Who does he think he is?" Manuel Pianesi was so angry that he spilled the beer on the sofa cushions, making Guido swear.

      Guido Gobbi had already regretted hosting his two friends at his home, an apartment on the outskirts of town in the populous San Lorenzo district. Five thousand quiet souls, divided between the buildings with high facades that followed the profile of the hill.

      On the one hand Manuel screamed, making him miss the jurors' jokes, on the other, Leo Fratesi replied to the comments, with the vice of emphasizing several times the concept already expressed.

      "Please, will you stop messing around?" Guido asked as he pressed the remote control button to turn up the volume.

      A week had passed since Daisy and Guido had quarrelled. She thought Guido was a peeping Tom and wanted to report him to the principal. It seemed like the sad ending to a story that had never been told. Then, that phrase appeared on the computer.

      Adriano has to stop looking for me. Or he'll come to a bad end.

      After an exhausting explanation where Guido had tried to convince her that he had nothing to do with it, they finally made peace, even though the longed-for appointment had been postponed.

      Daisy, in fact, had preferred to investigate who had sent the message, with Manuel's help. The dreadlocks high school boyfriend was a good geek, one of those who could trace the source code. Manuel had tried to find out who the author

      was, but with every attempt, the computer inexplicably froze.

      The seriousness of the attack ruled out the possibility that it was a prank on Daisy.

      Guido said that Adriano probably did something he shouldn't have. Perhaps a virtual meeting gone wrong. Or, he stepped on the wrong people's toes, or something, and they were threatening him. Daisy had never seriously considered the possibility that they were really angry with her brother. She used to feel that she was the centre of attention, which led her to think that the message was addressed to her. It is likely that her disabled brother had really attracted someone's hatred, and now she wanted to find out why.

      "So, Daisy, what do you want us to hear?" Sebastian Monroe asked, drinking a sip of scotch that made his lips slurp with pleasure.

      "Well, I'd like to sing a song. A new song” she replied, grabbing the microphone stand, which she lifted to suit her height.

      "Did you hear that?" exclaimed the juror, turning to the audience.

      "We're dealing with a singer-songwriter” added Circe, puzzled, who searched the stands for someone who shared her scepticism. There were some whispers of approval.

      "I didn't actually write it."

      "Could you be a more verbose thread, or shall we move on to monosyllables?"

      There was a giggle from the audience.

      "It's a song written by Adriano Magnoli. My brother. The song is I’m Rose.

      In Castelmuso, Adriano watched the program with his arms folded, his shoulder resting on the door jamb, and there was a lot of excitement around him.

      "For God's sake, Adry, they're talking about you here!" Franz shouted out the foam from the beer bottle.

      "Really, Adriano. It's great” Uncle Ambrogio remarked, raising his glass to another toast.

      The compliments of the people gathered in the living room of the villa were sincere, insistent, and a bit annoying. СКАЧАТЬ