Mauricio's precious mask

It happen at the first mask festival in Venice..and ends with a mysterious box full of memories,a story in which we can learn a lot of things

Mauricio’s precious mask

That happened in 1979,it was on a Shrove Tuesday,the day when the first carnival took place in Venice,Italy. It was a new idea of a strange carnival where you can meet new people,dance and also drink with them without knowing who the person you danced with was,every participant took a new fake name so that people call him/her with that name, I think that the idea of this new extravagant eveniment was to dance,to live a one unforgetable night,to fall in love for a few hours,and when you wake up the next morning to dream about a masked person and to live the passion like in stories,without any responsability,so that rich people could dance and fall in love with poor ones,in real life this becomes hard to happen and to live with, it was like a dream,like nothing happened. That night André,the new waiter,was employed especially for this event,it was known that the audience will represent a new record,people from all over the world got curious about this new thing, André originally worked as a scavenger on a beach in France in Nice,his wage was too low to live a decent life,so when the italian bar internationally announced they are hiring some waiters and barmen,he took the chance and travelled to Venice,during his work in Nice,one sunny day the beach was full of tourists,and suddenly a huge cloud covered the sunshine,it started to rain,André was there,he saw some bottles but one pink bottle won his attention,that time bottles were green or transparent,it was clear that the bottle was manually coloured by someone,it had a letter inside, Andrè used to find bottles like this,most of them were in italian and came from a beach in Italy, some of them were about love, about death or about being poor,it was written on that piece of paper “ Dear God,you created me too normal,too boring,too…common,you gave us money and a happy family,I got bored,take my life so you can show me something I have never seen before”. It was written in french,Andrè got surprised,letters in bottles usually contains wishes or something related to love,here was something different,something else. Like I was saying,people from all over the world attended to that party,Americans,Japanese,British, Mexicans and so on. You can’t even recognise them due to the masks. People there had a lot of good time. Andrè had to work very hard that night,he also was a heart patient,he had a lot of troubles because his ill heart,his mom died when he was sixteen so he had to take care of his little brother aged nine that time ,they had a rough life,he worked at a bakery,it is not easy to work ath the age of sixteen,boys at your age are going to high school and playing football,Andrè was not worried about these things,all he was thinking was his little brother,he tried to give him his best,to educate him and to ensure food,all his fatigue was extinguished by the picture of his brother eating some bread before going to sleep. His brother was little and unthankful by things he have and thinking about things he doesn’t have,he was so smart that he won a schoolarship to Britain at the age of fifteen,so Andrè completed his mission by offering his brother education,that was a huge responsability for him. Andrè got bored from that work,he decided to change his lifestyle so he applied for a job as a scavenger,just to drive a car,he loved travelling and driving,so working with the garbage was his lightening door to achieve what he wants after his brother has gone. Later that night,when eveybody was getting ready to leave,appears a girl who apparently was late,when she realised that the party is over she took a chair sat down and started to think ,five minutes later the bar was empty,Andrè was arranging the bottles and the plates,Adrianne had a mask and refused to take it off,it was a dream to dance and drink with somebody that she has never met before,Andrè was also wearing his mask,his fake name was Mauricio, it was written on the mask,Adrianne’s name on the mask was Maria,after hearing the story Andrè realised that it was not too late to invite the lady for a last dance,she accepted his invitation and started talking,laughing and dancing,they flew to another dimension a whole dimension for them,nobody could see them ,nobody could hear them and the most important,nobody could know them,not even they..while dancing Andrè’s mask fell on the floor, Adrianne saw his face for a few seconds,it wasn’t so clear but it was sufficient,after their last dance it came the time to say goodbye,neither Andrè nor Adrianne didn’t know anything about the other one but his/her fake name,they wished they could see each other again.. Adrianne was a doctor in Paris,her salary was so big,she didn’t count her money ever,her work was so tiring,every year she goes to the beach,Nice. After spending almost a month there,it came the time to go back to regular life,but the beach season was about to end so they organised a one last party on the beach,nobody worked that day,even Andrè was there.

They met each other,they danced again,Andre’s face looked a bit different than two years ago,you know my dear reader,the work with garbage is so exhausting that your face get older faster than normal people. Adrianne felt that he was the same man,but after two years to get that old? Including that a scavenger won’t travel to another country for a party,it didn’t make sense,she was confused,to ask him or not to ask him? She thought that if she do ask him and he will be the same Mauricio it will be the perfect love story,on the other hand if he is not the same man then the night will get ruined for them,as a wise woman she chose not to say a word about Venice… After the party was over,Andrè requested her adress to send her letters,she didn’t refuse,she seemed very modest for a doctor in the 80’s, Adrianne was a beautiful woman and a lot of men tried to seduce her but they couldn’t, she had money she had confidence,she had education,she needed something new,something she doesn’t have, Andrè was a poet,I mean Andrè turned into being a poet to impress our doctor, money can buy stories and poems but can’t buy the feeling of being a part of a story or a hero on a white horse,it was unique. After sending her some poems,she responded but delayed at the same time,she had a lot of work to do,like Andrè but that passion for her pushed him to write her more ,after a few months they dated,they had a great time althought living in poems and stories was better,they accepted the fact that they are happy,Andrè sold his house in Nice to buy a small one on Paris to be next to his lover,he also got a job there,as a scavenger with a better wage,but as we all know Paris is bigger and presure when working is higher,after a few weeks, Andrè had a heart attack,he survived,Adrianne knew a good doctor in Paris who could help Andrè to live more,they replaced his heart with a new one,an artificial one,he continued to love his girlfriend and proved that it is not about your heart ,it is about your blood speed when you see a beloved one,unfortunately after two months Andrè was hospitalized again,Adrianne stayed with him a few nights,he felt his end is not far away,like other people Andrè has prepared himself for this moment,and told Adrianne that he loves her a lot,and that she is his source of inspiration,and not to be sad after his death,despite being jealous he told her that she is still beautiful and she will find someone else better than him,he was always wearing a necklace with two keys ,After his death Adrianne took the keys and went to his small house,it was known that one of the keys was the house’s,his house was small and almost empty,just two shirts he had ,the rest were borrowed from friends to date Adrianne and not letting her be bored because of his clothes,like a true gentleman,she found a small box,made from rusty iron,probably he took it from the garbage,she opened it by the second key,it was almost empty,there was his mother’s silver necklace,a transparent bottle with some pink ink at the bottom and a piece of paper in which was written”it may be empty now,but on the other side,one day there were some feelings and a wish that God refused to give,the bottle returned to the beach as a sign that what is written will not happen,I felt that this letter is so special and by keeping it here ,the wish won’t become true”… it seemed strange,Adrianne rememered how a long time ago she throwed a bottle in Nice,but it was pink,so she looked to see other things in the box,the only thing remained was a mask,Mauricio’s mask,it was broken and he couldn’t afford buying a new one.. so Adrianne knew then that she lived a true love story with a scavenger… She married after that to a rich man,and as an homage,every year she wrote a love letter to Andrè every letter in a bottle,none of these bottles returned as a sign that Andrè recieved them all. The end.

Reviews

[fadingtale]

Nicely written! Thank you for submitting for all about love contest!

[Wajiha Nayeem]

nicely written i must say...bt i wnna see some more of your work.

[Mustafa]

Thank you so much, I will post soon a new short story

[Lydia Shutter]

Heartfelt romantic tale....so sad. Well written, Mustafa. It would be easier to read if you had paragraph breaks though. Lydi**

[Mustafa]

thamk you so much Lydia, I will remember your advice the next time I publish smth, I really appreciate

[Sandipta$]

Wow.....too long.... Bt sad love story.... Loved it.... Thnx

[Mustafa]

thamk you for reading