From The wild camel (by Philippe Jaenada)

..Happy ending.. FINAL ( by Jennifer Galbusera )

I would like first to introduce this book to you, and in doing it I hope to give you a fair understanding of the main character Halvard Sanz.

A clumsy translator decides to repair the bathroom's electric heater himself. The potent electric shock and the subsequent fall in the bath tub open a long series of misunderstandings with the world, the people, even with objects.
But the real revelation of this book isn't the story ( peculiar anyway! ), is Halvard Sanz himself with his reflective and sharp mind hidden behind his sometimes goofy behaviour, a mind that takes interest in every human nuance and processes it with delicious irony.
Beaten from life, he carries on, not really sure on where he's going, sometimes worn out, always looking for answers, the bigger question being
'Is life atrocious or beautiful? Or is it atrociuos because it's beautiful?'
Eventually one night, wandering in the streets of Paris (where the story is set) he met a girl, soaked to the bones, with a stool in her hands...it's love at first sight, she's the woman of his life,even if she doesn't know it yet!
Unfortunately, the two parted and Halvard spends the following months looking for her..because, in his philosophy, we always meet someone twice.. the trick is not to read on the subway! (as not to be distracted when the opportunity comes). Actually he meets her again but nothing is simple as it seems.
Pollux, just after their first holiday together dies, run over by a bus.


Now.. although I loved this book, I think the latest events are profoundly unfair for my sweet and brave protagonist... and quite too cynic even if, thanks to those he finds the answers he was looking for.
He deserves a bit of luck..and we deserve a bit of hope in life!

Oh, I forgot, the fan-fiction starts just before Pollux's accident.. and at the end he arrives at the same conclusions..


It was 7.30 already and she hadn't called me yet ( I had left a message on her answering machine asking if she wanted to go to dinner that night ).
I was starting to worry..even if she had gotten up really early had a shower and then ran out before 12 to go and see her parents, let's say, and didn't bother with the answering machine, doesn't she think it would be a good idea to make a phone call?
Or maybe weren't her parents she had gone to..the cow! She couldn't wait another minute before to jump into someone else's arms..now, I know that I am not a prince on a white horse, but after 2 weeks holiday I reckon it's a bit too excessive..I have feelings too!
Oh come on Halvard! The poor girl is not even allowed to go and see some friends after 2 weeks spent in front of the same face day after day? Give her a break!

DON'T THINK
IT DOESN'T TAKE YOU ANYWHERE!

Two hours later I was restless, pacing up and down the room. I couldn't convince myself to call her again..to say what? uhm..sorry, I know I have already left a message on your answering machine but.. I was just checking if you have listened to it..
For that one time I had thrown myself body and soul into something, was life repaying me like this? ( I have always been a cautious type, one foot in, one out, just in case )I couldn't believe how ingenuous I had been thinking she was feeling the same intimacy as I was!

..While I was tormenting myself with these paranoies, so bad as to arrive to the conclusion that I had to terminate our ' horrible ' love (?) story ( I was gradually convincing myself that I had never believed in it either), the doorbell started to buzz furiously.

Taken by surprise (it might be her!), I jump out of the armchair stepping into Caracas bowl (the cat) so that it spills all over my shoes and trousers ( damn, my usual misfortune! ( well, not that I was ready to go out anyway, since I had virtually broken up with Pollux!)).
I rush over to the window that doesn't want to open ( for goodness sakes! why there's always something wrong, why can't I be one of those 'cool' people to whom everything happens but always resolves the best way?Ah! but you don't trick me this time! I wont't even get started after the blast with the bathroom's heater!), then I plunge myself down the stairs and, out of breath I open the entrance door..and there She is beautiful and beaming like a spring day ..

..all the confusion has now a sense, all the frustration only a memory to which in my ecstatic state i don't even want to think more than to a nightmare that is about to vanish....aahhh!

'Hi! 'Like the surprise?'

Oh my goodness it's her, here in front of me..
Why didn't u call? Do you think it's nice leaving me on the tenterhooks like that? I could have done something stupid, you know?!

'Hi' I answered sounding a bit of an idiot
' So what? Don't you let me in? And tell me everything about your day...'
Let me in she says! What impudence after our reletionship was nearly over..
' Sorry...ehm..I wasn't expecting to see you...the phone..'
'So you thought I dumped you?' and threw her head slightly backward, in that sexy way that intrigues me so much, laughing cunningly and amused at the same time ( she's got a point! ).
' Ehi, what happened to your trousers?'
'Oh that? Nothing really..( actually I' ve been torturing myself and i was so jumpy when you arrived that i nearly killed the cat and fallen on the floor..you have me in the palm of your hand..you put a spell on me..) 'Let's go upstairs!' ..and hugging we climb the stairs, unforgivables lovers.

We spend the evening at home, munching on crackers and cheese ( my fridge is always empty, but who cares about the restaurant!), and sipping red wine ( I have always loved women that drink wine ( red wine...denotes a certain character..white is more feminine, trendy..but red is not for everyone, a bit like coffee..there's nothing that sadden me more than a woman who after dinner orders a decaf..am I so boring that you're already thinking of sleeping?)).

She...the more I look at her, the more everything around her disappears ( might be the wine..), I'm captivated by her crystalline laughter, by her gracious and casual movements, so.. natural ( all of a sudden a thought strikes me: she doesn't know she's the most perfect creature on earth! Bloody hell, knowing she's here with me sounds so absurd that is painful!)
The conversation is brilliant, I am brilliant ( and this is very rare!! The only time I remember i felt so comfortable speaking with someone of the opposite sex was when i was rehearsing my translation for a theatre piece to Caracas!)

Suddenly I find myself wanting to tell her she is everything to me, don't leave me! I'm crazy!
But how can you declare your love to a woman, after only two months, without appearing a frustrated psycho ready to jump on the first fly that falls into the spider-web?

Halvard, are you listening to me?

I woke up from my daydreaming...oh, shit. (she looks a bit pissed off..)
You need to think quickly in these occasions if you don't want to pass for the idiot, so into the woman in front of him to be completely lost, or even worse, if you don't want to pass for the one that doesn't give a damn for anything she says.Dead in both cases.Why do I always put myself in these positions? and with Pollux, to say it all!...Come on Halvard! Quick!

' Don't move a mussle, there's an enormous cockroach on the wall behind you!'
Did I say it or not that the fortune was about to turn my way? I'm a genius! Goodbye loosers! did you see with what nonchalance I desengaged myself from that embarrassing situation? No more broken heaters, no more aggressions from nasty old hairdressers, give way magicians of life! I am here among you!)

DON'T PROCLAME YOUR VICTORIES TOO SOON
YOU MIGHT BE DELUDED

So, I get up and take my shoe off, ready to shoot a magistral stroke to the imaginary monster ( I even pretend to take my time aiming at the filthy intruder), when she grabs my hand and stops me.
The moment is tragic.
I want to squash my own self with that shoe!
She caught me again in one of mine awkward evolution ( and there have been lots!) in the pityful attempt to save my face, only to end up looking ridiculous.. This time that's it, she must be convinced by now that I'm a deranged person. It's not really healthy having me around..

She gets up, come closer ( I don't think she wants to hit me..I don't..maybe..), put her lips to my ear and wishper 'I think it's time for a shower, don't you?'
She is incredible! What did I do to deserve such an angelic woman, so understanding..and so brave!(to put up with my psichotic side).

Beautiful like a sunrise on the top of Mt Everest, I follow her to the shower...
and that's when i felt that my will didn't count anything anymore, I was like a piece of iron attracted by a magnet..is not what YOU want, it's the law of nature.

5 years after..

People say it stops after a while, that is only when you're falling in love that you feel helpless and regress to a teenager...but five years have passed now and not the slightest thing has changed for me..still I can't take my eyes off her, still she is my muse in everything I do.
The world is different though..I still don't seem to get it for some reason, but I am sure it has become kinder towards me..weird things still happen but, Ehi! They're not that tragic! I still kill myself with my unstoppable thinking but, i don't know, there's something more there, something that doesn't disturb my peace..

As I was thinking all this (I am sure I was close to find an answer!), Pollux entered the room and switched the TV on..I was about to say somethig like ' Hallo-o I'm here aswell and kind of busy'..but instead I noticed they were showing a documentary on the australian wild camels ( are there wild camels living in Australia?) so I just decided to watch it (I've always loved documentaries they were my favourites). It was about the mating season and it was pretty amazing...listen to this: in Australia the camel lives with nine or ten females wich constitue his camel harem. During the mating season though, we don't know for which reason, some males wander alone until they encounter one happy camel-harem, when they try to steal the females from the original 'owner'.
The documentary shows the two males engaging in a fight for 'we know what'. But surprisingly they are not violent they only show their best qualities one another (look at my long neck! yes but look at how i move my tail! and what about my humps?!). What a civilised way of solving problems, we should learn from them! But the best part has yet to arrive..
At a certain moment one of the two just lies down on his side..and you think 'must be the looser, there you go' But what do we see? The other one starts to walk towards the horizon and disappears behind the bushes...the one that was on the ground instead, gets up and joins triumphant the females.
How is it possible? but if we are honest we have to admit that it was the winner to decide of his own victory in lying down first:' I'm the best, I'm the strongest, I won!'.
But isn't it the most incredible thing that the other accepted to be defeated without complaining? Maybe.
So among the australian wild camels it would be enough to think to oneself victory as aquired for it to be real? It looks like...
Isn't it a unique exemple among all the other species? Probably, weird nature...

That makes me think..suddenly a flash of inspiration..what if..what if I had become a wild camel too with Pollux by my side..that's exactly what has changed..not the world itself, not my luck,..but ME! It was so simple.. being sure of myself and my life nothing from the outside world could touch me or ruin my happiness.. I could do whatever I wanted and I would win, because I knew I was the winner...