The book of L. Scorello.

The book of L. Scorello. | Ecency

_Frits Thaulow (Norwegian, 1847-1906) . Cottages by a river. oil on canvas 64 x 79 cm..JPG

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That day, Annette were at the only book store in the town of Fernanda when a book with a particular title called her attention, the name was Annette and the town near the river, surprised by the title, she took the book and decided to buy it. On the way home, as always, Annette passed through the bridge that linked Fernanda with the urbanism in which she lived. That bridge passed over a huge body of water called Rio Buena Vista. A chill ran down his back, but she thought it must be just a coincidence. At the end of the day, after she finished all the home task, Annette decided that it was time to read the curious book , the author was a anonymous writer named L. Scorello from Puerto Montt, Chile, and he refers at the town on the book just as The town near the river. On the first pages the protagonist is introduced as a drunk, smoker, sad and depressed man named Noel who tells us the hard and difficult reality of the town, describing it as the place where the time has stopped, a place where nothing grows and where death haunts the soul of people in every corner.

At this point the book had got Annette attention, seeing strongs similarities of the books town with Fernanda, and most shocking, the similarities with the protagonist Noel with a man she knew in the past. In the first two chapters of the book, Noel told us about the social crisis that people lived in the town, how the humanity can degenerate in something as lowest as a dog with rabies thanks to the shortage of many things, and told us too about his existential crisis, the hate he felt about that society and people in general, and how he tried to drown all those feelings with alcohol. But then, at the 3rd Chapter a character known as Annette was introduced. Annette is described as beautiful women of brown hair, fine nose, of considerable height, and with a beautiful smile that Noel knows on the college, on a rainy day of winter. Both felt in love a cold night sitting on a wooden bench, holding their hands.
Annette close the book at this point and couldn’t keep reading anymore, a tear feels of her eye through her cheek. This must be some kind of joke she tough, it was if she were reading a part of her live, memories from 4 years ago came through her mind accompanied by the name of a man, Leon Santieri…

That night Annette dreamed with Leon, a tall man of dark brown hair and dark dead eyes, they both were walking near a beautiful river on a cloudy day of august. They lock each other and Leon sketched a sincere smile to Annette, the smile of someone that is in love. Then Annette wakes up for the dream and a feeling of nostalgia went through her chest.
She took the book and decides to finish it. The next chapters described the intense love story between the fictional Annette and Noel, and how Noel turns from a depressed drunk into a more responsible and happy human being, and how Annette showed him a light of hope inside that dark abyss that was the town near the river. But then, at some advanced chapter on the story, the relationship ends abruptly, and Noel felts again in a deep and dark abyss. All the chapters since this part becomes darker and darker, exploring topics such as alcoholism, existential emptiness, the meaning of life and the decline of society in general at the town near the river. At the end of the story, Noel talks about leaving those lands and going far to the south, to a land near the sea, to a port Chilean city called Puerto Montt, in the search of happiness, saying that he had no reasons nor ties to stay in that dying place anymore.

At this point Annette knew that the only one who could write this book was Leon and no one else, and in some way, he found the way to make that book arrives to Fernanda just for her.

Five years passed and Annette was finally able to leave Fernanda, Venezuela, and go live in Santiago de Chile and at some point she travel to Puerto Montt and started to ask on every book store of the city about Scorello, but he was nowhere to be found, people just said that he despaired some years ago, even before the 2018 earthquake that destroyed part of the city, she even visits the house where Scorello supposed to live in the past, but it was abandoned and in ruins because of the earthquake. The sadness ran through Annette’s entire body when she realized that the only thing she could find about Leon had been those decrepit ruins of which only rotten wood remained… a gardener was taking care of the flowers that grew in a small garden on the outskirts of the house, he had a huge beard and was crouched then Annette couldn’t saw his face properly.

“Excuse me sir, did you know something about the man who lived in here?” She asked.

“Yes, he died a while ago, before the earthquake in 2018” Annette was shoking by that answer, she just remained mute for a minute or two and a little tear ran through her cheek.

“Are… are you sure, Sir?” she asked with a trembling voice.

“yeah, he was been suffering from a strong lung cancer” Annette looked down and simply turned around, ready to leave. As he moved away the tears began to descend.

“I see that Scorello did the impossible to get my story to Fernanda as he promised me” She stoped and just in front of her, there was Leon, a little older than she remembered, with a beard, and showing her that smile just as sincere as in her dreams.