I fell in love with it immediately, from the first time I saw it. Shiny in his velvety brown, streaked with very thin blackish veins, he shone, turgid and raised, on that white cutaneous plain that he characterized orographically with his authoritarian presence. Clever, he peeped from time to time from the seductive neckline of her orange shirt, making himself admired for that artistic placement of him.
Yes, it was that graceful oval mole, which stood out against the diaphanous complexion of her chest, the first thing that fascinated me about Anna. I noticed it right away when I saw her the second time. It impertinently looked out from the rhomboidal fretwork of a black top, like a little fish that joyfully darts through an excessively large fisherman's net to trap it inside. Yes, yes, it was that impudent and bewitching mole that prompted me to find time between hearings to woo her.
Anna blushed when, after giving her the first kiss, I told her about that mole of hers and my desire to see it, to touch it, maybe even to kiss it. She didn't let me. But I bullied it when six months later I asked her to marry me and she accepted.
Our love game involved biting, sarcastic jokes that I would throw at her fat, bulging mole, so much so that she chose a wedding dress that kept it well hidden. Of course, she didn't like it, she used to say with the typical know-how of literature teachers: "It makes my chest terribly ugly and then right there, on the left collarbone, it ruins all my décolleté."
And I amused myself by supporting her in this concern of hers, and underlined: «You have plenty of reasons to complain about that ugly beetle…».
He often entered our conversations, both pleasant ones and stormy and conflicting ones. Even after a year of marriage, he was always there to unite us or to intervene between us. The balance of our relationship. Even at work, during demanding trials, thinking of him gave me the necessary energy to show off in the role of uncompromising prosecutor.
A boring congress separated me from Anna for a week. When I returned, she smiled at me and said: «Tonight I will surprise you».
His allusive games were like precious oriental spices that flavored our relationship. After listening to his words, I had polarized my thoughts in trying to find out what he wanted to reserve for me, unable to rest that afternoon, despite being very tired and comfortably lying in bed.
I discovered it in the evening, when, starting my effusions, I couldn't find it and she triumphantly, like the general of an army who has routed the enemy army, said to me: "Now you can no longer make fun of me! A dermatologist helped me get rid of that hideous black cockroach that disfigured my breasts for good."
I was paralyzed, enveloped in a malaise that crystallized my thoughts. I couldn't say anything. I only mentioned that I was very tired and immediately broke away from her.
I felt her fall asleep after a few minutes, on her chest there was only a small halo instead of that pretty mole. She seemed artificial to me. Even her breathing felt different, harsh, with a metallic tinge. She certainly she could not belong to my Anna. And it was at that moment that I sensed that a double, yes, a dangerous double had taken the place of my bride.
Suddenly everything became clear to me. In the trial of the boss Calogero Luisi, I managed to get him convicted by dismantling his illegal trafficking network. Upon reading the sentence, he had given me a chilling look, a clear intimidation to which I had not given weight. I was wrong. Of course, his underworld clan had taken their revenge, depriving me of the most important thing in my life.
It wasn't Anna that lay in bed next to me, I couldn't recognize her smell, she didn't even seem human to me. But yes, of course, she was a sophisticated android full of spy microphones with which my enemies would monitor me.
I got up in silence. I was terrified, I could not focus on what to do.
Yes, that threat from Calogero Luisi had become a reality. He had found a way to destroy me but I wouldn't let him.
I ran into the kitchen, from the cutlery drawer I took out a knife for meat. Of course I wasn't going to let him ruin me. That inhuman double I would have slaughtered.
I cried thinking about my Anna, the real Anna, the one who had been eliminated and replaced. An intense hatred blinded me. With soft steps I went back into the bedroom, I didn't want that double's sensors to warn of my presence.
I slowly approached the bed. The automaton that was supposed to destroy me would be destroyed by me. I was proud to have exposed that deception.
"Wow how well it was done, if it weren't for the mole it would really look like Anna" I said to myself, as I approached her ready to fatally strike her.
Suddenly I felt touched by an invisible hand, it blocked me, and I heard a voice…
"Wake up, wake up Marco."
I awoke. It was Anna's voice bringing me back to reality from the nightmare I'd drifted into in that afternoon sleep.
He was there, on her chest. I rolled over in bed and fell asleep peacefully.
The author
Gianfranco Sorge was born in Catania, is a surgeon, psychiatrist manager of the Catania health company and professor of Psychopathology at the specialization school of the Italian Institute of Group Psychoanalysis (IIPG). His stories have received important mentions in various national literary awards. With goWare he published the collection It's just in your mind and it's real (2015) and two novels: Squatters! (2018) and Uncanny conjunctions (2019)
