The Master

By Massimo Lenzi

Dear reader,
if fate has brought you here, the more is done. You just must continue fastening your seat belts and blindly trusting the narrator. It will not be difficult, in fact you yourself will be a very special narrator. The rest was put by a somewhat absent-minded writer with a touch of irony and some small game of illusion, to guide you lightened inside the great Temple of Technology. If you want to know what it has represented for a group of united and passionate friends, you must necessarily pass through here.
Thank you as of now for your trust. The opportunity is to wish you happy reading and to have fun.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Massimo Lenzi
• Release date: Mar 21, 2020
• ISBN: 9788835390480

Book preview

alchemy

The Master

«Master, Gino disappeared and for long already. Will be back?»

«Sure! Francesca, you will see him again tomorrow, just on his pillow in front of the door.»

«OK. Does he feel we are worried?»

«He knows very well you are safe. He has others things in mind.»

«It’s exactly he doesn’t care at all.»

«We all should take from him. This is life, going away to get back.»

«Cheers, Master!»

«We even thought you’d never come back.»

«Lads, you are right, but it was too long that I had to go and see my friend Franck.»

«He lives long away. As often happens, it takes a long journey to breathe again something familiar.»

«What did he say?»

«Was it a nice surprise?»

«I would have loved to see his face.»

«Do you mean you didn’t see him?»

«Unfortunately no, I arrived too late and he had already left for the mountain.»

«Have you been there for nothing?»

«Not at all! He will be back soon and will notice I’ve been there. Some legumes and meat gone, some wood turned to ash in the hearth, a few bowls left to wash, a bed that has given refreshment to a friend, and a cat that seems to have taken its comfortable place.»

«Master, what do these five hieroglyphics mean?»

«What do they mean? We will not skip lesson!»

«It won’t take long.»

«Then we go fast.»

«And you owe as something.»

«Alright then: I will tell you something about this.»

«I had just arrived to admire one again marvellous moon-red Spiers Mountain, a place of ancient glory, of mystery and legends. It was said that the beautiful Sarah lived there with is baby Luigi once. She had arrived one day trusting only her own heart.»

How boring, couldn’t we shut up?

«It’s a past of dreams, youth, passion (and some hard and genuine contrast), and desire of knowing.»

«You don’t mean reading books!»

«Would be a nonsense.»

«In fact, we have TV! Why wasting time on dead things?»

«Silence, please! Please, tell us something more about that mountain.»

«Sometimes when I lay on that friendly lawn, I get confused in half-sleep. I feel like I’m facing Noon Mountain at Grandpa Carlo’s house, under the same pink shades that mix with the blue sky and the white snow. It’s here where Sarah's story begins.»

Noon Mountain was really red fire tonight. It looked like when Vega attack the earth.

Grandpa Carlo also tells of the Priestess of the Mount and of a boy lost in the forest.

«Master, are you reading Sarah's story in those symbols?»

«Mostly I’m rewriting it in my memory. Franck said: 'Always write down five things on any trips.' And so far I did.»

Grandpa Carlo uses that writing too, and since aunts are curious and meddling.

«Will you teach us your secret language?»

«We will see, programs are different.»

«What does Franck do?»

«Franck is a monk.»

«If both he and Sarah live in the same forest, they could find themselves. Here's the unexpected ending!»

«Could be. First you would have to write other things, to create and accompany a closeness, that your eyes and mind don't show us in full.»

«Let's write it, so we come to a therefore, and that at least we like it!»

«Giovanni, are you sure you want?»

«It seems elementary, Master. Sarah is beautiful, Franck is not known, but we know he is a monk. It’s more than enough to intrigue a beautiful girl who does not know exactly what she is looking for. So, the wandering monk, wise and lonely, silent and full of mystery, meets a wonderful, beautiful girl forgetful in the forest, who falls madly in love, and they lived happily ever after. I find it immediately on the internet, and we adapt it.»

«As it happens, Sarah had a husband, Francesco. It was love at first sight; a single truly bright glance and two small hearts pierced and immediately exhausted. It seemed impossible that that love could crumble. Instead Francesco one day got lost. When he got home, he was not recognized, and he didn't recognize anyone. He imprecated, resisted, threatened, above all he scared to death. He saw things and people that no one else saw, he confused names and thoughts, answered other questions and asked only for answers he wanted to hear. Finally, one day he disappeared without leaving any trace or hope, and Sarah was left alone with a small baby to look after.»

«Is this symbol representing the story?»

«We are here beyond. The r eturn is the essence of everything. Franck wrote it first. It represents Lonely Monk, who lived close to Sarah's Hut. Every morning he took the little Luigi to the mountain. Together they returned in the evening, when Sarah had been waiting for them for many hours. Luigi usually fell asleep listening to a story from the monk, and he sometimes spent time with Sarah for a while.»

«So, Master, as I said Franck is that monk; they meet daily not recognizing each other, in a mutual need that to their blind eyes seems only fraternal and consoling. Finally, what happened was necessarily happening. Suddenly Franck is assaulted by the remorse, the emotion and the pity to save an eagle he had pierced with the bow. That gesture is reflected in Sarah's beauty, so natural and true, as if she were taking a bath in the well. Immediately they recognize each other.»

«There is no contemporaneity. The story must be left suspended, and the only thing to write is that of Franck.»

«Good point, Carlo. But it stays a beautiful image, Giovanni. Franco, what would you say more?»

«Franck is absolutely certain that they will meet and it will be their first time in an already written story.»

«Are you ok, Giovanni?»

«Enough, it's matter of detail adjustments that I had overlooked.»

«Master, what does this drawing mean?»

«What nonsense!»

«The spaceships seem to be pulling the canoe.»

«To hell with it, Lads, here we eat the whole lesson!»

«Master, you must explain us.»

«Then?»

«Okay, but I have to make a small introduction.»

«Franck had made a small business card for a friend on a hand-cut shell-shaped card. A gondola transfigured in a vintage car. Then one day he made the model of a car, an authentic miniature. It had hidden joints and hinges that with a precise sequence of gestures transformed it into a perfect airplane. Franck had all these passions, and cars, sculpture, painting, and fables or spaceships to return to the drawing. He called them properly ark to mean a much broader concept of the movement and curvature of space.»

«Apparently you imagine absolute silence in the earth of the universe, instead it’s enclosed the dizzying boisterousness of the return. Light sources are replaced by absurd spaceships. Going back, they become primitive objects that ride the angles, the facets, the reflections of light, as if they were waves. Dragons represent the metamorphosis of space and point sources become everything. Light becomes wind. Returning is starting again from a different point. We have all there, no need to go further and feeding only a restless and fatal stubbornness.»

«Is unconsciousness the ultimate source of obstinacy?»

«No! Unconsciousness is pure love. Stubbornness is uncontrolled desire.»

«Is there any truth in this design?»

«Giovanni, wouldn't there be enough truth in love, art and alchemy? Your mind has an unexplained hellish mechanism. You come to things that nobody sees and you don't see things within everyone's reach.»

«I was simply wondering if it was a life scene.»

«Umberto is the pilot, left and not yet returned. If he comes back, and Franck is also there, maybe they could meet. Assuming that we could participate in something so extraordinary for them, we could see first hand, if what Franck had imagined, had been plausible or even authentic.»

«Would this mean transfigured?»

«Giovanni, you will be a great mathematician, but I warn you: what has put many in crisis, was the impossibility of seeing nature represented in the rigidity of formulas or rules. Woe to lose patience! Woe to leave the game of love! Everything has its will that cannot be subjugated by those who cannot accept and listen.»

«And that’s enough! Back to the point. Have you studied the Constitution? No! Woe to you if you are not punctual and educated tomorrow! Now we read I Promessi Sposi.»

«Absolute silence. Franco starts from the beginning.»

«Dear parents, many, many, many novelties! But soon, not now. Do you have any questions?»

«Questions? You wouldn't even know where to start from.»

«Let's start.»

«Really would be the case to have the school reception at the tavern? It certainly does not invite a confidential and open atmosphere.»

«We have the Church for it. We are building our future.»

«Okay, to get into the merits: there is an age when school starts, there are defined basic notions that must be given and verified.»

«Also because continuing the studies in a high school, the children must be ready and at the level of the others.»

«And they must be able to present themselves, have full awareness, concretely achievable ambitions, determination and constancy.»

«I really don't think Giovanni, or Franco and Carlo, should go to high school. They would be bored to death.»

«Oh yes? And will Francesca ever start school?»

«So far we have not been in a hurry. Remind me please, how old is she?»

«Yes, she is… let me thing… she was born… Yes, right, she is almost twelve!»

«I confirm that every moment is the good one.»

«Sorry, could you repeat?»

«Of course, it's not like talking about random numbers. She lives on beautiful dreams that are valued only when you have a real opportunity on your hands.»

«Are you kidding us?»

«It's all much simpler than how you do it. The real resource of a small country is the opportunity to ideally follow the students, dedicating them much more time and in the right way. I give continuity to my travels with teaching, the students give continuity to the school by applying alone when I’m traveling. We will perfect this theorem. Study is by its nature a full-time activity for both students and teachers. Now I am preparing the virtuous trigger that harmonizes everyone's path. Leave me time and be prepared. We are close and we