The Leopard and Other Stories

By Francesco Marincola

In this collection of short stories the author explores a variety of topics pondering over the essence of love as in The Lovebirds and The Experiment, or describing reflections of an old man at the end of life in The Visit, or empathetically dissecting the making of a sociopath sentenced to death by comparing him to the instinctual life of a solitary predator of the Savannah in The Leopard. Humorous insights over a dysfunctional family united in spite of untold love is presented in A Rebellious Story while other stories such as Wife and Scrooge 2011 portray the disorganized and confusing conduct of two self absorbed men, who cannot appreciate the nurturing love that surrounds them. There are in addition two short stories contributed by guest writers. In The Rider (contributed by Catterina Coha) Clara creates her own reality show by glancing out of the big screen of the train window while in the apocalyptic The Eve (contributed by Jamie Marincola) husband and wife deal in different ways with extreme circumstances creating a humorous portrait of family life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris UK
• Release date: Jan 31, 2015
• ISBN: 9781499093803

Francesco Marincola

Francesco M Marincola is the Chief Medical Officer of Sidra Medical and Research Centre in Doha, Qatar. He was previously a tenured Senior Investigator at the U.S. National Institutes of Health. He is the immediate past president of the Society for the Immunotherapy of Cancer and the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Translational Medicine. He received is MD summa cum laude at the University of Milan and surgery training at Stanford University. His scientific work deepened the understanding of the mechanisms leading to rejection of tumors or transplanted organs by the immune system and development of autoimmunity. He published is first novel in 2013: The Wise Men of Pizzo and his site can be visited at https://authorfrancomarincola.wordpress.com Jamie Marincola is an engineer at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in San Francisco. He graduated from Stanford University and lives with his wife and dog in Redwood City, California. This is his first print publication, however he is the author of the ongoing webcomic The Duller Image http://www.thedullerimage.com . Catterina Coha is a physician and scientist living and working in New York City

Book preview

Copyright © 2015 by Francesco Marincola.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2015901458

ISBN:      Hardcover        978-1-4990-9379-7

                Softcover         978-1-4990-9378-0

                eBook              978-1-4990-9380-3

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 01/28/2015

Xlibris

800-056-3182

www.Xlibrispublishing.co.uk

696206

Contents

Foreword

Preface

Lovebirds

The Experiment

Wife (Or a Very Short Story)

Scrooge 2011

The Visit

A Rebellious Story

The Leopard

The Rider

The Eve

Foreword

Giuseppe Masucci

I am convinced that it is not so easy to put together a collection of short stories whose content stands on its own. The author opened his soul portraying situations and characters conceived not only from his imagination but also extracted from the often harsh reality of life and tailored according to his fantasy. For sure, the introspection inspired by the individuals who populate the story give life to a miniature version of Honoré de Balzac’s La Comedie Humaine . The author considers, describes, and presents the anguish, the solitude, and sometimes the desperation of human beings as they carry the burden of life. There is a great deal of self-analysis. The challenge for the reader is to extract himself from the canovaccio upon which different scenes are animated by the improvisations of the actors in the open drama of life.

Francesco is able to describe and investigate through the protagonists the deepest corners of one’s conscience and soul. Take ‘The Leopard’ and ‘The Visit’, for instance. It seems that they portray two opposite attitudes of human character: the lows of nature and its illogical unfolding in those who persecute and hunt the leopard in Africa or the criminal sentenced to death in the faraway America. This contrasts with the analysis of the noble feelings that enliven an old father and his son’s relationship. In reality, both stories talk about the expression of the intimate drama that each one of us experiences throughout life, i.e. to find or refuse an explanation to our existence. The circumstances maybe distinct but the struggle for a meaning remains constant.

Is the author just an observer and extremely talented artist? I believe that the apparent shield behind which the author shelters himself under the pretense of creating an imaginary world, is uncovered by his engagement and precision used to describe characters and situations, a precision that can only come from first-hand or at least very close experiences. Each vignette in the short stories claims a clear introspection of the author’s own feelings that are exposed indirectly as best exemplified in ‘A Rebellious Story’.

The reader finds her/himself involved and entrapped in situations and the emotions released by the stories glue to the soul long after reading, perhaps for a lifetime.

Francesco gives us, also, the opportunity to dwell in the twilight between ‘love and solitude’, two universal emotions seemingly different but in reality very much connected to each other. In ‘The Lovebirds’, without a doubt, hope and solitude (not loneliness) are the source of energy that gives birth to a ‘solid’ dream. The reader does not feel anguish in these lines but a flash of happiness spiced by a speck of sadness. We carry our life alone no matter what, with or without birds, cats, or fairy princesses. Dave (could be me or anybody else) justifies his solitude through the dream of the real love in resignation and acceptance that, at least for him, there is no other way out. The lovebirds along the river and a sketch of a dreamed woman are his only companionship. The reader might expect a different end to this story but the conclusion does not matter: the events within the story are built to inspire the reader to find a different end to her/his own story.

I would like to end this foreword by citing the author himself, who elegantly reflects upon the question above:

Thus, writing is not about publishing but it is about living an additional life and searching for a cathartic harmony with our own deeper self. What comes afterwards is just gravy.

Giuseppe V. Masucci. December 2014

Giuseppe V. Masucci was born in Italy where he spent his adolescence. After obtaining his MD, he moved to Stockholm, Sweden, where he is living since 1977, working at the Karolinska Institute. Devotion to poetry has been a part of his life since adolescence but he published only recently. He writes his poems in Italian, Venetian, Swedish, and English. His first début is Iris Color Arancio/ Orange Colored Iris (Ed. TGBOOK) in 2011, presented in Turin (Library 451) and Treviso (Library Lovat). His second collection is La Rabbia del Lupo/The Anger of the Wolf (Ed. TGBOOK). He also has a website at: https://gvmasucci.wordpress.com

Preface

S ome of these stories precede the writing of my first novel The Wise Men of Pizzo . I am quite attached to them as to a firstborn. Short stories are in writing the equivalent to photos while a novel compares to a movie. They represent a high-resolution sketch that captures apparently ephemeral yet meaningful moments, occurrences deserving to be extracted from customary life because they bear a texture and weight worth being preserved for times when other distractions are on hold and we offer ourselves a few breaths of introspection.

Of course, I want to thank the readers who gave me feedback on some of the stories and helped me improve them, particularly who gave feedback on the pre-published ones on the blog: https://authorfrancomarincola.wordpress.com. To the several who did not agree with the conclusion of some of them and suggested alternatives, I apologise reminding them of Otto’s challenge in A Rebellious Story: ‘Of course, Otto was well aware that, being the writer, he could easily modify the story, but this was against his philosophy as he treated his stories as he treated his own life of which, he felt, he retained very little control’.

For the collection, I selected a few stories of mine plus two contributed, one by my son Jamie and one by a friend Catterina Coha. They are meant to share impressions from our lives that may reverberate among the reader’s deepest emotions, or at least I hope so. Most of the stories end where other writers would start. This is to empower the reader to make up her/his own creation on the wake of ours or even better inspire a modification of the course of her/his own life if applicable as it happened to Clara in ‘The Rider’.

Thanks again for dedicating some time to them.

Lovebirds

A s a day it had been even worse than usual, the kind of day that only those among us who carry a meaningless life can recognise. When a sense of painful loss supersedes the customary monotony, a panicky sensation of vanishing opportunities, and the premonition that day after day, but more acutely today, we are relinquishing any chance to overcome the idleness of our lives.

It had first started with a series of annoyances, trifles like not finding the car keys, spilling the coffee, staining the shirt, finding holes in your socks, etc. etc. Later on, his supervisor had summoned him to his cabin office to reiterate the need to be more thoughtful in his writings and to avoid negligent inaccuracies such as not addressing doctors with the proper appellation, missing essential elements of somebody’s affiliation, misspelling surnames, and other minor details important to those who have the energy to inspect such pedantic corners of life.

But it was Kate who had really ruffled the day and, indeed, completely spoiled it.

‘I do not want to hurt you, Dave…’ She had said staring at him in the eyes with a serious look, protruding her chin thoughtfully and pursing her lips as if she was about to suck with a straw his soul out of the brain.

‘I am sorry if I misled you but I really do not care for you in this way. I have been nice and affectionate because I was sorry for you… always so shy and withdrawn… never saying anything… could not even finish a joke. But I am not interested in you as a man. You know what I mean? You are a nice person but…’

He had heard that before, like when his wife left him.

‘I am sorry, Dave, it has been a mistake. When I married you, I was young and naive. I thought you were ambitious and intelligent. But you are not! You are a nice person, but not an alpha male, not a man women would be attracted to and love.’ That’s what she had said as she packed her stuff to move in with her alpha male.

The settlement had been straightforward. They both worked and had no children. As a result, he was left with an empty apartment that, with the resonating silence of its bare walls, had suddenly grown to be disproportionate to the minuteness of his negligible life. No matter how inquisitively he scrutinised those familiar walls to revive memories that could alleviate his solitude, they would just remind him of his isolation… the complete seclusion that embodied his existence currently and for the time to be. Not even the cat was left. She had taken it with her and he missed the little creature more than the wife since only in it he had been able to reclaim any endorsement of his presence and even, occasionally, a hint of affection.

As Dave was walking along the riverbank, his brain persisted on reflecting over Kate. Surely, he could not blame her; it had been entirely his unsubstantiated presumption to suppose that she would be interested in a loner.

In fact, past the turmoil instigated by the embarrassment of the rejection, he had felt relief even! . . . All the anxiety of the last few days! That arguing with himself to find the resolve to accost her… all those rehearsals in front of the mirror… all those affectations to create a creature of better appeal that did not exist… and all those pretenses to align his façade to an image that he could not even conceive. All this euphoria did not need to exist anymore. If he could just accept the fact that he would never be loved, he could carry on a peaceful existence following his comfortable routine without having to go through all that anguish again.

‘Yet, even birds can be loved’ he thought looking at a couple of mallards floating in harmony along the riverbank.

‘They say that these mallards are monogamous for the lifetime’,