Click on song 22 on my playlist as you read this post.
If you’re not familiar with my theme, you can check it out here.
Visions of Gideon by Sufijan Stevens is one of my favorite songs ever. It appears on the soundtrack for the movie “Call Me By Your Name” which again is one of my favorite movies ever, and actually introduced me to Sufijan’s music! Immerse yourself in this flash fiction which to me, encapsulates the vibe of this song.
It’s been almost five years since I’ve come back here, and I’ve had to now, owing to important business in the area. Of delaying this visit consciously, I may have been guilty. I keep hurt too close to my heart, nostalgia resides too close to my foundation. What five years they’ve been, too!
The garden remains unchanged. The villa stands happy still, amongst sunlit peach trees and with the cool smell of wet soil ever-present in its vicinity. The people stand as happy as I remember, too. Always a wide smile and hospitable concern, to welcome any windswept memory like me.
“The harvest has been eh, Grande, this summer.” I agreed with my host, looking at the ripe peaches being plucked by the laughing children, the bowls of green and black olives kept pickling or drying out in the sun. Leisure radiated off every dry leaf on the ground, every waft of sunlight, and every echo of steps on the wooden flooring.
The institute of my last stay remained unchanged too, maybe a little lonelier though. The wooden shelves still creaked merrily on their hinges when I dropped off my baggage. My mind bloomed in fond memory on catching sight of the little red notebook of mine I’d forgotten here in the event of my last visit, still in perfect condition, though a little dusty, kept in the exact same drawer I’d left it in years ago.
That evening, I ventured to take a walk to the town square and down to the creek where so much had happened all those years ago. What courage struck me then, that I thought I’d be strong enough to be mortally contained on witnessing those locations again! Sitting down on one of the plastic chairs threw me back immediately into a fine summer day when I was sitting at almost the same spot too. It was the heated breeze, the smell of tobacco from the daily gathering of the town’s Nonni, the well-versed sounds of shuffling cards that once more arrived phantom-like in my lonely silence. Had time passed at all?
I walked again, trancelike, past the shops stirring my mind with familiarity and stoking my awe with their resolute unchangingness. The creek provided no respite to my nostalgia, and rather sparked it more with its ruthless beauty. The very earth of this place was determined to keep my senses moored to its essence, its elements demanding every ounce of my tethered attention. And I gave in happily, pouring my all into my surroundings, becoming my surroundings. Being in this monument of nature itself finally, grew my vestiges back to their monstrous forms, amounting to toll my entire spirit and mind together.
God forbid, how could I ever consciously choose to depart from this temple whilst keeping my soul unbroken?!
All of the images used are locations from the movie “Call Me By Your Name”, and this ended up being pretty much a canon fic of when(and if) Oliver decided to come back to Lombardy still single(again, I’ve read the sequel so this is kind of an alternate universe situation). I’ve also tried to implement the twisty and innovative style of using words from the author of the book, Andre Aciman.
Hope you enjoyed it in some sense even if you haven’t watched/read the movie/book!
You can find all my A-Z posts for this year here.
Enchanted Words 