Chapter 12: Cesare Mercurio
Amid the concoction of passions and the turmoil of the last days I had abandoned my science! Alas, what a shameful behaviour! This morning I left my abode before the sunrise and headed to my laboratory, walking the dusky streets with vigorous steps and a fresh mind, determined to pursue the noble investigation of the mysteries I had recently began to unveil.
I was overjoyed by the thought of a fruitful day of work, and yet when I reached my laboratory I found a bitter surprise waiting for me. I was about to enter the laboratory, when I saw Ricco Ermete walk out from it, from this sacred place where nobody but I should set foot! He wore a suspicious expression on his face and moved his eyes around shadily and gingerly, the scoundrel! I hid behind a wall to observe his moves, but alas, the man walked away without giving me any hint of his intentions. Doubtlessly he had been prying around, trying to steal my secrets! I should have remained hidden for a while longer, and yet I was so restless at the thought that something had been taken from my laboratory that I rushed to open the door before Ricco Ermete had walked very far. I was thus heading to the door of my laboratory when for some reason he turned back, and caught a glimpse of me. It was dark and my eyes could not ascertain with clarity his traits, however I recognized with fair confidence the lightning of fear that crossed his face as we saw each other. And yet at that point he could not walk away without admitting his guilt, therefore he walked towards me, smiling forcefully, and greeted me with false friendship.
“Ah, I am indeed a fortunate man!”, he began
I stared at him with undisguised contempt and hostility, but he continued, undeterred.
“Yes indeed! I had come here wishing to speak to you, and finding the door of the laboratory open I stepped in, deeming I would find you at work. I was surprised and disappointed to see the laboratory empty, but it is a great pleasure to meet you now!”, Ricco Ermete said with feigned enthusiasm
“The door of the laboratory was open, was it truly?”, was my skeptical reply
Had it not been for the mayhem of the last days I would have never believed such a hypothesis possible. And yet because of the oddity of numerous circumstances, I now pondered if I might have left the door of the laboratory truly unlocked, although I was prone to considering the event unlikely.
“It was indeed, or else I could have not entered the laboratory”, Ricco Ermete argued
Of course, scoundrel! You could have not entered unless you picked the lock, perhaps astutely enough that the imposture cannot be detected! I lacked the proofs though, and I thus gave the man the benefit of the doubt.
“This appears a strange fact, but I shall not reject the word of fellow gentleman as false, should I? And what was the reason for your visit, Sir Ermete?”, I inquired
“It is my keen desire to exchange ideas with you…”, he begun, but I cut him short, impatiently
“I take your word for it”, was my mocking reply, “since you sought to have such an exchange at this utmost early time of the day”
“I believed…”, Ricco Ermete started to mumble as a disobedient brat caught stealing jam
“I believed I could have interrupted your work had I come later on during the day. However, I shall call again at your convenience, if you wish”, he then concluded with some more assurance
This man is either impertinent beyond belief or else he must be honest, I thought, stunned at his persistence.
“I shall apologize for asking that we meet at a later time, but I have to attend to tasks that cannot wait”, I said with a tone gentler than before
“I certainly respect your duties”, Ricco Ermete replied with a gracious bow
“Please send me a note, Sir Ermete, and we shall agree on a time for a fruitful discussion”, I said, and closed the door of the laboratory behind me with what I intended as a polite smile
If the man had honest intentions, why not send me a note in the first place instead of intruding in my laboratory the way he had? If Ricco Ermete is not dishonest he is very odd indeed. Oh reader, I count on your spirit of observation to discern the real facts from those weaved by my imagination, whenever this story will find its way to you!
I was disturbed by the bothersome encounter with the man, and yet determined not to let what happened divert my attention from the experiment I had planned for the day. After a thorough analysis of the laboratory to ensure that was missing, I arranged all the equipment required to subject to the proof of water the white powder serendipitously born from the encounter between mercury and hydrogen cyanide.
Recalling how hydrogen cyanide had nearly killed me by spreading its poisonous whiffs in the laboratory, I propped open a small window and set myself up for my chemical adventure. Pungent fingers of gelid air reached through the bars of the window, pressing their humid touch on my face.
Indifferent to their wicked caresses, I spread a small amount of my white precious powder to water, slowly and with loving care, and I trembled in tense expectation of the unexpected, of the unpredictable event that ignites the scientific minds! And I was rewarded! The white powder evolved into a chameleon, into tongues the colour of fire, carmine and yellow and orange, and the tongues expanded, and the liquid bubbled into frenzied life! And when all the energy freed itself, spending itself into an acrid fume, the tongues turned from red to amethyst, then to a deep blue, and finally dissolved in diaphanous sapphire shades. My intellect could not as yet decipher the origin of the transformations and explain their meaning, and yet how profoundly delighted I was at the marvellous dance of the elements, at the symphony of their revolutions!
Having begun my work at such an early hour, it was only midday when I completed my experiments. Although electrified by the spectacle I had assisted to and eager to subject the powder to the proof of air, I had nonetheless an undeniable appetite. I thus headed to a nearby tavern, marching happily in the air illuminated by the solar sphere. But at a turn I caught a glimpse of a woman and my breath stopped and my heart began pounding as an earthquake pounds, shattering the earth and all bodies within it. Iryssa!, I thought, and madly hastened my pace to follow her. But as I took the turn the woman had taken I realized that I had been under the spell of a deceitful delusion, and that the woman was not Iryssa after all.
My soul turned blank and I suddenly felt lost amid the known street, as a man whose memory has failed him does not know how to orient his steps or recognize faces and places and objects he once held dear. I walked and walked, oblivious of the meal I had longed for, desiring and fearing to see my read headed Iryssa. I walked till the dusk fell, moving in circles around her apothecary shop without daring to enter it, and finally I went home in the vain hope that she might have addressed me a note.
But there is not a line from Iryssa, not a word, just the scent of her memory, lingering within me as an ineffable perfume, tormenting every fiber of my wasted self.