The Guest at the Castle

It was a sweet summer morning, my father asked me, as he sometimes did, to take a short walk with him along the splendid path through the forest that is in front of the castle, when we arrived near the lake we stopped to talk

"It's your nineteenth birthday soon," my father exclaims, "you know that, even if you don't have much money, you can ask me anything you want," he said.

I thought about what to say then replied "I would like to spend time with my friend Sophie"

Sophie was a friend of mine who lived in France, but who came to Austria every summer to visit her uncle, General Leroy, a man my father knew through his work which I was always convinced was some kind of assignment government and lived in the village not too far from here, so every year she and her uncle visited us and spent two or three weeks at the castle, only last year and the year before that she had stayed in her homeland to help the soldiers of the war

My father's face darkened and he didn't answer immediately "I forgot I hadn't told you, but last night, when you weren't present, I received a letter from General Leroy, in which he informs me that the damsel Sophia died of an illness. unknown," he said.

I was devastated to hear these words, also because I hadn't heard from Sophie for a long time. The first afternoon I asked my father to come home, upon our return I decided to take a bath, Madame Perrodon prepared everything necessary and I undressed in front of her, I don't feel ashamed to show myself naked towards her because for me she has always been a sort of mother, yet for the first time while bathing I felt watched as if a great misfortune was looming over us.

Madame Perrodon, given her inclination towards psychology, metaphysics and perhaps even mysticism, tried to find a natural explanation for my upheaval "Tonight there will be a full moon" she said as she moved her hands over my body to soap me up "In this circumstance the moon emits a particular spiritual activity, it is known that its effect acts on nervous people, on dreams and has extraordinary influences on life"

I wasn't convinced by those words but they certainly managed to distract me from the news of Sophie's ****, once the bath was finished Madame Perrodon helps me dry myself and get dressed, just at that moment I hear the unlikely noise of the wheels of a carriage and many hooves on the road , I looked at the scene at the window and saw my father talking to a man I had never seen and who was carrying a girl my age in his arms.

I dressed quickly and approached to understand what was happening, but what shocked me was not only that the girl had apparently fainted, but that she looked incredibly similar to the girl in my dream.