As far as Tom could remember, the sound of footsteps always fascinated him. A step that resonate would trigger in him a strange behavior as if it were a language to him. He had this ability to create a reality, his reality, mixed with souvenirs, fears, but rarely joy.
He often wonders where this gift was coming from.
Was it the steps of a nurse in a hospital corridor approaching inexorably when as a kid he had to go through surgery. It wouldn’t be the first time that the nurse called Marie Louise would stop at the door ready to give him an injection.
Before she would appear in the doorway, he knew, like an animal fearing for his life, that soon the needle would enter his flesh. Not that the pain was unbearable but the idea that something would interfere with his body was simply unacceptable. He wanted to keep his body secret, untouched not altered. By Body he naturally was thinking Mind and Soul as well. Marie Louise was a nice and intelligent woman.They got along well.
Was it the souvenir of those Film Noir where the shadow of the character would be more important than the character himself only because it was accompanied by the intriguing sound of deep echoing footsteps?
Or was it because of war movies when Nazi Germany deployed its inhuman propaganda and exactions. He would remember those horrific, cold, black and white scenes with thousands soldiers marching and strangely enough, only one footstep would resonate.
Now in his thirties, he likes when walking alone listening to the sound of his own footsteps. Each steps with the help of his imagination would transport him. He feels a delectation, a pleasure just being alone with himself. These are fertile moments where Body ,Soul and Mind would form only One. Basically the opposite of the Gestalt Theory asserting that "a whole is different than the sum of its parts”.
He liked before diving in these long moments of reflection to remember Confucius saying in substance: “ I am not trying to know the answers, but instead I try to understand the questions”
That night, the 6th of may in a French provincial town next to the German and Swiss boarder, after a dinner and a late movie at the CineClub with friends he decides to walk back home despite a heavy rain. The film he just saw for the 5th time was “La Traversee de Paris” with beautiful Jean Gabin and Bourvil. He probably had a feeling he could extend the atmosphere of the movie where the two main characters cross Paris with contraband meat in suitcases. He is now adventuring, alone, for couple miles crossing the old town of his beloved city.
Not so many people around midnight in a dark rainy night. As He crossed an old bridge over the small river circumvolving around town, where rain drops were playing with the reverberating lights he felt an intense joy.
From shopping street to dark alleys, jumping from porch to porch to avoid the rain, he had a strange feeling of being followed.The footsteps he was hearing were not his…As he stopped walking and breathing to verify where the intruding sound of steps was coming from, a powerful hand grabbed him by the shoulder.
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