When Flavio woke up on New Year's morning, he had almost had the feeling that it was a day like any other. What had made it different was not the red color with which the holidays were marked on Earth's calendar, but the greeting message that Claudia had sent him:

"Happy New Year! Call me as soon as you can for the vacation. Kisses!"

The message had been sent late at night: he deduced that Claudia had celebrated until very late. Flavio obviously had been asleep for a long time and so he woke up early on New Year's morning. "Call me in early January" Claudia had told him the last time they had seen each other. He remembered that sentence well. Now the message said "call me as soon as you can".

It was early morning and Flavio had not yet had breakfast, but he had slept well and felt rested. Bitten by anxiety, he hesitated in the awareness that Claudia was sleeping at that hour and still had several hours of sleep to recover. But he couldn't wait, not when Claudia was the only thought that allowed him to leave behind his recent academic failure. "As soon as you can" she had written. That was enough for him to justify himself.

«Hello...» she answered him, her voice muffled by sleep and listlessness.

«Uh... hi Claudia, how are you?»

«Who is it?» she asked hoarsely from the daze.

«It's Flavio...» he said, foreseeing that he had already compromised the conversation.

«Hey! Hi!» Claudia chimed in. Her voice seemed to wake up suddenly and become affectionate and mellifluous. Flavio felt his heart swell and start to beat with fervor. It was things like that that had made him fall in love with Claudia: she always managed to surprise him with a sudden and genuine kindness, with a seductive spontaneity. «Happy New Year, best wishes!» she exclaimed enthusiastically.

Flavio felt like he was behind on the dialogue and even more awkward than before.

«Thank you, best wishes to you too. I called you because of that thing regarding... you know, about the message you sent me...»

He wasn't very good at talking on the phone with people, even less so when it came to girls. The task was extremely difficult if the girl in question was the one he had been in love with for years.

«Flavio, we have to change plans» she announced in a flurry. Flavio felt like he was sinking and cold sweat was pouring from every pore on his head. «I'm already in Valdaora, so I can't take you here anymore... it's a shame because I would have liked to travel with you...»

«Uh... ah... well...» articulated the love-struck one with what little larynx had not yet stiffened.

«I've already talked to some friends, they'll pick you up. There's also Cristina, I heard you guys met, right?»

«Yes, we met at university and...»

«Great then!» Claudia interrupted cheerfully. «That way at least you travel with someone you already know. I told them to stop by your place tomorrow morning. Is that okay with you?»

«Sure, no prob...»

«Look, I told them you live in the university dorms. In any case, I gave them your cell phone number. For anything, you guys talk to each other, okay?»

«Good... uh, thank you...»

«Good then! I'll wait for you tomorrow, I can't wait. I'll send you a kiss.»

«Ah... a kiss to you too!»

Flavio's heart ended its roller coaster ride, his throat resumed circulating air orderly and his pores decreed the end of hostilities with the outside world.

The next morning Flavio had a meager luggage ready when he woke up for breakfast. He washed and dressed with his attention absorbed by the phone that wasn't ringing, while outside it was still dark. He looked around: everything in the dorm was already in perfect order.

He read something.

The sun began to come out.

He read something else and, a few hours later, in mid-morning, the cell phone finally rang.

«Flavio? It's Cristina. Good morning, I hope I didn't wake you up.»

Her voice was lively, cheerful, outgoing. Hard to guess that she was an army officer, Flavio thought.

«No no, I was here doing... my things.»

«I wanted to let you know that we're leaving soon, in about an hour we'll be at your place. Can you get ready?»

«Uh... I hope so, I'll try to hurry up.»

«Excuse me...» Sleeld blurted out with little more than a whisper, «can someone reassure me that, as he matures, this boy will learn to give due value to sincerity?»

Kidhe held back a grimace of embarrassment while Wilol believed he was holding back one of indolence, whatever the appearance of a hypothetical grimace of indolence should have. In any case, he felt proud to notice that he was doing quite well. Cronquit, on the other hand, despite dealing with his own discomfort, pointed Sleeld with his gray eyes to seek his attention.

«Well, technically, he told the truth» he justified himself.

Riklev raked his smooth mane with his fingers. «Sleeld» he intervened, «it's already miraculous that the minimum requirements of our Plan on Earth have been met. If Flavio is rather primitive in some respects, it's not something we should worry about too much.»

«I realize that» Sleeld smoothed over, «but if it's up to him that we have to rely on to fix things on that planet... well, his insecurity doesn't reassure me.»

«Have faith...» Kidhe insisted «he will undergo many more changes. Remember that he has to enter into mental resonance with three of us.»

As the sense of acceptance took hold of Sleeld, all five executives relaxed and the computer resumed the projection..

«Take your time, we're not in a hurry» Cristina offered. «At this point we'll stop first for something. We'll be at your place in an hour and a half, would that be fine?»

«Yes, uh... better» Flavio confirmed. He wanted to bite his tongue. Was there really any shame in showing himself so eager to leave?

«I'll call you when we're downstairs from you. See you later.»

Flavio was starting to feel quite hungry when Cristina called him again.

«We're with a black BMW» she had told him.

Flavio went down from the Student House with his duffel bag on his shoulder and saw parked on the street the car that was waiting for him. Without uniform or makeup and with her long brown and wavy hair loose over her shoulders, Cristina looked almost unrecognizable to him. She got out of the passenger side to greet Flavio and put his duffel bag in the trunk.

As the girl moved nimbly around the car, Flavio noticed how the white sweater she was wearing wrapped her figure highlighting the softness of her shapes, without suffocating them as the uniform did instead. The clean face and natural hairstyle gave her a decidedly more youthful appearance.

«In the meantime, get in the car, I'll take care of your bag» she told him.

Flavio settled into the back seat.

«Hi, I'm Franco, Cristina's boyfriend» greeted him the boy who, holding out his hand, was sitting at the wheel. His short black hair, pointed by gel, seemed to have been modeled with a care no less meticulous than that evidently dedicated to his eyebrows. Flavio noticed, however, that so much attention spent on the appearance of his face was compensated by a blatant carelessness in clothing. The tracksuit and sneakers he was wearing, however, boasted brand names that Flavio could not have afforded.

«I don't know how to thank you for taking me with you, really» he said.

«Don't mention it...» Franco said, with indifference, as he turned the key in the dashboard.

«You don't have to thank us for anything» Cristina added as she got back in the car, «we couldn't just leave you here! It's a pleasure to travel with someone.»

«Right, figure the driver serves as company...» Franco teased her.

«Franco!» he heard himself called by her impatient voice.

«What?»

«Stop attracting attention like children, try to be nice instead.»

«What? Come on!» he laughed. «Flavio, I'm sorry, did I seem rude to you?»

«To me? No no, not at all.»

«See, honey? Everything's fine!» Franco stressed.

«Sure, maybe you even expected him to be so uncivil as to say yes» Cristina retorted. «Flavio, forgive him... he's a bit of a fool, you have nothing to do with it.»

«Now I'm also a fool?»

«Not just now, kind of all the time to tell the truth» she added.

«Flavio, thank goodness you're here as a witness, if I tell someone how he treats me they won't believe me...»

«Yes... yes» Cristina cut him short, «but remember that Flavio is not here to be your witness, but because he's one of Claudia's friends.»

«How long have you known Claudia, Flavio?» Franco asked.

Partly out of insecurity and embarrassment, partly out of distrust, Flavio preferred to remain vague.

«Quite a bit» he answered, «although in reality we never hung out much.»

«According to Claudia» Cristina intervened, «you've known each other practically for a lifetime. You've known her longer than I have.»

«You, Flavio, how did you meet her?» Franco asked again.

«Going to school» Flavio began to tell him, «we were on the bus with common friends and they introduced us... or rather, actually she introduced herself on her own...»

Franco soon shifted the conversation to Flavio, starting to ask him what he studied, and then politely interrupting him to reciprocate the information stressing that he would soon become an engineer.

«Hey, by the way» he said, «do you know what the difference is between an engineer and a statistician? They're both good with numbers, but the statistician doesn't have enough personality to do something useful with them!»

«Hilarious» Cristina muttered.

«Every now and then I hear some of these in the faculty,» Franco justified himself, «I presume you also have your own jokes, right?»

He then continued with a series of stories in which a mathematician, a physicist and an engineer replaced the Irishman, the Englishman and the Scotsman...

They had left Rome little less than two hours earlier when Cristina asked: «Guys, I'm starting to get hungry, how about we stop at the next service station? Franco, are you okay with that?»

«Sure, come on, let's take a break. Flavio, you're a bit pale.»

They stopped and got out to stretch their legs. After getting back into the warmth of the car, Cristina took a package from a thermal bag.

«Flavio, I hope you like porchetta, I got these sandwiches before passing by you. I also have water and fruit juice, if you like.»

«Thank you, you didn't have to bother...» Flavio said with an embarrassed voice. However, saving on the service station's gastronomy was undoubtedly convenient for his finances.

«But of course! Since we had a little more time I wanted to take advantage of it to organize some snacks on the go. Since I knew you work in a rotisserie I wanted to spare you the usual pizza.»

«I wouldn't have minded pizza at all» Franco argued.

Cristina smiled condescendingly.

«Then you should have accompanied me and taken some for yourself, instead of sitting in the car this morning» she commented with a mother hen kind of way.

«I'm really sorry, Franco» Flavio apologized, «I didn't mean to bother you, I hope to find a way to thank you both.»

Franco smiled confidently and said to him: «Yes, look, actually there is a favor you can do for me. Give me a change at the wheel, I want to rest.»

«But Franco! We had said that we would take turns driving, you and me!» Cristina objected. «Flavio, don't worry, I'll drive...» she offered apprehensively.

«Hey, let him decide, alright?» Franco insisted. «He wants to be helpful. You have a license, right Flavio?»

«Yes, sure» Flavio answered calmly. Franco's expression of confidence stiffened suddenly while Cristina's face relaxed into a smile.

«If you trust me, I have no problem» Flavio added. «After all, it's your car, right?»

«Exactly» Franco confirmed dryly.

«You still hadn't told me that your father had given you his car...» Cristina contradicted him.

«Mine, my father's... it's the same! Please Cri...» Franco huffed getting out of the driver's seat.

Flavio started the car.

«Be careful, this engine has two hundred and thirty-two horsepower» Franco warned him.

With fluidity and confidence, Flavio resumed the highway. He had obtained his driver's license just over a year ago. Since then, he had driven only when Claudia had handed him her car, three or four times in all. But he felt calm. Driving was one of the things that came naturally to him.

They were now in the middle of the Alps and it had gotten completely dark. Flavio, who had driven all the time, was eager to cover those last forty kilometers east that separated him from Claudia. Franco was sleeping in the back seat. He woke up half dazed when they were stopped by the traffic police.

Flavio lowered the window.

«Good evening, it snowed heavily here. If you don't want to wait for the snowplows, you'll need chains further ahead» the policeman informed them.

Flavio was taken aback and didn't know what to say. He turned around to look for Franco who returned his gaze with a sleepy look. His hair, previously pointed by gel, was now flattened on half of his skull. Cristina leaned over from Flavio's side to talk to the policeman.

«We have all-wheel drive.»

«All right, but be careful anyway» the policeman recommended before letting them go.

Not yet out of his drowsiness, Franco pulled himself up to look at the road.

«I'll take over, you must be exhausted» Cristina offered. More than about his tiredness, Flavio noticed by looking at her face, she was worried about his lack of experience with cars. Claudia had certainly told her that he had not had a chance to drive but on exceptional occasions. Like that one, in fact. She was about to unbuckle her seat belt, but Flavio ventured confidently onto the snowy road.

«Don't worry, thank you. I'm fine.»

Franco came forward anxiously.

«Can you drive on snow?»

At that moment Flavio jerked the steering wheel and gave a short and sudden brake that made the car skid in a rebellious motion.

«Yes, I can do it» he answered while his passengers were still clinging with their nails to the first surface they could claw.

«Hey! Careful! Are you sure?» Franco scolded him.

«Yes, everything's fine, I was just testing the road...»

Flavio was in a hurry to see Claudia again. After so long, he wanted to get it over with as soon as possible. He noticed that the dynamic stability control was slowing him down and reached out to turn off the switch.

«No! What are you doing, that's the...» Cristina exclaimed in fright, but then a curve came along which Flavio slid the car smoothly and with precision, stopping its skid with a perfectly measured countersteer. Without ever losing the lane, Flavio climbed up the next "S" curve showing a harmonious and relaxed authority over the vehicle. Cristina, lulled by the safe and gentle movements of the car, calmed down immediately.

«Hey, where did you learn to drive like that?» she asked him.

«At driving school.»

Cristina laughed incredulously.

«All right... if you don't want to tell me, then don't tell me. I'll let Claudia know we're almost there.»

What could he tell her? That his mind could distinguish individual conversations in the indistinct murmurs, that he was able to pay attention simultaneously to multiple information and that he could learn almost anything instantly and effortlessly? If he had confessed to her that he was able to handle all the signals coming from the car and those he perceived from the road, in spite of never having driven on snow before, he would not have convinced her and much less reassured her. More likely, Cristina would have thought he was crazy.

They crossed Valdaora di Sotto, di Mezzo and di Sopra, then a short stretch of road along the south side of the artificial lake and, in the middle of the darkness, they found the chalet. With its warm light, it brightened up patches of the white mantle that surrounded it.