«Haven't you had too much to drink?» stalled Flavio, as he hesitated to open the car door.

«Are you kidding? A little beer in your opinion is drinking too much? Besides, you can see very well that I am more than lucid,» answered Claudia, tilting her head to the side, her light, slightly wavy and not very long hair tied in a ponytail behind her nape. She had arched her eyebrows.

«Yes, but you know, sometimes we don't realize and once we are in the car we feel a bit... it may be that later you will...»

«Come on!» she interrupted him. «Hurry up and get in, don't worry, you're with me anyway, should I ever feel sick, right?» she smiled, softening her voice.

«Well... of course,» replied Flavio. At that moment, his sense of direction was that of a pigeon under hallucinogenic drugs. Before he could think about it, he had shut himself behind the door. He felt trapped, and it bothered him that he had walked into it by himself, not even noticing how. He looked around as if the spaciousness and luxury of that Mercedes made him feel cramped. All he could do was buckle up.

Claudia started the car and with a hard acceleration in reverse drove it out of the parking lot. She braked abruptly and then took off down Via Flaminia.

«Computer, pause!» interrupted the president.

«But why, Sleeld! Isn't that device they use to move around dangerous?» asked Kidhe with his eyes wide open with apprehension.

«What? Do you mean the car? Yes, those traps kill a lot of people on Earth, but don't worry, the computer would warn us if there is any danger in the future, right? Is this the first time you see the boy get on one of those?» Sleeld had his usual indolent tone.

«No... of course not. But this one in particular seems to me, uhm... particularly hazardous. Well...» the president cheered up a bit, «after all this is part of the Earth system.» And for once Kidhe felt happy that Earth was still an almost isolated system.

«Not to mention that this particular recording is particularly two months old...» pointed out Wilol.

Kidhe shook his head and bit his lip.

«Computer, go on.»

«So where do you live? Near the university?» asked Claudia as she crossed at a red light.

«Yes, right next to the cafeteria» gasped Flavio, feeling a certain nausea at talking about the cafeteria just when he felt he was risking his life at every intersection. That traffic light had made his stomach rise to his throat. He had not felt so scared since the summer just past when Claudia had saved him and herself from three assailants. In a flash she had landed them in martial arts strikes, and now she risked ruining all that effort by crashing them with her car.

«Wait, help me, I hardly ever eat in the cafeteria, where is it?»

«You don't know where the cafeteria is?» yelped Flavio with an exaggerated expression at the sight of a passerby parading beside the car. He struggled to control his voice. «You know, near the Adisu office...»

«Ah yes, that thing for people who need money» Claudia said in a distant tone, as if the concept was so difficult for her to grasp that she lost interest.

«Yes, that one» sighed Flavio resignedly.

At that moment they were going in and out of Piazzale Flaminio without Claudia having touched the brakes. By contrast, Flavio's calf was sore from pressing an imaginary brake pedal of his own.

«You can drop me off here. There's the 204 that takes me right in front of where I live» he lied through his teeth.

«Oh... don't worry. It's my pleasure to take you, it's the least I can do. Besides, by car we'll be there in no time.»

Flavio mulled over the value of human life. No time? He would have been happy to spend a few hours to get home rather than enter the record book with the shortest journey.

Claudia took her eyes off the road to glance at the watch on her wrist. She was twisting both her neck and her little hand so as not to let go of the steering wheel. Flavio thought those hands were too small and that steering wheel too big. His friend was in a hurry, even though she tried to hide it anyone would have noticed, Flavio was sure. Yes, he thought, she was in a hurry. Like every Friday night, she certainly had a more exciting program than wasting time in traffic to take a nerd home. As she twisted her left hand Claudia began to steer into the other lane...

«Watch out! Claudia, look at the ro...»

«Oops! I didn't notice. They should widen these roads!» at that moment they were traveling along the spacious four-lane avenue that runs alongside Villa Borghese park. «How do they expect us to move around with all the traffic there is in Rome? And then at the town hall they talk about car accidents... well, it's their fault!»

She ended it with a puff as if it were the most obvious and trivial observation in the universe. Flavio tightened his grip on the door handle.

«And in the morning to go to class it's even worse» Claudia added, «it's almost impossible to move. You at least have the convenience of living right there, you don't even need to ask someone to take a seat for you. I bet you can always sit in the front row...»

Flavio noticed Claudia's shoulders moving up and down dangerously, mimicking her speech.

«Well, not always» he specified, «I don't care much, if the lesson is interesting you can follow it from anywhere and...»

«Yes!» Claudia interrupted with fervor. «That's exactly what I think too. Do you know what my problem is?»

«You see badly from afar? It can be annoying when you have tired eyes» Flavio guessed as he was beginning to struggle to follow his friend's crazy speeches. In the meantime they had arrived at a central artery where the traffic had become more intense.

Claudia, preoccupied with driving, did not seem to notice the passenger's remark.

«My problem is... damn it, you can't get through this way!»

In front of a congested traffic light she stopped the car. Spellbound, Flavio contemplated how Claudia puffed out her pouty little mouth with her cheeks blown out. The driver looked from side to side, slipped to the right into a no-entry zone under an arch of the ancient Roman walls and took a parallel street.

On the pedestrian crossings, two very religious-looking old women had their lives saved by a miracle. Flavio thought nostalgically about how much harder it was to cross those walls a few centuries earlier.

«My problem is...» Claudia continued before Flavio regained color, «is that I'm not really interested in what I study.» Her shoulders began to dance again. «I didn't actually want to do architecture, it was my father who insisted... okay, maybe I like it a little bit, but it's not my true calling, you understand?»

Flavio didn't even try to interrupt Claudia's monologue, partly because her questions had a purely rhetorical value, partly because he would have sewn his lips together with barbed wire rather than distract her while she had all four limbs busy making them survive.

«So many times I think it would have been better if I had chosen to do something that I'm really good at, do you follow?»

Trapped at the end of a long one-way diagonal, they found themselves at the back of a line that had its head at a traffic light in Piazza Fiume. With seven streets converging there, that square was a cheerful and notorious spot of Roman traffic chaos. With the car stopped, Flavio found a moment to catch his breath.

«And what would you like to do?» he asked just to flaunt attention.

«Well, if it hadn't been for my father, I would have loved to go to the Academy of Fine Arts.»

Flavio would have also liked to do fine arts if he had had the chance, but his empty pockets had weighed him down enough to keep his feet firmly planted on the ground. With a father like Claudia's to pay for his studies, on the other hand, he would never have made the mistake of being influenced by other people's expectations.

Claudia looked at the vehicles lined behind the distand red traffic light, while Flavio thought he could to see patience draining from her face with every word. Suddenly, she turned the steering wheel sharply to the left and took off at full speed to take a cross street against the direction of traffic.

«You're going the wrong way!» Flavio exclaimed with a stiff back and pale knuckles.

«It doesn't matter, no one is coming» Claudia replied indolently, «and besides the traffic light is red on this side too...» she added in a sweet and naive tone as she turned again in the wrong direction.

In a moment that was enough for Flavio to relive most of his short existence, Claudia crossed the stretch of road completely empty, reached the traffic light in Piazza Fiume just before it turned green and ran through. She hadn't slowed down.

Flavio was a spring, yet his fascination with Claudia was so intense that it gave him a good dose of dizziness. The way she acted so full of determination, flair and madness was simply stronger than he was.

«I've always loved drawing,» Claudia went on, «don't you think I would make a great artist?»

«Yes, you're very creative...» Flavio said out loud, "...especially when you're driving" he added to himself. He could clearly see the artist's touch in his friend's way of steering, so fitting to her imaginative interpretation of the road code.

He closed his eyes for a moment in an attempt to clear his head of thoughts. He felt like getting to the university accommodation that had been his home for more than three years and resting. He would have tidied up his notes, then he would have taken a chamomile tea and he would have settled in bed right away.

In the meantime, Claudia was inflicting atrocious sufferings on the pedals.

«Thank you, Flavio, I'm glad to hear that. I'm really starting to think that maybe I messed up everything» she said, shaking her head.

«No, we're going in the right direction, you haven't taken the wrong road.» Flavio was starting to feel confused. His ability to concentrate was just enough to keep him focused on the idea that they were almost there and would soon arrive safely at their destination.

«What are you talking about? What does the road have to do with anything? I'm talking to you about my studies.»

«Oh, yes, those. I was just saying that you don't have to worry, you're doing fine, you'll see that you'll pass these math exams, you're well prepared,» he tried to remedy.

They had reached the edge of the campus, the traffic light was red and Flavio was surprised to see that Claudia had stopped.

«Let's hope so... maths gets on my nerves!»

Leaning over to Flavio's side, Claudia took a pack of cigarettes from the dashboard, then lifted her buttocks to rummage in a pocket from which she pulled out a lighter.

«Computer, stop...» said Kidhe. He felt disoriented, which was very rare for him. In the image of the projection, Claudia was frozen with her eyelids half-closed, the flame of the lighter made the tip of the cigarette she held between her lips shine. «Sleeld, can you tell me what she's doing?»

«Well, you see...» Sleeld began with some difficulty, «that's a drug, and she's about to take it...»

«I thought there was some prohibition on that» Kidhe doubted.

«This drug is allowed» Sleeld clarified, hoping that the president wouldn't want to know more.

«Why this one? What's so special about it?»

«Oh, nothing, just that it's very widespread, a lot of people want it, and then there are economic interests. That's all.»

Sleeld wanted to delude himself that he had managed to keep a steady and relaxed tone of voice. Then Kidhe asked him the question he didn't want to hear at all.

«And tell me, out of curiosity, what is it?»

Sleeld felt pierced by the innocence in the President's eyes and perceived with horror the trembling of his own vocal cords.

«Well... you know... it's a vegetable, yes, a plant vegetable... precisely» he caught with his gaze a chilling wave of hilarity crossing the dome, «and they call it tobacco.»

He looked at the faces around him and acknowledged he didn't flawlessly master the art of dissimulation, this time.

Kidhe managed to contain his laughter with a smile at the edge of a grin. «Yes, of course, but that's not what I meant. What is the substance that acts as the active ingredient?»

Sleeld , without being able to raise his gaze, uttered a single word: «Nicotine.»

The most absolute silence fell everywhere on the hall. In the ranks of open mouths of the Assembly something more than a shadow of disgust took shape.

«Nicotine...» gasped Kidhe, «that mass of fools eats nicotine?!» The exclamation from Kidhe's lips was as vivid as the grayish pallor on his face.

Sleeld reacted with grimace which he helplessly squeezed between his shrugged shoulders. «Some do, but most don't... that flame...» the Earth overseer was now slurring the words as if they were thick mush, and Kidhe interrupted him before he finished.

«If she isn't eating it, then do you care to explain why she put that poisonous stick in her mouth? And why is she burning it on one end? As president, I demand that you explain to me what's going on on that dusty planet!»

«I was going to tell you,» Sleeld calmly began again. «Drug use on Earth is tremendously widespread and varied, there are some that are far more harmful and...»

«More harmful than nicotine? Come on! They've been in the electronic age for a while, what substances do you want them to use still?» Kidhe interrupted him again with a yelp-like whine.

«Morphinoids, lysergides, methylteobromine, atropine surrogate alkaloids... earthlings get to consume substances that can kill in a matter of months, although they are less widespread. Some are ingested, others are put directly into the bloodstream, or inhaled in the form of dusts, vapors, exhalations or, as in this case, after being gasified by combustion.»

The surprise of every member of the Assembly had become mixed with nausea when the President found his voice again. «And don't they realize the harm they suffer?»

Sleeld curled his mouth. «They take caffeine for breakfast,» he simply said.

«Computer, why didn't we see these things in the annual reports?» Wilol asked.

The automaton answered in a warm, velvety voice: «Because I have classified the consumption of common drugs as a typical custom of this civilization, and therefore not falling within the summary schemes of the reports.»

«And how many other civilizations are there where people kill themselves over a 'typical custom' that you have hidden from us, you piece of scrap metal?» muttered the executive to himself, but the computer replied anyway.

«I apologize for upsetting you, sir. If it helps to reassure you, I can tell you with absolute certainty that this omission has not compromised your work efficiency at all. Responding to your question, there are no other civilizations under our supervision whose individuals adopt self-harming behaviors of taking chemical substances, except for the cases of deliberate suicides.»

Kidhe waved his arms in a sharp gesture.

«Enough of that now. Move on with the projection.»

The computer promptly obeyed.

This time taking advantage of the red light, Claudia seized the chance to look at her watch. When she saw the dial mark nine and a half, her face relaxed noticeably. However, her clenched lips betrayed a discomfort that Flavio pretended not to notice.

The two drove the short stretch of road that separated them from the Student House in silence. When they arrived, her cigarette was not even half burnt yet. Claudia, who knew Flavio quite well, threw it away before pulling over and spat the smoke out of the window.

«Here we are» she said calmly.

With the engine off, Flavio also felt finally relaxed.

«Thank you, Claudia, I hope I didn't make you late. Are you meeting a good catch tonight?»

«No.» Claudia smiled realizing that she had not been able to hide the anticipation for the evening. «I'm with a group of friends» she said stroking his cheek. «You know, I think it would be nice if we saw each other more often.»

«I would like that too.»

Flavio sighed. He didn't want to get his hopes up. He had never been able to talk to Claudia about his feelings for her. He felt that she lived in a world so different from his own that he wondered how their friendship could be real. He had the constant feeling of knowing too little about her.

«Listen» Claudia continued, having found the determination to speak, «I have a house in the mountains in Valdaora and I wanted to spend the holidays there with some other friends of mine. Would you like to go there together?»

Flavio widened his eyes and for a moment opened his mouth as if he was gasping for lack of oxygen.

«I...» he stammered while he still struggled to regain his composure.

Claudia let out a laugh that betrayed amusement and embarrassment. Flavio's heart began to beat hard.

«It would be wonderful!» he managed to say at last. «I'd love to come, really. Thank you for inviting me.»

Among his foggy thoughts, he imagined that vacation as the opportunity he needed to get closer to her world.

«Okay, you'll see that we'll have fun. I'm leaving with my parents this month, call me in early January, so we can arrange everything.»

After they said goodbye, Flavio got out of the car and stood on the sidewalk watching Claudia drive away. The realization that he wouldn't see her for a month shook him suddenly.

Flavio sensed that if Claudia had insisted on taking him by car it wasn't out of gratitude or to ensure his help in studying. The invitation she had made had come as if it had been her last option. He basked in the idea that Claudia had hoped to receive a proposal from him, waiting for it throughout the journey they had just survived. He came to think that Claudia had the same desire to spend a few days with him. In fact, he told himself, there had been plenty of clues in that direction. As always happened with her, Flavio had noticed when, albeit by a few minutes, it was already too late.

«But... he's an idiot!» exclaimed Sleeld, pale from shock, interrupting the projection. He couldn't help himself. That scene, those pathetic images of the man who was supposed to be the best of the best that Earth had ever produced, had overcome his composure, a trait that distinguished him in the whole Assembly that now stared at him with perplexity.

Kidhe smiled at him.

«Don't be hasty,» he suggested, winking.

With a gesture, the president resumed the projection.

Flavio was standing on the road, bathed in the misty darkness that the light of the street lamps held back. He watched as his friend's car sped away. The last trail of the headlights slid on the asphalt out of his sight and the first drops falling from an invisible sky tickled his face. Only at that moment did his brain resume to work with extraordinary, unattainable brilliance.