So it happened that, under the influence of Friday evening aperitifs (at the former Abilmente 2024), the fuchsia team and I, lying on misshapen beanbags between La via delle idee and our grey lounge, were struck by a vision. I should point out that Nadia does not like fuchsia, so I only called us that to spite her. But back to the vision… From the dark horizon of the deserted pavilion rose the fog that had slipped stealthily under the doorposts, which the fierce guards were barricading. The creaking of the shelves settling behind the counters could be heard faintly in the interval between the uncontrolled bursts of laughter from Patty, now lost, which echoed ominously in the large empty space. We were all about to slip into sleep, exhausted by the chatter of the timeless days of the fair, when the sudden absolute silence stretched our limbs in alarm… Either Patty had breathed her last breath, or she had fainted. We turned abruptly to check on her and then followed her paralysed and distraught gaze, turning our heads with the slowness of terror in the direction of the figure looming large and menacing above us.

The darkness, the vague backlighting and our vision clouded by dismay prevented us from accurately defining its features, but we clearly heard, before the vision abandoned us, the word declaimed with rude, peremptory vigour: GRUNFRHANGHRET! Our questioning and shocked gazes met Ross’s, who nodded: she explained calmly, with the elegance that always pervades her, even in the most terrifying moments, that the expression, very popular in the ancient language of a civilisation that I cannot repeat to you because it has too many consonants strung together (you’ll have to ask her), is not easily translatable into our language, but means something like doing something together to learn how to do something else and, in the meantime, talking nonsense and finally involving other people to have some fun. Manu shrugged, Cri came out with a saying in Grado dialect (which, if I don’t remember the ancient language, is worse, so you’ll have to ask her), and we agreed to meet up again sooner or later to do a little project together. So it was, and Patty started painting, Nadia started applying the legendary Japanese fabrics…