The eye of the lion

Half an hour later, Garibaldi’s bronze eyes watched Marina sit down on a bench opposite the statue of that leader, in a little park that bore his name.

She had just replaced the receiver of the public telephone, a few steps from the bench, and her face seemed to glow with a hopeful light.

She sat on the wooden bench and let the sun’s warmth caress her, as though congratulating her that her luck had finally changed.

She closed her eyes for a moment and saw herself in the train, minutes before. The doors had closed and the train was going through the tunnel, rocking and screeching from time to time. Through the window she watched the white neon lights passing swiftly before her eyes and leaving a trail, which was immediately swallowed up in the night of the concrete tunnel.

She had turned around to look at the little old man by her side, and she found him looking purposefully ahead of him. She followed his gaze and saw it. An advertising poster close to the carriage window. The opening phrase drew her attention, so she read it. It said:

“ARE YOU A SINGLE WOMAN? ARE YOU BETWEEN 18 AND 30 YEARS OF AGE? ARE YOU IN PERFECT HEALTH? IF YOU CAN ANSWER YES TO ALL OF THESE QUESTIONS, AND YOU ARE LOOKING FOR WORK, WE HAVE A JOB FOR YOU.

CALL THE NUMBER BELOW AND SEIZE THE OPPORTUNITY. CALL TODAY!”

Marina read the announcement twice, in disbelief. Then, her heart thumping with emotion, she looked in her bag for the pen and paper she always carried, and jotted down the telephone number in the notice. Then, deeply moved, she turned to say something to the old man, but her words caught in her throat. The man was no longer there.

She looked around for him in the carriage, and even took a few steps searching for him, but she didn’t find him. The train arrived at the next station and a lot of people got off; and she was left very intrigued by the strange disappearance of her rescuer and with the choked desire in the form of a lump in her throat, to thank him for everything - but at that moment her

excitement about the new possibilities in her life were greater than everything else, and she could only smile and weep tears of happiness and thankfulness.

And standing there, holding onto the metal tube on the seat, she took another look at the poster that would change her life, that notice with the colorful blue and green logo of NETGEN.