The eye of the lion

Ten days later, a man knocked at the door of the Sisters of Pilar’s boarding house and asked for Marina Ciampi in Italian but with an obvious British accent. The sisters invited him into the sitting-room and there he asked Marina to fill out some forms, which according to him were part of the selection process.

She filled them out feeling very excited about the fast response to her call, and the man gave her an address that she would have to go to the following day for a medical exam. The man left, saying good-bye to the sisters very politely, and before he went he reminded Marina that it was very important to go to the exam, because it was the last, and most important step of the candidates’ selection process, before the election of the one who would be hired and who would travel to the company’s factory in England.

“England!” she had exclaimed when she heard the man. “But, I can’t go to England! I can hardly afford to take the metro...!” she wailed.

“There’s no problem, miss,” the man reassured her with his foreign accent. “Absolutely all the costs will be covered by the company.”

Marina gaped at him. She thought she was dreaming.

“I will be at the medical exam first thing,” she said with a big smile.

The next day, very early, she underwent a complete medical exam. She thought it a little strange that the tests included a genital palpation, but as she was not familiar with that kind of exam, and it was done by a female doctor with a very professional manner, she didn’t worry about it too much. Her thoughts were in Tuscany, with Pietro Ciampi.

That night she did not sleep well, beset by worry and the fear that the idea of traveling infused in her - in the case that she was selected by the company - to such a far-off country whose language she hardly knew. However, her anxiety only intensified as the week went on, as she heard nothing from anyone from the company.

It was on Friday, when she was in the boarding house kitchen, de-greasing the oven preparing to roast a joint, when the door-bell rang, making her heart jump.

She ran and opened the door, disappointment erasing her smile. It was someone for Lourdes, one of the apprentices who

lived in the boarding house. While she invited the guest in and was about to close the door, she found herself face to face with a blond man in a spotless silk suit, who looked at her and smiled.

“Miss Marina Ciampi?”

Marina nodded, feeling herself blush.

“I’m from the company, NETGEN,” said the man, showing her a shiny document with his photo on it.

“Can we talk?”