Three Touches

During my third year at university, things were going very well. I shared the rent of this cozy, albeit small apartment, with a guy known among the desks and worked as a waiter some evenings a week in a restaurant near the house.

On one of my free nights, my roommate went out with his girlfriend. He had spent almost an hour in front of the mirror in his bedroom, occasionally reaching me in the living room to ask how he was dressed in one way or another. Before leaving, he told me that he would stay at his girlfriend's house, and I smiled at the thought of having the apartment all to myself.

I got my dinner ready, went back to sit on the sofa and watched a horror movie. Halfway through the film, with the suspense that had been created throughout the house, I felt three touches at the door. I got up from the couch, nervous about that interruption, and reached the entrance to see who had knocked.

When I opened the door, however, I did not find anyone.

On the top floor, in another apartment, I knew there was a family. I knew that one of the two kids was the kind of kid who liked to make jokes at all, so I shook my head and set it aside.

When the film was over I got up to bring the dirty dish back to the kitchen, but I did not have time to reach it, and I felt the three touches at the door again. Sbuffai, put the plate in the sink and murmured a quick "Arrival!", Before reaching the entrance.

As before, there was a living soul on the ground floor. This time, however, I heard a child's giggle. Remembering the boy on the floor above, I shouted at him that if he had not stuck with this stupid joke, I would have told his mother everything. But, again, the child chuckled.

I locked the door and turned to the clock hanging about a meter and a half from the sofa. It was late, but I was not tired at all. I pulled the curtains of the living room, sat down on the couch again and watched a bit of television, zapping through the channels to look for something interesting.

I do not know how or what time it was, but at a certain point I fell asleep. It was the three touches to wake me up: it was one in the morning. I wondered why the mother of that annoying boy let him out of the house so late.

I ignored the joke, turned off the television and the lights in the living room. I entered my room with half-closed, sleepy eyes; I put on my pajamas listlessly and closed the door behind me before going to bed.

Funny! I had the apartment all to myself and the only thing I had done for the whole evening had been sitting on the sofa!

Once in the dark, I admired the silence that had fallen in every room before closing my eyes to get back to sleep. I heard the front door open and close, so I imagined that my roommate's evening had ended; then I felt three touches at the door of my room and immediately after the creak.

"I'm back," said a voice that I thought was that of my roommate.

Sleepy, I replied, raising my thumb to say "OK". The door closed and, almost immediately, my vibro phone on the night table next to my bed. I opened my eyes, but it took me a few seconds to get used to the light of the screen. I saw that I had received a message and when I saw the name I corrugated my forehead: it was my roommate.

"Tomorrow I'll be back around nine. I'm going to buy a couple of croissants for breakfast, all right? "He would say.

It was a normal message, but something was wrong. My roommate had just returned home, had even come to warn me: why now he wrote to tell me that he would stay out until nine o'clock the next day?

I replied: "Do not be an idiot, I know you're in your room. You also came to me to warn me. What is it, the girl has sent you blank and you are ashamed to tell me clearly? "

His answer came two minutes later, but along with the message there was also a picture of him hugging his girlfriend. They both had frowned and when I read the message my heart leaped in my throat: "We're going to a bar, I told you I'd be back tomorrow!"

The phone fell from my hands, I shuddered with fright and again, at the door of my room, I felt three touches.