Matteo Orlandi

Cammie, Orestes and John Charles' carrots

Original title: Camilla, Oreste e le carote di Giancarlo

Translated by: Loredana Meleo

Publisher: Tektime - Traduzionelibri.it (http://www.traduzionelibri.it).

The little Cammie lived in a wooden castle, on the top of the town of Cosmopolis. She lived together with many animals and she was very happy. She woke up in the morning with the crow of the rooster Lewis, she ate the fresh eggs of the hen Clotilda, she spent the day with all the animals of the farm and took care of them. At the castle every lunch was a feast. Often at the table they talked about daily activities, great changes, how to be happy and time.

The donkey John Charles always proposed to transform every room of the castle in a funfair full of carrots, Clotilda insisted upon demolishing the uncomfortable wooden walls in order to have more space and give asylum to new hens in the area; Lewis instead preferred to imagine important defences from the outside to defend his hens from the dangerous grouses of the wood. Cammie listened and laughed, she laughed as only a child can do: with all her heart and all her soul. Also the dachshund Orestes lived in the castle; he loved Cammie and the other animals but he was a more independent spirit. He switched between moments of fun and amusement in the farm and moments of solitude in the wood in which he looked up to the sky trying to find funny shapes in the clouds. He could get lost for hours and hours watching the sky. Cammie was the thing he cared the most in the world and only with few animals he had created a beautiful friendship. The town of Cosmopolis was a real city with its beauty and its difficulties, in which a multitude of people and animals lived together with their contradictions and their poems.

Everything changed one night in August, when the cruel wizard Scarfutur arrived in Cosmopolis from the badlands. He was a very powerful and cruel wizard who travelled only at night and destroyed whatever lied within reach. No one had ever seen his face but his reputation was legendary. In one night only he ran like an earthquake on the outskirts of the city razing villas, apartments, bridges, boats and much of what Cosmopolis’ inhabitants had built to live their lives. Who had built a boat, found it perforated and without oars; who had built a tree house, found it on the ground and who built solid foundations, found his house without roof. Cammie lost everything: dolls, toys, books and clothes. Clotilda lost her enclosure and in the same way the other animals saw everything around them destroyed in a flash. Once the work in the city ended, Scarfutur took the direction of the river and climbed the mountain up to the wooden castle. Sooner rather than later he went twice through the castle from side to side. He put his powerful hands on the pillars and tore them off slowly, smiling and laughing to himself. Once the work ended, he congratulated himself for the destruction of Cosmopolis and escaped in a back cloud the fast winged knights who defended the castle. The next morning, with the castle completely to pieces, all the animals gathered to watch this sight. They voted democratically what to do and all decided to leave towards new directions. Many greeted each other with tears in their eyes. Cammie went towards Amusilandia, Lewis left for Egopolis, the hens, led by Clotilda, ran away at random and without a destination, pecking whatever they found on the path. John Charles stocked up on carrots and loaded on his back the little Orestes who did not say a word and looked at Cammie’s back: She had not even turned a second time to say him goodbye.