HLS No. 21: Tell Me Everything

From Davide Staffiero, a story of resentment unbound

Sunshine, they say, is the best disinfectant: even the worst parts of ourselves can be purged if only we will expose them. But Davide Staffiero’s “Tell Me Everything” asks: Where is the sunshine for what we reveal by night?

Translation by J. Weintraub.

Photograph by Mike Whye

Paolo was pedaling as if he had the Devil hot on his heels.

It wasn’t the horned demon armed with a pitchfork he had learned to fear at his catechism classes that was gnawing at his tail but a far more worldly threat whose shadow stalked him tenaciously as if determined to take from him both his breath and his peace of mind. What Paolo, propelled by his legs, was desperately trying to leave behind was the absolute worst day of his school career.