Page 189 of DATE
Hedy suddenly remembered something, slapped her forehead, and said, “I have something I forgot to show you.”
She turned and ran over to the nearby well, pulling up a bucket.
Inside the bucket was cold well water, along with a sealed glass container, inside of which were irregular ice cubes.
“This will do,” Hedy clapped her hands together, placing the half-duck into the bucket and feeling quite satisfied. “How does this look?”
“What is this?” Leonardo instinctively asked. “I’ve never seen something like this before.”
He instinctively reached out to touch one of the translucent cubes, only to quickly retract his hand as if he had been burned.
He checked his hand, confirming it hadn’t been burned, and then turned to Hedy, looking as confused as a child.
“This is… ice,” Hedy replied, momentarily taken aback. “You’ve never seen it before?”
He cautiously reached out again, touching the cube for a moment before quickly pulling his hand back.
“No,” Leonardo admitted honestly. “Where did it come from?”
Hedy suddenly realized something.
He was from Florence, and it never snowed in Florence.
It was strange, though—when she was older, she had lived for a long time in Florida on the East Coast of the United States, and in 1989, she had witnessed a heavy snowfall, where walking outside felt like sinking into soft, fluffy sponge.
But in the four years she had spent in Florence, the winters had been filled only with chilly, drizzling rain, the kind that made people want to sleep in all day.
“So, have you… ever seen snow?”
“I’ve seen illustrations of snow-capped mountains,” Leonardo said uncertainly. “Did you see it in Rome?”
No... the snow in Austria was beautiful.
If I could, I would take you to see it.
Hedy sighed and began explaining the existence of ice, while also making a bowl of apple-citrus sorbet, drizzling it with some syrup.
At first, the young man hesitated, stirring the sorbet with his spoon, before tasting a small spoonful. His eyes suddenly lit up.
Dusk was the hottest time of day, but after those two bites of cold, sweet, strange food, he felt so comfortable he wanted to close his eyes.
It felt refreshing, as though he had just jumped into a pool and had a thorough, enjoyable bath. It was so delightful that hewanted more.
By the time Leonardo came to his senses, the entire bowl had been scraped clean, with not even a bit of ice left.
Hedy couldn’t help but laugh. “Got a taste for it?”
Leonardo tried to grab an unprocessed ice cube, bent down, and licked it.
He felt his tongue almost stick to it, and his whole hand was covered with a layer of coldness.
Hedy propped her chin up, watching the southern man clumsily and happily play with the ice. She suddenly longed for the existence of air conditioning.
Air conditioning, television, taxis, airplanes...
She rubbed her forehead, pushing the faint feeling of regret to the back of her mind.
After all, there were gains and losses.
