A Dream Becomes True

by Damiano Caffa (Italy)

A leap into the unknown Sweden

Two bikes, a beautiful day, and freedom. That was all we needed. Everything was organized in the minimal details. We woke up at 6 am, before everyone else. One foot in front of the other, walking slowly in that old wooden floor to don’t make any noise, we finally reached the house door. ‘’did you take the backpack with everything?’’ ‘’Yes’’ ‘’Ok, let’s go!’’ It was not easy to ride that old city bike inside the forest, and neither was guessing the meaning of the few road signals. But despite everything 50 minutes later we arrived there. And stared. I had imagined that moment since I was 10 years old, since that geography lesson. And now, 9 years later, there it was, real, right in front of us. I had seen many other lakes before, and this surely wasn’t the most beautiful. In fact it was just one of the thousand Swedish lakes. One of the many. But to me it was different, meaningful. Because it meant reaching a dream. And so we stared. ‘’Let’s go swimming!’’ ‘’Ok Avdul’’ Just few words. Since he entered in my bedroom, in Cyprus, two years before, Avdul was my closes friend, or maybe I should say a brother. The kind that gets you without many words. Because we feels the same. ‘’You jump first.’’ ‘’Of course I do, that’s my lake!’’ But when my body entered in the water, OMG, that was freaking cold! So cold that it makes you euphoric. Or maybe it was just the moment. Either case, swimming in that freezing water, we were happy. Much happier that we had been in the sunny hot beach with our families. Because we were free, far from home. Two young crazy outcasts, travellers of the words, in the middle of nothing. Just like the explorers of the past. Just like we wanted to be.