The Story of First-Aid and Beauty Case

21 Stefano Benni Born in Bologna, Italy, in 1947, Stefano Benni began his career as a journalist contributing to the Italian newspaper, Il Manifesto, then became a writer and a poet. Bologna's long history ofassociations with extreme lefiist politics doubtless had an enormous effect on Benni. Hisfiction often returns to thinly-veiled political satire and uses allegory and talking animals in a way Bulgakov with his political ideology would have admired. Among Benni's manypublications are a collection of poems, Terra! (1983); a children's book, I Meravigliosi Animali di Stranalandia (2984); and two novels, Baol (2990) and Spiriti (2000). His chameleon-like ability to write successfully in many genres only mirrors his ability never to sound like himself. "The Story of First-Aid and Beauty Case" comes from the collection The Café Beneath the Sea. In it, Benni experiments with all kinds ofgenres, from detective stories to political satires,from semi-mythological tales to sciencefiction. Theframework that holds these literary adventures together is the lovefor storytelling itself, a storytelling which unfolds in an ordinary, yet magic ambiance: indeed, a café beneath the sea. Benni tells us hardly anything about the storytellers: he simply calls them "the young lady with a hat," "the mermaid," "the blackdog," "the black dog's flea," etc. Everything is intentionally unconventional in the book, but any possible skepticism on the part ofthe reader is confronted directly: "I don't know if you're going to believe me," the author admits, "We spend halfofour lives mocking what others believe, and the other halfbelieving what others mock." Thus, ifwe choose to be on the mocking side, it's our loss. The Story of First-Aid and Beauty Case When the going gets tough the tough get going. —John Belushi Our neighborhood is directly behind the train station. One of these days, a train will steal us all away, or perhaps we'il steal a train. Yes, because our neighborhood is called Slyhand: you come in with what you got, but you leave without it. Without what? Without car radio, without wallet, without dentures, without earrings, without tires. They'll even steal your chewing gum if you're not careful: there are kids who work in pairs, one gives you a kick in the balls, you spit out your gum, and the other one grabs it on the run. Just to give you an idea. First-Aid and Beauty Case were both born here. First-Aid is a good kid, sixteen-years-old. His dad works as a tire beautician: that is, he steals new tires and sells them to replace the old ones. His mother has a dairy farm, the smallest dairy farm in the world. Pretty much just a fridge. First-Aid was conceived inside there, at thirty degrees below zero. When he was born, instead of placing him in a cradle, they put him in the oven to defrost. 22 the minnesota review Ever since he was little, First-Aid had a passion for motors. When his dad brought First-Aid to work with him, that is to go steal tires, he'd place First under the hood of the car. In this way, First spent a good deal of his childhood stretched out between the pistons, and mechanics really had no more mystery for him. At six-years-old he built by himself a tricycle powered by a blender. It did ten miles an hour on a half-gallon of milk shake. He had to dismantle it when his mom found out he was stealing her milk. So he stole his first motorcycle, a Guzzi Imperial Black Mammuth 6700. To reach the pedals, he steered holding on underneath the gas tank, like a Koala Bear on the back of its mother: and the Guzzi itself seemed like the Flying Dutchman, because you couldn't see anyone steering it. Right after that, First built his first souped-up motorcycle, the Lambroturbo. It was just an ordinary Lambretta; but with a few moderations it could do one-hundred-and-seventy miles an hour. And that was when we first started calling him First-Aid. In one year, he crashed his motorcycle two-hundred-and-fifteen...