Chapter I: "The woman that started all" (the story behind the book) (Part 1 of 4)

“Too fat!” the tall boy whispered to his pal while turning his back to the women. He did not seem to be interested anymore in the women from our compartment. He sat straight ahead and started glancing out the subway window. Nothing from our compartment was interesting enough for him, not even his pals.

Thirty minutes earlier:

It all started as an ordinary morning one summer. On this particular day, my friend and I took the subway from the city outskirts to reach the center of the city, a trip of around thirty to forty minutes.

While waiting for the subway, we were intensely debating over a Norwegian movie, having different opinions about it. From time to time, some of the corporate women passing near us distracted our attention for a couple of seconds. Now, you might ask yourself why men who had a life partner were still looking at other women. Perhaps not all do it, but most I know do it. It is quite simple. They just cannot resist it. It is in the nature of many men to have their attention attracted by some women. In a TV documentary, this could be explained in a scientific yet controversial way, as if revealing the discovery of the century. The TV documentary could say that the visual appearance or scent of a woman triggers some chemical reaction in a man’s brain that stimulates key…I do not know what, and so on. Nevertheless, keeping it simple, we can consider that women, because of their nature, attract many, if not most men. This does not mean that men cannot be loyal to one woman, or deeply in love or committed to their partner; is just that for many men, some things are beyond their control.

Coming back to our story, there were not so many people waiting for the subway that morning. Beside us, there were around ten well-dressed office workers, a group of young men in their early twenties, and few other people in the distance.

The subway arrived and we got into one of its compartments. There were not many people inside our compartment, and most of the seats were free. Even the air seemed to be cleaner and fresher than usual. The group of young men also entered in our compartment and sat down pretty close to us. They were making quite a lot of noise, interrupted only from time to time by the train. I remember looking at them and envying their freshness and restless enthusiasm. They were restlessly speaking, and from time to time loudly laughing. Soon the door closed and a voice announced the next station.

Because the young men near us were making so much noise, somehow it did not make any more sense for me and my friend to continue our debate about the movie. Therefore, we switched the conversation to something less contrary, mixed with moments of silence and self-reflection.

At the next stop, two people joined us in our compartment. An older man, who chose a seat close to the door, and a tall slim girl, who was pretty close the same age as the young men—probably a student. She chose a seat that was in front of the young men.

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