The Village

Alberto Levi often felt that the village in which he lived comprised the entire world which his friends often talked about. Born and grown up in a rural Italian family, he had the roots to this train of thoughts which Alberto believed to be unmistakably true. Xaluzzi, the Italian village in which Alberto had spent his entire life was the start and end of the world for him. Little did he ever wonder or even try to wonder that there existed a much bigger, in fact very bigger world outside the boundaries of his village. Since childhood, Alberto was a very protective child for both his parents, as neither of them allowed any external influence on him. Both the parents, hardly made him figure that there was a world outside the village in which they lived. In fact, this was the case with all the families that resided in the village of Xaluzzi. Neither did their ancestors ever leave the village nor did they. Most of the children who were born in Xaluzzi lived their lives within the confines of the village.

In the year 1825, Xaluzzi was a small and beautiful village located in one of the provinces of Italy. The village was located on a hill and was surrounded by mountains all around. Xaluzzi as a village didn’t have a large population, but it did have its inhabitants who had resided in the village since the start of time. The Levi family was one of such local inhabitants whose entire lineage of ancestors had stayed at Xaluzzi. Since childhood, Alberto had accompanied his father to their small farming land. By the time Alberto reached his teens, he was an expert at various farming activities.  At the age of twenty-five he was married to Helena Iris who gave him a boy child within the next one year.  Alberto thought his life was complete with his world in Xaluzzi, his parents, the farm land, his wife and his kid. He even devoted lot of his time to the village’s local cathedral where his family would spend considerable amount of time.

It was a known phenomenon among the residents of village that the average life expectancy of the occupants of the village since ages was around a hundred years. Majority of the people who were born in this village had survived for a minimum of around hundred years. The secret to this was known to only the ancient settlers of the village who had passed on the lineage over to the next generations. For Alberto Levi, it seemed very normal that most of the people in his village survived for a hundred year at the minimum. Just a few days ago, one of the family members, who were the neighbors to the Levi family, had passed away at the age of hundred and fifteen. Over the previous few years, this secret hidden fact had started to make news over the other provinces in Italy. People in other towns and provinces would often introspect amongst them the possible reasons for such a life expectancy.

By the time winter fell in, the village had visitors. Some exploring party had accidently landed in the village due to which they had decided to accommodate themselves in one of the local villager’s houses. The exploring party consisted of three middle aged gentleman who had halted at the village for rest.  By the time this news reached Alberto, he was curious to meet the exploring party as he had never interacted with people from outside the village. Alberto had made up his mind that he would surely meet them within the next few days.

Often, the three strangers could be seen walking around the village and mixing up with the residents.

Two mornings later, as Helena approached the house from her early morning walk, she could watch Alberto running towards the house from the other side. She hurried towards him. Helena guessed that perhaps Alberto was tired after running the entire stretch of the house. Few minutes later Helena inquired about Alberto’s excitement.

“Those strangers have been found dead on the village road this morning, `” informed Alberto.

Alberto seemed very serious and afraid and Helena could observe his fear too. She asked about when he had come to know about the event. Alberto informed her that he was coming home after going to the Cathedral when he observed the three dead bodies near a bush on the village road.

“Did anyone else observe them?”

“I don’t think so. There were none at that point of time.”

Alberto’s parents were worried for him since it was the first time in his life that he had encountered something of that sort. Alberto could not sleep for the next three days. Often, he could hallucinate those dead bodies in his sleep or in his room.

Over the next few days, the news got out in the village that the three strangers were murdered the night before the morning on which the bodies were discovered. It was suspected that the murder was committed by poisoning. The news was communicated to the regional village head who in turn communicated to the rural police team which was stationed some ten kilometers away from Xaluzzi. It was perhaps years since the rural police team had entered Xaluzzi. Since the arrival of the police the peaceful village had become quite a messy one. With the police interrogating each and every house and its residents, it was taking time for the police to gather all the evidences. The rural village police investigation team was headed by a veteran named Ricardo. Ricardo was a resident of Xaluzzi but he had shifted base to the nearby village after his marriage.  Though Ricardo had had a very good reputation of being a thorough policeman, but he also was known to be strict and unforgiving.  For Ricardo the first and most important thing to do was to note the trial of events since the arrival of those strangers in the village.  On enquiry with the local village head, he had gained quite a sizable information on that front but still wasn’t sure about the method of murder. His only question was “What were the other two doing when one of them had been attacked?”

Over the next seven days, Ricardo had almost investigated all the houses and its inhabitants. Only Alberto’s house had to be enquired into. The next Sunday, Ricardo visited the house where the stranger had halted during their stay at the village. Though the house seemed clean of any misdoings, there were certain traces of a greyish white substances at the corners on the floor. On detailed examination by Ricardo with his hands, and by smelling the same, Ricardo concluded that those traces were that of a substance with which he and his ancestors were very accustomed to. Ricardo recalled the fact that such traces could be found perhaps in each and every house in the village but couldn’t understand the reasons for those traces to be found in the house occupied by those strangers.

 

“What were those strangers doing with this substance anyways?” was the only question that kept him thinking.

Through the routine inquiries Ricardo had come to know that the three strangers were seen walking around the village and inquiring about the climate, water and also about the diet which the villagers generally had. All this made Ricardo guess and recall an incident which had occurred some fifteen years ago.

Some fifteen years ago, a visiting party to the village had suddenly disappeared and were not to be found until the dead bodies of each of them were discovered outside the village. The investigation couldn’t reach any conclusion and the case had to be closed down. It appeared to Ricardo that perhaps the current incident had some similarity with the one that had occurred fifteen years ago.

 By the time Ricardo reached Alberto’s house, Ricardo had mapped the nearby surroundings in his mind. However, Ricardo still had no information on the fact that Alberto was the first of the village residents to view the dead bodies.

The entire day was passed by Ricardo enquiring into the statement of the Levi family. Everything seemed in order except one thing which Ricardo had observed when he had just taken a tour of the house. He had observed the same traces of greyish white substances on the stairs and near the wall corners. It really didn’t surprise Ricardo that those same traces were also be found in Alberto’s house.  Over the next few days, Ricardo decided to keep a close watch on people of the village. Post the interrogation, which was a first of its kind for Alberto and family, their life moved slowly back on track with the daily routines again continuing as before.   For Ricardo, though Alberto seemed to be quite innocent and honest, there seemed to be a sharp reasoning ability to his every answer.  It also intrigued Ricardo when he learned that Alberto was a person who had never attended school.  The mystery of the murder of those strangers slowly had taken a back seat and the life of villagers returned to normal.  Ricardo in the meantime continued with his slow and steady inquires and investigation.

Three months later Ricardo had returned back to the village and looked happy. On a Sunday afternoon, he rounded up the entire village including Alberto’s family. It surely wasn’t much of a difficulty for Ricardo to finally arrive at his conclusion which he would inform to the villagers.

Xaluzzi, since the eleventh century itself was surrounded by mountains which were rich in Iron, Silver and an ancient naturally forming chemical powder which was greyish white in appearance. There was never a name given to that substance. The greyish white naturally forming chemical mix substance could only be found in and around the Xaluzzi and this fact was only known by the ancestral inhabitants of the village which was passed generations after generations to the inhabitants. There was abundance of these in the mountains around the Village.

It was this greyish white substance which the villagers and their ancestors since centuries used in the form of a liquid drink by mixing up with water. There were stories from generations after generations that the gods were happy with the inhabitants of the village and so they were blessed with this substance at their backyard. The substance was the only reason that had made it possible for the village to have a life expectancy of a minimum of hundred years for majority of its residents. Generations after generations had mined the substance from the mountains and stored it in their houses.

  So, when some rouge explorers came to know of such resources, they had planned to explore the mountains and in turn would bring in their gangs to mine the resources. It was during such exploration when the three strangers had come across the rich mountains and the nearby village which would give them the perfect cover. 

When the dead bodies of the strangers were checked at the rural village police headquarters by some experts, it was discovered that the case was not of poisoning but of substance abuse or excess consumption of a hazardous substance. It had taken its effect within a period of some five to six hours. Ricardo informed the villagers that the three strangers had got their hands on that ancient greyish white substance and in greed had consumed them in excess during their dinner that night. Generally, the quantum which the villagers often took was near to one pinch in every twenty-four hours in their drinks. But it seemed to Ricardo perhaps that those strangers had consumed the same in excess quantity. The result was that the adverse effect of it or the overdose effect of it took place over a period of five to six hours resulting in their death at the time when all the three were on an early morning walk.

 The entire group of villagers who had accumulated were stunned. They had never imagined in their wildest dream that something like this could have ever occurred. They were even more surprised that when Ricardo concluded that the death of the four visitors, some fifteen years ago, and the dead bodies of whom had been found outside the village, had taken place in the same manner.

Next morning Ricardo left and with him the entire chapter of the death of the strangers also exited the village. The topic and the fact that anything like that had ever happened in that village was never discussed ever again.  As the sun shone its rays on the mountains all around the Village of Xaluzzi, a reflection of light was created that blessed the Village.