Enrico Maso, translated into English by Ruth Stephens
Chapter 6 – Nebo On The Trail
Reluctantly, Gianni decides he’ll have to revise his assessments. He raises the parameters for ‘adequate’, removes some items from the checklist and, in a couple of cases, turns a blind eye to some minor shortcomings.
But it doesn’t work; he can’t get out of his head the suspicion that many people are using the slowfood label just to charge higher prices and fleece tourists.
The week is nearly over. Neither ‘La sagra dell’oca’ nor ‘La festa del cinghiale’ could be classed as ’adequate’, let alone the unappetising plates of goats’ cheese he’d tried at lunchtime.
The only solution would be to rig the results, as the director wanted, but Gianni won’t even consider that…
However, after a couple of hours in the car, his back has started to ache from all the driving. What’s more, it’s an extremely hot summer’s day and the dog, in the back of the car, is suffering. Gianni decides to stop for a break.
He brings the car to a halt in the shade of some trees outside a cemetery. Nebo staggers out and, luckily, Gianni finds a tap which he uses to sprinkle his dog with cooling water.
Exhausted by the heat, Nebo flops down in the shade to rest, so Gianni walks around a little to stretch his legs and ease his back. After a few minutes, he goes back to the water tap to collect his pet, but Nebo has disappeared.
“Well, I ask you, what did I do to deserve such a useless dog? Now where has he hidden himself? Nebo! Come out!”
Nothing doing. Gianni calls again, several times, but the dog doesn’t reappear. In the end Gianni gets back into his car to go in search of Nebo.
“Perhaps he saw a pheasant and his hunting instinct took over,” thinks Gianni to himself.
He sees a small, white road leading through some fields. Perhaps Nebo went that way?