With the recent start of the Hunting Season, Massimo Marracci of ANUU Migratoristi, presents us with some reflections on an opening day that reflects the times that exist… a “Bitter opening…”.
Long wait of almost eight months, but in the end the opening arrives! Since the end of August, the two friends have carried out preventive inspections, observed, reflected, then decided and agreed on the last details. It arrives early in the morning of September 16, we find ourselves in the dark in the Lombard countryside, we walk towards the post with a rifle on our shoulders, in the utmost silence and full of confidence. Then at the scheduled time the real hunt is finally reborn, the first shots fill the air, flights of mallards and wood pigeons populate the sky, pheasants sizzled by out-of-practice dogs whizzing towards the swamp.
Everything goes for the best and the morning hunt fills the two friends with satisfaction: the hare, some ducks and marshmallows, a bunch of turtle doves. Midday arrives and you go back to the car to sneeze the prey a little on the sidelines, eat a bite and take refreshment from the sun which, despite the period, still beats down. Then, the desire for a good coffee in the nearby town. No sooner said than done, a few minutes' walk towards the town with shotguns in their sheaths and the desire for espresso is soon satisfied. However, all the joy accumulated up to that moment is about to go up in smoke.
The return to the car is very bitter: two pulverized passenger side windows and a torn right front tire mockingly welcome the two friends as if to punish them for the too many hunting satisfactions of the previous hours. Swearing, anger and a sense of frustration are the emotional sensations that run through their souls, but then you have to get to work to clear the thousand and thousand fragments that cover the seats and mats, replace the damaged wheel, restore what can be restored.
Nothing inside the vehicle has been removed, further confirming that it was pure vandalism. Angry animalist against hunters or angry hunter against more skilled colleagues? We will never know: the two friends will simply call him "cowardly and frustrated delinquent" who managed to fill one of the most anticipated events in the life of a citizen hunter with bitterness, as well as causing considerable economic damage.
One day, they are sure, the heavy punishment that he has earned will come to him too, and it matters little whether it will be human or divine justice to provide. In the meantime, good luck to all gentlemen.
Massimo Marracci