<\/p>\n\n\n\n
FLASHBACK \u2013 GARDEN OF A COUNTRY HOUSE \u2013 SUNNY AFTERNOON \u2013 1970s
A group of children sits in a circle. Balloons, cotton candy, a train-shaped cake. The clown Pompelmo entertains the little ones with tricks and forced laughter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CLOWN (waving a puppet):
And now little Mister Stinky sings with meee!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CHILDREN (laughing):
Ahahahah!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Suddenly: CLAAANG!
The gate bursts open. Faggioli\u2019s father enters, covered in dirt, holding a hoe. He looks like a man who despises childhood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
FAGGIOLI\u2019S FATHER (shouting):
What is this circus nonsense!?
Who paid this slacker?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BIRTHDAY BOY\u2019S MOM (stepping forward, agitated):
Excuse me, sir, this is a private party! I must ask you to lea\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n
FAGGIOLI\u2019S FATHER (holding up the hoe):
Ma\u2019am, you see this?
This is your ticket to reality. \ud83e\udd23<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BIRTHDAY BOY\u2019S DAD (trying to calm things down):
Please, lower that hoe\u2026 there are children here\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
FAGGIOLI\u2019S FATHER (shouting):
Children must learn the harsh truth!
Forget soap bubbles!
If you don\u2019t dig, you don\u2019t eat! \ud83e\udd23<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(Clown Pompelmo begins to back away, trying to keep a smile on his face.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CLOWN (stammering):
Sir, I\u2026 I just do entertainment\u2026
They pay me in meal vouchers!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
FAGGIOLI\u2019S FATHER (raising the hoe):
Then let me give you a shovelful of reality! \ud83e\udd23<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(The clown runs away screaming, tripping over a plate of chips. The children burst into tears.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BIRTHDAY BOY\u2019S MOM (furious):
Are you insane!? You\u2019re traumatizing our children!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
FAGGIOLI\u2019S FATHER (solemn tone):
I\u2019m preparing them for life. \ud83e\udd23<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(Little Faggioli, sitting on a tiny chair, watches with teary eyes. He clutches a licorice stick.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
YOUNG FAGGIOLI (whispering):
One day\u2026 I\u2019ll have a hoe too. \ud83e\udd23<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Igor:
If bursting into strangers’ homes with a hoe was Faggioli\u2019s father\u2019s \u201cticket to reality,\u201d then he was still three kilometers outside the entrance. \ud83e\udd23
\u2026 Speaking of reality, according to him, a hoe-induced concussion was supposed to snap the clown back to it. Yeah \u2014 maybe to the afterlife\u2019s reality! \ud83e\udd23
\u2026 Instead of preparing the kids for life, maybe Faggioli\u2019s dad was prepping them for the next world war! \ud83e\udd23
\u2026 The kind where, out of nowhere, the enemy storms your house armed with a hoe! \ud83e\udd23<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
FLASHBACK \u2013 GARDEN OF A COUNTRY HOUSE \u2013 SUNNY AFTERNOON \u2013 1970sA group of children sits in a circle. Balloons, cotton candy, a train-shaped cake. The clown Pompelmo entertains the little ones with tricks and forced laughter. CLOWN (waving a puppet):And now little Mister Stinky sings with meee! CHILDREN (laughing):Ahahahah! Suddenly: CLAAANG!The gate bursts open. … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-episode"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/savedblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/savedblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/savedblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savedblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savedblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5323"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/savedblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5324,"href":"https:\/\/savedblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5323\/revisions\/5324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/savedblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savedblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savedblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}