ARE YOU....mp3

Born immortal

 I am Son of Jon and I am dying. 

Right now they tell me it's cancer and I have months to live. Or many months to live, depending on the doctor. And yet, I am immortal... 
    Whatever. I've been told the same, that I am dying of consumption in the second half of 1642 so now it's coming back. Is it all happening? Because no matter how much success, money or sexual conquests we acquire, dying could be the ultimate kick.  People who die have had the Experience of Death.  THEY KNOW. Agree? Because... I had this friend...

MAURIZZIO

Maurizzio barely had a heart. A creature of rare beauty and vapid monstrosity of thought, he was an embodiment of everyone's desire. He also happened to have the most amazing ironic smile:)( Maurizzio was't his real name. He had been adopted at an early age by the Bracci family, one of the wealthiest in Rome at the time.  A fact he loathed and was furiously trying to hide. 

  Me and Maurizzio both worked as apprentices in Michelangelo's atelier first half of 1534, just around the time the grand master "Il Divino" was still feeling carnal passion. That was before the Medici  had taken that and much else away from him by making him rich, dependent and artistically bankrupt...
   Maestros majestical carnal needs were tied to, indeed - Maurizzio. "The other boy"; I was always in this fucking snake's shadow - in beauty and talent. Neither was I prone to give in to my master's advances since I'm not made that way. Women are my dish - smart, stupid, beautiful, ugly... Makes no difference to me... 

Maurizzio lusted after me, and he hated me for it. Once he confessed "in vino veritas" that he wanted me, but not in man flesh but as a woman. He wished I was a woman. How amusing! He hated me for that, he said, with his angelic, ironic smile:)(

But not more than he hated Sania, apparently. Sania was Michelangelo's moroccan cleaning girl and "wild-side side-dish". I myself admit in having a passing interest in the little trollop... 

I guess everybody's favorite angel-boy monster had had enough of her getting the attention of our master because one night, around october I saw him - Maurizzio, ending her, with his wiry hands around Sania's broken ragdoll neck. I didn't stop him... Watching her die I felt a little sad, and reminded myself to never BE the throat, always the hands. It also made a telling point in regards to my own nature...

Maurizzio wanted to BE Michelangelo. He had become quite unstable lately. Thus one evening, after seeing him pour arsenic and copper used for mixing colors in maestro's food, I knew what I had to do.
   I went to Sania's room. The smell of her death was still in the air but it was quite sweet. I put on her favorite turquoise takchita and her tuareg jade earrings. Dressed like the dead girl, I knocked on Maurizzios door. 
    I knew he would like it. 
   And he did. As I plunged in the knife in his chest I looked in his beautiful eyes and asked: Are you? Are you afraid of dying? He said that in a painting, he would meet me later and answer the question. Then he thanked me as he fell into nothingness.
 So maybe we weren't that good friends... The year was 1658. 

Years later, many years later, in 1969, to my infinite surprise, I saw him again. I was in Rome, on the set of Fellini's film Satyricon. A ravishing, effeminate young man played the part of Gitone. This just could't be! Him? An Immortal?! But thinking back it all made sense. The face like he had just stepped out of a roman fresco, the sense of entitlement... 
   He denied ever having seen me before and told me his name was Max Born. Sure it was... Maurizzio?! - I replied; He smiled for quite a while looking at me. I thought I would melt. He had the most amazing ironic smile:)(... He did't seem to know what I was talking about, but he did accept my invitation for a later rendez-vous by the Spanish Steps.

"Max Born" made quite an impression in that film. 
He also disappeared soon after.  I might know what happened to him, but that is the subject of another story...

This a song i wrote that might be a clue;)
It's part of this story and it's called "Are You... "

Post-Scriptum

Go to Trinità dei Monti. The church is overseeing the Spanish Steps. Go inside and beyond the metal gate pass the benches. On the right hand side wall you will see a black arch, at about 6 foot 4 in (1.93m) height. Look behind it. YOU MIGHT FIND AN EVEN BIGGER CLUE;). The surface of the arch looks like wet stone but it's actually painted plaster. But beware. If you feel somebody is watching you, you might be right. It could be brother Gaggi. Do not attempt to smash the black plaster while he's watching or you will become a relic yourself. I've known him since the late 1960's. He's a monk from The Monastic Fraternity of Jerusalem. The church is intrusted to them. I barely survived our first encounter a black night 1969, and has since become a good (and murderous) friend... But that is the subject of another story...

Son Of Jon