Work Text:
October 1979
Aldo rushes back to the room he shared at the seminary, out of breath. Thomas, sitting at his desk, jumped.
" Aldo, what’s going on? Is everything okay? "
" Yes! « he replies, smiling from ear to ear, " I managed to get a tape...”
« A tape? "
Aldo took the time to catch his breath and take off his coat before responding
" Yes, the new ABBA tape, I hurried after the canonic law class to go get it back. "
Aldo loved music, the drawer of his desk was full of tapes, whether songs in Italian or English, as much Queen as the hit parade. He had a Walkman, that he had bought a few months earlier. Thomas took the small tape player out of the drawer, while his friend took the tape out of its box and placed it in the player, turning on side 2.
The first song was "Dancing Queen." Thomas’s eyes lit up and immediately turned to Aldo. They loved listening to this song together when it was on the radio.
Aldo pulled him from his chair and led him to dance. Neither of them had really learned how to dance. But they were having fun. And they sang so loudly that we hardly heard Agnetha and Frida singing.
" Friday night and the lights are low
Looking out for a place to go", started Aldo.
" Mm, where they play the right music
Getting in the swing
You come to look for a king ", continued his friend
And the two boys worn their voices on the lively refrain. The night had already fallen, and it was as if they owned it, as if tomorrow would never come. They were just there, singing, then just lying on their beds listening to the songs once exhausted.
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More than 45 years later, Aldo still had his tapes. Some boxes had broken over time, some labels were gone, torn off, faded or peeled off with time and the sun. They were locked in a shoebox in a drawer. But his little tape player couldn’t work, to his great dismay.
But since he knew that Sister Agnès had one, he took the whole box of tapes and went knocking on her office door.
« Sister, I have a favor to ask of you. "
" A favor, Eminence? That’s unusual of you, what do you need? "
" I tidied up and found my box of tapes, but my Walkman isn’t working, and half the tapes have no more boxes, and some of the labels are illegible. So I would like to know if-"
" You want to borrow the tape player, I suppose", She cut it.
" Yes. "
She took the cassette player out of the drawer, a pen and some paper tape to write on.
" Here you go for your tapes ", she says with a smile.
He took a tape, put it in the player, and pressed on play. The music filled the room. In a second, he recognized the song, and his eyes lit up. It was ABBA’s Dancing Queen.
" I have always loved this song ", says Agnès, while Aldo was already humming the song.
" Friday night and the lights are low
Looking out for a place to go", chanted the cardinal softly, his eyes shining, without hearing the door open
" Mm, where they play the right music
Getting in the swing
You come to look for a king. " continued Thomas, who had just entered the room with a smile on his face, followed by Vincent. " You found your tapes, Aldo. "
" I hadn’t lost them, my Walkman doesn’t work anymore. "
" Giulio knows how to fix this kind of thing, he’ll do wonders for you. "
Vincent and sister Agnès continue to hum the song, when the door opened again, and Goffredo entered.
" Beh, qui tutti cantano. Dancing Queen, huh? Still that old tape? "
" Always. ", answered Aldo.
And they hummed the rest of the song together, as if they were 20 again.