The kid on the counter

The story I am about to tell happened about fifty or sixty years ago in a place called Piacenza in northern Italy. A lawyer's little daughter, playing hide-and-seek in the house, climbed into a cupboard to hide. When she was found and it was her turn to be a ghost, she said, "I don't want to play anymore, I want to stay on the cupboard. The others continued to play and she just stayed on the counter.

At dinner time in the evening, she still refused to come down. She said: I'm not eating, I want to stay on top.

Maria, the little girl's nanny, was very angry, but there was nothing she could do. The little girl wouldn't even come down from the cupboard to sleep. At night, Maria had to give her a pillow and buttered bread.

From then on, the little girl lived on the cupboard. She had enough space up there, because the room was so high that she could even stand up. She saw her father, mother, brother, sister, and Maria come and go. Sometimes she would read a book or lie down and hum and look at the ceiling.

Her father, mother, brother, sister, and Maria all tried to lure her down: they said nice things to please her; they held candy toys far away to show her; or they talked loudly about going to the circus or going fishing. The little girl listened attentively and sometimes laughed along, but she never came down.

The next day they brought the priest too, but he could not help. He came back several times, and they hired a psychiatrist from Milan to talk to the little girl. He came several times, and the girl answered all the questions he asked. But as long as he did not ask questions, the girl did not speak.

Several times, they forced the little girl off the counter and put her on a chair at the dining room table or on the bed. But the little girl would not eat or drink, nor would she close her eyes at night. She was getting thinner and thinner and sadder and sadder. They were afraid she would die. After a few days, they let her do as she pleased again. Her place at the table continued to be empty.

The little girl lived like this on the counter for years. Maria had also gotten used to it, bringing up the plates full of food and putting away the empty ones. The night pot is just the opposite. Dad, Mom, brother and sister also stopped getting excited about telling newspaper reporters about this little girl and collecting these fewer and fewer, shorter and shorter stories.

After about five years, at the beginning of the sixth year, something unexpected happened. A tuner was called in to tune a piano. The little girl watched him work and listened to him play the piano. The tuner didn't notice the little girl on the counter until she was happy and smiling and he looked up and saw her. What are you doing up there? The tuner asked. Come on down!

The little girl really came down from the cabinet. She took a chair and sat next to the tuner and watched him finish his work. Then she went into the kitchen and got herself a piece of cake.

From that day on, the little girl lived on the floor again like other children.

Besides, the tuner met Maria on the same day. They probably looked at each other like that. Anyway, they got married two years later.