Finding the Thing Within by Coris/ciro Sceusa Page A

then?”
“Well it’s just that he’s bald and bespectacled but I like him. Yesterday at the beach was really great. He’s mature for his age and refined.”
“Listen. I say let’s burn this wood.”
Rosario, with his interest in electronics, was always experimenting with new ideas. About a year previously, mobiles could only take one SIM card at a time and you had to physically remove it to change cards. Rosario had thought it would be good to create an interrupter which could switch between two SIM cards. His idea for the switch would surely have worked but, he had procrastinated and never did anything with it. Some time later, working in a phone shop, he heard that a big phone company had come up with an interrupter and electronic circuit which performed the same function as his own idea. He bitterly regretted not having applied for the patent when he first had the idea. Then he began to hear of complaints about the company about burned-out circuit boards.
    He started thinking. What if he could build and patent a far simpler design? One that wouldn’t need the added complication of the circuit board. He got to work on a pro
    totype and in no time he was turning the simple mechanism in his mind into physical reality. It had worked and he decided that this time he was not going to be slow getting the patent. He sent letters to various phone companies informing them of his innovation, but had not received any replies.
    That evening there was an email:
“Thank you for contacting us Mr Mollica,
    Let me start by saying that we are very interested in your patent design. We would like to ask if it is possible to see some kind of prototype and a proposition for the signing over of the rights to this design, or some other arrangement as you see fit.
    Also would it be possible to see some technical drawings so our technicians can get a better idea of the patent.
    Best wishes. Gino Bassetti”
    Rosario was excited. He burst out laughing then crying, he was so happy he wanted to shout. He wanted to tell everyone immediately! Everyone, that is, except his mother. She wouldn’t understand anything about it anyway. He called Giorgia straight away and then Francesco. He thought he might as well tell Lorenzo too.
    “What, really? That’s great! And so now what do you have to do?”
    “I have to get a decent prototype ready for them. That one that I made work before was fairly rough, I can’t send that, they’d laugh at it. Anyway, I have to get on with it so I’ll speak to you tomorrow, ok?”
    Lorenzo had posted a letter, but he had almost forgotten it, with all the excitement of the other letter from the company. His head was whirling with thoughts. He pinched himself as he read to prove to himself that it wasn’t just some perfect dream.
    “I’ve just had such a great day with you! It doesn’t matter now how things might eventually end up between us two, I had a great time and it was like being with someone that you’ve known for years…this is a good thing! Who knows what you thought of me...compared to all your experiences? I’d like to know...Sorry if I seem a bit hesitant and maybe a little hazy when I write...I know that it seems smaller when I write in this way, but that has been my choice in how to deal with this adventure...You’re a really great person and I really hope our little pseudo 'friendship' becomes something more sincere and less conditioned (in a sexual sense).
    Kisses,
You’re Lorenzo”
    Rosario was dizzy with glee. Everything was going so well with Lorenzo and now also his financial situation, a problem for some time, was looking rosier too. He rushed to the phone shop where he had worked, but found with bewilderment and dismay that the same company that had brought out the first dual SIM card phone had brought out another version without the problematic circuit! Rosario’s face finally dropped. He thought about the lessening probability that his own patent would not be accepted. He went to