Pink Floyd
The Endless River

"I would like to talk to you about a truly exceptional album, the latest work from one of my favorite bands. A full twenty years after their last studio album, the fabulous 'The Division Bell,' the remaining members of the famed P.F. have decided to release some new material originally. The recordings seem to date back to the sessions for the previous album, carried out in the recording studio aboard the Astoria, Gilmour's now-legendary boat. It was supposed to be released some time ago, but the project was shelved. Gilmour and Mason reconsidered it after the death of Richard Wright."

The Endless River was originally conceived as an instrumental album....." (1)

"Boring evening, isn’t it?"

Caught off guard, the man instantly turned his gaze towards the woman who had addressed him, but before responding, he instinctively gave her a good total-body scan. Blonde, mischievous cat-like eyes, not much in the chest department, but otherwise what is called a nice little package. He recognized her; she was a very popular figure among the circle he was frequenting at the time, and it wasn't hard to understand why. Everyone knew her. Everyone except him; he only knew her by reputation.

Only after concluding his brief visual investigation was he able to manage a strangled, "Excuse me?"

"Pardon my boldness, I’m just a bit curious. You must find us all dreadfully boring since you’re spending the evening on that smartphone?"

The reason for the unusual interest the woman had in him crossed his mind, but only for a brief moment. He wasn’t in the mood for looking for answers that night, so he stuffed that question into oblivion, stuffed the smartphone into his jacket pocket, and stuffed his hands into his pants pockets. He didn’t even consider for a second telling her he was reading a review of the latest album by a musty 70s band on a Swiss website during a friends' evening. He certainly didn’t want her to easily conclude she was dealing with a total fool.

"Well, to be honest, I do feel a little out of place tonight, but that happens often; I’m not great company."

He had to repeat those words a second time, as at that moment, a fat guy whose booming voice drowned out everything else passed by them. He was talking to someone else and was saying something like:

"Unfortunately, I can't stay much longer. I have an urgent matter to attend to. Do you know where the room they've turned into a cloakroom is? I need to retrieve my work bag and coat."

The woman turned towards that guy and gave him a textbook smile. The fat man noticed and tried to respond in kind, failing miserably, then he continued on his way. She, on the other hand, turned back to the man in front of her.
"Really nothing more interesting than that smartphone?...."

This time, her beautiful smile was all for him.

"... after all, you guys always like the same things. Wouldn't you like to find someone to chat about chicks, soccer, and cars, find someone to hit on carefree all evening, ....lick me..?"

The man took that hit but quickly recovered and decided to play along, meanwhile, a roguish grin stretched across his face.

"I don't care about soccer and cars, I've long exhausted everything I had to say about chicks and done not even a thousandth of what I would have liked to do. As for hitting on someone, not even an option, I'm too lazy. I think after all, I'll gladly take the third proposal."

She gently rested her hand on his arm and replied with amusement.

".. I was kidding, darling.... I just wanted to see if I had your attention. And then tonight I have company."

That exchange seemed to amuse her. They introduced themselves. She pointed out the somewhat unattractive, fat guy who had just passed by them earlier. At that moment, he was involved with a small group of people having a very animated discussion. He was her companion. While they were looking at him, he was vehemently expressing his opinion.

The man didn’t know him personally, but he had heard about him. There were quite a few stories circulating about that guy within his circle of friends. They called him... what was he called? It escaped him, but he knew him to be a curious character, famous for always having a beef with state employees, people from the south, immigrants, and men with small packages. He never missed a chance to rant against them, and probably at that very moment, that's what he was doing.

"Are you with him? I mean, are you in a relationship?"

The man asked. She responded while continuing to look in the direction of her companion.

"I don't know, maybe it's more accurate to say we are getting to know each other."

"I can't think of a reason why someone like you would be with a guy like that. I've heard he goes around bragging about having dynamite in his pants, maybe you're the kind of woman easily swayed by advertising."

"Ummm.... nothing worth telling the grandchildren when I'm old. It's strange, that's all. I'm attracted to strange people."

That was the answer to the question he had put in oblivion.

"So, for that proposal, ...the lick, I mean, is it off the table?"

His mouth was watering, and those words came out with some difficulty. The woman returned to look at him smiling. She stood there staring at him for a few seconds, then she said.

"Is this your first time in this house?"

Yes, it was the first time. He didn’t even remember who that luxurious house belonged to, an amazing apartment in a posh part of the city. He ended up there following two friends he lost sight of a few minutes after entering.

"Yes"

"There's a study no one ever goes into, I don't know why, maybe because it's always dark and a bit gloomy. Come on! It's this way."

He followed her.

She didn’t seem to care if they were seen together, and he decided not to care either. When they arrived in front of the study door, she told him to wait for her a moment, she had to go refresh herself in the bathroom. He saw her head in a direction where he didn’t recall there being a bathroom, but he thought he probably remembered wrong.

He didn’t have to wait long. They entered the study; the atmosphere was indeed as she had described it. A small room, bookshelves on all the walls, a very tall window on the opposite side of the door, a desk, a chair, and a few other chairs. Everyone outside that room was minding their own business wonderfully, but the man thought it wouldn’t be wise to take too much time if they wanted to avoid embarrassing situations, so he went straight to the point. He directed the woman towards the desk with urgency, but she resisted.

"Hold on, gringo! not so fast!"

So he was forced to dedicate precious time to various niceties just to avoid going straight to the point brutally. Then a pair of panties flew into the air, the woman lay down on the desk, and the man's tongue set on course for the treasure.

A few centimeters from the promised land, he felt the urge to look for her face, and in doing so, his eyes were drawn to a gleam. They hadn’t thought to turn on the light, the light from the window reflecting off the moon's surface was more than sufficient and ensured a nice atmosphere. That same light was glinting off the blade of a knife. A big knife, mostly embedded in the back of a man lying on the floor in the space between the window and the desk, a man whose presence had escaped their sight until that moment.

"A corpse!.." the man thought, "what terribly bad luck.... well, I could also say I noticed after having finished the job, everyone would believe me in this situation." But the sight of that corpse had already made him lose his appetite.

The poor guy was the owner of the house. At the arrival of the police, everyone present was gathered in one room. Only the fat man was missing. He had left before the corpse was discovered.

There was a safe in the study and it was open, the victim's wife said that a valuable diamond was missing. The police conducted a meticulous investigation: searches, examinations, the fat man was also brought in. The most bizarre secrets surfaced, all the intertwined affairs among the various characters present at that evening, it seemed like an exercise in permutations with repetition, but nothing relevant to the murder case came out. No diamond, no sign of forced entry, no fingerprints on the knife and safe that could lead to the perpetrator.