I discovered my dark side by accident. This wasn't a surprise: I knew I had one, everyone has one, everyone knows that. The revelation may have been late in coming for me, but on the scale of certainty, it just arrives after Death itself. Or even before Death, since inanimate things, who were never alive in the first place and therefore cannot die, are well known to hide their potential malevolence under whatever skin covers them, be it a scarlet coat of glossy paint or the bright incandescence of tungsten filaments. In these idle times, the search for the dark side of anything has become a sport of sorts. There are, of course, those nasty characters and mean-spirited objects who are born with it, and exude evil by all their gaping pores and yawning hatches. Such frankness of intent is quite boring, to be honest, and I invite you to test its sincerity. Everyone prefers the gradual discovery of the little devils who inhabit us like so many parasites, or, should I say, symbiotic organisms, because it is well known that we feed them as much as they feed us.

I was fortunate enough to be considered, by all those around me, as a jolly good fellow of an uncommon decency, the cheerful and helpful chap who is the very embodiment of everything positive in a civilised world, a highly principled individual who yet does not forget that he is a human being first, and that his companions are human beings too, and who acts accordingly by never laying harsh judgements against them. This was, however, where my troubles began, and where I started my journey downwards, to my greatest enjoyment.

You may remember Marthe's restaurant. It was situated in front of the bus stop and it was a place where my friends and I usually met for dinner we were in town. What befell Marthe, her restaurant and the beautiful pond that was next to it will be told eventually, but for the sake of this narrative let's say that this place was the pleasant environment where we discussed the affairs of the world and our own. Talking about the dark side was unusual then, and as a matter of fact we didn't quite believe