Fixed Idea

Guido Corini had less reason than most to be happy about World War II and its aftermath. An Allied bullet left his spine permanently and painfully deformed. An air raid killed his wife and only child. The best peacetime job he could find at 42 was that of broom-wielder and errand boy in a Milanese gas appliance factory. Guido's fellow workers left him strictly alone after finding that their most innocent remarks evoked a tirade of resentful acrimony. His bosses found him sullen. They would have fired Guido long ago had not Plant Director Luigi Daniele insisted on giving him chance after chance.

Last month even kindly Director Daniele agreed to fire Guido. Guido left quietly enough, but last week he went back to see Daniele again.

"I'm sorry," the boss told Guido, "I have thought about it so many times, and have even discussed it with my family, but at the moment I can do nothing. I promise that if something comes up, I will keep you in mind." Guido said nothing.

A few minutes later, Daniele's secretary noticed that he was still standing moodily in the outer office. Daniele came out. "Look," he said, "I have spoken to you without ill-feeling. I have also made you a promise. Now, it's better that you go."

Guido's reply: "My decision is made." With a wild cry, Guido then flung open his trench coat, whipped out a homemade bomb and slammed it against the wall. There was a blinding flash. Daniele fell dead. The secretary's head was blown off. Three employees sitting in the waiting room were injured. On Guido Corini's own crushed body, the police found a note written just before he left home. "It is four o'clock," it said. "I leave with the fixed idea of revenge."

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