Rachel Stern, in Rome, meets Fellini

Rachel Stern was taking a shower, and as she absent-mindedly soaped herself, in the automatic way in which such actions are usually performed, her hand unconsciously brushed against that place. Something in her mind came to a stop and everything inside her froze. But she immediately recovered, and the tireless buzzing of the thoughts in her head, absorbing into itself an endless stream of sound from the external world, the splashing of the water, the singing of the birds, the noise of the cars in the street, an occasional human voice, a balcony shutter being dragged along its tracks, this commotion of thoughts and sounds instantly renewed itself and Rachel Stern washed off the soap, dried herself, combed her hair and made up her face.

Then she went into the bedroom, opened the closet and searched through the dresses. In the end she chose a dress with a floral pattern in pastel shades, of which she was particularly fond, and put it on. She looked in the mirror and was pleased with what she saw. After this she tidied the house.

She did everything slowly, in a distraction for which there was no apparent reason, and as midday approached she had not yet left the house. When she went into the kitchen she forgot what she had gone there for and she returned to the living room and looked round her and asked herself what it was that she wanted, and then she remembered that she needed a dusting cloth, and when she came back...