History (75 page)

Two minutes after Bella had cast aside all restraint, Nino himself would burst from the little room, wearing only his briefs, and he would wash himself in the kitchen with a sponge, fl the whole fl A bit after noon, somebody would call him loudly from the courtyard below ( and usually it was a young man in mechanic's coveralls ) and he would rush downstairs with Bella, reappearing only casually, at intervals, during the course of the cl The greatest sacrifi on Ida's part, had been to give him the house keys, of which she was, as usual, enormously jealous, as if they were the keys of St. Peter. At night, he came home very late and waked not only Ida on his return, but also Useppe, who would immedi a tely murmur, half dreaming: "Nino . . . Nino . . ." A couple of times, Bella, having come back with him in the afternoon, remained in the house to await him at evening; and those two times she could be heard welcom ing him on his entrance, as he grumbled at her: "Ssh . . . ssh . . .
"

All this lasted barely fi days; but it was enough to fire Ida's imagina tion. Especially in the morn when she was in the kitchen cleaning the vegetables, and Ninnarieddu was sleeping to one side, and Useppe to the other, it seemed to her she had formed a real family again : as if there had never been a war, and the world were once again a normal place to live. The third day, as Nino, awake earlier than usual, lingered in his little room, she went to visit him there. And fi she ventured, though shyly, to suggest he actually resume his studies, to "guarantee a future" for him self. She could make an extra eff and support all three of them for the time still necessary, perhaps she could fi some more private lessons . . . In fact, Nino's present occupation seemed quite temporary to her, not the kind, certainly, that off him a sure, trustworthy career!

For some time, in her simplicity, she had been hatching today's pro posal, and Nino, instead of rebelling, as he would have done in the past, heard her out with a kind of facetious forebearance, as if moved to pity for her. Since, at her entrance, he was naked, rather than shock her he had quickly covered his abdomen with his shirt, all colorful fl At that hour, pre-dawn for him (it wasn't yet ten ) he lay there, lazily stretching and yawning; but now and then he responded to Bella's festive roughhous ing with equal roughhousing, so despite his respectful intentions, he hap pened to display again the nakedness he had covered, before or behind. And in all this racket, he still lent an ear to his mother, with the air of a

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. . . . .
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person hearing for the thousandth time a funny, but also silly, story, now being told him yet again by some hick. "Aw, rn don't you see?!" he blurted fi ". . . Bella, cut it out . . . Aw, rn rn !! What are you talking about? College again!!! Me . . ." (he yawned ) "Ma, I've got lots of degrees already!!"

''I'm not talking about the University, but at least a diploma . . . A diploma always counts for something, in later life . . . I meant . . . high school . . . a high school diploma . . . that, at least . . . as a basis . . .
"

"I've got a basis, rn . . . don't worry!!"

" . . . It would be so easy for you . . . You had almost made it

in school, when you quit . . . It would take only a little eff on your part . . . You're bright enough . . . and after so many sacrifi . . . now that the war is over!"

Suddenly Nino frowned : "Bella, out! Get out!" he yelled, angry even with Bella. And sitting up on the mattress, heedless that he was now openly display:ng all his nudity, he exclaimed :

"The war was a joke, rn And he stood up. Naked like this, dark, in the poor, hot little room, he seemed a hero : "But the joke isn't over yet!" he added threateningly.

His child's face seemed to have come back to him, aggressive and almost tragic in its own whims. And meanwhile, he was pulling on his briefs, hopping on one foot like a dancer.

". . . These characters think they can start over again, like before : don't you see that? \Veil,
ma,
they're wrong! They put real guns in our hands, when we were kids! And now we're having fun, making peace! Ma, we're going to SMASH EVERYTHING!"

Suddenly he became exhilarated. This idea of smashing things fi him with an extraordinary gaiety: "And you even think you can make us go back to school!" he went on, speaking polite Italian deliberately to mock his mother, "written Latin, oral Latin, history, mathematics . . . geog raphy . . . Geography! I study that on the spot. History : that's their dumb joke, and it's got to end! WE'LL make it end! and mathemati

. You know the number I like best, rn It's ZERO! . . . "Bella, keep quiet out there. I'm coming . . .

"We're the generation of violence! When you've learned how to play the game wi guns, you keep on playing!
They
think they can screw us again . . . The same old tricks, job, treaties . . . orders . . . hundred year plans . . . schools . . . jails . . . the royal army . . . and it all starts over again like bef�re! Oh, yeah . . . ?! Bang! bang! bang!" At this point, Ida saw in his eyes again that look like a photographer's fl which she had seen for the fi time the famous night of his visit with Quattro to

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the big room . And as he said bang bang bang, his whole body pretended to aim at a target which was, in essence, the planet Earth, round and com plete with its kingdoms, empires, and national republics. "We're the fi generation of the beginning!" he resumed, at the height of his rhetoric, "we're the atomic revolution! vVe're not going to lay down our arms, mal THEY . . . they . . . they . . .

"THEY don't know, ma, how beautiful life is!"

He had raised his fl shirt with one arm, to dry the sweat trick ling among the little black curls of his armpits. All of a sudden, he laughed happily and ran into the kitchen. And a moment later, to the merry sound of running water, the kitchen was already fl

"Beuh! beuh! beeeeeehuh!" From the bedroom Bella can be heard, acting crazy, running around the double
sommier.

"Nino! Hey, Nino!! Ninooo!" \Vakened early by the impatient Bella, who follows him in supreme rejoicing from the bedroom, Useppe has now arri

Of all Nino's great invective, one point had frightened Ida : the part where he had talked about weapons. Truly, in Ninnuzzu's presence, for some time now Ida considered herself a subaltern or an inferior, like a poor provincial woman before a superstar. And she submitted to his reasoning almost with trust, resigned to a total abdication, as if confronting some science-fi machine. Among all the possible hypotheses, it could be that Ninnari eddu's present profession was bandit! But no hypothesis can turn the course of the constellations! And Iduzza didn't allow herself even to ven ture certain hypotheses. He, whom she had before her eyes in Via Bodoni, was a son fi with health, who needed no one, herself least of all.

But in Ninnuzzu's speech today, she had been given a very precise reason to worry. In fact, after the liberation of Rome, an order had been issued for all arms to be consigned to the authorities; and Ida had been aware of this order from the time of her lessons to the South African. The suspicion of a fl illegality assailed and invaded her, so deeply that while Nino was out, later in the day, trembling at her own unheard-of act, she locked the door of the smaller room and began rummaging in the absent occupant's baggage, to see if arms were hidden there . . . But luckily there were only the familiar shirts, some dirty and others clean, a few briefs, some dirty and others clean, a pair of sandals, an extra pair of pants, and sand here and there. There were also two or three picture postcards, and a letter on violet paper, of which Ida glimpsed only the signature ( Lydia ) and the salutation
(0
my unforgettable dream of love),

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hastily replacing the paper to avoid the indiscretion of reading it. More over, there was a book : How to
Raise
Your Dog.

The only weapon (if such it could be called ) was, at the bottom of the suitcase, a little switchblade knife, somewhat rusty (Nino used it to pry sea urchins from rocks ). Ida could breathe again.

The fi day, Nino announced he had to leave the next morning; and since he would
be
traveling by plane, where dogs were not allowed, he was leaving Bella to board in Via Bodoni in his absence. For her food, he gave Ida a bundle of money, also giving her totalitarian instructions, with an important tone and scientifi prec:sion : it was obligatory that Bella should have so much milk every day, so much rice, a grated apple, and no less than a pound of choice meat! Ida was aghast at the luxury of her carnivorous

boarder, who spent, alone, at the butcher's, far more than she herself and Useppe together. She recalled the revolting gruels with which the wretched Blitz had been content, and she had a feeling of resentful injustice towards this giantess of the prairies. However, to make up for it, imitating her example, Useppe could now also be persuaded to eat some meat dishes, without his usual morbid repugnance; and this was enough to make Ida forgive Bella her millionairess banquets.

After almost two weeks, Nino came back to collect her. He announced that he had at his disposal, though only temporarily, a lodging on the city's outskirts, almost in the country, where Bella could live with him; as usual, however, he kept the address a secret. Informed that Davide had come looking for him the day after his departure, he said he knew it already. Davide had written him and they had met. Then he told Useppe he was discussing the purchase of a second-hand jeep, of which he displayed the photo, illustrating its advantages and its disadvantages. As to speed, unfor tunately, the jeep wasn't so hot; but on the other hand, since it was an army vehicle, it was good at crossing valleys, diffi terrain, streams, and the sands of beaches and deserts. If necessary bunks could also be installed in it, for sleeping.

This visit of Ninnuzzu's was one of his shortest; indeed, it couldn't really be called a visit. Somebody in fact (Remo perhaps ) was waiting for him in the street with a little truck, to accompany him and Bella to his new home, and in his haste, he wouldn't even sit down. At his fi running steps on the stairway, however, he had to turn around. In the little fl shirt Nino himself had given him, his hands clutching the railing, Useppe was up above, with a fearless air, but all his muscles trembling like a rabbit's:

"Nino! Ninoo! Ninooo!"

Bella immediately rushed back up to Useppe, but without even stop-

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ping, she leaped down again towards Nino, as if she didn't know which way to go.

Ninnuzzu raised his head, slowing down . On Useppe's mouth there was already the tension of a question, and meanwhile he could be seen turning extremely pale, as if in that question were concentrated all his body's energy:

"Wy" (but he gravely corrected himself) "WHy are you going away?" 'Til see you soon," his brother guaranteed, stopping for a moment on