Page 16 of The Girl from Sicily

16

LUCIA, SEPTEMBER 1943

Lucia was waiting for Gero to come for supper. He’d been more than generous in bringing food for the family since she’d agreed he could ask Pa for her hand in marriage last month. Pa’s acceptance had thrilled Ma perhaps more than it had delighted Lucia – she still had mixed feelings about the whole idea. But she knew she had to be practical. Times were harder than ever, and Gero represented a lifeline. In more ways than one. He’d saved her from a fate almost worse than death – simply the thought of Giulianu Cardona being intimate with her made her want to retch.

As for her concerns about Dinu, she’d decided to put off worrying about him until the time came for her to go to America with Gero. Maybe her brother would come too; she’d make every attempt to persuade him.

She remembered their carefree childhood in Brooklyn, where they’d lived in a rented apartment in Fourth Avenue, between Sixth and Seventh Streets, next to the local firehouse. Lucia had loved it; she could hear the station’s bells ringing when their windows were open, and also see the Williamsburg Tower from their front stoop. She and Dinu had attended elementary school on Seventh Avenue, a walk of three and a half blocks. Every day, after class, they’d chalk the sidewalk in front of the apartment block to play hopscotch with the neighbourhood kids. But the best game was stoop ball. She liked boys’ games, preferred them to girls’ games like jumping rope, and didn’t care a jot when she became known as a tomboy.

Of course, now they were both adults, life would be different in the USA. All she knew, though, was that it would almost certainly be better than the poverty and chaos they were experiencing in Sicily.

A knock sounded at the door, and Lucia went to open it. She couldn’t help her heart fluttering at the sight of Gero. He looked so handsome in his army uniform; his beautiful chocolate-brown eyes, chiselled chin and white-toothed smile made her knees grow weak. Would she grow to love him? One thing was sure, although she’d marry him, she wouldn’t let him make love to her until she did. If that ever happened…

‘Guess what I’ve got?’ He kissed her on each cheek.

‘Oh, dear Lord.’ She gasped as he produced a walnut wood-encased radio from behind his back. ‘Where did you get that?’

‘It was left behind by the previous fascist mayor. I thought you might like it.’

Before Lucia could say a word, her father approached, his face wreathed in smiles.

‘ Grazie , Gero,’ he said. ‘I presume this is for me?’

‘Yes, and the rest of the family, of course.’

Gero winked at Lucia before taking the set over to the sideboard with her father. They plugged it in and tuned to the public service broadcaster. Soon, the sound of a light entertainment programme echoed in the air. The entire family except Dinu – who’d gone off with Francu somewhere – gathered around in awe, and Ma and Annita clapped their hands with clear glee.

‘This will make a tremendous difference to our lives,’ Lucia whispered to Gero. ‘ Grazie .’

They sat at the table to enjoy Ma’s signature dish of beef involtini . They’d almost finished eating when the broadcast was interrupted by the voice of Prime Minister Badoglio.

‘The Italian government, recognising the impossibility of continuing the unequal struggle against an overwhelming enemy force, in order to avoid further and graver disasters for the nation, has sought an armistice from General Eisenhower, commander-in-chief of the Anglo-American Allied forces. The request has been granted. Consequently, all acts of hostility against the Anglo-American force by Italian forces must cease everywhere. But they may react to possible attacks from any other source.’

Ma and Pa leapt to their feet, sending the cutlery flying.

‘It’s over. The war is over.’ Their voices rang with jubilation.

But Gero soon put them right. He shook his head and said, ‘Badoglio mentioned your forces may react to possible attacks from any other source. I’m sorry to have to say this, but Hitler won’t let up. He’ll garrison the mainland and fight to hold on to it.’

Ma sagged back into her chair as Lucia and Annita cleared the dishes, and Gero and Pa went outside for a smoke.

‘Was Gero right about the Germans?’ Annita said, drying the plate Lucia handed to her.

‘Probably.’ Lucia gave a shrug. Her fidanzato was right about most things.

The radio programme had switched back to light entertainment and, when Gero and Pa came back indoors, Lucia and the family sat down at the table to listen again.

‘I suppose I should make tracks,’ Gero said after about half an hour.

‘I’ll see you out.’ Lucia scraped back her chair.

She followed him onto the front step so she could wave him off, but he turned and lifted his hand to stroke her cheek. She stood rooted to the spot while he leant in to kiss her gently on the mouth.

‘Sorry,’ he said. ‘I couldn’t help myself. Your mouth is so beautiful. You are so beautiful.’

‘It was nice.’ The words came out before she could think. The press of his warm lips against hers had made her chest tingle.

‘Nice?’ He met her gaze.

‘I mean, wonderful.’ She could feel her face burning.

‘Shall we do it again?’ He took her hand.

‘Oh, yes. Please. I’d like that.’

He inclined his head towards hers and kissed her. She’d never been kissed properly by a man before and had no clue what to do. But something stirred within her, and she curled her fingers in the hair at the back of his neck and parted her lips.

‘Hey, what are you two doing out there?’ Pa’s voice came from inside the house. ‘Think about your reputation, Lucia. Get indoors this instant.’

‘Oops.’ She pulled back with a giggle. ‘ Buona notte , Gero. I’ll see you tomorrow.’

* * *

The next morning, Lucia was leaning over the table, making pasta with the wheat Gero had bought for the family. Ma and Annita had gone to fetch water, so Lucia was on her own. Her arms ached with the effort of rolling out the dough, but she soon got into the rhythm of it. At least Italy is no longer at war with America, she thought. Maybe the paperwork for her to marry Gero would come through more quickly. A warm, fuzzy feeling filled her chest as she thought about their kiss last night. She’d been surprised by how much she’d enjoyed it.

Loud banging at the door interrupted her musing, followed by a shout.

‘Oi, you in there!’ came Giulianu Cardona’s voice. ‘ Aprite la porta! ’ He commanded that the door be opened.

Lucia dusted off her hands and hurried to comply. The marshal was standing on the front step, accompanied by two of his carabinieri.

‘What do you want?’ Lucia asked.

‘We’ve come to take your brother into custody.’

‘What? I don’t understand—’ Her chest grew cold, and she shivered despite the warmth of the day.

‘He shot and killed my sergeant, who was trying to detain him for smuggling grain.’

Lucia’s legs began to give way, and she held on to the door jamb to stop herself from crumpling to the floor.

‘I’m sure it wasn’t Dinu.’ Her voice trembled. ‘He’d never do anything like that?—’

‘I’m afraid you’re wrong,’ Cardona sneered. ‘He dropped his ID card. There’s no doubt it was him.’ He pointed a finger at his men. ‘Besides, these two are witnesses. Your brother is a murderer and we’ve come to arrest him.’

‘He isn’t here,’ she said.

‘I don’t believe you.’ The marshal looked her up and down and gave another sneer.

‘Feel free to take a look.’ She waved her hand around the room.

Cardona trooped into the house with his men. There was nowhere anyone could hide, but they carried out a thorough search, pulling the mattresses off the beds, upending the hay bales, opening cupboards and rifling through their contents.

Lucia stood and watched, her pulse racing.

Eventually, the marshal commanded his men to stop rummaging.

‘You must report to me when your brother returns home, Lucia.’ Cardona stamped his boot in obvious anger. ‘If you don’t, I’ll charge you with the crime of assisting a felon.’

The blood drained from her face and she felt nauseous.

Cardona edged closer, and she caught a whiff of the garlic on his breath.

‘He has an accomplice, by the way. Do you know who that could be?’

Lucia shook her head – her mouth had gone completely dry.

* * *

Lucia barely had time to catch her breath. Shortly after Cardona left, Ma and Annita returned with the pails of fresh water. Lucia sat her mother and sister down to tell them what had occurred.

Annita burst into tears, while Ma prayed to the blessed Virgin Mary and all the saints to keep her boy safe.

‘What shall we do?’ Lucia asked. She could hear the despair in her voice.

‘We can only wait until your father gets home.’ Ma twisted her apron and gave a heavy sigh.

Suddenly, Francu’s voice resounded from outside the front door.

‘Open up!’ he shouted.

Lucia did as he’d asked and spotted that her cousin was shirtless.

‘Where’s my twin brother?’ She glanced behind Francu. ‘Giulianu Cardona came by looking for him. He said he’d shot and killed his sergeant. Please tell me it isn’t true.’

‘Dinu’s wounded.’ A pain-filled expression crossed Francu’s face. ‘That bastard carabiniere shot him first. I stemmed the bleeding with my shirt. I came to tell you before I went to fetch the doctor.’

There was a shocked silence, followed by a strangled cry from Ma.

‘My only son,’ she wept, pleating her apron. ‘I must go to him?—’

‘Cardona will have people watching us, Ma.’ Lucia took charge of the situation. She touched her hand to her mother’s arm before turning to Francu. ‘He came by looking for Dinu because he’d dropped his ID card, but he doesn’t know you were involved. All he knows is there was an accomplice.’

‘The two guards at the scene were scared shitless.’ Francu curled his lip. ‘They wouldn’t recognise their mothers if they’d been there. I can rustle up a dozen witnesses who’ll swear I was in Villaurora last night and in the early hours of this morning.’

‘Where have you left Dinu?’ Lucia pushed up her sleeves, a plan forming in her mind.

‘In that shepherd’s hut between Gero’s baglio and the crags overlooking the village.’

‘I’ll meet you there,’ she said. ‘Let me give you one of Dinu’s shirts before you go.’

‘ Grazie .’ Francu placed a hand on his chest.

Ma saw him to the door, then said, ‘You won’t let me go to him, Lucia, yet you’ll take the risk of leading Cardona to him yourself?—’

‘I’ll dress in boys’ clothes. No one will know it’s me.’

‘Take care, daughter,’ Lucia’s mother sighed in resignation.

* * *

Lucia changed into the outfit she wore for rabbit hunting, tucked her hair up in a cap, and then headed out of Villaurora as discreetly as she could. But at the village boundary, she came to an abrupt halt.

Giulianu Cardona was marching down the hill with a group of carabinieri. Lucia froze, and her heart almost beat out of her chest. Had he seen her? Although she was in disguise, she had no identity papers for the boy she was pretending to be.

Nonchalantly, she turned off into a side street, where she crouched behind an upturned donkey cart. She peered through the wooden slats and prayed the police officers wouldn’t come her way.

Tramping footfalls echoed from the main road, and Lucia’s pulse pounded. Sudden relief welled up in her – Cardona and his men had carried on marching down the high street.

Lucia waited until she was as sure as she could be that they weren’t coming back again and then, composing herself, she set off once more, walking slowly, so as not to draw attention.

Worry for her brother constricted in her throat. She hoped that Francu would manage to persuade the village physician, Dottor Rizzu, to attend to Dinu – and that they’d succeed in making their way to the shepherd’s hut without being seen.

Pa had mentioned some time ago that the doctor was no friend of the carabinieri. He’d had to treat too many people who’d suffered the bastinado . Hopefully, he’d see her brother as yet another one of their victims.

With every step she took, she recited a prayer until, finally, she’d distanced herself from Villaurora, had skirted Gero’s baglio, and was approaching the place where she trusted she’d find Dinu.

When Lucia entered the shack, she stifled a gasp. The seconds seemed to slow down as she took a step back. Dinu was lying on a pallet of straw, a blood-soaked shirt around his middle. His eyes were open, but there was a glaze over them.

‘ Soru ,’ he murmured. ‘You came?—’

‘Of course I came, frati .’

She went to crouch beside him, took a handkerchief from her pocket and wiped his sweat-covered forehead. He drifted in and out of consciousness, and all Lucia could do was comfort him and pray while she waited for help to come. At long last, Francu arrived with Dottor Rizzu.

‘Sorry we took such an age,’ Francu said. ‘The carabinieri have set up roadblocks. We had to go across country.’

‘Thank God you made it,’ Lucia said, hugging him.

She stood aside while the doctor examined Dinu. He gave him a shot of morphine, then cleaned and dressed the wound.

‘The bullet appears to have gone through the body between the ribs and the hip,’ he said. ‘It must have missed the liver, otherwise he’d be dead. But he’s lost a great deal of blood?—’

‘Will he live?’ Lucia met the doctor’s gaze.

‘That depends on whether he succumbs to an infection. He should really be in the hospital.’ Dottor Rizzu sighed. ‘But, under the circumstances?—’

‘We can’t leave him here.’ Lucia choked on the words. ‘It’s too exposed, and who would look after him?’

She racked her brains, trying to come up with a solution. There was only one answer. She would have to ask Gero to let him stay at the baglio. How to convince her future husband? Dinu had broken the law, a law whose enforcement Gero was supposed to oversee. He would never agree to harbour a criminal.

‘I’ll make my own way back to the village.’ Dottor Rizzu interrupted her thoughts. ‘If I’m stopped, I can just say I’ve been doing my rounds.’

‘Thank you for treating Dinu, dottore .’ Lucia shook his hand. ‘My fidanzato , Gero Bonanno, will pay your fee.’

‘I’d heard you’re engaged to him, my dear. A fine match.’

‘Yes, well.’ She smiled. ‘We are now family.’

She would play that card when she asked Gero to let Dinu stay with him, she decided. Family was everything. As a true Sicilian, how could Gero refuse?

After Dottor Rizzu had left, Dinu fell into opiate dreams. Lucia asked Francu to tell her what had happened after her brother had been shot.

‘I was in the middle of a bamboo thicket.’ Francu’s mouth twisted. ‘I laid myself down on the ground and waited for the two surviving carabinieri to go after Dinu. I planned to ambush one of them and relieve him of his gun. But they scurried off, leaving their dead sergeant behind.’

‘The cowards,’ Lucia said, glad of the fact.

‘I ran to the olive grove where Dinu had disappeared. I found him with his pistol still clutched in his hand. I took the weapon and thrust it into my belt. When Dinu’s eyes opened, I almost wept with relief, and I tried to help him to his feet.’ Tears ran down Francu’s cheeks. ‘There was a gaping hole in his side. I propped him up against a tree, ripped off my shirt and wrapped it over the wound to staunch the blood. Then I carried him here.’

‘You did well, Francu.’ Lucia gave him a hug. ‘I’m going home now to tell my parents everything. Are you all right to stay here with Dinu until my father comes?’

‘Absolutely. Someone should be with him at all times.’

‘It won’t be easy with Cardona watching us. But we’ll find a way.’

Lucia set off forthwith. She would never forget her perilous walk back to Villaurora, how she’d had to skirt around the carabinieri roadblocks, then make her way to Pa’s campagna by cutting across the fields.

‘If only he hadn’t given up his identity card. I could have asked my fellow farmers to swear they’d seen him working here with me,’ Pa said after she’d explained what had happened.

‘They would have arrested him, anyway.’ She wiped tears from her eyes. ‘Now, if he survives, he’ll have to live in the mountains, like other fugitives.’

The highlands of Sicily were rampant with men like Dinu, who’d fled the law.

‘I hope it won’t come to that, daughter.’

She told him about her plan to ask Gero for his help.

‘Good idea,’ Pa said. ‘I’ll stop work now, pretend I’ve been taken ill. Then I’ll pack a bag of essentials and some food before going to Dinu.’ A tear trickled from his eye. ‘My poor boy. How it’s come to this, I’ll never know.’

* * *

Lucia spent the rest of the day fretting. It was hard to concentrate on her chores, but Ma insisted.

‘It will take your mind off things,’ she said, handing Lucia a broom.

But even as the words came out of Ma’s mouth, she started to weep. Lucia put her arm around her, and Annita did the same, and the three of them wept hot tears of worry for Dinu.

The hours ticked by, with no news.

‘Remember the saying, “no news is good news”,’ Lucia said by way of encouragement. ‘If something had happened, we’d have heard about it.’

‘I pray you are right,’ Ma said.

Lucia and Annita helped her prepare a simple meal. Their hearts weren’t in making anything other than maccheroncini with a pesto sauce. Gero would come by as usual to eat with them any time now. Lucia couldn’t help her heart fluttering at the thought of seeing him. She touched a finger to her lips, remembering their kiss. Did he know about Dinu? Lucia suspected it was the talk of the village.

She wasn’t wrong. The first thing Gero said when she opened the door to him was, ‘Your brother has well and truly done it this time?—’

‘Come with me, Gero,’ she said, taking his hand and leading him to where she’d already placed two chairs in the far corner of the room. ‘I need to speak with you.’

‘As I do with you, sweetheart.’

‘You go first,’ she said when they’d sat down.

‘Colonel Rinelli wants me to work with him at the AMGOT office in Palermo for the next month. While I’m there, I’ll get the last of the paperwork sorted for our wedding.’

Lucia’s heart shrank with disappointment at his news.

‘I’ll miss you, Gero.’ And she would, it occurred to her.

‘I’ll miss you too,’ he said. ‘But I’ll be back before you know it, I promise?—’

She chewed her lip, her thoughts chasing each other.

‘Gero,’ she said. ‘Dinu was shot by the carabiniere sergeant before he fired back. He has a horrible wound on his side and has lost a lot of blood.’ She fixed her fiancé in her gaze. ‘You won’t tell anyone, will you?’

‘Please don’t put me in a difficult position, Lucia. The less I know, the better.’

‘Oh, okay.’ She leant across and brushed a quick kiss to his cheek. ‘Would it be all right if me and the family spent time in your baglio while you’re away?’

‘I’m not going to ask you why. But I can guess, and I’m worried you might be getting into something you’ll later regret.’

‘Now we’re engaged, you’ve become part of my family, haven’t you?’ She gave him a look. ‘Family sticks together through thick and thin. The code of omertà isn’t just in Cosa Nostra – it applies to ordinary families as well.’

‘Of course.’ Gero got to his feet, and helped her to hers. Then he wrapped his arms around her.

She snuggled into his chest and breathed in his clean scent. He tilted up her chin and kissed her on the mouth. She gave herself over to his kiss, threading her fingers into his shirt and clinging to him.

‘ Ti vogghiu beni , Lucia.’

He said that he loved her, but she wouldn’t tell him she loved him back, for that would be a lie, wouldn’t it?