Christ in Concrete by Pietro di Donato

Author:Pietro di Donato
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: For the Benefit of Mr. Kite
Published: 1936-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

Five

Head-of-Pig brought his ice-wagon the morning Annun-ziata was to appear at the Compensation Bureau. He had cleaned the wagon floor and spread it with newspapers and burlap. Annunziata and Annina had prepared the children, and when Paul at the window saw Head-of-Pig’s horse and wagon he cried: “The wagon’s here, ma!”

Head-of-Pig wasn’t one to talk much. When Katarina commanded him to bring Annunziata and her children to the Compensation Bureau he blubbered through his thick lips, “With pleasure. Yes, with pleasure.”

The children, thin from undernourishment and shabbily dressed, were scrubbed clean. Annunziata carried Geremino; Head-of-Pig carried Johnny. Paul and Annina guided the four other children. Missus Olsen, returning from her morning shopping, set her bundles on the stoop and helped Head-of-Pig lift the children up into the wagon. Annunziata sat up front with Geremino in her arms while Annina held Johnny, and the other children sat in front of them. Head-of-Pig asked Paul if he wanted to sit up on the high driver’s seat with him. Paul climbed up by him. It seemed high and insecure. He sat back as far as possible and held tigndy to the seat. Missus Donovan opened her window and ca lied to Annunziata, “Good luck, Missus!”

Head-of-Pig snapped the reins, clucked his tongue, and the big white horse started. Missus Donovan blew a kiss to Geremino. Annunziata waved back. The iron-tired wheels bounced over the uneven stones and jounced Geremio’s family about in the wagon. After a few blocks Paul relaxed his tight hold on the seat and enjoyed his perch.

The great building of the Compensation Bureau was a thick-walled forbidding ten-storied structure. It had the discouraging semblance and overwhelming morgue aspect of Institution, Head-of-Pig got down from the wagon, tied the reins to a telephone pole, and went into the building. From the third story of the building projected a flagpole and from it hung a huge blue flag. On it in soiled white letters was the State emblem and the words: “Workmen’s State Compensation Bureau.”

People, poor people. And their faces pulled at Paul’s heart. Their eyes and lips said, we are the battered poor, poor stupid poor, we are the maimed and crippled and bandaged and blind workers who cannot speak and are led and’pushed through these corridors like subway corridors and into chambers where we understand nothing.

INFORMATION. INFORMATZIONE.

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