Sometimes the Soul by Gioia Timpanelli

Author:Gioia Timpanelli
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780393245196
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 2014-01-31T00:00:00+00:00

The Daughter and the Dawn

It was a black night, no moon or stars. Disturbing sleep, full of bits and pieces of dreams, dreams about houses, houses she knew were hers but had strangely forgotten. In one dream she felt elated going through the old stone house, with its many rooms and surprising staircases; but then when she closed the front door behind her and had almost reached the bottom step, she had a presentiment that she would forget this house again. Next she was in a cart—the young sorrel standing completely still—a moonless night—impossible to drive on dark roads—but then she picked up the reins, and as the horse cantered through the marvelous dark, wherever the moon-shiny hooves touched the road became a wash of light.

Before long they were in a village. At that moment, up ahead, she saw two men right in the middle of a crossroads, a bright lamp suspended from above lit them dramatically, like a scene in the theater, she thought. One man, with something white around his shoulders, was sitting in a chair, absolutely still, almost rigid, while the other man was standing behind him making small, mysterious gestures with his hands. When she got closer, she saw that the seated man was holding a large spoon over his left ear while the other was snipping and cutting his hair. She laughed out loud, but they did not hear or see her, and since she felt she was looking at something intimate, she turned the horse onto another road out of town.

Finally, she stopped; and when the eye of the brown-red mare, like a great sun turning, looked into her eyes, Rusina awoke and went to the window to see if it was yet dawn.

The night had been very still; then just before daybreak a forceful wind swept the heavy clouds away, and out of the darkness a solid glow of red and purple light suddenly appeared in the sky, bringing across the infinite expanse giant lines of brilliant crimson mixed with thick strands of shimmering gold which stretched above and below the illuminated center. It was an amazing dawn, and all those in the neighborhood who were awake saw it and felt awe. A husband touched his wife’s toes with Come and look at this day! In another house, a little child woke all her brothers and sisters with a fearful Look! What does that mean? It’s beautiful, that’s all, one of them laughed. A man whose wife had just died turned in their bed, awoke with a start, remembered for the hundredth time that she was gone, thought of his children, and with a heavy heart went to the window to open the shutters. The couple watched the brilliant show silently, then moved on to their chores and said no more about it. The children, pushing and shoving, fell into their beds again. The magic of this transformation gave the widower a moment of peace before he turned his back on it.

If they

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