The American by Booth Martin

Author:Booth, Martin [Booth, Martin]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781409044673
Publisher: Random House UK
Published: 2010-10-27T22:00:00+00:00

‘Perhaps . . .’ I answered but this was a perverse dissimulation. I was extremely glad. It reduced the number of people to whom the shadow-dweller could make an approach, who could guide him to me.

We walked a little further and, as we passed a narrow alleyway, Clara took my hand and guided me into the darkness. For the fleetest of moments, my heart raced with instinctive panic. Such shadows, such dark niches in the walls of the town could contain my incubus, the shadow-dweller. What if, I thought, she was in league with him, that our relationship was just a ploy leading to this one moment of supposed emotion followed by the quick thrust of the bowie knife or the jab of the hypodermic.

Yet her hand was not grasping but soft in my own. There was no urgency in her movement save that of the lover wanting love, and my panic subsided as quickly as it arose.

She halted a few steps in, dropped her plastic bag and pressed herself against me, sobbing. I put my arms around her and held her close. There was no need to speak.

When she had stopped crying, I gave her my handkerchief and she wiped her eyes, dabbing at her cheeks.

‘I love you,’ she suddenly declared. ‘So much. Molto . . .’

‘I am not a young man,’ I reminded her.

‘This is no matter.’

‘I shall not live here for ever. I am not an Italian.’

As the words left me, I thought of how much I should like to remain in the town, in the valley, in the company of this young girl.

‘I do not want always to live here,’ she replied.

I handed her her plastic bag again.

‘It is time to go home.’

‘Let me come to your home.’

‘I cannot. One day . . .’

She was upset by my reply but decided not to press her demand. We left the alley and parted in the Corso Federico II.

‘Stay for ever here,’ she said as she kissed me. It was as much a command as a wish.

We parted and I made my way home by a very circuitous route. I watched and listened out for every movement, even dodging into the shadows once at the sound of a cat out mousing. The nearer I drew to the vialetto, the more meticulous I became. Yet, despite all the avid attention I was paying to my surroundings, I could not prevent a recurring thought: Clara had fought for me, not for her shoes or her bruised dignity. She loved me and wanted me and, I had to admit, I loved her in my fashion.

But I had to concentrate upon the shadows, upon the doorways deep in night, upon the alleys and the spaces behind parked cars. Thoughts of Clara could not be allowed to interfere, or she would be the death of me.

The mercury-tipped bullet is so simple yet so utterly devastating. It is more powerful than the Chicago gangster’s dumdum, more deadly than a commando raider’s soft-nose.

As I sit

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.