The Last Days of Ellis Island by Gaëlle Josse

Author:Gaëlle Josse
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: World Editions
Published: 2020-05-11T08:47:28+00:00

ELLIS ISLAND, NOVEMBER 7, 6 O’CLOCK IN THE MORNING.

During the days that followed Nella Casarini’s departure, I forced myself to make the greatest effort to continue working and behaving with a semblance of normality. I felt as though I had locked myself away, somewhere deep inside myself, completely indifferent to the rest of the world. I spoke only the few words necessary to get through the day without raising suspicions. One question haunted me: who had told him, who had made the unfortunate boy comprehend the reality of the fate that awaited him? Had he overheard it? Somewhere in his poor, messed-up head he had understood that his separation from Nella was forever, and decided it would be better to die. How could he have guessed that I had decided to marry Nella and that, with her new status, he would be given permission to stay with his sister? Of course he couldn’t have known, it was impossible. Perhaps he had fathomed what was going to happen, that his separation from Nella upon their arrival was definitive, and perhaps despite his inability to understand properly what was going on he recognized intuitively, viscerally, something that was impossible to accept.

Strange as it may seem, no one made any allusion to what had happened, not even Luigi Chianese, whose indiscretion and gossiping I dreaded. It must be said that the frequency of such incidents was unfortunately high, and I, like the rest of the station staff, had ended up, if not trivializing them, at least accepting them with a certain fatalism, as the necessary price to pay for access to the Promised Land. Sacrifices were needed, a few expiatory victims to offer up to Moloch. This was how it was and it had to be accepted. America, for all her generosity, could not accommodate anyone who was a burden or a potential danger. Newcomers tried their luck at their own risk, and for the people dealing with them, the daily workload was so heavy it left little time for any emotion. For me, the story was different. The guilty memory of the hours I had spent with Nella, the knowledge that I had forced her to give herself up to me, competed with the intense memory of her taut, lean body, her skin, her hair, her thighs. My nights are interminable now.

That night we spent together, before she returned along the cold, dimly lit corridors to the dormitory, Nella told me a little about her life. I encouraged her with a few questions, curious to know who she was, where she came from, intrigued by the presence of such a young woman, alone with and responsible for her feeble-minded brother. I was curious about her strong body, her hands, tanned and calloused from what I suspected was hard, physical toil. If I were to help her, I had to at least try and understand her situation. The story Nella told me, interspersed with long silences and hesitations, was strange; I would never have imagined crossing paths with someone who had lived such a life.

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