The Lost Boy of Bologna by Francesca Scanacapra

Author:Francesca Scanacapra [Scanacapra, Francesca]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-04-03T16:00:00+00:00

‘Use your imagination then. Give yourself an enema and do it the French way. There are plenty of men who’ll pay more for that.’

Evelina recoiled at the thought of ‘the French way’. She knew that she couldn’t get pregnant that way because Ada Stracci had explained how things worked. It was probably the only truthful thing that Ada had ever said to her. Gigio Lingua had never got her pregnant, so that was proof enough.

When Evelina fell pregnant for the fifth time the ‘plumber’ recommended sterilisation and the proprietor agreed. Evelina was not consulted. She woke after the operation in a blood-soaked bed feeling as if she had been sawn in half and with her brain throbbing as though it was about to exploded inside her skull. Her only recollection of the weeks that followed was pain and pills and the feeling that something had gone very badly wrong.

There were pills for everything – pills for pain, pills to go to sleep, pills to wake up – but the best ones were the yellow pills. They numbed her body, but better than that, they dissolved the sadness in her head. They were like little yellow miracles which bathed her every thought in sunshine. Everything was light and clear and filled with wonder. The nightmares stopped and were replaced by dreams which she could guide at will.

She could make herself small – so small that she was no bigger than a speck of dust – and weightless, as if she was made of nothing but light and air. She could fly anywhere she wanted. Sometimes she would take herself to Milano Marittima, although she had never been there in real life. She would fly through the parks full of pine trees and into the shops which sold things made of sea shells. Best of all, she would fly to her mother.

At last Evelina could see her mother’s face in full, radiant detail. She was so beautiful, like the Madonna in San Paolo Maggiore. She could feel the roughness of the green shawl. She could smell it.

‘Will you come and get me, Mamma? I want to be in heaven with you.’

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