The Sicilian Inheritance by Jo Piazza

Author:Jo Piazza [Piazza, Jo]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2024-04-02T00:00:00+00:00

FOURTEEN

SERAFINA

I woke to the sound of women’s voices all around me. They’d been coming and going since Paola drove me as far as she could up the hill to Rosalia’s and then carried me the rest of the way.

“She is coming around,” I heard the old woman announce as I tried to open my eyes. My entire body ached. When I tried to sit up a sharp pain stabbed me in the side, reminding me of Carmine’s boot to my ribs.

“Be still, my girl,” Rosalia whispered. I kept my head on the pillow and looked around the room. They were all there: Paola, Gaetana, Saverina, Leda, Tonina, Ninetta, Vincenza. Only Cettina was missing. Everyone sat around the old wooden table sipping from glasses and mugs, their faces stoic.

“We were so afraid for you,” Paola said.

“Thank you for getting me here.” I coughed out the words. It was not easy to breathe, but there was no blood.

“Who did this to you?” Paola blurted out. What was safe to tell her or to tell these women now? And why wasn’t Cettina here? What did she know about what her brother had done to me? So many questions swirled through my mind. Chief among them was whether I would put my friends in danger if I told them what really happened. So I just shook my head. “Could I have some water?”

Rosalia lifted a glass of cool liquid to my parched lips. My intestines clenched in pain after I swallowed but I took it all.

“Three of your rib bones are broken,” Rosalia explained. “And there is a nasty gash on your head, but I stopped the bleeding.” She rose and fetched more water from the pitcher and looked me straight in the eye as I began to drink. “Did you fall?”

I knew what she was doing. She had always known things she could not know and now she wanted to protect me from revealing too much.

“I fell.”

“Donkey shit,” Paola said. “You didn’t fall.”

“I fell,” I insisted, staring into Rosalia’s eyes to search for more words. “I was birthing a foal, the mother was in pain. She kicked me in the ribs, and I fell backward onto a rock and hit my head.” The old woman gave me this story, planted it in my head. I was certain of it.

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