A Silence Shared by Lalla Romano & Brian Robert Moore

Author:Lalla Romano & Brian Robert Moore [Moore, Lalla Romano and Brian Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pushkin Press
Published: 2023-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

XXII

Paolo was uneasy, especially on days when his attacks were less frequent and less intense. Coming into the bedroom, I wasn’t even sure if he was glad to see me: his greeting seemed cold.

Ada—the schools were closed—was always at Tetto Murato now. Taking advantage of when Paolo seemed to doze off, she would quietly start to dust the room, something she could never manage to do at the right time. Paolo, as if spying on her from behind his eyelashes, would immediately protest:

“Please, Ada, don’t start pacing around the place now.”

“I’ll stop in a second. I’m just going to sweep up a little dust.”

“Not now, please.”

Then she would stop, letting out a sigh.

Or Ada would announce that she had to go downstairs.

“I’ll just be a moment. I need to teach Luisa a knitting stitch.”

“She can teach you as many as you could dream of. Besides, why in the world do you need to teach it to her now?”

“Right—really there’s no need to teach it to her now. But anyway, I should go downstairs to tell Domenica to put the apples in the oven.”

“Can’t she come upstairs to take orders?”

“Sure, she can come up. Tomorrow I’ll tell her to come up.”

Ada already seemed slightly angry, but deep down she must have liked these skirmishes. I, on the other hand, felt uncomfortable. “I’ll go downstairs to tell her,” I offered.

And Paolo: “Is it absolutely necessary that we eat baked apples?”

“No, it’s not necessary—we can eat them raw, too.”

She had spoken curtly: now she was being her mean self (for fun). And that was as far as her anger went.

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.