Three Light-Years: A Novel by Canobbio Andrea

Author:Canobbio, Andrea [Canobbio, Andrea]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780374710101
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Published: 2014-06-30T22:00:00+00:00

Now that Viberti had arrived he had no desire to go in. The book might not be in the mailbox yet; was Silvia home or had she gone out? The truth was he hadn’t been listening to her. He pictured her out to dinner with Cecilia. He imagined them having a spirited discussion, the kind they would have had the day he’d surprised them together, judging by Cecilia’s mood afterward. So pressing the intercom button wasn’t too much of a commitment, Silvia probably wasn’t home.

Instead she answered immediately, asked him what he was doing there, told him to come up, buzzed open the door. Viberti thought of an excuse to justify his sudden appearance; after saying he had no time to read he certainly couldn’t pretend he was eager to get the book. The interior of the house was similar to the one in which Mercuri had lived, late nineteenth-century buildings, solid old houses for artisans and clerks and, later on, railway personnel; the station wasn’t far away. The old houses were still solid, though somewhat grimy and a bit moldy, with a dank smell and the reek of vinegary wine rising up from the cellars, the walls saturated with the odors of life spent cooking or washing or smoking a cigarette on the landing. Would-be “vintage homes,” awaiting gentrification. Pointless to make up excuses, he would say he was curious to see the neighborhood again.

The elevator went only as far as the fourth floor; for the fifth there were the stairs. Attics converted into studios or two-room apartments. A door painted bright red, like a fire exit, opened the moment he set foot on the landing. Silvia was wearing a very loose black tank over another top, a gray T-shirt, and a pair of black jeans with white stitching that seemed brand new. She didn’t have the black headband on, and her hair stuck out wildly in all directions. She was bent forward a bit, massaging her thighs. She said she wanted to stretch the jeans out, they were too stiff and tight. She rarely found clothes that fit her well the first time, she didn’t wear a standard size, either she was abnormal or everyone else was.

Viberti stood there smiling idiotically. He’d taken a good look at her when they first met and thought she wasn’t as attractive as Cecilia, and maybe that was true, she wasn’t as attractive as Cecilia, but she looked a lot like her. Not only her facial features, but the way she carried herself and the way she moved her hands and her head; he hadn’t noticed it the first time or he hadn’t wanted to see it, and now the resemblance troubled him.

Silvia lived in a two-room efficiency: the room they were in had a kitchenette, a sofa and TV, an office area with a desk and computer, and an entryway, but all the areas looked alike because every piece of furniture and every inch of wall space was covered in rows of books.

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