Chapter 45

Normal life

I had told Papa about the colonel. He had written to me right away that if I knew how to find out his name, he would fix it himself, that drunkard false friend. I hadn't said anything to my mother, she already had enough worries.

Since we returned to Venice my mother had an appointment every day. At first I was happy that the desire to see people had returned but then I began to suspect that it was all because of Hemingway, she wanted to show that we had nothing to hide, nothing to be ashamed of.

One morning I met her on the stairs, very pale, and when I asked her if she was not feeling well she did not answer but continued to climb the stairs in silence, her forehead veiled by that light shadow I knew well.

Worried, I followed her into the corridor, then into the bathroom as she undressed. "Going to bed?" I asked.

"I'm going to bed. I've been to Harry's Bar..." she said and her voice broke. Trouble ahead, I thought. Harry's Bar has been in trouble ever since we returned from Cuba. "There were my friends, at a table in the back. They didn't realize I had entered. They were reading a book and laughing, that is, one of them was reading to Marcellina and they were all laughing... terrible."

"Why terrible?" I asked as I sat on the steps that flanked the bathtub.