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keep him company. Toto was very relieved when I admitted that I too didn't always hear well and so did Luigino when I confessed to him that I didn't always understand the meaning of the sentences. Yet both of them acknowledge that they have fun with Hemingway." 

"But you have to admit that all this is not normal. A married man, much older than you, who speaks in a way you often don't understand... and I saw him every day! I don't forbid you to see him, but from time to time, when you meet him by chance, without making a date." 

"But that's not possible!" I jumped to my feet to better look at my mother reflected in the mirror. "Being with our group often saves him from admirers, so at least he told us. He always thanks us, you understand that he is happy. Indeed you can see him, he seems... he seems rejuvenated, that's it."

"Strange ideas you get into your head every now and then." She turned to look at me, serious: "In any case, you have to take into account what people may think."

I stamped on my foot in anger. "But why this obsession with what people think? If I have to live in terror of what people think, I will end up doing nothing. Mom please... you have to know the Hemingways before you can judge for yourself."

"Yes, I think it's time I met them. Invite them here for breakfast," my mother decided, putting on her gloves. "Who knows how I will understand them if you, who know English well, understand little."

She understood a lot of things, however. Mostly because Hemingway - for the occasion all dressed in blue and with a tie - spoke to her correctly pronouncing the words. Aunt Emma was also at the table that day. I remember meeting him in Cortina when she and Renata Borgatti, who had been his guest in Venice, went to spend a period in the mountains.

Then I also remember mom. The day he joined them,...