Bell for Adano, A - John Hersey [45]
“A what?” the General bellowed in his famous voice. “I said, you are a barbarian. How dare you chop and pick at the surface of my friend Salatiello’s table?”
For the sake of argument, it would have made no difference whatsoever if General Marvin had known that Salatiello had been thirteen years dead. The General could not possibly have been more outraged. “Jesus Christ,” he bellowed at the walls, “who is this wop, anyhow?”
“That table was made circa 1775, when your country had not even begun to existed, barbarian. It was carved by Vincenzio Bianchi of Parma. I cannot calculate the values of that table. You are a pig to chop and pick at it.” The General shouted: “Take this crazy wop out of here.”
Colonel Middleton and Lieutenant Byrd rushed into the room. They grabbed old Cacopardo, and started to push him out.
“Wait!” the General roared. “Who sent that idiot here, Middleton?”
“I don’t know, sir, it was some Major.”
“You don’t know? Goddamit, it’s your business to know.”
Colonel Middleton asked Cacopardo: “Who was it who sent you here?”
“My friend Major Joppolo, who is not a barbarian.” Colonel Middleton said: “What unit is this Major from?”
“Adano, from Adano,” old Cacopardo said. “From my home, Adano.”
“Adano,” the General shouted. “There’s something about that place. What is it about Adano, Middleton? Goddamit, what is it?”
“The cart, General,” Colonel Middleton said. Colonel Middleton would never forget Adano as long as he lived. “The cart? What cart? Goddamit, don’t talk in riddles, Middleton. What cart?”
“The cart that we threw off the road, sir. The mule we shot, sir.”
General Marvin remembered, and the memory turned his face a shade darker. “So that’s the Major who sent you,” he roared. “What was that name again? I want to remember that name.”
“Joppolo,” Middleton said.
General Marvin shouted: “Joppolo. Write that down, Middleton, remember that name. That goddam Major’s a wop, too. I remember now, he’s a goddam wop himself, isn’t he, Middleton?”
In the interests of justice, Colonel Middleton said: “I don’t remember, sir.”
General Marvin shouted: “Well, I do. Now throw this crazy Italian sonofabitch out of here, and if you let any more Italians in here, Middleton, I’ll break you back to a goddam second lieutenant.”
“Yes, sir,” Colonel Middleton said.
As they started to run him out, Cacopardo said: “But I have informations. I can tell you where are the Germans. It is important. The Germans, the Germans.”
But the General was much too far gone in rage. Cacopardo was taken out and sent home. He couldn’t get anyone, not even the sentry at the front gate, to listen to a description of the German positions before Pinnaro.
Chapter 14
BEHIND Major Joppolo’s back, Captain Purvis was very critical of him. To his face, the Captain was cordial, even friendly.
The two men now had, besides their mere community of tongue, another thing to draw them together: they both knew the same girls. In a foreign land, that is enough to make Damon and Pythias out of two sworn enemies.
One day at lunch they talked about the girls. They talked as American men do talk about girls when they are abroad.
The Captain said: “That younger one, that Francesca, she sure has a nice pair.”
Major Joppolo said: “I think the blonde one is more mature.”
“Brother,” the Captain said, “I’ll trade you a nice pair for maturity any day in the week.”
“Just a matter of taste,” the Major said.
“Yeah,” the Captain said, “I’ll take a taste of the younger one, thanks. Just thinking about her makes me sharp. What do you say we go up there tonight and see ‘em?”
“Let’s do that,” the Major said. “That would be fun.” Then he wondered why he had reacted so quickly and so happily to the Captain’s suggestion. The Captain’s attitude toward these girls disgusted the Major. The Captain regarded the girls as trash; he seemed to think of them as something to buy and sell, like Italian watermelon and grapes and red wine. The Major refused to believe that he was falling into this way of thinking.
And yet he had jumped at the Captain