Bell for Adano, A - John Hersey [72]
He went on: “There are many things I do not understand, Mister Major. When I was young, I was handsome. At least that is what my wife, who was able to laugh then, told me. Why am I ugly now, Mister Major? That is something I cannot understand. What has happened to my face?”
He stopped and thought. “My son looked well in his uniform,” he said. “That is, he looked well before he was killed. After he was killed, he looked badly. He had no legs and he only had half a head. That is what his Captain told me. Was it necessary for his Captain to tell me all that?”
Gargano burst out: “We are trying the case of a cartman who blocked military traffic. Must we listen to this kind of talk, Mister Major?”
Major Joppolo said: “Yes, Gargano, I think we must. It is my opinion that what the cartman is saying is relevant to his case.”
“You are the judge,” Gargano said, with both hands in the air, in resignation.
The Major said: “Go on, cartman.”
Errante said: “I do not like this man. It seems to me that he waves his hands too much. God gave us tongues to talk with. For several years I have not liked this man. I have never liked him since the day he spat in the face of my wife. That was long after she had stopped laughing.”
The cartman turned then away from the fuming Gargano to the Major. After a pause he said: “I ate a watermelon the other day. It was the first fresh fruit I had eaten since the disembarkation. I stole it. All the good things are being sold to the Americans at high prices. There is not much left for a cartman except goat’s milk.
With every good there is an evil. With goat’s milk one has to accept goat droppings.”
He paused and said: “With Americans I suppose one has to accept hunger.”
He paused for a long time. Then he said: “At that, hunger is better than some other things. I would like to have heard my wife laugh again.”
After another pause he said: “It seems to me that I have heard more laughter since the disembarkation. This is especially true among the children. You see, I have been trying to think out what made me stop and listen to the children the other afternoon, when I did not notice the Swimming War.”
“The what, cartman?”
“I call them Swimming War. They are American vehicles which swim.”
“Amphibious trucks, yes, go ahead.”
“Among the children there is more laughter. There is something else among the children which I never noticed before, too. In that crowd of them the other afternoon the thin child of Erba was holding the hand of the little Cacopardo. I do not know if you realize what that means, Mister Major. Erba is a cartman like me, only more stupid, Mister Major. Everyone knows the name of Cacopardo.”
“Yes, I know they are rich,” the Major said.
“I am almost as stupid as Erba, Mister Major, but I have noticed something. The things that children do are right on top of the children, and easy to see. The same things in older people lie deep down inside. Therefore at anv time what you see happening among the children is also happening among the older ones, only you cannot see it, since it is deep. I mean the laughing, and the holding of hands. And yet - “
Errante Gaetano paused. This time it did not look as if he would come out of the pause. He frowned. “And yet what, cartman?”
“And yet I still do not understand why they shot my mule. This need for sitting in jail I can understand: I simply did not notice the Swimming War, and I am sorry I got in its way. But about the mule that was shot, there is no explanation.”
At this moment Major Joppolo hated General Marvin with a bitter flash of hatred. He said: “Yes, cartman, there is an explanation. It isn’t a very good one, I know. You are a student of human nature, I can see that. You must have noticed that human beings often make mistakes. The shooting of your mule was a terrible mistake by one human being. I am very sorry that he happened to be an American.”
Errante scratched his back and said: “If it was a mistake, well, if it was a mistake…” And tears