Bell for Adano, A - John Hersey [91]
Tina looked up with a question in her eyes.
“He was alive,” Nicolo said. “He spoke a little. I tried to do what I could for him, but he had lost too much blood.”
Tina said pathetically, knowing what the answer would be: “Did he speak my name?”
Nicolo said: “Tina, I have been beside many men who died in this war and no one of them ever mentioned a woman when he died. Men do not talk that way when they die. They talk about their stomachs and they swear, but they do not mention the names of women. I remember he said a snatch from the Litany of the Blessed Virgin, and he asked me to move his head to one side, it would be easier that way, but when I did he asked me to move it back. And then he died, Tina.”
Tina put her head down again and said: “Not even in battle.”
Nicolo reached out his hand and took Tina’s hand and said: “Oh, yes, it was in battle. It was Giorgio’s battle, Tina. When I fired the shots officers came and they thought Giorgio was one of the drunks, so he will never get a medal. But Tina, no Italian has died more bravely in this war. Look at me! The drunks and I, we were all captured in the morning. I am ashamed of myself, and the shame I feel and the awful shame the drunks feel and all Italian soldiers feel - we were weak, Tina - the shame will hurt our country for many years. Our only chance is to remember men like Giorgio. If we couldn’t go down fighting the way he wanted us to, we can remember the ones like him who did.”
Major Joppolo wanted to help. “That’s right, Tina,” he said.
Nicolo said to the Major: “You see, we are very mixed up. We had no cause to fight for that appealed to us. Do your men?”
Major Joppolo said: “I don’t know, Nicolo. I think the cause is there, all right. We’ve got to get rid of the bad men, and the Germans have some, and I’m afraid you did - and of course we have some, too. I just don’t know whether our soldiers think much about causes. That’s one thing that worries me about this war.”
Nicolo said: “That’s what worries me, too. Giorgio was an exception.”
Major Joppolo said: “That’s true, he was. He would have been an exception on our side, too.”
Captain Purvis said: “Look at that sonofabitch holding hands with your girl, Major, you ought to root him in the tail and teach him a lesson.”
Major Joppolo took Tina home and spent the afternoon with her. He was wonderfully gentle with her. His sympathy seemed to help her, and quite often she looked up into his face in a way which gave him a feel, ing in the chest.
Finally he said to her: “Tina, I don’t know whether it’s fair to say this now, this afternoon, but I’m going to say it anyhow. Tina, I - well, maybe I’d better wait and tell you another time.”
She looked up into his face in a way that made him think she was disappointed, but she said very softly: “Maybe you’d better.”
He said: “I’ll tell you at the party on Friday.”
She repeated softly: “On Friday.” And then she looked away and said: “You know, it’s very strange, but I never knew whether I loved Giorgio. I admired him and sometimes I was afraid of him, and he meant very much to me in ways. But his flesh was very cold. His mind was very stubborn. I still don’t know...”
She started crying again.
Chapter 32
IN Lojacono’s studio - if a single room with small winows could be called a painter’s studio - a delegation of town officials stood around and criticized as the whitehaired artist tried to work.
The old man stood before two easels. One held his unflnished painting, the other