Bell for Adano, A - John Hersey [97]
Tomasino looked at Major Joppolo’s face. Tomasino looked no less sad as he said: “No, I think Tina should go.
Chapter 35
AT a little before seven that evening, Major Joppolo, who was still working so as to be ahead for the next day, heard a commotion outside the door of his office. He heard a woman crying and shouting, and Zito the usher arguing with her, evidently trying to keep her out.
The Major went to the door, opened it, and told the woman to come in. She had a child in her arms.
As he went back to his desk the Major thought, without giving the thought much importance, that the child was quite a big one to be carried. The sound of the woman’s wails followed him to his desk. She held the child across her body, with its head turned toward her breast.
When the Major was seated, the woman burst into a swift hysterical flood: “He almost died of the malaria, but God saved him, oh heart of Jesus, when he had the pox Father Pensovecchio prayed over him and he was spared, oh Lord Jesus he had such beautiful little eyes the eyes of his father, oh my child, my child, I have brought him through so much and I love him so much, what shall I do?”
The woman gently laid the child down on the Major’s broad desk, and the Major saw that the child was dead. She babbled on with her hysterical, lonely talk. Major Joppolo called Zito and asked him to get Gargano. While he was waiting for Gargano, the Major tried to get the woman to tell him what had happened, but all he could get out of her, besides sobs, was more of her heartbroken babbling. Once or twice she did mention the word “truck.”
When Gargano came in, the Major asked him what had happened. Gargano did not know and went out to find out. He came back soon holding another child by the hand.
From Gargano and the boy he brought in, Major Joppolo learned that the child had been struck and killed by an American military truck, which had driven on without stopping.
The boy had been shouting for caramels along with all the other children. He and two or three others had noticed that the ones who always got the candies, when the American soldiers threw them, were the ones who were out in front. The ones who noticed this were a little bigger than the others, so they banded together into a team: one scrambled for the candies while the others joined hands and held the other children back. The others saw they were being cheated by the superior wits and strength of the team, so they in turn banded together to break through the cordon. The very first time they tried to break through, with a squealing rush, they succeeded. Their momentum threw two children against this boy, who was out front picking up the candies, and the blow threw him in front of the next truck. The bumper of the truck hit him in the forehead.
Major Joppolo did what he could to comfort the mother. He told her that she would be paid some money and that the town would try to look out for her. He sent for Signora Carmelina Spinnato, the big health officer, and asked her to take care of the woman, and to see that the child got a decent burial.
Then he turned to the woman and said: “I hope you will not hate the Americans because of this thing. Please try to remember in your grief that the reason the children were out there, running into danger, was that the Americans have been generous with them, too generous. If the Americans did not throw candies to them, they would not keep on running beside the trucks and begging. Sometimes generosity is a fault with Americans, sometimes it does harm. It has brought high prices here, and it has brought you misery. But it is the best thing we Americans can bring with us to Europe. So please do not hate the Americans.”
The woman just sobbed. Signora Carmelina Spinnato took her out.
“Gargano,” the Major said, “I’ve been afraid this would happen. It will make the children unhappy, but we are going to have to stop them from running after the candies.”
“What can we do?” Gargano said, raising his hands, palms up.
The Major said: “Tomorrow evening I want you