Bell for Adano, A - John Hersey [99]
“If you ever get in any trouble, just come around to the Navy, and I’m sure they’ll be able to fix you up. “Yours for collaboration between the services, “Rock Robertson (Lt. Comdr., USN).”
Zito moved near to the desk while the Major read, and when he was finished, the usher said: “We have a new bell, Mister Major?”
“We have a new bell, Zito.”
“Is the tone good enough?”
“I hope so, Zito. I think so.”
“Is there some history to it?”
“Yes, Zito, I’ll tell you about it when the bell is up. Do you think I ought to make a little speech explaining the bell to the people here?”
“Oh yes, you should, Mister Major. The people of Adano will be curious about the bell.”
“Zito, do you think they will understand all that the bell means? I mean that it stands for the things that I believe in? Do you think I could explain, that to them?”
“I think so, Mister Major. I understand what you mean, and Zito is not very clever.”
A few minutes before eleven o’clock the funeral procession of the three fishermen who had been killed in the explosion went through the Piazza. Major Joppolo went out onto the balcony to watch it. At the head of the procession there were three carts. The first two carried the bodies of Agnello and Merendino. Their coffins were small dinghies such as the fishermen used to get out to their boats, with the tops planked over. The third cart, which was for Sconzo, carried a dinghy which was not planked over, but was filled with flowers.
Long before eleven thirty, Major Joppolo was out on the sidewalk beside the crated bell, waiting for the Engineers to come. He poked and shoved at the crate affectionately, as if there were something delicious to eat inside it.
The gang from the Engineer battalion was surprisingly on time. The Major explained the job, pointing to the top of the clock tower.
“How long do you think it will take?” he asked the old buck sergeant in charge.
“Well,” the sergeant said, “some days the boys gets cramps in their stomachs and they claim they shouldn’t ought to hurry when they has the cramps. Other days they don’t get no cramps. It all depends.”
“How long do you guess?”
“We’ll have it for you today or tomorrow. It all depends.”
“Try to finish today, will you?”
“It all depends,” the sergeant said, and he turned furiously on his men, who slowly gathered themselves for work.
Major Joppolo went to lunch at noon. Sergeant Borth was already in the Albergo dei Pescatori when the Major arrived. The Major sat down with Borth, as he often did, in spite of his rank.
He told Borth about the bell, and his excitement about it gave Borth something to tease.
“You’re worse than the first day we came here,” the Sergeant said.
“How am I worse?” the Major said. “You’re so damn sentimental.” “Oh, cut it out, Borth.”
Borth’s teasing cut a little deep. “No, I’m serious,” he said. “There’s a war going on. Fishermen get blown up in the harbor here. Children get run over in the streets. There’s one case of malaria in every six people. And you can’t think about anything but tinkling a bell.”
Major Joppolo said: “I’m worried about those fishermen, Borth. I could get in trouble over that. Do you think I was guilty of carelessness about it? You know I forced the Navy to let them go out.”
Purely by way of teasing, Borth said something he had cause to regret later: “Sure,” he said, “you could catch hell for that. You could get sent back to the States.”
And Major Joppolo said: “They wouldn’t do that, they couldn’t.”
Borth said: “Why the hell couldn’t they? I heard about a fellow in airborne who got sent home just for getting drunk.”
Major Joppolo said: “They couldn’t, Borth, there’s so much to do here. Think if they got somebody bad in this town. Think if