The Glassblower of Murano - Marina Fiorato [67]
`I will,' she replied.
The oak door closed and she headed down the stairs.
I wonder how he knew?
CHAPTER 21
The Island of the Dead (part 1)
The number 41 vaporetto to the Isola San Michele resembled a flower garden. On this day, the festival of All Souls, Venetians all honoured their dead with floral tributes, and headed for the cemetery on the island of San Michele. Leonora was pressed close to Alessandro, but equally close on her other side was a sizeable matron carrying an immense bunch of chrysanthemums. Leonora stared at the huge ugly blooms, and breathed their pungent antiseptic scent. She had never liked the flower - not just for aesthetic sensibilities, but because she associated them with death. Looking around the boat, she could see that, as in France also, chrysanthemums were indeed the flower of choice for mourners.
Leonora and Alessandro had caught the boat from the Fondamenta Nuove. It was a short crossing - indeed the cemetery with its red walls and cloistered gates could be clearly seen from the city islands. Leonora was thankful for the brevity of the trip. With the crush of people and the smell of boat fuel, her nausea had returned. She moved closer to Alessandro and he dropped a reassuring kiss on her head - as he would to a child, she thought. She had told him that he needn't come with her, but he had protested that he wished to visit his grandmother's grave anyway. She knew this was only partly true - that he was there in support of her and her meeting with her father. She felt a warm thankfulness replace the sickness in her solar plexus. When he was with her she believed in him. She almost began to feel secure, that they had something like a relationship.
They disembarked with the crowds, and entered the iron gates of the cemetery. Alessandro steered Leonora to a booth where one could purchase a map of the gravesites.
`There are three cemeteries here,' said Alessandro `all tended by Fransiscan monks as they always have been. Although as you'll see, a little more care is taken of the Catholic plots than those of the other two - the Protestants and the Greek orthodox,' he smiled wryly, `so your father and my nonna are fortunate'
Leonora registered his flippant ghoulishness and considered that it was his way of dealing with death. She was curious about this strange island where only the dead dwelt. She had the feeling that she would not like to live along the Fondamenta Nuove, where fancy would lead one to the window of an evening to watch for phosphorescent spirits rising over the sea. She gave herself a little shake and asked, `When did this island become a cemetery?'
`In the days of Napoleon. Before that, the dead were taken to Sant'Ariano, which is just an ossuary now.'
`A what?'
`An island of bones.'Alessandro seemed to taste the words, as if contemplating the title for a sensational novel. `When the time runs out for the bodies here, they get shifted away to make way for new ones.!
'What can you mean?'
Alessandro led her up the tended pathway to the Catholic quarter. `I mean that Venetians are only allowed to be buried here for a certain length of time, after which they are dug up and moved.' He caught the look on Leonora's face. `It has to be so. Because of room - it's limited.' He shrugged, callously.
`I didn't mean that ...'
`Oh, I see. You mean you think he might not still be here? He will. You get forty years I think. And if your relatives pay, you can stay longer.'
Leonora suddenly felt angry as she followed Alessandro through the quiet courts. She felt that there was no permanence, no rest for these people. But as she watched the mourners walking quietly between the graves, like flowing water that would always find its way between and round its obstacles, she relented. This end, this rest that was not rest, was a fitting end for the shifting, itinerant seafaring people. Venetians lived their lives crossing from island to island, from Rialto to San Marco, Giudecca to Lido,Torcello to Murano. Why not continue after death, this relentless flux, with