History (108 page)

When they reached the bank of the river, the clouds were gathering at the end of the horizon, like a long chain of mountains around the limpid, radiant sky. The ground still hadn't had time to dry out after the rain of the last few days, and even the water of the river was muddied by it, and the whole bank was deserted. At the sight of the water, Useppe instinc tively drew back towards the hill; then walking, he heard again in his memory Scim6's promise to teach him how to swim, and, at the same time, the warning that on Sunday the fi show at the movies began at three. Perhaps they were already too late to meet Scim6; and Bella confi this suspicion of his : it was defi tely past three . . . As they were nearing the hut, Useppe had already lost any hope of fi his friend there today.

At their fi glance inside the hut, they saw somebody must have visited it in Scim6's absence, looting it and leaving it in disorder. "The

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Pirates!" Useppe cried, with extreme agitation. The contents of the mat tress, including the camoufl tunic, were scattered on the ground, near the collapsed sack; and both the alarm and the fl had vanished. 111e candle stub, instead, was still in its place on the stone; and it was further ascertained that the chief treasures, also kept in the mattress, were fortunately safe! Above all, the famous medal of the Giro, in good condi tion, though without its double wrapping which, anyway, Useppe soon found in the midst of the rags. And also the buckle with the diamonds, and even the colored comb! Useppe retained in his memory a precise count of these possessions. The only one missing, goodness knows why, was the (half) windshield-wiper. The cans of meat, etc., were also gone, but these could easily have been eaten in the meanwhile by Scim6 himself.

Sniffi around, with her fi detective sense of smell, Bella fi dismissed the Pirate hypothesis. To judge by the smell, here they were dealing with a single person, perhaps having come in to get out of the rain because, among other things, the place stank of dampness. Other recogniz able stinks were : sheep and old age. It must then have been an old shep herd : and obviously a bald one, since he had neglected to take the comb.

Though cross, Useppe smiled with futile relief : such an old man didn't seem too dangerous. And for that matter, the famous band of Pirates would surely not have been content with mere theft, in its terrible attacks! Useppe had never forgotten the list of their misdeeds, as Scim6 had enumerated them to him! He carefully started tidying up Scim6's property, fl at random on the ground : he wrapped the medal in its double protection, after having shined it as best he could with the hem of his shirt, and he replaced it with the camoufl tunic and the various objects inside the mattress-cover. Among other things, he came upon the

briefs, still wet and stiffened by the dampness. And here, suddenly a suspi cion (previously rejected by his though ts ) went through him, like
·
a bitter

taste: this hut was now uninhabited. Scim6 didn't sleep here any more . . . But at that instant, Bella, busily sniffi the mattress, declared with the self-important tone of a Chief Inspector:

"Very recent odor of Scim6! No more than three hours old! Our friend slept here until noon!!"

Here the reality, alas, was diff t: so then, either the distraught Bella's scent was deceiving her (something that can happen to any detec tive, even the most illustrious ) or else she was bluffi or lying outrage ously, having guessed Useppe's suspicions. This time, too, the surm is not impossible : animals, like all outcasts, are occasionally inspired by an almost divine genuis . . . In any event, her pronouncement was enough to reassure Useppe, who immediately laughed, consoled.

It was decided that today Bella would remain on the alert, like an anti-

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theft guard, against any possible attempt on Scim6's property. Meanwhile, when the hut was neat again, the two went off together to the tree tent. The ceiling of air had now become all radiant and clear to the farthest horizon; and Useppe, after hoisting himself eff to his usual branch, had the surprise of hearing many little bird-voices singing the well-known song : "It's a joke a joke all a joke" . . . etc. The strange thing was that the singers' bodies couldn't be seen; and even their voices, though in chorus, sounded almost imperceptible, so they seemed to be whistling the song in his ear, meaning only him to hear it. Confused, Useppe explored the terrain with his eyes lowered : the fi the trunks; then he stared upwards.

But down below there was only Bella sniffi the air, and above only fl

of swallows could be seen, fl in silence. In the end, as happens on occasion when you stare at a sight for a long time, his gaze saw the sky refl the earth : something like his dream of the previous Saturday, only in reverse. And since he had now forgotten that dream, the sight produced in him a double wonder: of the presence now, and of the unconscious reminiscence. I think there was also a play of certain scientifi terms, mysterious to him, which he had heard from Davide the Sunday before : "rain forests, and . . .
nebulas,
no, nebular, and half-submerged . . ." be cause, refl in the sky, the earth seemed all a marvelous aquatic vegeta tion, peopled with wild animals who cavorted everywhere, swimming or hopping among the branches. In the distance, those animals seemed so small they looked like the minnows and the almost microscopic birds sold at fairs in cages or glass bowls; but as his pupils gradually became accus tomed to them, Useppe represented in their persons many species of little Ninuccias and nephews of Scim6, more or less as in his forgotten dream. And all of them, truly, made no sounds, or at least the distance prevented him from hearing them; however, like Oriental mimes, they spoke with the movements of their bodies, and their language was not diffi It isn't actually sure they said : "it's a joke, a joke, all a joke." But undoubtedly the meaning was the same.

The spectacle amused Useppe like a divine tickling; and at the very moment it was vanishing, he invented the following poem :

"Th sun is like a big tree that has nests inside.

And it sounds like a male cicada and like the sea and it plays with the shadow like a little cat."

At the word
cat
Bella pricked up her ears and gave a humorous bark, interrupting the poem. This, as far as I know, was Useppe's last poem.

After a vision or a mirage, the real dimensions of phenomena may take

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time to reassert themselves. For an interval, the senses, especially sight and hearing, may expand external eff to an abnormal extent. Suddenly, a terrible explosion of voices reechoed from the shore to Useppe's ears; and his eyes saw a company of giants descend from an enormous ship on the shore.

"The Pirates!" he cried, precipitously hurrying down from his branch, while Bella, in alarm, was already fl ahead of him out of the tree tent towards the hut. Having arrived there, the two stopped, taking positions behind the edge of the hollow, as if in a trench. Bella, eager for the assault, was already emitting some low and menacing growls; but Useppe silenced her with a hiss, remembering that those Pirates, among other things, "killed animals," according to Scim6's report.

It's rather unlikely this was really the famous river gang. From the boat (a kind of old raft with two oars), now tied up among the reeds, about seven or eight males had disembarked, all under fourteen, at least to look at them; and a couple ( the most enthusiastic, indeed ) were little first grade kids. None of them seemed to answer the description of the terrible chieftain Agusto; nor was this name heard among the many with which they called one another, shouting. If there was a chief among them, he could perhaps be identifi in a skinny half-adolescent, with a grumpy face, named Raf, who seemed, however, to take pride in keeping them all under control, rather than urging them on. He treated them with condescension as if he thought them a bunch of snotnoses. In short, this didn't seem a real band, but only a Sunday boatload of little urchins, beginners : still capable, most of them, of crying if their mothers whacked them!

But for Useppe and Bella, their identity remained certain: they were the notorious Pirates, killers and looters, enemies of Scim6! On guard, with her ears half-erect and her tail taut at the line of her back, Bella felt she had returned to her ancestral origins, when from the far edge of the steppe, towards sunset, the hordes of wolves were awaited!

The sun was now blazing; and the fi act of those characters, as soon as they landed, was to undress and take a swim. To the trench, from below, came the racket of their fi dives, and shouts,. which in Useppe's ears were enlarged infi "Stay here!" he kept ordering Bella, his whole body trembling, though he remained standing straight, ready for the signal of the siege, like a barricadiero. It must have been about half past four, when the signal went off, and for him it was as if a great black smoke invaded the little hollows and the wood. The Pirates' voices were coming nea "Hey, Piero! Hey, Mariuccio!!" they called one another along the hill, "come here, dammit! Raf! Raaf!" Th is no knowing what their intentions were then : perhaps it was the fi time they had come swi ming in this place, and they simply wanted to explore inland, running

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around here and there . . . Suddenly, Useppe saw their GIGANTIC forms advancing towards the trench.

"Stay here!" he repeated to Bella, agitated. And at the same time, he ran to a heap of stones Scim6 kept near the hut, as a doorstop. "I don't want! I don't want!" he grumbled, arming himself, his face fl shed by an access of terrible wrath. And having run up to the top of the hollow, he shouted to the advancing forces, with fury :

"Go 'way! Go 'way!" Then, imitating their own language ( which, for that matter, he had long since acquired in his various neighborhoods ) he supported his threat, adding with the same ferocious emphasis :

"Bastards! Sonsabitches! Fuckoff

In reality, the eff of that tiny pygmy must have been rather comical, with his red and enraged face, and the two pebbles in his hands, as he presumed to drive a whole band from the scene. And in fact, they really didn't take him seriously; only the youngest of all (about his own age) said to him, snickering, with a superior manner, "What's wrong with you, kid?", while the other little one, who made a pair with him, imitated his sneer. But at that same moment Raf intervened, stopping them halfway across the fi :

"Hey, watch out for the dog!"

Coming around, from the bottom of the hollow, Bella had instantane ously appeared to reinforce Useppe; but to tell the truth, it would have been hard to recognize her in the terrifying monster now confronting the band and making it draw back. With her jaws wide and her fi teeth bared, her big eyes resembling two pieces of volcanic glass, her ears taut in triangles that broadened her brow, she was letting out a low snarl, more fearsome than a howl. And climbing to Useppe's side, there on the trench, she seemed a colossal bulk, such was the violence that swelled the muscles from her chest to her withers to her ready fetlocks, in a fever to attack. "Hey, that animal bites! He's mad!!" voices were heard to exclaim in the troop of tough kids; and one of them, at this point, picked a stone from the ground, or so at least it seemed to Useppe, and advanced threateningly towards Bella. Useppe's face was distraught: "I don't want! I don't want!" he burst out. And furi he hurled his stones towards the clump of enemies, failing, I believe, to hit anyone.

It's diffi to describe the brawl that followed immediately after wards, its duration was so brief: actually only a few seconds. We must suppose Bella fl herself forward, and Useppe followed her to defend her; and the
Pirates,
having caught that daring kid in their midst, slammed him around a bit to punish him, maybe hitting him a couple of times. But the strange expression that meanwhile had appeared on his face made one

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of them say : "Aw, leave him alone! Can't you see he's simple-minded?!" And here, suddenly, in the midst of the tumult, an incident took place, dismaying the little band, which didn't understand its nature. At the point when the kid, fl around in the gang, opened his eyes wide and let his jaws sag like an idiot, the dog became miraculously sweet. She seemed to beseech them all; and she ran towards the kid like a ewe towards the lamb, transforming her earlier growl into a very soft whimper. Among those present, she alone, as far as we can understand, was able to recognize the cry that came from the child's contracted throat, while his body, falling backwards, rolled down the inside slope of the trench. For the others, who had no practical experience of certain fi the obscure event took on the appearance of a catastrophe. They stood there a moment, looking at each other, dumbfounded, without the courage to peer over the edge of the hollow, from which a kind of breathless rattle was heard. A moment later, when Raf and another of his buddies took a look down, the child, now that the convulsion stage had passed, was lying immobile, with a dead face. The dog was circling around him, trying to call him with her little animal moan. A thread of bloody foam escaped his clenched lips.

They surely must have thought they had killed him. "Let's get out of here!" Raf said, turning to the others, all white in the face, "we better clear out fast. Come on, don't act like dopes! Out!" The patter of their fl towards the landing-place could be heard, and the murm of their con fabulations (Me, what did I do to him? You were the one who hit him

. . . sshhh . . . let's pretend we didn't see . . . don't say a word to anybody . . . ) as they embarked, with the fi rustle of the oars. This time, only Bella was present when Useppe reopened his eyes, without memory, with his usual faint, spellbound smile. Gradually, from little changes in his face, you coud observ his passage across the various
thresh olds of vigilance,
as the doctors say. Suddenly, he turned his head slightly, looking to either side with suspicion.