Chapter 35 Rafaella #2
He nodded, his eyes wide. He knew that, clearly. It was evident from the size of the others that he was the eldest child – and without his father here, the man of the house too. ‘I went to get her food.’ He held out the pears and bread like a gift.
Her heart ached for him. ‘That was very good of you, Nico. She will be so proud of you.’
‘I’ll give it to her.’ He went to move past her, but she stopped him.
‘Nico,’ she said gently. ‘Let’s wait here while the doctor is in with your mamma.’
‘Is he making her better?’
She swallowed, knowing she couldn’t give false hope. ‘He’s trying to.’
‘Can I see her?’
‘Let’s just wait here for a few minutes, shall we?’ she said, patting the kerb beside her.
Brother Savelli crouched down in front of the boy. ‘Nico, can you tell us – how long has she been unwell?’
‘A while.’
‘OK.’ Savelli nodded but he looked concerned.
‘She had a stomach ache and then she got hot. She started making funny sounds in the night.’ He looked anxiously from the priest to Rafaella. ‘Is she going to die?’
‘The doctor’s doing everything he can to make her well again,’ she said.
‘She can’t die!’ Nico said to her desperately, as if she had the power to stop it.
‘I promise he’ll do everything in his power to help her and whatever treatment she needs, we’ll make sure she gets it.’ That was a promise she could make. She looked back at Brother Savelli. ‘Should we take the children to the hospital and get them checked over?’
‘No!’ Nico cried. ‘I’m not leaving Mamma!’
The other children squirmed too, agitated by his distress.
‘OK, OK,’ she said quickly as the little girl in her arms began to cry. ‘Shh-shh, we’ll wait to see what the doctor says first.’
They sat down again, but who knew how long they might be out here.
‘So … you’re a teacher?’ Savelli asked after a few moments.
‘Yes.’
‘Do you enjoy it?’
‘Oh, I do. I couldn’t bear to just sit around all day being …’
‘Ornamental?’
‘Something like that,’ she smiled, seeing a look in his eye, as if he recognized the plight of pretty women. ‘Besides, I believe in the value of a good education to help people lift themselves out of poverty.’
‘It’s a shame more people in your position don’t think like you.’
‘Well, I haven’t been in this “position” for very long,’ she said quickly.
‘You married well?’
‘… I suppose that’s one way of looking at it,’ she nodded. ‘How about you? Do you enjoy being in the Church?’ Was that the right term? Was one supposed to ‘enjoy’ a life of abstinence and penance?
She thought of Cosimo. How could she not?
He had hidden himself away too, trying to reject his old life – her – like a jacket that could be shrugged off.
Had it worked? Did he ever think of her anymore?
It had been three years … She had tried so hard to move on with her life, to accept their changed circumstances and to let his memory go, but it lingered like a watermark, always there.
‘It’s not without its struggles,’ he conceded frankly. ‘But that’s like anything worthwhile, I suppose. I’m told that once I’m ordained, the fun will really start … I’ll have miracles at my fingertips then.’
She looked back at him blankly, her thoughts still snagged on Cosimo.
‘That’s a joke,’ he said hurriedly, blushing furiously as he saw her slightly frozen expression.
‘Oh!’ she smiled. She wasn’t used to joking novice priests – and he didn’t look used to being one, either. His gaze lingered on her a little too long to be wholly pious and she sensed something in his manner that was resistant to his fate.
‘Signora Giannelli,’ Nico piped up beside her, interrupting them. ‘Did you come to get my lines?’
‘Oh … no, Nico …’ She shook her head, cupping his cheek with her hand as she saw his wide eyes. How much had he had to contend with, while she had been asking for lines? ‘… I came to tell you we won’t need them after all. You’re going to be just fine for next year.’
The doctor came out, wearing the same stern expression the priest had been wearing on his way in, and she understood immediately what it meant. The priest was the one working hard now.
He shook his head. ‘Too far gone … Her breathing muscles are paralysed,’ he murmured, scarcely moving his lips, but Nico was standing to attention anyway, his body rigid. ‘The children must come to say their goodbyes. Father Caputo is administering the last rites.’
‘No!’ Nico cried, dropping the food and sprinting into the house before she could catch hold of him. ‘Mamma! Mamma!’
The other children followed after him, a pitiful line of wounded animals trailing back into their cave, as heads turned on the street.
Comprehension of the situation rippled like a wave over the cobbles.
Death was recognized all too well in these parts and steadily people began to walk up, gathering outside the tiny dwelling in silence.
She followed Savelli back into the deathly space, still carrying the two smallest children.
Father Caputo was almost entirely shrouded in the darkness in his black cassock, his voice low as he administered the sacrament.
He had none of Father Tommaso’s gentle, enveloping nature but was brisk and officious, as if the dispatching of Signora Conte’s soul was something to tick off before Vespers.
The children cried and wailed as they felt heaven being called downwards to kiss their heads and take their mother away from them. Rafaella did what she could to comfort them, but they were ill too, their bodies already fighting the disease. She knew they needed medical care quickly.
Nico stood stiffly like a soldier, sobbing bitter tears as he swayed on his feet, watching Father Caputo gently close his mother’s eyes for the last time. Their father was somewhere in a city ninety kilometres from here – no one knew where exactly, nor when he would return.
She looked around the wretched home. There was almost nothing in it save a table, one chair, the bed and a wooden washing tub. It was clear they couldn’t stay here. Which prompted the question – where, then?
‘What on earth …?’ Gina stood in the doorway, taking in the sight of Rafaella feeding three filthy children at the kitchen table.
‘Allora!’ Rafaella smiled brightly; too brightly. ‘You got my message, then?’
Gina stared back with a confused look. ‘Si,’ she said warily. ‘Dante said you needed me to come over as soon as I got back.’
‘And he’s got Lorenzo?’
‘Sure,’ she nodded, coming in and standing behind a chair, as close as her belly would allow. ‘What’s going on?’ She smiled at Nico, who was pushing pasta around his plate. He had said scarcely a word since they had left his home to come here.
‘Gina, this is Nico Conte, one of the best pupils in my class,’ Rafaella said proudly – and still far too brightly. ‘And these are his little sisters, Vittoria and Caterina. They’re twins. Aren’t they beautiful?’
‘Beautiful,’ Gina cooed, but there was concern in her eyes; she had an instinct for crisis, and this was very clearly a crisis.
‘Nico, I’m just going to run a bath for you all. Will you be a big boy and help the girls to eat up?’
He nodded, watching cautiously as Rafaella caught Gina by the elbow and led her through into the hall. Her villa wasn’t as grand as her friend’s but it still had a genteel air with noble proportions and was a palazzo in comparison to what she’d visited earlier.
‘Rafa, what is going on?’ Gina whispered. ‘Where did you find these kids?’
‘Their mother died this morning. From polio.’
‘Polio?’ Gina gasped, retreating immediately, her hand pressed protectively over her swollen stomach. ‘But that’s so contagious! How could you let me come here—?’
‘Don’t worry, they’re fine. I’ve been at the hospital all afternoon getting them checked.
Turns out they were given the vaccine a few weeks ago and it’s worked, thank God.
Mainly they’re malnourished and sick from living in squalid conditions – there’s another two brothers and a sister who’ve been admitted with pneumonia.
Gina, they’re all under ten.’ Her eyes shone with pain.
‘The mother had been ill for a few weeks and lost the ability to walk and take care of them. The neighbours didn’t realize the full extent of it.
Nico was covering for her, pretending everything was OK. ’ She pressed her hands over her mouth.
Gina took a breath, ever the logic to Rafaella’s emotion – the very reason why Rafaella had called her over. ‘Where’s the father?’
‘In Brindisi, looking for work. No one knows where he is or when he’s coming back.’
‘Or if he’s coming back,’ Gina said worriedly. ‘He wouldn’t be the first man to taste freedom again and turn his back on all that …’
‘I know; that’s what I’m worried about.’
‘How did you even end up getting involved?’
‘Nico’s in my class. He was going to fail the year unless he handed in an assignment.
His attendance had been patchy in the last few weeks and he didn’t come in for the final two days of term – now I know why,’ she sighed.
‘I went round, intending to sit down and do it with him. Instead I found the mother literally taking her last breaths and all these sick children lying on her.’
‘My God, that’s awful.’
‘It really was. I found a doctor working nearby with some priests who’ve been trying to help the sick. They were the ones who had convinced the mother to give her children the vaccine.’
‘So then why didn’t she have it, too?’
‘The doctor said she didn’t want it. The number of adult cases is so low – less than five per cent – she thought only the children were at risk.’
Gina winced. ‘Have they got any other family here?’
‘We don’t know yet. Brother Savelli is going to ask around.’
‘Brother Savelli?’
‘The seminarian who was working with the priest today. He helped me take the children to the hospital.’
‘Oh.’ Gina frowned, thinking it all through. ‘So if they don’t have family here, and the father doesn’t come back …?’
‘Well, that’s a lot of ifs. We’ve got to hope for the best.’
‘But if …?’ Gina pressed.
Rafaella inhaled sharply. ‘Then they’ll end up in the orphanage. In Lecce.’
‘Oh, Rafa,’ Gina whispered, putting her hands over her face. ‘This is not what I thought you wanted to talk about.’
‘Tell me about it,’ Rafaella muttered. She glanced at Gina. ‘Wait – why? What did you think I wanted to talk about?’
‘Well, when Dante said you needed to see me, I assumed it was because of … you know, the Franchetti thing.’
Rafaella felt the walls of the villa bow inwards. ‘… What Franchetti thing?’
Gina looked surprised. ‘Fon hasn’t told you?’
‘Fon’s not here,’ she said, struggling to keep her voice level. ‘What’s happened to Cosimo?’ She braced herself for whatever was coming, but her heart had gone into an immediate gallop.
‘It’s not Cosimo,’ Gina said, putting a hand on her arm, seeing how her cheeks had paled. ‘It’s Fede.’
‘Fede?’ Rafaella frowned. She saw his name in the newspapers occasionally. He was a big legal hotshot in Rome now; some people were even talking about him as a future state attorney general. ‘Is he OK?’
‘We don’t know. Apparently he was attacked outside his office today—’
‘What?!’
‘People witnessed it. He was bundled into a car and driven away …’ Gina blinked back at her with big brown eyes. ‘Raf, they think he’s been kidnapped.’