Part 7 (1/2)
”I read it. How do you think?”
Carmine rolled his eyes.
”Come on,” he said, tugging her arm, ”let me see what Peppi has to say for himself.”
Angie finally gave him the letter. While he read, she got up and went to the telephone to call Delores. The line was busy, though, so she hung up the phone and waited to try again.
Carmine looked up at her.
”The mulino was destroyed?” he said in disbelief. ”I thought you said the thing was built like a fortress.”
”That's what they told me when I was a little girl!” cried Angie. ”I never even saw the thing. Besides, even fortresses don't last forever.”
”Geez, must have been a shock for him,” said Carmine, turning his attention back to the letter. ”To go all that way for nothing.”
”Maybe now he'll come to his senses and come back home where he belongs,” said Angie.
”I don't know,” said Carmine thoughtfully. ”I wouldn't bet on it. From what he writes, I'd say he's settling in there for good.”
”What are you talking about?” said his wife, picking up the receiver. ”You think he's going to spend the rest of his life cooped up in a little apartment out in the middle of nowhere?”
Carmine shrugged and went back to reading the letter while Angie dialed Delores's number again. Annoyingly, the line was still busy. She stood there by the telephone, waiting to try once more.
”Coffee would be nice,” suggested Carmine from behind the letter.
Later, at the barber shop, Tony tried to read aloud the letter from Peppi that Carmine had dropped off. Doing so was no easy task given the constant interruptions from the others.
”So what else does he say?” asked Ralph eagerly. ”Come on, Tony, keep reading!”
”Yeah, come on,” agreed Gino and Sal.
”All right, all right,” said Tony, waving his hand at them. ”Gimme a chance here.” He held up the letter to the light. ”Okay, where was I? Here I am. He says, 'I met up with Luca on my first Sunday here just like I told you I would.'”
”How about that!” exclaimed Gino, laughing along with the others. ”After how many years?”
Tony continued reading. ”'We went on a nice long ride with a big group of riders,' he says. 'I'm a little out of shape, but Luca and the others took it easy on me. Things have changed since I left, but the region is still as beautiful as I remembered.'”
”What about the mulino?” said Ralph.
”Hold on, let's see what he says,” replied Tony. ”Blah, blah, blah. Okay, here we go. 'I had dinner with Luca and his family that night,' he says. 'The next day we went out to see the mulino.'”
”I bet it was just like he remembered,” said Ralph.
”Nah,” said Sal. ”The house you grew up in never looks the same when you go back and see it after you've grown up. It always looks way smaller. When I was a kid I thought our house in the old neighborhood was a castle. Now, when I drive by it sometimes, it looks like a little shack to me. I can't believe we all fit in it.”
”Well, you certainly couldn't fit into it now with that gut of yours,” said Gino.
”Are you guys gonna let me finish this letter or what?” said Tony.
”Go on, go on,” said Ralph. ”Keep reading.”
”All right,” Tony continued. ”'We rode our bikes out of the village but down a road I knew didn't lead to the mulino. Luca told me he just wanted to go for a longer ride, that we'd end up there later. All the while he kept saying that maybe we should go out to the mulino some other day. I couldn't figure out what was making him so anxious. It wasn't until we finally arrived there that I understood.'”
Tony paused, put the letter down, and rubbed his eyes.
”What is it?” said Sal. ”What's the matter?”
”Come on,” added Gino. ”Let's hear the rest of it.”
”If you say so,” said Tony with a grim expression. He picked the letter back up. ”'The mulino had been destroyed by an earthquake,'” he read. ”'So now my home that I came all the way back to across the ocean is nothing but a pile of rocks.'”
Stunned by the news, they all sat there without speaking.
”Che cozz'!” cried Gino, breaking the silence. ”All that friggin' way for nothing!” cried Gino, breaking the silence. ”All that friggin' way for nothing!”
”Can you believe it?” muttered Sal.
”But I don't understand,” said Ralph. ”How could something like this happen?”
The three of them carried on about the whole thing while Tony finished reading the letter to himself. When he was done, he folded it and tossed it into a drawer in the little desk he kept in the corner of the shop.
”But what's he going to do?” said Ralph. ”Where's he going to live?”
”He says he's gonna stay with Luca for now,” Tony replied. ”Other than that, I guess he's gonna wait and see.”
”Wait and see what?” said Gino. ”He should get back on a plane and come home. What's to keep him there?”
”That's probably what he wants to wait and see,” said Tony.
At that they all sat back once more and sulked in silence. The bell on the door jingled and a customer walked in for a haircut. Tony put on a smile and welcomed the gentleman. As he went to work, the others went back to reading the morning newspapers.
”The mulino,” said Ralph, scanning the obituaries. ”Destroyed. Can you believe it?”
”I can believe it,” said Gino, opening up the sports section. ”That's just Peppi's luck.”
”Yeah,” muttered Sal. ”But you know what the worst part is?”
The other two looked at him and shrugged. Sal shook his head and picked up the front page.
”No polenta”-he sighed as he began to read-”with the sausicc'... sausicc'... and the rabes.” and the rabes.”
Sal looked up just in time to get hit in the face with the towel Tony had flung at him.