Free The City and the House by Natalia Ginzburg Page B

at the beginning of February. I will phone you. Piazza San Cosimato will be fine for me. It’s not in old Rome, it’s part of Trastevere, but it’s just as good.
    Nadia hasn’t had an abortion. She’s still pregnant. She will have the child in April. She’s an idiot, but she hangs on to me for dear life and I can’t get rid of her, and anyway she will pay half the rent. There will be three of us in the flat - me, Nadia, and an Italian boy I’ve met here who is called Salvatore. Don’t worry, I will pay you back the money as soon as possible.
    I shall come to collect the keys.
    Alberico

ROBERTA TO ALBERICO
    Rome, 29th January
    My dear Alberico,
    Something terrible has happened. Your Uncle Ferruccio has died. He died in Princeton, of cerebral thrombosis, whilst giving a paper at a conference. Your father and Anne Marie, your uncle’s wife - whom I’ve never met - were in the audience. They realized that he was having difficulty talking, and then they saw him turn pale and fall. He died a little later in hospital, without having regained consciousness.
    Your father phoned me from the hospital. He seemed shattered. I told him I’d leave for America immediately. I called you but you were out. I left my number but you didn’t call back. I sent you a telegram. I’m leaving. See if you can’t come too.
    Roberta

PIERO AND LUCREZIA TO GIUSEPPE
    Monte Fermo, 29th January
    Dear Giuseppe,
    Roberta phoned us a short while ago. We have heard your terrible news. I remember your brother well. I met him in Rome last year. We ate in a restaurant on via Cassia. I was there, you, Lucrezia, and perhaps Roberta. Your brother and I had a long, pleasant conversation. About America, Italy, the contemporary world. He was a very intelligent, cultured man. I realize that his death will be a great loss to you. You have not been there long. He had not been married long. A sad fate. Roberta cried when she phoned us. She’s on her way. She is a woman who is always ready to run to wherever she’s needed. She will be a comfort to you.
    Lucrezia and I feel very close to you. We send you our best love. Lucrezia wants to add a couple of words.
    Piero
    Dear Giuseppe,
    Come back. Do everything quickly and come back. We are waiting for you. You can stay at your cousin’s. Or you can come and stay with us, at Monte Fermo, for a while. The main thing is that you come away soon. What can you do there now? Your cousin will come and you must return with her, at once.
    Lucrezia

ALBINA TO SERENA
    Luco dei Marsi 8th February
    My dear Serena.
    I am at Luco dei Marsi because my mother has broken her femur. I asked for a week’s leave from school. There’s no telephone at my family’s house here. You can imagine how cheerful it is for me to be here, with no telephone, with my irritable mother, Maura and Gina being no help, my father who is getting deafer and deafer, my brother who wants his shirts ironed. I fling his shirts back at him, and then he becomes like a wild animal and the house is full of endless shouting.
    You will have heard that Giuseppe’s brother has died. Egisto told me when I phoned him from a public call-box. I remember the morning Giuseppe left. He was in a real state. He had a sore throat. His brother had written telling him that he had got married. This was worrying him. We went to the airport with him, me, his cousin Roberta, and Egisto. He isn’t the sort to move from one continent to another. He’s the sort for a sedentary life. He’s afraid of everything. He went to America in order to hide himself away under his brother’s wings. But brothers don’t have wings. Once you’ve reached a certain age you realize that either you stand on your own two feet, or you’ve had it. Giuseppe reached that age some time ago. But he has those long, skinny legs that hold him up so badly. He still has a craving to be protected. Perhaps he didn’t