Parent and child -- Fiction; Sardinia (Italy) -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Unmarried mothers -- Fiction
Till evening, mother and son wandered about Nuoro. At last they went
into a church. Many people were there, the altar flamed with candles,
sweet singing was blended with a sound still sweeter which came the boy
knew not whence. Ah! that was something really beautiful! Anania thought
of Zuanne and the pleasure of describing his adventures.
Olì whispered in his ear--
"Don't move till I come back. I'm going to find the friend at whose
house we shall sleep."
He remained alone at the bottom of the church. It was alarming, but he
encouraged himself looking at the people, the candles, the flowers, the
saints. Also he had the charm hidden on his breast. That was a comfort.
Suddenly he remembered his father. Where was he? Why ever didn't they go
and find him?
Olì soon returned. She waited till the service was over, then took her
boy's hand and led him out by a side door. They walked down several
streets. At last they got beyond the houses. It was late, it was cold;
Anania was hungry and thirsty. He felt sad, and thought of Aunt
Grathia's hearth, of the roast chestnuts, and of Zuanne's chatter. They
were in a lane bordered by hedges; the mountains, which seemed so small
to the child, were visible.
"Look here," said Olì, and her voice shook, "did you notice the last
house with the big open door?"
"Yes."
"Your father's in there. You want to see him, don't you? Turn back and
go in at the big door. You'll find another door straight before you. It
will be open. Go in by that door, and look about you. It's a press where
they make oil. A tall man with his sleeves turned up and his head bare
is walking behind the horse. That is your father."
"Aren't you coming too?" asked the boy.
Olì shuddered. "I'll come presently. You must go in first. When you see
him, say, 'I am the son of Olì Derios!' Do you understand? Come along!"
They turned back. Anania felt his mother's hand shake and he heard her
teeth chatter. They stopped at the big door; she bent down, arranged the
charm round the child's neck and kissed him. "Go on," she said, giving
him a push.
Anania entered. He saw the other door, faintly illuminated, and went on.
He found himself in a black, black place, lighted only by a red furnace
upon which a cauldron was seething. A black horse went round and round,
turning a large, heavy, very oily wheel in a sort of round vat. A tall
man, bareheaded, with his sleeves turned up and all his clothes stained
black with oil, followed the horse, stirring the crushed olives in the
vat with a wooden pole. Two other men moved backwards and forwards,
pushing a screw fixed in a press, from which flowed the black and
steaming oil. Before the fire sat a boy with a red cap.
It was this boy who first saw the stranger child.
"Get out!" he shouted.
Anania, frightened, but encouraged by the thought of his amulet, did not
speak. He gazed about him, bewildered, and expecting his mother to come
in. The man with the pole looked at him with shining eyes, then asked--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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