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Show j'$ifi Joiin tiers eu " V Till" FAR: The Amcrl-I"6 Amcrl-I"6 ST rrlvcd atAdano, IU. Major tonM" Natl.. II. arranged ,Bl .to PC""" tl" Bshormcn to i,DJm Despite order, to- JorJoPPO.0 recalled the ?mlt food and water to enter "Ct former mayor ol Ada- J I from hldlnlt, but wai placed r"' t il tt. M.-jor to .av. him rJied mob. Ho was or- ftl'Srt dlUy "Pent dm. '"" cnAPTERXI rning Tomasino the fisher-0ne fisher-0ne morning .Trr,olo at here. Mister Major. That wet stone" I she pointed at Tomasino "almost "al-most refused to go and ask you." Captain Purvis said: "Where are these pretty mackerel the old flsh-hound flsh-hound is supposed to have? Say, Major, we got to make a deal here! Giuseppe here says he thinks I'd like the dark one best." Giuseppe put in a word for his loyalty: "I'm a save a blonde for you, boss." Major Joppolo really didn't know what to say. Giuseppe said quickly to the fat Rosa, "Where are the girls?" The mother said: "If you think you can hurry two pretty girls trying try-ing to make themselves prettier, you'll find them in the bedroom." Major Joppolo was alarmed to see Tomasino, "and get a bottle of Marsala." Mar-sala." Wine on top of torrone, and probably prob-ably mixed right up with it Major Joppolo could think of nothing less tempting, but Captain Purvis, hearing hear-ing the word vino, shouted: "Vino, hurray for vino." Major Joppolo stood up and said: "Purvis, either you shut your big trap or I'll throw you out of here." Captain Purvis said: "Aw come on. Major, don't be a spoil sport You know you feel the same way, If you were Just honest enough to say so." "Shut up, Purvis!" The Major's eyes blazed. "That's an order. Now you behave yourself." Captain Purvis stood up and sa- lntoH ... 'ji Giuseppe get up and go into the bedroom. He wondered what kind of girls these were, anyhow. But in a few moments Giuseppe came back, leading a girl by each hand. He had apparently explained the situation to the girls, because Tina went directly to Major Joppolo, Jop-polo, shook his hand, and sat down beside him, and the dark one, Fran-cesca, Fran-cesca, went straight to Captain Purvis, Pur-vis, shook his hand, and sat down by him. "Mmm," said Captain Purvis, "not bad." He felt secure in the certainty that the girls did not speak English. "Take It easy," Major Joppolo said. Tina said In Italian: "I heard you breathing In church last Sunday. Tomasino came back with the wine, and Captain Purvis saluted the bottle, bending slightly at the waist and aiming the breakaway of the salute straight at the bottle. Rosa, sensing that something was wrong, shouted desperately: "My I buy, my buy!" But nobody laughed. Tina jumped up and said: "Let's dance," and she ran over to the radio ra-dio and turned on Radio Moscow. "Moscow always has the best music," mu-sic," she said. Francesca, with Major Joppolo'i help, carried the table from the middle of the room to the end away from the radio. Captain Purvis rushed over to Rosa, held out his arms, and said: "Okay, fatso, left dance." S"o, zo As he r entered the e PS nd even as he walked into Woffle? he looked like an P Ln-seer. His neck bent Thl, eyes wandered ' rt in dull amazement, or Colo was pleased to see X "id cheerfully: "Good -fffflST -e changed furious to suller , and he ..id. did not want to do it. Do what, Tomasino?" tome to the place of authority U Palazzo. I have never done it JTmj We. My wife made me do ""Why? What did she want?" ,ae said that if you had low-Ked low-Ked yourself to come and see me flsh-boat, I could lower my-to my-to go and see you in the Palaz-f Palaz-f she wanted me to Invite you to "me to our house tonight to help lome torrone which my daugh- Tin. made. My wife is a diffl-woman. diffl-woman. I hate her. She thinks du the authority in my house. Major Joppolo said: "Please be lo od .s to tell your wile that m though her husband was so Kluctant in the delivery of her mes-ge, mes-ge, the Major would be delighted to accept." .... Tomasino .aid: "I am of half Bind not to tell her. I tate to. Promptly at nine o'clock Major joppolo knocked on the door at S Via Vittorio Emanuele. Tomasino Vint did not Show ttosa understood irom nis gesiures what he meant, and she stood up laughing. The tipsy Captain and his huge partner careened around the room. After a couple of turns Eosa collapsed into a chair. Then Captain Purvis danced with Francesca, and Major Joppolo with Tina. They stamped and laughed and talked above the music until Tomasino said glumly: "You are making too much noise. You will wake the girls." Tina ran over and toned the radio down a little. "The girls?" the Major said. Tina blushed. She said: ' "My sister's daughters." "Francesca's?" "Oh, no, of my sister who is in " ""j w openeu uic uwi the slightest pleasure at having a TUitor. "Come In," he grumbled. The Major stepped In and tried to shake his hand but could not find j it in the dark. "We have to climb many stairs, j Tomasino complained. I As a matter of fact, there was only one flight. At the top of it they tamed into a brightly lighted hallway. Tomasino led the Major through the hallway to a narrow parlor. par-lor. This parlor belied the unsociability unsocia-bility oi Tomasino, for its furniture consisted almost exclusively of chairs a sure sign, in Adano, of frequent and numerous guests. Betides Be-tides the chairs there were only a large Italian radio in one corner and a round table in the center. The room was so narrow that from the chairs on either side one could reach whatever was on the table. Home." Major Joppolo did not think to ask why the daughters were In Ada-no Ada-no and the mother in Rome; or why Tina blushed; or why she did not seem very anxious to talk any more about the sleeping girls. "Let's dance some more," she said. So they danced until they were both sweating in the midsummer heat. It was Tina who said: "Some fresh air. Mister Major?" He said: "That would be a good idea-" . Tina said: "We can go right out here." She slipped out through wooden shutter doors onto a narrow balcony bal-cony over the dark street, and the Major followed her. Tina closed the shutter doors behind be-hind the Major. The two stood against the cool iron "I've never been so happy In my life." You ought to take more exercise, Two guests naa arnvea ueiuic the Major, and their identity surprised sur-prised him. "Hi, Major," said Captain Purvis, Pur-vis, who looked as if he had been Into a couple of bottles of wine, "Giuseppe told me the old fish-hound fish-hound here had a couple of pretty daughters. I was getting kinda lone-lome. lone-lome. Giuseppe here told me he'd bring me up. Good old Giuseppe." "Good night, a boss," said Giu-leppe. Giu-leppe. He was much embarrassed; he had had no idea that the Major muld show up. The Major was Just as embarrassed embar-rassed as Giuseppe. He was thinking think-ing oi those sentences from the Am-got Am-got notebook: "Don't play favorites. .. Be careful about invitations. invita-tions. . . ." "Why, hello," the Major said. "Haven't seen the quail yet," Cap-bin Cap-bin Purvis said. "The old lady's out In the kitchen. She's a honey." The Major sat down stiffly. Mister Major. Major Joppolo said: "I was late, I was very late. I got working on something, and I lost track of time. I had to run to church. It was very embarrassing." Tina said: "You had Father Pen-sovecchio Pen-sovecchio worried. I could tell by the way he got mixed up in his serv-ice serv-ice " Major Joppolo said: "Do you go to church every Sunday?" Tina said: "Of course Major Joppolo was able to talk with Tina, interrupted only once in a while by bursts from the mother and gales of laughter all around the room! except from Tomasino, who stared moodily at the floor. The Major said: "Do you always bo to the Church of San Angelo? gTnis time It was to Mushed "No." she said. Giu-1 Giu-1 seppe told me you were going to t there I wanted to see what American Major was like. Mo. of the balcony railing and looked up at the sharp stars. Tina said: "Do you like it here?" Major Joppolo said: "I've never been so happy in my life." "That seems strange," Tina ialtJ, "when you're so far from home. "Im not so far from home, In way Florence is almost a home to me My father and mother were from a little town near Florence. "Where are you from, in America Ameri-ca I mean?" "The Bronx, Tina. ' "Where is that, the Bronx? "Ne'w York." "The Bronx is part of New York Sometimes I think New York Citv is part of the Bronx. Oh I should love to go there. Is the' Bronx beautiful? Is it beau-tfuTfor beau-tfuTfor Florentine, In the Bronx? How would it be for someone from AFnor?"my Florentine parent,, I Captain Purvis said: "Say, I " didn't know you were an old hand round here, you dog. Why don't Jou tell me about these good things? Vou old bum, I thought you never dil anything but work. Tell me, how are these chickens?" Major Joppolo said weakly: "I haven't seen the girls, except one of Hem In church. This is my first ime here." ; Captain Purvis, who was unques-Ai unques-Ai tionably tipsy, said: "Hey, speak-" speak-" lg ol chickens, I heard one the oth- 1 day. You remember where Hoo-,e' Hoo-,e' said once that he was going to x It so there would be a chicken lo every pot? Well, I heard the oth-tr oth-tr day that after the U.S. Army was 'round these Italian towns for a rr whlle there was going to be a chlck-' chlck-' on every lap." hi The Captain roared with laugh- Giuseppe, although he had no 4 WM what the point was, laughed !ely. The Major was horrified. n "masino sat in depressed silence, ?l. ""demanding nothing. Tomasino's wife came in from ,w kitchen with a platter of tor- ,.j e and saved the day. She must tb- ave weighed two hundred and fifty " tounds. She put the candy down, j' Giuseppe Jumped to his feet and uced the Major to Tomasino's a Her name was Rosa. V 10 Sh'4 ta her husky fat lady'S , ice: "I am delighted to see you Sundays I go to the unurcn u XtTloo said: "What' did n think of the American Major?" y"th "He breathes very SS organ at the Benedettini." The Major laughed. Have a piece of torrone," Tina ij "T made it." One could not very well turn down an invitation put just that way so candy was passed .11 a 'stopped Noting could be I' rd except the crunching of nuts heard except smacking b6tTof bo fed sugar coming unsound un-sound of boue th.s Ume stuck from teett. coMn,t 0f chewing. MaIr it was to around d elng of torrone, but that seemed t0ePrdgarrX Major Joppolo athr weincomegto. a glue fac try?" Tina said to the Another piece, Major cordially.' Major "In a few minutes, said. -nme wine," the ..We must have some , fat and happy Bf."' said to , m the kitchen, fool, think it Is beautiful, yes, It is oeau-$f oeau-$f in Italy they were Just poor 0ic and you know it is not lltl here There my father U a waner He has a very good Job, In tte University Club, it i, a very . Vnsnhere all the chair, are rrUr leP to the Palazzo and the .re Pa"eUed' My m0eI I washing machine. Father ha. WIU very beautiful for them. J think. For me it was not wavs so beautiful. Whv not, Mister Major?" ..11 it's hard to explain. You Wwrew up m America. I could S6e' Jit the Bronx wa, not the see that the America. I mSt bewand WUe more than STffi.Tiott know, it's hard to I .'"said Tina, "you don't have in In I know what it is to be resr Th'at's why my hair U blonde, had made up hi, Mair. t Tta hair wa, dyed. dhIH didn't expect her to talk "0h' oed it because I was not M3-10flrV M7 dark hair was my satisfied. MJ had dark hair. fTanted something diiTerent." 1 ,TO BE CONTINUED) |