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sometimes when I lie and look from my bed at the window,
with the chestnut tree outside, I think Josipina is up there
with the birds sleeping in the tree.
And I watch her. She smiles and slowly picks up some
pasta. Mama says Josipina is educated, that she’s a teacher,
but Giacomino said she should stay at home and look after
the children. Poor Josipina, Mama says sometimes as we
stand by the window, looking at the place where Mama had
the best day in her life. The first day they were married,
Giacomino hit her. Josipina cried, says Mama, because she
was happy to have married Giacomino, but he didn’t know
she was crying because she was happy, and he hit her. Poor
Josipina, says Mama, she’s never cried since. And I watch
her. I think I haven’t seen her for a long time, only once
when Karlo took me to her, because mama was tired and
Elizabeta was ill. I know Karlo took me to her. I see her
small apartment, I see Giacomino lying on the bed without
clothes, reading a book. I hear Josipina tell me how he has
read that book a few times already, then I hear her tell him
to get dressed, then I see him get up from the bed and I see
something dangling between his legs until he puts his pants
on. Then I’m there, I know, in her kitchen and her children
are with me, two boys. Mama says they’re the same age as
me, that they’re my nephews and that they never come to
visit. Mama says she’s their nona and it would be nice if my
nephews sometimes came for a visit.