Trafika Europe 1 - Northern Idyll

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.

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