(by Gianni D’Amico) Suddenly we heard an odd noise not very clear, a combination of a throttled sneeze, a nose blowing and the most similar, the one caused by a flatulence. Our blood ran cold because we were afraid and we immediately hid behind the couch placed in the middle of the living room waiting for other noises. We were tense and alert.

 

The same screech followed, interrupted twice and still half words, incomprehensible. That is when I understood.

I placed my forefinger on my lips and with the other hand I hint to listen. We hardy breathed, frightened to make a noise, then I saw on Franco’s face that reassuring expression that meant, I also understood! I stood up moving like a feline towards the bedroom.

 

I looked at the entrance thinking I was in front of the dying grandmother, sitting on the bed with four cushions behind her back, but in reality things didn’t go that way. Our fear derived from the fact that we were inside a stranger’s house, spying and putting our hands on everything…

 

… In the country house of Franco’s grandmother there was only one radio called “mobile bar”, which could be hardly distinguished by another cabinet that contained a “Singer” sewing machine. They were both part of a “multi hobby” room with a kitchen in which some chicken were clucking calling their chicks.

 

The self-style radio, a real novelty for the technology of those times, sometimes started to screech, and so you had to tune on the right band using the right knob. Such an operation was necessary when you wanted to listen to an opera programme or Neapolitan songs by Beniamino Gigli, grandmother’s Michela favourite singer. “Stativi zitti, picciriddi, ca’ sta cantannu l’amuri miu”, be quiet children because my love is singing.

 

The inside part of this unique more than rare masterpiece of cabinetry in Fasces style, a very common fashion in every house with fine furniture, was also covered with small mosaic mirrors. The upper part, composed of two thick glass shelves with polished edges, had on top some bottles with particular shapes, created probably by the “Principe di Palagonìa” – (A Sicilian nobleman of the 18th century, designer of the Villa, located in Bagheria, known as Villa dei Mostri, editor’s note) – containing liquors of different tastes and colours, usually called “rosòliu fattu ‘n casa.”

 

Translated by Chiara Nunnari from John Milton Institute