The officer grabbed the megaphone and shouted, “As for the rest of you, our original order stands. When thispeacefulprotest is over, you will return to the school grounds, where you may camp for the night. Anyonewho is not on the ferry by noon tomorrow will be swimming back to Palau. Am I understood?”
The group moved farther along the lungomare, and the Carabinieri resumed their watch. In the harbor, the two men began a slow dog paddle toward Santo Stefano.
“Look, Francesca,” I said, “I know everything is really shitty right now. What with the sub and the leak and whatever else is going on. But is this safe?”
“Who are you to ask me if this is safe?” she said.
I felt like I’d been smacked.
“Do I need to remind you that this is my home, not yours?”
“You’re right,” I said. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
She softened a little. “But I promise, I’ll go if things get bad.”
I rolled my eyes at her, and we watched the swimmers become dots. Eventually, a fishing boat pulled up alongside them, and when they were hauled aboard, a cheer erupted from the crowd.
“I’ll see you,” I said to Francesca, but she stopped me.
“Where are you going?”
“The clinic.”
“I’ll walk with you.”
150.
AS WE CROSSED THE PIAZZAcomando, I described Laura’s symptoms to Francesca.
“The receptionist is right. It probablyisgas,” she said.
I laughed. “I won’t tell Laura you said that.”
We were making our way up the Via Principe Amedeo when I finally got around to asking her about Teo.
She glanced over at me. “I saw him early this morning.”
“So he’s still here? On the island?”
“He should be. He’s got a long list of people he’s trying to talk to.”
“If you see him,” I said, “will you tell him something?”
“Eileen,” she said, slowly, “I don’t want to be your messenger.”
“Is this about what I said at the harbor?” I asked. “Because I really am sorry.”
I was starting to get emotional. For the entirety of Paul’s tour, I had thought of Francesca as a second mother. I’d certainly spent more time with her than my own mother over the last two years. But I needed to remember that the relationship, for all it had meant to me, was never an equal one. I had been paying for her time, and in return, she had been kind to me. Now, the arrangement was over.
“If you think I’m going to hold a grudge against you for something that silly, you don’t know me very well.”
“So why are you holding a grudge?”
She sighed. “Is it not obvious?”
“Teo?”
“I wish you had told me you were seeing him.”
