Wu Ming - 54

Luciano made the gesture of picking up a glass of wine from the cavity that opened up along the little low wall.

‘How civilised! Imagine this street full of people, slaves carrying things, litters and carts. And the vendors shouting. Further off there was the Forum, where the notables talked politics and business.’

The little group advanced into the middle of the ruins.

One of the girls stopped by a crossroads. ‘What’s this writing?’

‘That’s an advertisement.’

The girl looked perplexedly at the old boss. ‘Like a commercial?’

‘For the oldest profession in the world, my darling.’

The girl blushed, while the two young Americans looked up in curiosity. ‘It’s a whorehouse. Satisfied customers put up posters for the bordello.’

The two drivers followed on a few steps behind. Zollo lit a cigarette and glanced around him.

‘You know, Vic, I’ve never liked these old crocks.’

‘You don’t need to tell me, goombah.’

Luciano led the way towards the house of Priapus, after putting his arm around young Anastasia. ‘Well, my friend, the Romans sure knew how to enjoy life, not like us, constantly thinking about business. They took over the world without exhausting themselves. And those cathouses of theirs had to be very professional, very properly run, you know. They didn’t ruin their hands doing housework, you

can be sure of that.’

‘They were still whores,’ observed the young man.

‘Yes, yes, but that’s not the point.’ Luciano folded his hands behind his back once more. ‘The fact is that the level of civilisation in a society is measured by the women . That’s why I sell electrical appliances. It’s a civilising mission,’ he guffawed.

Anastasia shook his head. ‘I don’t get it.’

‘Let me explain. What’s the difference between American women and the women here in Italy?’

‘Affluence?’

Luciano gave a sly laugh and spoke in an undertone, as though revealing a major secret: ‘Electrical appliances.’

Zollo studied him with a certain admiration. There was something brilliant about him. A raging torrent, but not overstated. Amazing, if you thought that he didn’t need to speak to order someone killed, direct the trafficking of drugs from the Mediterranean to the Pacific, or throw all the races for the coming month.

‘American dames’, Don Luciano went on, ‘have electrical appliances to do their housework for them. That’s why they have the time to take care of their appearance, to read magazines, to keep up with fashion. They’re that bit freer, my friend, and that’s why they’re more beautiful and intelligent. That’s why they turn your head. Italian women, on the other hand, are housekeepers and mothers seven days out of seven. Then on Saturday evening they get dolled up and try to convince their husbands that they’ve married a fine lady. But they’re a bit pathetic. It’s not their fault. Italian men want a good child-rearer at home, a housekeeper for the whole week, and then they demand that she turn into Silvana Mangano, or even Marilyn Monroe. So it isn’t long before the husbands get fed up, and the wives feel unappreciated and stop looking after their appearance. Moral: they get fat, they lose their figures, by the age of thirty they’re ready for the scrapheap. And nobody’s happy!’

Zollo was flabbergasted by Luciano’s reasoning: he had never thought about it before, but it was all true. What irritated him was the air of parochialism and recently scrubbed dirt that hovered around Italian girls. Their attempt to look like screen goddesses. And their obtuse and ignorant husbands were even worse. It made him shudder to think about it. He felt sad all of a sudden.

The attendant wanted to keep the girls out of the house. Luciano made a barely perceptible gesture, and Zollo slipped his hand into the inside pocket of his jacket. His hand brushed the wooden handle of the ‘alternative’, before taking out, with the tips of his fingers, the banknote he always kept ready for such occasions. As he was handing it to the attendant, he recalled old Anastasia saying, ‘You’ll never have another choice in life, Steve: pay or shoot. You’ve got to know how to do both, otherwise you’ll never be anything but a lousy little guy, however much scented brilliantine you can put on your head.’

Women were forbidden to see the enormous member of Priapus, the god of sexual potency, and the lewd frescoes on the walls. The two girls cackled, pretending to be shocked, while the young Americans exchanged whispered wisecracks.

Zollo remembered the legs of the girl he had glimpsed in the car, and noticed a sudden twitch in his trousers. He cursed the base instincts that clashed horribly with his mood, and turned his back on the group, pretending to light a cigarette, in the hope that no one would notice the hardness of his cock.

Il Resto del Carlino, 17.2.1954

Incidents in Rome and Milan during demonstrations dispersed by the police

Six hundred far-left activists arrested in the capital where the mounted police broke up communist demonstrations

Two commissioners injured by rocks and many police officers injured — One demonstrator killed

Il Resto del Carlino, 18.2.1954

The Scelba cabinet appears today in Parliament

Under way: the Communist manoeuvre to stir up the masses against the government

The left plan to undermine the new Prime Minister despite his moves to combat poverty

Speculating on the incidents they themselves provoked they are trying to create schisms in the governing body

Serious incidents in the province of Caltanissetta

Four people killed by the crowd escaping a police charge

In Mussomeli the forces of law and order are forced to use tear-gas

Il Resto del Carlino, 20.2.1954

After the four-party conference

A common declaration by the three Western ministers

The governments reaffirm that an attack on West Berlin will be considered as an act of war against the Allies

L’Unità, official organ of the Italian Communist Party, 28.2.1954

After the capitulation of the Armed Forced Minister

The Americans are becoming ashamed of ‘traders in fear and blackmail’

Bitter attack by Gen. Lehman on the ‘inquisitors’ of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies

L’Unità, 7.3.1954

Grave courtroom accusations from Anna Maria Caglio

Sensational revelations of connections between Ugo Montagna, Piccioni and the chief of police

After the death of Wilma Montesi Miss Caglio went to the Ministry of the Interior with Montagna and Piccioni

After their discussion Montagna said: ‘I have sorted everything out’

L’Unità, 7.3.1954

Sensational document on the corruption of the clerical regime

The police confirm the accusations against Montagna, his sordid past and his relations with other figures

Il Resto del Carlino, 11.3.1954

Montagna is a previous offender former spy for Ovra and the Nazis

L’Unità, 12.3.1954

McCarthy to bring charges against the scientist Einstein?

L’Unità, 14.3.1954

Einstein calls on the Americans to refuse to cooperate with the tribunals of the inquisitor McCarthy

Thomas Mann and Bertrand Russell applaud the great scientist’s courage

Chapter 23

Bologna, 9 March

Pierre often dreamed of his mother. She spoke to him in those dreams, but her words vanished the moment he woke up. When that happened, he was in a bad mood all day, irritated at having lost an important detail. Her face was not the one in the family photograph that showed him as a little baby with an arrogant expression. His memories were not enough to give her a proper shape; she looked blurred, in black and white, against a sepia background. And yet she was telling him something, he was sure of that. But what?