Wait Until Spring Bandini Read Online Free PDF Page A

own hair because it never stayed down. Above all, he hated his own face spotted with freckles like ten thousand pennies poured over a rug. The only thing about the bathroom he liked was the loose floorboard in the corner. Here he hid Scarlet Crime and Terror Tales .
    ‘Arturo! Your eggs are getting cold.’
    Eggs. Oh Lord, how he hated eggs.
    They were cold, all right; but no colder than the eyes of his father, who glared at him as he sat down. Then he remembered, and a glance told him that his mother had snitched. Oh Jesus! To think that his own mother should rat on him! Bandini nodded to the window with eight panes across the room, one pane gone, the opening covered with a dish towel.
    ‘So you pushed your brother’s head through the window?’
    It was too much for Federico. All over again he saw it: Arturo angry, Arturo pushing him into the window, the crash of glass. Suddenly Federico began to cry. He had not cried last night, but now he remembered: blood coming out of his hair, his mother washing the wound, telling him to be brave. It was awful. Why hadn’t he cried last night? He couldn’t remember, but he was crying now, the knuckle of his fist twisting tears out of his eyes.
    ‘Shut up!’ Bandini said.
    ‘Let somebody push your head through a window,’ Federico sobbed. ‘See if you don’t cry!’
    Arturo loathed him. Why did he have to have a little brother? Why had he stood in front of the window? What kind of people were these wops? Look at his father, there. Look at him smashing eggs with his fork to show how angry he was. Look at the egg yellow on his father’s chin! And on his mustache. Oh sure, he was a dago wop, so he had to have a mustache, but did he have to pour those eggs through his ears? Couldn’t he find his mouth? Oh God, these Italians!
    But Federico was quiet now. His martyrdom of last night no longer interested him; he had found a crumb of bread in his milk, and it reminded him of a boat floating on the ocean; Drrrrrrr , said the motor boat, drrrrrrr . What if the ocean was made out of real milk – could you get ice cream at the North Pole? Drrrrrrr , drrrrrrr . Suddenly he was thinking of last night again. A gusher of tears filled his eyes and he sobbed. But the bread crumb was sinking. Drrrrrr , drrrrr . Don’t sink, motor boat! don’t sink! Bandini was watching him.
    ‘For Christ’s sake!’ he said. ‘Will you drink that milk and quit fooling around?’
    To use the name of Christ carelessly was like slappingMaria across the mouth. When she married Bandini it had not occurred to her that he swore. She never quite got used to it. But Bandini swore at everything. The first English words he learned were God damn it. He was very proud of his swear words. When he was furious he always relieved himself in two languages.
    ‘Well,’ he said. ‘Why did you push your brother’s head through the window?’
    ‘How do I know?’ Arturo said. ‘I just did it, that’s all.’
    Bandini rolled his eyes in horror.
    ‘And how do you know I won’t knock your goddamn block off?’
    ‘Svevo,’ Maria said. ‘Svevo. Please.’
    ‘What do you want?’ he said.
    ‘He didn’t mean it, Svevo,’ she smiled. ‘It was an accident. Boys will be boys.’
    He put down his napkin with a bang. He clinched his teeth and seized the hair on his head with both hands. There he swayed in his chair, back and forth, back and forth.
    ‘Boys will be boys!’ he jibed. ‘That little bastard pushes his brother’s head through the window, and boys will be boys! Who’s gonna pay for that window? Who’s gonna pay the doctor bills when he pushes his brother off a cliff? Who’s gonna pay the lawyer when they send him to jail for murdering his brother? A murderer in the family! Oh Deo uta me! Oh God help me!’
    Maria shook her head and smiled. Arturo screwed his lips in a murderous sneer: so his own father was against him too, already accusing him of murder. August’s head racked sadly, but he was very happy