The Maestrale Voice

VI-2

She walked ahead and Lula followed her. Lena’s walk was elegant. She had a slender body that was trained under her dress. She held her head high and could easily have been mistaken for a nobleman’s daughter. She was incredibly successful. Everyone stopped to talk to her. A number of young officers and government employees surrounded her and offered to buy her an ice cream. Smartly, she refused. And while smiling at everyone, amazed by how she could get the attention of the young men surrounding her, the girls of marriageable age looked at her with a mixture of admiration and envy. Married women were pulling their men away, and almost everyone wanted to approach her and be noticed.

At that moment, a car stopped in front of the entrance of the Bar Alba, near the group of young men standing next to her. A man in civilian clothes jumped out, accompanied by an officer of the General’s staff, tall and lanky. He approached the group.

“Good evening, Your Excellency. It is a pleasure to have you among us,” said the most casual of the military men.

Your Excellency, the Eritrea Civil Governor, was a middle-aged man, constantly striving to solve the administrative problems of the regional commissions of the colony. He was an authoritative person, with a strong sense of initiative and was well admired.

“I am showing our beautiful city to the Major Baggio, who just arrived from Italy.” The Governor looked at Lena with interest in the middle of the group.

“May I have the privilege of meeting this interesting lady?”

“Doctor Maddalena Ventimiglia...” an official said quickly.

The Governor performed a flawless kiss and the Major clicked his heels.

“Excellence... Major Baggio. I am honored to meet you.”

Your Excellency admired the beauty of Lena and invited her to sit down. Lena accepted, certain at this point not to offend any of his admirers who, however, he greeted before walking away.

“What do you do, Doctor?” Asked the Governor, when he was sitting at the bar table.

“I am a pediatrician and I work at the hospital Regina Elena. In the summer I run the clinic of Cheren and...” she glanced at him, “I participate in the missionary project of the Sisters of St. Anne.”

“Doctor and missionary, impressive,” he replied, admiring her more and more. “This is the reason I have not had the opportunity to meet you before. You must have been busy all this time.”

“Sir, you are very kind. In any case, it is true that my days are long and tiring, but I love my job and that makes it less hard.”

“It's really interesting to meet a young woman who lives this way, and away from home. Where do you come from, Doctor?”

“I am Sicilian, near Palermo.”

“Incredible! And they say that south Italy is still stuck back in the days,” said the Governor.

“Believe me, Your Excellency, it is not so,” replied Lena. Major Baggio sat quietly and did not participate in the conversation, but his eyes were fixed on Lena. Maybe he was shy.

After half an hour, she decided that it was time to return home. The major jumped up, ahead of Your Excellency.

“I am pleased to have made your acquaintance, ma'am,” he said.

“I'm not married, sir,” Lena pointed out, gracefully.

“Our doctor is also a wild flower.” The Governor was visibly fascinated. “Major, why don’t you ask the doctor to be the sponsor of the horse show next Sunday?”

“I was going to propose it, Your Excellency,” the officer said, embarrassed.

“What do you think, Doctor?” asked the older gentleman.

“I think that for a single Saturday I can be replaced in the hospital.”

“Magnificent.” Your Excellency was thrilled. “Major Baggio will be your escort.”

Major Adrian Baggio turned red in the face. He was really quite a prude.

“Doctor, I'll send an invitation to your house,” he said, trying to sound normal.

“Bring it directly, Major. In the afternoon, if possible. I will offer you tea,” Lena said, amused.

She arranged the futa and left. Lula was immediately behind her. They headed home. The night had fallen and the sky of Asmara was teeming with stars.

“You have met nice people, it seems,” Lula said.

“Yes, it seems I did.” Lena did not want to talk.

She reached the neighborhood of cottages in silence. Lula seemed to understand that her thoughts were all of Vincenzo Musumeci.

Lena did not sleep that night. She could not. She felt like a p********e. She had flirted with the subaltern officials; she had made a conquest of the governor; she had invited Major Baggio to her home. Throughout her life she had never been capable of such a thing. She was sick again and confused. Maybe the next day everything would work out, but the dawn was far away and the night seemed endless.

The next day, despite the nausea, at seven o'clock she went to the hospital. She couldn’t get her nerves under control. She was tireless and did not pause until four in the afternoon, when she got home. She found Lula on the veranda. With her, there was a sergeant of the Askari. From the badges on his jacket, from the white cotton jetebab and from the plus fours, Lena recognized his military membership.

The Eritrean Camels Department was new but it had quickly become the flagship of the Italian colonial army. The squadrons mounted on camels were the most efficient on the plateau and the lowlands to the borders of the colony; the animals had considerable autonomy and could be groomed and ridden by Askari natives.

As soon as he saw her, the young buluk-basci, the equivalent of a sergeant, got up from the chair and stood at attention.

“Good evening, Doctor,” he began with a wide smile full of meaning. “Commander Baggio asks if he can come to visit this afternoon.”

What a rush, thought Lena, in silence. “Of course, Sergeant. Tell the Major Baggio he can come at five o’clock. In one hour, exactly,” she said soon after, aloud.

“I will report this,” said the sergeant.

Lena ran into the home in a fury. She undressed while walking and dropped her clothes on the floor, scattering them all over. Lula was following her and gathering them.

“Take the hot water in the bathroom. Time is short. I do not want this silly official to smell the stink of the hospital,” she said.

“Okay, okay. What a big deal.”

Lena walked n***d into her room.

At five o'clock in the afternoon, Major Baggio arrived, escorted by the Askari’s sergeant. The house cleaner received the man and then brought him into the living room on the first floor, to the right of the wooden stairs that led upstairs. Adrian Baggio was wearing the summer uniform and holding his pith helmet under his arm. He looked around.

“Doctor be right down,” the woman said.

“Thank you.”

Lula left, leading the petty officer with her. The living room of the house was large and had two tall windows, and a balcony that led into the garden. The furnishings were Sicilian, from the past century. A corner showcase was displayed and contained some old family photos. Adrian Baggio looked at them, curious. He did not notice that, in the meantime, Lena had entered the room.

“Those are photos of my family in Sicily.”

The officer turned around and walked towards her. He bowed. She held out her right hand and he kissed it.

“Thank you for seeing me, Doctor. I brought the invitation for the horse show on Sunday,” he said.

“It was very kind of you to come, Major. Please, sit down,” said Lena.

They talked on various topics and Lena discovered that the Major was not shy at all. He was probably a discrete person and this, in public, made ​​him look awkward. Lena was interested in what he had to say and asked many questions. She avoided, with care, to be too forthcoming. She wanted to look like a rather brave woman, whom the course of events had brought into that distant land, chasing and serving her ideas. With this soldier, that seemed like a good tactic.

She learned that the military had appointed the commander of the Department of Eritrean Camels with the thankless task of monitoring the movements of the Ethiopians and their armies.

“The old Negus Menelik is sick and his wife, the Empress Taitù, holds the power, waiting to pass it to her grandson,” Adrian Baggio talked about the situation on the borders. “With the Empress ruling there are no problems, but everything could change dramatically with the ascent of Ligg Iyasu to the throne, who sympathizes with the Muslims.”

She acted interested, but she cared little about the political reality of Abyssinia. She was more interested in the miserable living conditions of the civilian population, in the place considered to be the stronghold of African Christianity.

“Hopefully we will not begin a new war with Ethiopia. The last time was a disaster,” he merely said. “I think that currently it’s unlikely. In any case, we will have to be vigilant and avoid being caught unprepared, in case of conflict.”

“With men like you, the Italian colony is in no danger,” she said, although it was not exactly what she thought.

Adriano Baggio blushed and Lena decided to lead the conversation to more personal topics. In her condition, a simple and formal friendship with an Italian officer of higher grade was useless. She had to get more and she wanted to get to the point. Her child justified these morally deplorable actions.

She invited him to go out into the garden for tea. They sat on two wicker chairs under a pergola of lilac bougainvillea.

“Have you lived in Eritrea for a long time, ma'am?”

“For the last five years. But... I have already told you that I am not married,” Lena said.

“Excuse me, miss. I had forgotten.”

“No, not miss. Call me Lena. We can be less formal when far away from Italy.”

He was a strange man, so polite for blushing at a woman’s joke. His gray eyes seemed to look beyond, to an indefinite horizon. He looked like an aesthete and a scholar. He must certainly have a secret, and perhaps even more than one. He was clearly struggling with their meeting but he seemed to want to deepen things.

“Can I ask why you chose to live in Africa, miss?”

“Lena!”

“But you too, miss... I’m sorry” Adriano was red. “Please call me by my name, too.”

He had spoken the last words fast, his eyes down. Lena started laughing, amused. He lifted his eyes, puzzled. He looked at her. They laughed together.

“I'm here because I define myself as a free spirit,” she said.

She told him the story of her life – the noble origins of her family, the friendship her father had with Turi Musumeci. She described Mezzocannolo and her country home. She spoke of her studies and told him she had graduated in medicine. She said she considered Vincenzo Musumeci as a brother and she lied.

Adriano listened carefully. The hours passed quickly and the night arrived.

“It's late,” Adriano pointed out. “I've been keeping your afternoon busy. Sorry about that. Mine was supposed to be a short visit.”

“The time has flown by, but it has been a pleasure talking to you. I have very little opportunity to relax and this is the first time in all these years I could find someone to keep me company for a few hours,” Lena said.

She felt a little ashamed of her insolence, but the effect those last words had on Adriano was devastating. He turned his gaze to the sky and looked at the stars, trying to look over the pergola.

“The sky is a wonderful show,” he said.

“The stars of the tropics enchant even those who live here and know them well,” said Lena.

“I have not yet seen the Southern Cross.”

“Do you want me to show it to you?”

“Yes, thank you.”

“Come on. Let's go out. Then we will have dinner together.”

She asked Lula to arrange for dinner and to take care of the sergeant. The indigenous lowered her lower lip, expressing a subtle gesture of approval.

She leaded Adriano through the streets of Asmara. They crossed the intersection of Garibaldi Street and left the Cottage district. She began to climb the hill where the elegant residential area had been built. Shortly thereafter, she was on the hill. The deserted palace-fortress of Alula, the last Abyssinian king of the plateau, had a sinister but seductive look. Asmara was at the feet of Adriano Baggio.

“Look.” She pointed to a spot in the sky, dense with celestial bodies. “In front of you. Do you see the small cross with a bigger star in the middle? That’s it.” The central star shone in the firmament brighter than the other ones, and in the distorted view of the enormous distance, it looked like a legendary diamond. Behind the constellation to the south and over the British lands, the glaciers of the Pole were extending over.

She was cold. She had gone out wearing a silk camisole and she had forgotten a Saharan. She continued to watch in silence, absorbed by the spectacle of small cross that, from the sky, spoke to the hearts of men. Then, Adriano moved. He timidly put his hand on her shoulder and gently pulled her to his side.

Lena was shaken. She was ashamed. She was about to ruin a good man. But what else could she do? If she refused to go down that road, her son would be born a bastard. And she could not have that.

“I had a wife. She was already consumptive when I met her. I married her anyway because I loved her. She died three months ago. My marriage lasted less than two years and I have sworn to be faithful to her memory.” Adrian Baggio spoke, while his eyes wandered lost in the immensity of the sky illuminated by the glow of the stars. “I hope my life will not last very long, so I can meet her between the lights.”

Lena was now sobbing, the tears streaming down her face. She had failed, but she was not crying in despair. She was happy. God had not allowed her to deceive Adriano. She would have felt the pain and remorse, and his existence would have ended there.

She was still feeling him close and noticed that he was trembling, shocked. She felt that it was not over. There was still something that he seemed to be waiting for. She was afraid, lost between the fine mesh of the game. Now, Adriano was her judge. The officer took his hand from her shoulder and walked away. He stood on the precipice of the little amba, the highest spot, and began to observe Asmara while she remained alone. Her heart was beating hard. She clutched her temples between her hands and tried to regain lucidity, but could not wade through the thick fog that surrounded her.

Suddenly, however, she threw herself into his arms. Her blonde head was resting on his strong chest, accompanied by long and desperate shaking.

“I'm pregnant. I have been for nearly two months,” she said, and it was liberating.

Adriano did not speak. Only his breath, fast, betrayed a certain emotion.

“I wanted to fool you,” Lena began to speak, and he did not seem to hear her. “I would have fooled anyone else. I was looking for a father for my child. Then, after what you told me, I felt like a p********e and a thief ready to steal feelings that do not belong to me. God, how could I be capable of this?”

“Let's go home,” said Adriano.

Lena walked without saying anything. Words were useless. The streets were as dark as her troubled soul. She suffered, but she was equally happy to have him next to her. Far outside the city, the howling of the hyenas gave her chills.

At dinner, Adriano said very little. Lula served dinner at the table and her eyes were filled with puzzlement and concern. Then, the major decided to leave.

“Sergeant Enda Jallon will pick you up on Sunday morning. I'll wait for you in the jumping arena,” said Adriano.

Lena bowed her head in assent. She understood that he refused to go with her and she could not blame him.

“I hope you will forgive me if I do not do it personally, but I'll be busy preparing my horse for the competition,” Adriano seemed to read her thoughts. “I take part, too.”

“I did not know,” Lena said. “So, good luck.”

“Thank you. See you on Sunday.”

She held out her right hand. He kissed it, but lingered a moment longer than necessary. Lena felt his lips on the edge of her hand and smiled. She hoped that her story did not take a tour throughout the Military Command of Eritrea.

Adriano left the house through the front door. Sergeant Enda Jallon, before following him, flashed a wide smile.

“Dihando Hidoru, uzierò. Goodnight, princess,” he said in the local language.

“Selam! Peace! Sergeant,” Lena replied, returning the greeting, according to the missionary tradition.

Adriano was already in the street and quickly walked away into the night.