Evening conversation was a mandatory rite.
‘Why are you saying all this?’
‘When Antonio will grow into himself, he will become an outlaw. I’ve always had a serene relationship with reality. But the light of Antonio’s life is different, and a mother is rarely wrong when it comes to her intuitions and premonitions.’
‘Whereas I think you want to make Antonio into your doppelgänger and thus use him in a dialectic manner, a task I failed you in. When all is said and done, what you’re doing to him is very selfish: you task Antonio with living out the difficulties and hardships you’ve barely experienced thanks to the excellent, serene education your own family gave you.’
The Lieutenant Colonel had always loved parroting people, imitating with admiration and irony. On occasion, Mussolini himse
