Lives of the Saints

Before they leave, Fabrizio comes to see Vittorio. He tells Vittorio that his father doesn’t want to send him to school anymore and that he got fired from the farm near Rocca Secca for throwing a stone at a rat and making a hole in a bag of wheat. He says he doesn’t mind being taken out of school because he disliked the teacher.

He gives Vittorio a cigarette and asks Vittorio to write him from America. He makes Vittorio promise to write. He has them seal the promise by licking each other’s spit from their palms. Then, he gives Vittorio his jack-knife. He says he will get it back from Vittorio when he comes to America.

Fabrizio gets up and walks away. Vittorio calls out to him to give Fabrizio his lucky lira, but Fabrizio continues walking away whilst calling his address to Vittorio.

On Vittorio’s last day of school, the teacher tells him to wait after class. Antonio Girasole is sweeping, but the teacher tells him to leave. After Antonio has left, the teacher hugs Vittorio and cries. Then, she gives him her copy of Lives of the Saints. She tells Vittorio that she had a baby who died, but had he lived he would be about Vittorio’s age. Vittorio is shocked to learn that la maestra is a person as well as a teacher. She tells Vittorio to write her a letter from America and she writes her address on the front page of the book. She kisses him on the forehead and wishes him good luck.

The night before Vittorio and Cristina leave, Vittorio’s grandfather gives him his army medals. He tells them that they are all he “got for a wasted life” (181). Vittorio’s grandfather tells Vittorio that he wishes he had died in World War I. Vittorio’s grandfather says he will be leaving the house to Vittorio when he dies because his daughter betrayed him. He is emotional as he says this. He tells Vittorio that he hopes the medals will “bring [him] better fortune than they brought [his grandfather]” (182).

The next morning, Vittorio and Cristina get ready to leave Valle del Sole. It is a rainy, cold morning. They eat with Zia Lucia and Marta. Cristina brings Vittorio’s grandfather breakfast, but he does not speak to her.

Some townspeople and family members arrive to see them off. Giuseppina tries to give Cristina a package to bring to her husband’s cousin, but Cristina refuses. She says, “Three months ago, if I’d gone, not one of you would have come to see me off. I don’t know why it should be different now” (185). Giuseppina is offended and leaves. Mario’s brother Pasquale arrives. He says Mario didn’t tell him that they were joining him in America. He gives Cristina a shirt for Mario from their mother.

Eventually, Cazzingulo, the bus driver, arrives. Cristina tells Vittorio to go say goodbye to his grandfather. Quietly, Pasquale says he knows that Cristina is not going to meet up with Mario in America. Vittorio goes in to see his grandfather and when he walks out of his grandfather’s bedroom, Pasquale has left. Then, Cristina goes into Vittorio’s grandfather’s bedroom. They hear them arguing and Vittorio’s grandfather tells Cristina to leave and never come back.

Cristina walks up to the cab of the modified truck and is about to get in, but then she turns and addresses the assembled villagers watching her leave. She shouts that they are “fools” and that she hopes “God wipes this town and all its stupidities off the face of the earth!” (190). Then she gets in the truck cab and Cazzingulo drives them away from Valle del Sole to Rocca Secca.

Cristina and Vittorio get on a bus to Napoli from Rocca Secca. Cristina cries quietly during the bus ride. They spend the night at a hotel in Napoli. Early the next morning, they take a taxi to the docks. They leave their trunk with a porter. Cristina asks a policeman where they board. When he sees she is pregnant, he carries her suitcase to the gangplank for her.

The line on the gangplank to board moves slowly because a man is trying to board with his live chicken, which escapes and flies around the deck. Cristina thinks the scene is hilarious. As they wait, a man, who introduces himself as Antonio Darcangelo, third mate, offers to carry Cristina’s luggage to their cabin. He helps them skip the line to board. When he learns that they are staying in a third-class cabin, he suggests instead that she stay in a vacant second-class cabin because she is pregnant.

Darcangelo takes them to meet the captain, who has kept the second-class cabin vacant for his “friend” who will not be on this journey (199). The captain asks where Cristina’s husband is. She replies that he has been in Canada for a few years and that the baby, due in about six weeks, will be a “surprise” (201). The captain agrees to give them second-class cabin 213 and says that Officer Darcangelo will be available to assist Cristina and Vittorio.