by Milena Agus
But when the storm arrives it can be unexpected. Mauro knows because he’s experienced it.
To begin with you enjoy the wind, because it’s precisely what a sailor wants. But then it blows harder and harder. Sixty, seventy knots. You reef the sail. Every movement becomes difficult, risky. You have to tie yourself down, but once he didn’t manage to do it in time. It was too late and he couldn’t let go of the rudder even for a moment. Seven hours at the rudder in the driving rain. So violent it ripped out a table bolted down at the bow. He had no point of reference in a world of watery fury. He might lose the sail, the mast might snap. The only thing to do was to keep the boat going at least a little bit and endure it. At that point Mauro had understood that he might die, he resigned himself to it and began to admire the scenery, even though he was frozen and numb. He enjoyed the height of the waves and that space without land, or sky, just water vaporised by the wind. And then it passed. Mauro had made it.
The story of the storm frightened me so much that the other day, when it started raining, I sent my father a text message: ‘I forbid you to come to the hospital, there’s a storm.’
Straight afterwards my mobile rang. ‘What storm, my girl, a storm in a teacup?’
34
The new Sevilla Mendoza family
Standing up outside the church. Dark glasses to cover the tears that are falling in big drops. The people coming out of the previous mass look sympathetic and then keep on going. Someone comes up.
‘Is there a funeral next?’
‘No,’ Nonna bursts into sobs. ‘Nobody’s died. We’re crying with happiness. Today my daughter is marrying my son-in-law. It’s the only way for María Asunción to stay with us, God willing.’
And God is willing! I say.
Published 2014 by Telegram
1
Copyright © Milena Agus, 2005 and 2014
Translation copyright © Brigid Maher 2014
Published 2006 in Italian as Mentre dorme il pescecane by Nottetempo
ISBN 978 1 84659 186 0
eISBN 978 1 84659 187 7
Milena Agus has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
Every effort has been made to obtain necessary permission with reference to copyright material. The publishers apologise if inadvertently any sources remain unacknowledged and will be happy to correct this in any future editions.
A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library.
Printed and bound by CPI Mackays, Chatham, ME5 8TD
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