Lead Petals

by Quelli di ZEd

  7

  Foffu Dessì gave gas to the enormous presser Sullivan. The cage put on in movement. Goes up again her it lazily proceeded and the cage danced about on one side to the other of the principal stove. The most experienced miners were solidly placed in front of the two deprived holes of protection. The beginners were to the center of the cage. One of these, Tonietto Cabua, lost the balance and went to beat on Emilio.

  «But what cazz.» Emilio cursed, holding himself/herself/itself to Luigi not to fall down.

  Tonietto Cabua, a rickety dwarf to the first weapons, scrutinized the dark that signoreggiava under the cage. It understood that if the most experienced miners had not served him as compact barrier, you/they would have picked up his/her shreds to duecentocinquanta meters deep.

  «You excuse me, Mr. Emilio» it chewed to lowered head.

  «It learns to be firm on the legs boy. In the cage an instant is enough for losing the balance. Understood?»

  Tonietto lifted the look. «Sissignore! But I already knew him/it!»

  Emilio lifted resigned the eyes to the sky. «You know him/it? But what do you know? You have been working in mine for two days with tomorrow.»

  Tonietto Cabua tried to justify him and Emilio it interrupted him/it on to be born. «He/she leaves alone, you have the same arrogance of all the inexperienced persons.»

  To way his/her Luigi confirmed the verification of Emilio. «Emilio is right. You believe to know how to do everything, but you still have to eat of it of smoke of macaronies. You are as that laborer in the first day of job, which the mason tells": you/he/she Checks if that pillar is to lead." The laborer puts the lead and answers": Perfect, you/he/she is to lead." The mason looks at him/it doubtful and asks him": But you are sure to know how to use the lead, to me that pillar seems crooked." The laborer to that point answers impolite": you Look that I know well what I do. Have told her that the pillar is all right, is even three more centimeters to lead!" Here, you inexperienced persons you are so.» And all laughed forgetting the skirmish, also Tonietto. At the end of the day there was also more desire to laugh to the jokes of Luigi.

  It was Monday. The party to Shangai had left its trailing and you/he/she had been a day of job more fatiguing than the others, always admitted that someone existed of it less heavy. Emilio and Luigi had brought a discreet quantity of blenda of zinc to the light. As animals had worked hard but now they were happy.

  Someone of the miners before going out of the well had to hurry some matters to the third level. Foffu Dessì had been warned by Toti Pinna with the telegraph. It gave a rapid look to the tacchetta of the mark-turns and it threw the lever of the brake. The descent of the metallic cage arrested him. The tool mark-turns he/she approximately esteemed the meters crossed from the cage in base to the rotations of the spools. The calculation was generic and the cage was sometimes positioned to a different quota of the desired levels. It also happened that time: the cage was arrested to around a meter and a half below the level Inoria. The motive for which two of the four sides of the cage were disclosed was simple: it needed to jump.

  «Is callonis! It seemed me that today everything smooth was spun» Luisu Tiddia inveighed, a miner sulcitano. Its accent was so marked that to Luisu the cut of the language as way of disguising he/she remained only it.

  One for time, three of the nine miners that occupied the cage reached the level Inoria, detaching some sure leaps.

  Luisu Tiddia showed Tonietto Cabua. «You go first you, boy, I will jump for last.»

  Tonietto still leaned out from the cage and saw the void under of him: black as the pitch and pleasant as of the ardent carbons. It swallowed and its legs took to tremble. «Someone has fallen? never» it Hoped not to repent instantly him to have asked that question. Luisu Tiddia didn't answer but it puffed. It made him/it Emilio to his/her place, after having smiled of a bitter rice. «Almost all the weeks, boy.»

  Tonietto him maledì immediately to have been too much curious and to have received an answer. Luisu Tiddia placed a hand on his shoulder. «You take runs after her/it and it jumps without thinking and above all without looking down.»

  But down Tonietto had already looked. Takings run after her/it and it detached the leap. The push was tired. It bumped the breast on the wall of the principal stove and his/her stumpy hands they didn't succeed in grabbing the ground of the gallery. Closed the eyes, sure to be next at the end.

  Memmo Cicu and Bettu Scalas stuck out him and to the last one they succeeded in grabbing the boy bringing him/it in safe. Tonietto found again him with the earth back and started to laugh as a crazy person. His was a sick laughter, without logic, because if you/they had tried to insert there above him a pin for the culo you/they would not have succeeded. It fibrillated. «Thanks boys!»

  Nobody had the strength to answer. Grain Frau, the ingabbiatore of the third level, the crank of the telegraph rotated. Foffu Dessì deciphered the code and still operated the capstan. The miners remained on the cage continued goes up again her/it. Emilio looked upward, the dot of light grew becoming the lighthouse of a great I bring.

  When riaffiorarono in surface, their hands remained over one minute to protect the eyes from the sun. The gallery was illuminated with the lamps that were not enough for smacchiare the dark halo that imbued the blanket of the mine. During the winter the eyes of the miners were saved the painful punctures of the light. You entered mine that was still dark I crush and he went out to deep night; for months and months they were alone of the bats.

  They jumped down all from the cage. Luigi for last. «Finally the dry land!»

  «As the ship boy of Cristoforo Colombo said!» it added Luisu Tiddia that, seeing how the things had gone, you/he/she had decided to return him of it to house and to leave the duties a following day: not both never that you/they had launched him some curse that had struck Tonietto Cabua instead.

  Luigi had a wince, you/he/she was of certain thinking something that didn't leave him/it behind Luisu. It clapped the hands as if you/he/she had received the folgorazione. «No, finally dry land, as the Sardinian said that had gone to swimming in America after having betrayed his wife. When you/he/she had arrived had you/they told him": But do you excuse, could not you/he/she come in America with the ship?" The Sardinian had answered": I was not able, I had to sow her/it that ship." In the I bring all they looked at him/it incredulous and one had told him": I don't believe that she to swimming has reached before a ship the dry land." The Sardinian was explained: «you/he/she is free to believe what wants, but now makes me space because I have to arrive in Greenland before that airplane, my mother-in-law after the ship will use of certain that to come to look for me.»

  Luisu clapped in turn the hands to applaud the imagination of Luigi. «You should make the cantastorie to the parties paesane, Luigi, you would make the money.»

  Also Foffu Dessì had felt the last of Luigi. Laughed at taste before speaking. «To the place of this damned telegraph I had to have you, Luigi, in the room capstans. At least I would not annoy me.»

  Luigi scratched the head embarrassed. «I do better than mine to hold company.»

  Capannelli of miners and grading machines chatted in the square of the well Amsicora. Also in the laveria the turns of job were finished. Maria, the wife of Emilio, worked as grading machine. During the day it was his/her mother to take he/she takes care of him of the small Franco. The surfaces of the great tubs of the laveria sparkled with silvery reflexes that you/they sobbed among the ripples of the water. Luigi aimed the index in that direction. «That is not Maria?» Yes, it was Maria. Emilio saw her/it and was not alone.

  A thick boy, with the so cooked skin from the sun that you/he/she had taken the tones of the ebony, it turned around her. You seemed calm even if the boy the passage almost closed her. Maria usually finished very first his/her turns in comparison to Emilio. It made reentry to Guspini with some of the other grading machines. That day had done you delay.

  «Thing us ago that with M
aria?» he/she asked Emilio, more to himself that to Luigi.

  Luigi lifted the shoulders. «I don't know him/it, Emilio, but it tries to be calm.»

  «Because I should be calm?»

  «Simply because what is with your wife is Savior Piras, one of the meurredduses. And as well you know the sulcitanis they don't leave alone never one of their clan.»

  When Luigi had pronounced the term meurreddus, the tone of his/her voice you/he/she was fallen. It looked around also now him to verify that nobody had felt him/it and it decided to do him her to pay. The sulcitanis detested that derogatory epithet with which you/they had been branded. During the African invasions on the coasts of the southwest of Sardinia you/they had been dominated by the mauritanis; and so you/they were called for remembering in every moment their origin" African." The iglesientis were a proud people and it were often tried to wash the shame of that offense with the knives. After the bombardments of the mines of Carbonia, the direction had grabbed their great abilities of workmanship. To the meurredduses the suburb of Telle had been assigned, to few hundred meters from the well Amsicora. In that village you/they were isolated completely from the rest of the miners, creating a branch of the sulcis in which you/they could continue their traditions.

  «A cazzo of the meurredduses doesn't rub me! I want only to know what he/she wants that from my wife there!» it continued angry Emilio.

  They did wide among the people and they reached few meters from the tubs; they clearly heard the words of the miner sulcitano. «We go, Maria, are you very beautiful, does thing do us with that there? You would have been able to have so many children and you/he/she has not even succeeded in giving you this joy. You come with me, I will do you happy. You will never have to fear to leave me our child among the hands, I won't lose him/it, I won't be his/her assassin. I ask you to think of us, you are only thirty years old.»

  Emilio and Luigi were amazed. Emilio took to tremble, not for what had felt, rather because his/her wife had not even told a word his/her defense. Now it was what he/she thought of him. It was better perhaps for her to put on really with the sulcitano. A regurgitation of pride pushed him/it to speak. «Because you don't leave my wife alone?»

  Maria and his/her lover turned him and they saw him/it. The sulcitano smiled at provocative way. «I don't leave her/it to see alone how much people don't make him his/her cazzis!»

  Emilio went him in front of hard face, grazing his breast. It was lower and you have to lift the look to stare at him/it in the eyes. Savior Piras turned him and also smiled to some threatening ones that were following the scene. «When I look you and I think that with a wife such you have succeeded in making a solo child, I feels like saying only a thing: empty cazzo!» it exclaimed with contempt. Without notice it pushed Emilio with strength, making to tumble him/it to earth in the middle of the dust.

  Emilio spit and put on in knee, checking himself/herself/itself the elbows peeled that they burned him. It got up and it cleaned him from the dust shaking himself/herself/itself the suits with the hands. When its eyes still crossed those some sulcitano, they shone of an insane light and in an instant Emilio it became a fierce beast that it attacks furiously on its prey. A fist, then a kick and the sulcitano you/he/she was dashed to earth. The whole square prepared him to raggiera and all they howled inciting the two fight dogs. Maria was desperate. «Firm Emilio, prays you. I want only you, firm, I pray you!»

  Useless supplications. By now Emilio it was a fury. A calcione on the mouth of Savior Piras, that was still to earth, and some teeth flew to the barefoot feet of the grading machines. They did to competition to pick up them. Dust, howls, filthy women with tied up handkerchiefs on the forehead, threatening possessed by the sight of the blood: there was everything to instigate Emilio to keep on striking. Savior Piras by now you/he/she was reduced to a heap of swollen meat. Emilio didn't mention to arrest his/her rain of disruptive hits. From the village of Telle, recalled by the cackles, the sulcitanis took to go down to crowds from the hill: for Emilio he was putting very bad.

  Unaware of everything, the marshal Troise stazionava in front of the barracks. The wind had tilted the insignia" Policemen." The sergeant Podda, above a wood staircase, it followed his/her directives to try to straighten her/it. «Marshal, believes that soon we will have some job to develop, you look there.» The sergeant had just seen five men to advance expeditious in their direction.

  Pietro saw the herd of miners advance with worried air. «I bet that they are again stabbed. To be to contact twenty-four hours on twenty-four makes the impossible cohabitation.»

  The miners seemed almost gone crazy and they gesticulated shouting incomprehensible words in dialect. After years, now Pietro succeeded in understanding the dialect but when the Sardinians talked between them to big speeds his/her brain you/he/she was not able to translate.

  «Currei ca funtis boccendisì, Currei ca funtis boccendisì» they howled to squarciagola.

  Pietro made a doubtful sign the hand shaking himself/herself/itself under the chin. «But what heck you/they are saying?»

  Podda was Sardinian and understood very well the island dialect. «Troubles in sight, marshal, says to race that they are him to kill.»

  The crew reached them. You did before Marfidio Tronci, a type on the about forty with the so muddy face that also be results unrecognizable for his/her mother. «You race to the well Amsicora, marshal. Emilio Masala and Savior Piras killing they are him!»

  Pietro summoned the calm. «Now is calm and exactly explained me what has happened!»

  Marfidio observed in tralice the companions. «Piras was troubling the wife of Emilio and you/he/she has bursted the brawl.»

  Podda went down from the staircase to pegs forgetting himself/herself/itself the motive for which had been climbed you. The insignia of the barracks remained penzolante on the front door of entry. Pietro approached while the miners vivisected both with the look. «We go, sergeant!»

  «I take the car from the back of the barracks?»

  «You leave alone, we will do more in hurry with the motorbike.»

  Pietro raced holding himself/herself/itself of side the motorbike Guzzi with the hand pressed on the lever of the friction. When the allascò, the rhombus of the motor seemed the roar of a tamed lion. It climbed in rump to his/her steel horse and it gave an accelerated for heating the motor; it turned him showing Podda. «Climbs. and is held strong!»

  Podda forked with the legs the seat of skin of the motorbike and tightened him to the sides of the marshal. It was the first time that probably salivates in motion and at the end of that brief journey you/he/she would have decided that would have been also the last. Troise gave an accelerated volitive forcing the motorbike to take a seat on the back wheel. That anterior lifted him of about fifty earth centimeters and Podda it was almost catapulted inside the barracks. The motorbike Guzzi crossed avenue Empire leaving behind of itself a dusty wake unprecedented. If the miners that had remained in front of the barracks had been able to see the face of Podda, you/they would never have recognized him/it under that bautta of dismay.

  Five minutes and the motorbike it entered with authority the vast square of the well Amsicora. Pietro decreased the turns of the motor bringing them to the least one. To reduced walk it reached the entry of the room capstans and it jammed, sustaining the weight of the motorbike and that of Podda planting to earth his/her legs. It extinguished the motor and it turned him toward the sergeant. «Now you/he/she can also go down.»

  Went down Podda and it went for a stroll to void dancing a grungy dance. It had a pale face. That sequence of tornanti crossed to centoventi hourly kilometers you/they had made him see nearby the a lot of Acheronte from.

  The square looked like a great it extracts of sand and a clear effervescence was visible. The miners congested the passage for the tubs. The women and the children of the laveria Sannas jumped and they howled: you/they had certainly finished their turns, otherwise in front of the lance-corporal that
checked her they would not be never hazardous even to dissuade the look from the stones that you/they were grading.

  Because of the great ring of people the marshal and the sergeant could not see anything. Now Emilio was to earth. The sulcitanis had intervened and you/they had overpowered him/it. His was a mask of blood. Luigi and Maria had tried to intervene but you/they had been jammed and threatened instantly.

  Emilio raised again him and invested with a heading to the abdomen his/her dirimpettaio. They fell both to earth, by now exhausted. Then a boato of amazement and dismay it bursted out from the assemblage and it reached the couple of policemen. Ciacciu Desogus and Nanni Sinzu, two meurredduses half jailbirds that had the already paid installments with everybody, had lifted earth Emilio immobilizing him/it. Savior Piras was unthread by the pocket an arburesa. Bringing himself/herself/itself behind that knife risked big: a decree law had established that to Montevecchio and outskirtses you/he/she could be used only he/she knows guspinesa: a knife with the handle in bone or wood, that it had the particularity of the blade cut in point. You/he/she had reached that decision after the difficult cohabitation among threatening the pens you/he/she was cost to quite a lot people. Ulderico Cabriolu was made one month of hospital and it still brought it lavishes scars for the hits inferti from the guspinesa of Erminio Battolu, but at least you/he/she could tell him/it. If the aggression had happened with the pointed blade of an arburesa you/they would have used its skin to drain the pasta.

  Savior Piras fiercely tightened in hand his/her arburesa with winds centimeters of blade next to pierce the throat of Emilio. It drew near him staggering as a drunkard. From his/her mouth it dripped some blood. The eyes were closed from the swelling and the eyelids they had the color of the eggplant in season. Two deep cuts lengthened on both the cheekbones. Smiled. From the black hole in the enclosure of the teeth it sprouted his/her language, that lascivious it licked away from the angles of the mouth the scarlet rivulets. It spit to earth a mixture of saliva and blood, then it approached the point of the blade to the throat of Emilio. A crazy person grimace appropriated him of its turgid face. «I kill you, bastard dog. you have not even been able to look at to child. You are not even good to sweep. With a wife so you should have for family a team of kick. And instead.»

  Closed Emilio the eyes. He/she thought that Savior was right. He/she thought a day that his/her child was lost and you/he/she was certain that to have killed him/it with his/her same hands you/he/she would not have done then so much difference that to see drowned him/it in a meter of water. It didn't deserve his/her wife, he/she thought. It attended that the blade assuaged his suffering of a senseless life; it waited for to finally be freed by a torment that it didn't bear anymore.

  Maria hardly succeeded in lengthening a hand among the miners that held back her/it and you/he/she howled to squarciagola. Luigi to that point struck with a kick to the shoulders one of the men who stopped the crowd. It was Liccu Poles, called on boi by the meurredduses, because it was big as an ox and in the brawls it broke the bones of whoever to headings it happened him to draught. But that time fell with the face for earth. Its belly forced him/it to remain down as an inverted tortoise.

  «Bastard! Leave him/it alone, an African's fottuto» it shouted Luigi. Runs toward Savior Piras shunning the attempts of tackling of the meurredduses. It didn't do in time to arrive from him: an immense figure darkened Savior Piras; it grabbed him/it and it dashed him/it to earth as if it were a rag to throw. It was Lucio. The giant takings to the neck Savior and a meter lifted him/it from the ground. Savior moved the legs before and back. Its swollen eyes squirted from the orbits and an edge of language it still escaped from the empty space left by its teeth. Lucio was strangling him/it and this time none of the meurredduses dared to challenge the" Ercole" of the mountain. Liccu Poles doesn't even say on boi, that faked not to succeed in rising again himself/herself/themselves with the sweat that slipped cold from his forehead.

  The hand of Savior lost the last energies and opened allowing to fall him arburesa. Lucio gave two vigorous sharp tugs to his/her body by now lifeless.

  Then, a shot loosened the crowd. You/he/she had departed from the gun of the marshal. Luigi and Maria benedirono that shot, the more sadists the maledirono. Crowd quickly freed the passage for the tubs. Pietro saw Lucio cast Savior Piras against the edge of armed cement. The victim shook him the hands around the neck and sent forth some strangled complaints similar to the grunt of a sow. His/her bellows him strafogarono of air to avoid the collapse.

  Maria raced verse his/her husband that lay in knee and you/he/she observed the look imbufalito of Lucio. The takings for the flannel and it pushed him/it with ferocity. «Emilio, is well? What a fool that you are, I will leave never you. Have you understood?»

  He didn't respond. Maria the takings still for the collar and the shake with more decision. «You have understood?» it howled him in does starting to cry.

  The head of Emilio went on and back risking to take a hit of whip. He finally aroused. «Yes, I have understood.» His was a lost look, absent.

  The sergeant picked up him earth arburesa and showed her/it to the marshal. Pietro nodded and turned him to Emilio, Savior Piras and Lucio. «I want you all and three in barracks within mezz'ora. If you won't introduce you they will be serious troubles.»

  The sergeant exhibited the knife to Piras that in the meantime you/he/she had put on sat keeping on touching himself/herself/themselves the neck marked by the sore. «This will cost you a beautiful po' of country houses, boy.»

  Savior Piras if it got by with a report for illegitimate possession of white weapon. Emilio and Lucio were not reported but rebuked to duty. If they were fallen the recidivist, for them you/they would have opened the doors of the queens jails.

  Some hour later, Savior Piras was already in the square of the suburb of Telle. Sat in front of a bench prepared with bricks and mason large tables it toasted with his/her table companion. They drank some carignano red ruby, gift of the Phoenician ones to their earth, and they celebrated remembering the words with which Savior had humiliated Emilio: a man that according to them you/he/she was not worth the underpantses cacate that brought I wear.