“He’ll go if he possibly can. He’s still tired after Friday, and he needs to get himself away from the mountain for a bit. And I think he probably wants to act old and sick in front of everyone, too. He won’t worry about having to leave me behind, because the important thing for him is to get my body as strong as possible. The rest of me—my mind and so on—doesn’t matter, and that’s the bit the mountain wears out. I think he’s got to go.”
More gestures, more guessing.
“Yes, it’s a risk. I think the mountain will be aware of it as soon as we start to move the salamander, but he won’t notice as long as he’s in the church—he can’t feel the mountain there. As soon as he comes out he’ll know something’s happening, I’m fairly sure, but he won’t know what. He’ll feel it through the mountain and he’ll want to hurry home. If he takes you with him—I hope he will—anything you can do to slow him down a bit—make the mule go lame somehow, or give it some of those leaves while he’s in church…
“And he may still have some magic way of getting up the mountain, quicker than riding. Just walking, he’ll be going faster than us—our mules aren’t going to like it, are they? But if everything goes all right we should be way up into the wood before he comes out of church. After that…I don’t think we can possibly get to the top before he comes out of the wood, but provided we’re a good way up the slope…
“And stay down there, Annetta. I think there’s going to be an eruption. Don’t come back till it’s over. It’s going to be very dangerous anywhere up on the mountain. …”
And so on, anxiously checking things through, over and over, Alfredo more and more tense, longing for the evening to be here, Annetta frowning with thought but patient and determined, and Toni sitting with his recorder, fetching his music endlessly out of nowhere, utterly untroubled. Eventually, rather than brood and think any more, Alfredo fetched his recorder and joined him. Slowly the tension eased as he filled his mind with listening to Toni and trying to follow where he led, and by the time Annetta laid out the food she had brought he realized he was hungry enough to eat. That, he thought, grimly amused, was just as well. He must have food in his stomach. To throw up.
The afternoon crept by. For a while he joined Toni, watching the comings and goings of ants round their nest, and experimented with dropping obstacles, or crumbs of bread, in the trails. They scrambled around in the woods, which were full of twisting little paths that Toni seemed to know. They returned to the rose garden and played their recorders. Toward evening Annetta gathered what she had brought into her basket, except for four plums. She gave two to Toni and two to Alfredo, making signs that they were to eat them. Then she went back to get supper ready, holding up a finger before she left to show that the other two should wait an hour and then follow.
The shadow of one of the cypresses lay across the dry pool. Alfredo placed a pebble on the rim, along into the sunlight. They left when the shadow touched the pebble.
He’d judged it wrong and they were a little too early. He checked the fire with extra care, not because it would make the slightest difference to how things went, but because it might be the last time he’d do it. Annetta handed him a mug and he drank the contents. He’d expected the potion to be dark and bitter, but it looked almost colorless in the gray mug and tasted slightly sweet on the tongue and then sharper at the back of his mouth. He went up to his room, by now so sick with nerves that he couldn’t tell whether the drink was starting to do its work or not. When he went down to supper he found Uncle Giorgio already waiting for him. He looked even wearier than he had the evening before.
“You are rested?” he said. “I hope you have an excellent appetite.”
“I don’t know. I had a nice quiet day, but I don’t feel very hungry.”
“You must eat,” snapped Uncle Giorgio.
There was a real sharpness under the words. His nerves must be twanging too, Alfredo realized. Dutifully he put food on his plate, cut off a few small pieces, and started to chew and force his throat to swallow. The moment came like an eruption of the mountain. He flung back his chair, rushed to the window and vomited violently outside. The evening air filled with the vile stench of stomach stuff. When the spasms were past he stayed draped over the sill, shivering and sweating.
“What is this? You have been too long in the sun, you stupid child! What have you eaten?”
Uncle Giorgio’s voice, close above his head, shook with fury. Alfredo pushed himself up from the sill.
“Nothing,” he gasped. “Just what Annetta brought. It tasted fine. And I was careful about the sun. I wore my hat, but mostly I stayed in the shade. I really did.”
“Go to your bed. Put the chamber pot beside you. Can you climb the stair?”
“I think so. …I think it’s all gone, Uncle Giorgio. Out of me, whatever it was. I’ll be all right for Monday, I promise. I will.”
“That had better be the case. Very well. Go to your bed. I will come and see you later.”
Alfredo forced his weak and trembling legs to carry him up the stairs and along to his room, where he took off his shoes, placed the chamber pot handy and clambered into bed fully clothed. Despite that, and the warmth of the evening, spasms of shivering shook him every minute or two. Soon Annetta arrived with a basket containing a couple of stone bottles, a flask and a small bundle wrapped in a cloth. When she slid the bottles in under the bedclothes beside him he discovered they were filled with hot water, almost too warm to touch with bare flesh but wonderfully comforting through his clothes.
“Thanks,” he whispered. “That was worse than I expected. But I think it’s all right. So far.”
She put a finger to her lips, poured something from a jug she’d brought into a mug and placed it on the table beside him. Then she hid the bundle in the cupboard, put her finger to her lips again and left. The drink turned out to be lime water. He sipped a little and lay back.
A little later Uncle Giorgio arrived, still coldly angry but more in control of himself. He felt Alfredo’s forehead, took his pulse and made him stick out his tongue.
“You have a headache?” he asked. “You see correctly, without spots or blurrings? You came here without falling.”
“No. I mean my head’s all right. And my eyes, I think. I felt a bit dizzy climbing the stairs, but it went. I’m better already, just weak and shivery.”
“Tell me everything you have eaten today.”
Alfredo did so, in detail. Uncle Giorgio nodded.
“The plums are the most likely cause,” he said. “Some peasant with unclean hands may have touched them. So at least you ate them recently and the poison may not have worked into your system before you vomited it out. But if your bowels loosen in the night, eat nothing and drink all you can. I will see you in the morning before I go to Mass. You will stay here. Good night.”
Alfredo lay where he was for a while, enjoying the warmth of the stone bottles. The shiverings grew less, and ceased. By nightfall he felt fine, but ravenously hungry. As the last light faded he heard a soft footfall in the corridor outside, so he closed his eyes, slowed his breathing down and lay still. The door creaked gently. The footsteps crossed the room. A bony hand touched his forehead. He didn’t stir or change his breathing until the door had closed again and the footsteps dwindled along the corridor.
Still he waited, but at last rose, went to the cupboard, found Annetta’s bundle by touch and carried it to the window, where he opened it on the window seat, spreading the cloth round it. She’d provided a simple meal, slices of bread and soft cheese. He ate, crouching low over the cloth in case scattered crumbs might betray them when Uncle Giorgio came in the morning. When he’d had enough he carefully wrapped the bundle and put it back in the cupboard. He hadn’t discussed any of this with Annetta—it had all been her idea. So had the plums. If anything went wrong it wouldn’t be her fault.