Read Online Tomorrow's Vengeance by Marcia Talley - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Marcia Talley
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than a snake for even bringing it up.
Izzy shrugged. âWhen the fever came, the nuns did everything they could for Umberto but there was no food, no medicine. I blame that on the Nazis, too.
âAnyway, you can imagine how happy everyone was when the American soldiers came and Rome was liberated!â She leaned forward over her coffee cup. âI stayed at the convent, though, because I had no place else to go.â
Filomena had sent a server out from the kitchen with a carafe of fresh coffee. I was already on a caffeine high but asked the young woman for a refill anyway.
âThis is where Bruno Milanesi comes into the story,â Izzy said after the server had returned to the kitchen. âBruno, he was a corporal with the U.S. 5th Army. The army had taken over a
scuola secondaria
that was near the convent and, even though the war was over, food was still scarce. My Bruno â only he wasnât my Bruno then, of course â comes over with fresh eggs. He says in broken Italian â he didnât speak good Italian at all, being an American boy â that he works in the kitchen, and would we like some eggs?â Izzy rolled her eyes. âOh, those were the most delicious eggs I had ever tasted! Bruno brought us eggs and cheese and sometimes apples. Later, when I got to know him better, I found out he was trading the cigarettes in his rations for food. Heâd bring us the used coffee grounds, too. So wasteful, the U.S. Army. The nuns could always squeeze some more coffee out of those grounds! âPractically fresh,â Reverend Mother used to say.
âOne day, Bruno comes to the Reverend Mother and tells her he wants to marry me. There werenât many Italian boys left, and I think the nuns saw it as an opportunity to get rid of me!â For the first time that afternoon, Izzy laughed. âBruno and I had fallen in love, of course, but I was only fourteen and too young to marry. Luckily one of the nuns had a brother who got me false papers. He was a printer who had helped hundreds of Jews escape the Germans. I didnât have a passport, but this man provided a birth certificate for me that said I was born in 1928, not 1930. We used the certificate to get a passport saying I was sixteen so that we could get married and I could go back to the United States with Bruno as a war bride. I had to go for blood tests at the Red Cross, and present that certificate and other documentation to his captain in order to get permission to marry.â
âWhat kind of papers did they want?â Naddie wondered.
âSome of the soldiers had what you would call âa wife in every port.â The army wanted to make sure Bruno wasnât already married! But I knew he was an honest boy because he took my picture to send to his mother in Boston so she would know what her new daughter-in-law was going to look like.â She laughed again. âI often wonder what she thought, Brunoâs mother, of Brunoâs âLittle Bellaâ. I was a tiny speck of a thing back then, you can imagine, after so long with so little to eat. We had rations, like half a pound of bread a day, but if thatâs all you have to eat itâs not much. I weighed ninety-eight pounds.
âThen, we found out that Bruno was being shipped to Germany, and then back to America to be discharged, and the army doesnât give a hoot that he has a fiancée in Italy. So I was thinking Iâd never see him again. But, life goes on. I got a job working part-time in an
alimentari
. Then, one day months later, Reverend Mother came with a letter from Bruno. Heâd gotten a two-week furlough.â Izzy looked from me to Naddie and back again. âEverything was destroyed by the war, you understand. Everything. There was no electricity, no telephone, no railroad. It was very cold that winter, but Bruno hitchhiked from Monte Castello, where the army was helping the Brazillians push back the Germans, all the
Izzy shrugged. âWhen the fever came, the nuns did everything they could for Umberto but there was no food, no medicine. I blame that on the Nazis, too.
âAnyway, you can imagine how happy everyone was when the American soldiers came and Rome was liberated!â She leaned forward over her coffee cup. âI stayed at the convent, though, because I had no place else to go.â
Filomena had sent a server out from the kitchen with a carafe of fresh coffee. I was already on a caffeine high but asked the young woman for a refill anyway.
âThis is where Bruno Milanesi comes into the story,â Izzy said after the server had returned to the kitchen. âBruno, he was a corporal with the U.S. 5th Army. The army had taken over a
scuola secondaria
that was near the convent and, even though the war was over, food was still scarce. My Bruno â only he wasnât my Bruno then, of course â comes over with fresh eggs. He says in broken Italian â he didnât speak good Italian at all, being an American boy â that he works in the kitchen, and would we like some eggs?â Izzy rolled her eyes. âOh, those were the most delicious eggs I had ever tasted! Bruno brought us eggs and cheese and sometimes apples. Later, when I got to know him better, I found out he was trading the cigarettes in his rations for food. Heâd bring us the used coffee grounds, too. So wasteful, the U.S. Army. The nuns could always squeeze some more coffee out of those grounds! âPractically fresh,â Reverend Mother used to say.
âOne day, Bruno comes to the Reverend Mother and tells her he wants to marry me. There werenât many Italian boys left, and I think the nuns saw it as an opportunity to get rid of me!â For the first time that afternoon, Izzy laughed. âBruno and I had fallen in love, of course, but I was only fourteen and too young to marry. Luckily one of the nuns had a brother who got me false papers. He was a printer who had helped hundreds of Jews escape the Germans. I didnât have a passport, but this man provided a birth certificate for me that said I was born in 1928, not 1930. We used the certificate to get a passport saying I was sixteen so that we could get married and I could go back to the United States with Bruno as a war bride. I had to go for blood tests at the Red Cross, and present that certificate and other documentation to his captain in order to get permission to marry.â
âWhat kind of papers did they want?â Naddie wondered.
âSome of the soldiers had what you would call âa wife in every port.â The army wanted to make sure Bruno wasnât already married! But I knew he was an honest boy because he took my picture to send to his mother in Boston so she would know what her new daughter-in-law was going to look like.â She laughed again. âI often wonder what she thought, Brunoâs mother, of Brunoâs âLittle Bellaâ. I was a tiny speck of a thing back then, you can imagine, after so long with so little to eat. We had rations, like half a pound of bread a day, but if thatâs all you have to eat itâs not much. I weighed ninety-eight pounds.
âThen, we found out that Bruno was being shipped to Germany, and then back to America to be discharged, and the army doesnât give a hoot that he has a fiancée in Italy. So I was thinking Iâd never see him again. But, life goes on. I got a job working part-time in an
alimentari
. Then, one day months later, Reverend Mother came with a letter from Bruno. Heâd gotten a two-week furlough.â Izzy looked from me to Naddie and back again. âEverything was destroyed by the war, you understand. Everything. There was no electricity, no telephone, no railroad. It was very cold that winter, but Bruno hitchhiked from Monte Castello, where the army was helping the Brazillians push back the Germans, all the
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