Enzo wanted to leave by six, but already at four in the morning I heard him moving in his room and I got up to make him some coffee. In private, in the silent house, the language of computers disappeared, along with the Italian suited to Pietro’s position, and we moved to dialect. I asked about his relationship with Lila. He said it was good, even though she never sat still. Now she was chasing after work problems, now she was squabbling with her mother, her father, her brother, now she was helping Gennaro with his homework and, one way or another, she ended up helping Rino’s children, too, and all the children who happened to be around. Lila didn’t look after herself, and so she was overworked, she always seemed close to collapse, as she once had; she was tired. I quickly understood that their harmony as a couple, working side by side, blessed by good salaries, should be set within a more complicated sequence. I ventured:
“Maybe the two of you have to impose some order: Lina shouldn’t get overtired.”
“I tell her that constantly.”
“And then there’s the separation, divorce: it makes no sense for her to stay married to Stefano.”
“She doesn’t give a damn about that.”
“But Stefano?”
“He doesn’t even know that you can divorce now.”
“And Ada?”
“Ada has survival problems. The wheel turns, those who were on top end up on the bottom. The Carraccis don’t have even a lira left, only debts with the Solaras, and Ada is taking care to get what she can before it’s too late.”
“And you? You don’t want to get married?”
It was clear that he would happily get married, but Lila was against it. Not only did she not want to waste time with divorce—who cares if I’m still married to him, I’m with you, I sleep with you, that’s the essential—but the mere idea of another wedding made her laugh. She said: You and I? You and I get married? Why, we’re fine like this, and as soon as we get fed up with each other we go our own way. The prospect of another marriage didn’t interest Lila, she had other things to think about.
“What?”
“Forget it.”
“Tell me.”
“She never talked to you about it?”
“What?”
“Michele Solara.”
