He Spoke Her Language, So I Said Goodbye novel · Chapter 5 of 24
Chapter 5: The Rule
Luca's gray sedan smelled like basil and old coffee.
I held my mother's locket in my fist the whole way to Dorchester.
He drove with both hands on the wheel and didn't turn on the radio.
"Gianna was at his apartment at six this morning," I said. "In a robe."
"Yes."
"Did she say anything?"
"She said good morning. In Italian." His jaw moved. "I told her to say it again in English, and she shut the door."
I laughed, and it hurt on the way out.
We stopped at a red light on Dorchester Avenue.
A woman on the corner was selling roses out of a bucket.
"I need to say something," I said. "And I need you not to argue with it."
"All right."
"No Italian where I can hear it. None. Not a word to your mother, not a word to Dante, not a word on the phone in the next room."
"Willa."
"If it's about me, you say it in English. If it's not about me, I still don't want to hear it. Maybe in a year. Not this year."
The light turned green and he didn't move.
A cab leaned on its horn behind us.
"That's fair," he said.
He pulled forward.
"That's fair?" I said. "Your whole family speaks it at dinner. Your mother prays in it."
"My mother can pray where you can't hear her." He glanced over at me once. "You asked for the same thing every Italian-speaking person owes you. I'm not going to make you say it twice."
I looked out the window and swallowed.
"Thank you," I said.
"Don't thank me for a thing I should have done in year one."
I turned my head.
"Year one of what?"
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