BOOK ONE

CHAPTER ONE

One summer we lived in a home, which had water and hills out in front. The river was very clean. You could see through to the stones at the bottom. Soldiers often passed by our house, kicking up dust, which turned the trees gray. The mountains looked empty, except for some fruit trees at the bottom. Further up was where many battles were fought during the night.

Some nights we could hear vehicles moving weapons past the house under the cover of the leaves and branches of the trees in our front yard. On another mountain to the North, a similar fight was taking place, however, our side was losing. In the autumn, the rains took all the leaves away, making the village look empty and colorless. Everything was wet, the roads, the trees, and the soldiers.

Sometimes the King would come from Udine in a car to find out what was happening with the war. He never liked what he saw.

Winter brought with it both rain and disease, killing thousands of soldiers.

The following year we had many successful battles and we managed to push the enemy back up into the mountains. In the summer, we moved to the other side of the river, to a town called Gorizia. There we stayed in a pleasant house surrounded by trees. The Austrians did not bomb us too heavily there. I guessed that it was because they liked Gorizia and wanted to come back in the future, after the war finished. Our time in this town was quite different from the earlier part of the war. Even though the town had been damaged in recent fighting, the townspeople still lived there. Businesses remained open, even the sex houses welcomed customers. And, of course, the King continued his drives through town while fighting could be heard in the distant mountains.

One day, as my friend and I were enjoying some wine in one of the local bars, it began to snow outside. We knew then that the fighting would stop until spring. Moments later, a priest passed by and my friend invited him to join us. He politely refused and kept walking. Later that evening, at the Army dining hall, the same priest appeared and my friend started to joke with him. "Priests like to be with women now! Isn't that right?" he said looking at both the priest and me. The priest's face turned red from embarrassment. He was young and shy.

"No, it's not true," said the priest.

The captain laughed and then looked at me and said: "Not true, he says! But I know he always has five women every evening!" Everyone in the hall laughed loudly at this. The priest just smiled without saying anything. It was best just to be silent and let them have their laugh.

Then the conversation changed and people began to persuade me to take a vacation now that the fighting would be stopped for a while. Everyone had his own ideas about where I should go in Italy. Some said Rome, while others said Naples. The priest, however, insisted that I visit his family in the town of Abruzzi.

"You would like it there very much. My family would take good care of you," he said.

"Yes, just like they took care of you and your five women! Ha! Ha!" my friend joked again to the priest.

Then the time came for us to leave, for some of the men wanted to visit the sex houses that night. I said "Goodnight" to the priest and he said the same to me.

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