San Donato Val di Comino 1943
Nightfall brings a silent peace as the shadows of the mountains grow larger and move above the town in the remains of a disappearing sun. The dim lights within houses are few for the rations prevent overuse of the dwindling materials they have. But for the past few years, Lucy Pelligrini remembers only the calm embrace of nightfall. Her parents have hidden the fears they hold as the sun leaves their tiny mountaintop town alone without the protection of light. Lucy loved watching the sky turn from blue to black for the colors in between those two created a lightshow. Even amidst the clouds, she could see the pinks, purples, and oranges before blackness erased it all. And then she and her sisters would keep an eye out for shooting stars, hoping the still ones would wink at them in the meantime. Nothing seemed dangerous about nighttime to Lucy, for what could this peacefulness be hiding?
But it’s 1943 and Italy is caught up in the middle of one of the most disastrous wars in history. Unbeknownst to Lucy, the gravity of this war left Italy in destruction as the Allied powers attempted to discourage Italy from maintaining support for Germany. They knew that the people of Italy had fallen prey to propaganda and were powerless against Mussolini’s government. But if the entire country fell victim to night bombings, their support for the Central powers would weaken and Italy’s involvement in Germany’s war would unravel. Six-year-old Lucy does not understand why people would bomb other people and even though her parents try to explain, she cannot yet fully grasp the seriousness of this historically significant period. She will understand though, decades later when she tells her grandchildren her memories of the war. She was a child born amidst the Great Depression and raised through World War II. Nothing about her childhood was easy and even being hidden within the mountains of middle Italy does not protect anyone.
There are no sirens in San Donato like there are in the big cities. Instead, they might receive a short warning from someone on foot or at worst, hear the screams of the planes as they swoop down low and find the next small town to destroy. Lucy remembers running out of the house with her parents and sisters in the middle of the night. It is pitch black around her; Lucy can only feel her mother’s hand, tightly squeezing her own as her fingertips begin to feel the coldness of the night. Everyone is swiftly moving towards the forest. Ma does not let Lucy into the woods, but in the desperation of potential destruction, Ma does not seem to worry about her rules. Instead, they follow the rest of the town amongst the trees and Ma lays Lucy and Clarice down on either side of her. Her arms wrap tightly around their bodies and her body warmth was the only thing keeping Lucy from shivering. Nella laid next to Lucy but she didn’t know where Papa was. She didn’t dare ask because everyone was quiet, and she thought that if she broke the silence, their hiding place could be found. Lucy could feel Ma shaking ever so slightly, as if she was fighting not to. But Lucy knew she was scared. These nighttime hidings in the woods happened often and Lucy knew they were not good. She just didn’t know why they happened. Maybe it was a summertime tradition. Maybe they shouldn’t happen at all. She never dared ask. No one ever seemed to mention them after they were over, as if to pretend they never occurred and that they would never happen again. But Lucy slowly figured out that they kept happening, and from overhearing her parents’ whispers with neighbors, until Mussolini was out of power, they would only happen more frequently.
San Donato had never been hit yet, but Lucy and everyone around her had heard the planes on many nights. They seemed to fly right above them, but nothing ever happened. And they would wait and wait even after the planes had gone, sometimes even until the sun began to rise before walking, slowly this time, but into the town and into their homes, shutting the doors to the unwelcome outside world.
But this time, Lucy felt different. She watched the nighttime sky in the tiny slits among the trees and could make out a couple of stars, but their light barely shined through. The planes seemed to circle their hiding place in the woods. They would fly closely, right above Lucy’s head, dip low, and then fly away, their engines slowly fading out. But a few minutes later, they would come back, as if searching for something on a foggy street. Ma held on tighter each time the planes came back and Nella moved in closer and closer until Lucy couldn’t feel any space between the two. Whispers faintly broke out in the breaks between flyovers, but the instant someone could hear the eerie hum of the planes, silence broke out and Lucy’s eyes closed tightly. If she can’t see the planes, they aren’t right above her. But even as she pressed one ear against the dirt and held her free hand as tightly as she could against the other, the planes drowned out her breathing and thoughts. Nothing else existed in those moments. Even with her mother’s touch and Nella’s clinginess, Lucy lost all senses except for hearing. And those sounds pushed through her body as if the planes were in her stomach and breaking out from inside her. She couldn’t feel the separation between herself and those invisible planes.
People began crying. And while they kept themselves down to a whisper, the silence was broken. Lucy thought the planes could never find them even if they shouted up to the sky. Her eyes grew tired but her mind and heart were on fire, waiting in suspense for the destruction that was sure to come this time. But it never came. The whole town stayed in the woods all night and even after the sun had risen well above the horizon, they stayed huddled in the comfort of the trees. For would the sunlight really prevent the planes from coming back?
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