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~ArtTtSAN
HVtEW
knees and hands, while he did everything to overcome her. In the
combat their naked bodies were bathed in sticky perspiration. Finally
Giacomo lost his patience, leaped out of bed and went into the
bathroom, saying:
"I'll be back in a minute."
Guided by a furious inspiration he groped his way to the wash
basin, took the razor blade he had used for shaving that morning
and plunged it into the cushion of his thumb. He felt the cold blade
cut through his skin, but had no pain. Then he put the blade back
on the shelf and squeezed his thumb, which gave out an abundant
flow of blood. He went back to the bedroom and threw himself upon
his wife, rubbing his bloody thumb on the sheet between her legs.
Then he shouted angrily:
"You may not realize it, but you're no longer a virgin!"
Tremblingly she asked:
"How do you know?"
"Just look!"
He took the lamp from the table and threw its light upon the
bed. Simona was hunched up on the pillow, with her knees against
her chin and her arms crossed over her breasts. She looked down at
the place where Giacomo had thrown the light and saw a long
streak of red blood. Batting her eyelids in disgust, she said:
"Are you sure?"
"Positive !"
But just at that moment her eyes traveled to the hand in which
Giacomo was holding the lamp. Blood was streaming out of the
cut in the cushion of his thumb. In a plaintive voice she cried O'lt:
"It's not my blood; it's yours! ... You cut yourself on purpose."
Giacomo put the lamp back on the table and shouted in a rage:
"That's the only blood I'll see tonight or any night to come.
You're still a virgin and you always will be!"
"Why do you say that? What makes you so unkind?"
"That's the way it is," he answered. "You'll never be mine.
Some part of you is hostile to me, and hostile it will remain."
"What part do you mean?"
"You're closer to that fool, Livio, than you are to me," he said,
coming out with his jealousy at last. "That part of you which is
close to Livio is hostile to me."
"That's not true."
