Carmella Commands
dishes, Carmella, and you, Raffaela, shall dry them, and Paola shall help put them away.”
The younger children promptly began to complain, more or less inarticulately. Carmella glared at her mother for a moment. Then she said:
“If I must work, I’m going to help father.”
For an instant Maria hesitated, half afraid to join the issue. Then she reflected that if Tommaso had talked with Carmella about vacation work, the girl would have quoted him, instead of using an “if.”
“We shall see,” she said, and went about other matters.
Nothing more was said about dishes, but Carmella, pretending to read, noticed with growing inquietude that they were left untouched on the table. She started to play the phonograph, but remembered that Enrico was taking his morning nap. Her two sisters went out- doors to play, but some vague fear of inviting a crisis kept Carmella from joining them.
Several times Maria passed through the room, but said nothing. She had recalled that Tommaso was working on a nearby job, so that he would be at home for dinner soon after noon. This was an item that Carmella had forgotten.
But as dinner time approached, and Maria began the cooking, still without touching the breakfast dishes on the table, the girl grew more and more restless. She was debating surrender when the door opened and her father entered. Carmella stopped breathing. She
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