Carmella Commands
“Is the kid going home? She—home?” He pointed to Carmella.
“Not by a damn sight!” said the girl, speaking first. “I’m staying here with dad. If that man comes back, or anything else happens⸺”
Her sentence trailed into silence, while Tommaso stood, perplexed.
“Better let her stay here, at least today,” said Dixon. “She’ll learn more in things like this than in a year of school.”
“Si?” said Tommaso, understanding the idea if not the words. “You think—yes?”
“You bet!” said Dixon. “Let her stay.”
“Sure I’ll stay, dad, if you want me,” said Carmella, in Italian. “I’m your official interpreter, you know. Maybe something else will happen.”
“Va bene!” said Tommaso.
Carmella shuffled a jazz step in the dirt, in involuntary celebration of a wish come true.
Down in the partly excavated cellar of the bungalow nearest the main road, where the busses were to run, Salvatore exclaimed to his fellow workman Angelo:
“How does la piccola padrona boss the world!”
“La piccola padrona she is,” said Angelino. “She is the little boss, and God help me if I ever cross her path.”
Carmella, meanwhile, induced her father to walk
[168]
