III THE ZENITH

when I saw Michelino that time in Florence I said to him that since he had just arrived in town to do his military service and since I had already been in Florence for a couple of months in short maybe I knew my way around a little better I said to him that if he needed anything any favors like if there was anybody who was busting his chops in the barracks an abusive senior officer or anything of that sort no problem I’d be glad to give him a hand and also there were lots of guys there from our part of Italy nice likable guys so if he ever wanted to he would be welcome to go out with us some evening but his response with this off putting attitude he had acquired was to say that he didn’t need anything from anybody and what he needed least of all was money because I had also said to him that if he was short on cash I’d be glad to lend him some money if he needed it but he said that he didn’t need anything at all the only thing that he wanted was to be transferred down south as soon as possible to a town closer to our town so that he could get back to taking care of his business taking care of matters that were very important after that we rarely even said hello on the street anymore because down here if you’re out on the street unless you’ve established contact with certain circles and settings these people will rarely say hello to you if at all

this is what happened to me last summer when I was at the Bar Nazionale on Corso Umberto where I work I spend two days a week there working as an assistant barista when there are soccer lottery tickets to sell or when the owner has one of his lovers in at a hundred thousand lire a pop and so one afternoon these two kids came in I call them kids even if they are eighteen years old but they are kids mentally one of them is Michelino’s brother in law Michele and these guys run errands for the people I was talking about and they’re idiots too because one of these guys well to make a long story short I was behind the counter at the café watching TV and making espressos and these two come into the café and sit down and start watching TV too and you could tell that they had snorted coke because they kept sniffing as if they had colds even though it was July and after a bit I say to them your coffee is getting cold go ahead and drink it while it’s hot it’s probably good for your cold sure we have allergies but we’re taking a syrup for it the other guy says and starts laughing I keep it light because in any case I’m working at the bar I don’t have any reason to preach to them or moralize I really don’t give a shit