Rosa Bellissima

Titta stretched out, lying on his back in the sand of the great river. With an empty head, he watched the white clouds pass above him. He thought: "How wonderful it would be to be like them… to be able to fly and go far!" The April sun warmed his face. He closed his eyes and remained still, enjoying the warmth. Would they scold him? Perhaps even punish him? What did it matter? His name was Giovanni Battista, but everyone called him Titta. His surname was Bordon. He was ten years old. He was born in Spilimbergo on November 30, 1866, shortly after those lands were annexed to the Kingdom of Italy, under the Province of Udine. The eldest child of a sharecropper couple, he had three sisters: Brigida, Agata, and Agnese; the youngest would turn one in a few days. The farmhouse where he lived was shared with two other families: that of his uncle Angelo, known as Agnul, and that of his uncle Olindo, known as Lindo. Agnul was the oldest brother, so he was entrusted with supervising all sharecropping activities. Among cousins, there were twelve in the farmhouse, four per family. Giovanni Battista's mother and father were named Giuseppe, known as Bepi, and Maria. A stone hit him on the head. He raised himself on his elbows to see who it was. It was Meno, he imagined. Of the whole gang, he was the most mischievous. They called him Meno, but his full name was Menotti. His parents had chosen it in honor of the Modenese patriot Ciro Menotti, just as another parent, an illustrious father, Giuseppe Garibaldi, had done for his son. "I knew it was you… you're always the same troublemaker!" Meno laughed and threw another, smaller stone at him, which hit him above the ear. At that point, Titta got up and ran after him. He caught up and tackled him. The scuffle went on for a while until the others arrived to break them up. They got up scratched and disheveled, spitting in each other's faces. The boys had ventured into the "grava," the boundless riverbed of the Tagliamento river, although it was not the most suitable period for such exploits. Its waters, in fact, were in flood due to the thaw and formed a thousand bubbling rivulets. They had met near the small church of Ancona and then had set off along the "branc," an almost dry branch. They had waded across it, where possible, and had headed towards the center of the river. Having passed a dry area, of sandy and level ground, heedless of the danger, they had entered the "salet," the area called a willow grove, where a tangle of wild vegetation made it difficult to orient oneself and could conceal real ditches dug by the impetuous waters. Having found a way through the willow grove, they had reached "lis blancjis," the area of gravel and sand. There they had stopped, because just beyond, the river currents roared. They had started fishing around a recently formed pool. They tried to hit the fish by throwing stones, but the result was disappointing. At one point, Cumìn l'aròs, Giacomino the redhead, known as Laròs, a very clever reddish skinny boy, had an idea. "Stop throwing stones. Do as I tell you. Just watch." He had entered the pool and advanced until the water reached his short trousers. Then he had bent down and put his hands in the water, remaining still in that position. He had said: "Now throw the stones to the other side, so the fish will come towards me." Since Laròs enjoyed a certain authority, the boys had humored him. The fish immediately fled towards the redhead, who, with astonishing speed, repeatedly threw them onto the gravel. Everyone laughed with joy, in a state of exaltation. After the euphoria, Titta had grown tired of the noise and, as often happened to him, had isolated himself to enjoy that beauty alone. Once the anger from the scuffle had subsided, the group set off on their way back, but right in the "salet," Michele, whom they called Lut, the youngest of the group, misstepped and fell into a deep stream, ending up upside down, with an ankle caught in the brambles. Without thinking twice, Menotti went down into the ditch, slipping several times on the sides and risking falling himself. He managed to get close to his friend and grab him by a foot, but soon realized that he couldn't move as he was, he had no handholds to try to climb back up. Laròs started giving instructions. "Stay still there, Meno… both of you stay still and we'll pull you out. We need to form a chain. Over there, that small tree… Pedron, since you're the biggest, grab onto the tree, we'll hold onto you." They formed a human chain: at one end was Pedron, at the opposite end was Titta. Stretched as far as possible into the ditch, the latter offered his arm to Menotti, who stared him in the eyes for a moment, then grabbed it. Slowly they climbed up the slope and Lut was rescued. They all hugged, shouting with joy. Laròs demanded that they swear not to tell anyone what had happened, although he knew that Meno's word couldn't be relied upon. In fact, word of the incident reached Bepi's ears, who gave Titta a couple of well-aimed slaps and, as punishment, assigned him the most dishonorable task until June: raising silkworms. Feeding and caring for those voracious creatures was a task normally entrusted to girls and young women, so Titta was subjected to the taunts of his cousins and friends. But deep down, he didn't dislike the work. At the beginning of April, he had helped his father, uncles, and older cousins clean the attic. They had washed the floor with lye and whitewashed the walls and beams with lime milk. Then, they had taught him how to build the "castles" and wooden frames that would house the larvae. Finally, they had shown him which leaves to pick from the mulberry trees, being careful not to damage them. Therefore, that punishment seemed to him a continuation of the work previously done and a good way to avoid the toil of the fields.