I Am David: Chapters 3–4

The many things he must have failed to notice in the town continued to fret him.

If the bit of Italy I’ve been in so far juts out into the sea as I think it does, then I’d better go more to the east, for that’s the direction the land seems to follow.

On this side of the peninsula, too, the road wound along on a kind of shelf above the sea.

A man got out of the car and began rummaging in the trunk.

The man made a sudden movement, and David heard him mutter, “Blast, my glasses!”

As he watched the man groping about in the half light along the edge of the road, David rose to his feet.

The stranger looked a little disconcerted; then he smiled and said in that case David must accept his thanks and asked if he would like to say, “How do you do?” to his wife.

Fortunately, they did not seem very interested, and apparently taking a hint from the brevity of his answer, they questioned him no more.

David began to clamber slowly down the slope toward the sea to find himself a place to sleep for the night.

The Italians did not ask so many questions, but it was easier to earn money from the tourists who were on vacation from other countries, and so David embroidered his tale of the circus until he thought it sounded absolutely genuine.

Every time he came to a bend in the road, he was afraid the beauty of the scene would disappear, but each time a new beauty was revealed in the constantly changing landscape of green and undulating hills and valleys.

There were olives with their gnarled trunks and pale gray-green leaves, whispering and quivering in the lightest breeze as if they were alive, and there were cypresses, tall and slender, pointing straight up into the sky.

There were olives with their gnarled trunks and pale gray-green leaves, whispering and quivering in the lightest breeze as if they were alive, and there were cypresses, tall and slender, pointing straight up into the sky.

A car traveled at an immense speed, and if he kept going in the same direction, he must at some point leave Italy behind.

There was one thing, however, that these two Americans did not possess: they had no gas, as they called petrol, and that was why their car would not go.

It was a large town situated on the top of a hill—and there was a very big church that could be seen from the road.

But he had to reckon with the possibility that there was some reason that made it necessary for them to find him, and that was as near as he could get.

There had once been a musician in the camp, and before he had been there long enough to lapse into silence, he had talked about music and tried to explain what it sounded like.

With all the speed he could muster, he undid his bundle and took out his knife, picked up his wet clothes again and with one hand held his trousers up in front of his nose and mouth.

He would be able to manage that much before he succumbed to the flames.

The flames were nearly out, and he pressed her head against his chest to destroy the last sparks in case the fire should still be lurking there in the hope that he would let it have her.

They shone black and lustrous as if the sun were shining on them, and the skin of her face looked as delicate as the petals of a flower.

So instead he said earnestly, “I won’t ask you to do anything, and, of course, I’ll do as you wish...

There was a bowl on the table, and two tall, slender objects that he pondered over deeply till he came to the conclusion that they must be candlesticks.

It was safer not to say too much, for then he would avoid saying anything that might rouse their suspicions of him.