Firts time Marina and Fulvio

VII

That is why at the same moment that Madame Moonlight got rid of the insistent Namura, a Japanese hospital ship began to dock to unload the wounded.

The Japanese, in order not to show that they were suffering defeat, made threatening military parades before the population, which indicated to Madame Moonlight that she should be more firm in her work; she understood that the defeat of the Japanese could be prolonged, but not avoided, and that these showy parades guaranteed it.

Major Gallipoli came on that hospital ship, convalescing from a major rib fracture. The next morning he was transported in a caravan of Japanese ambulances to finish his treatment at the Japanese hospital in Shanghai. This silent Japanese caravan stopped the traffic, passing in front of a rickety streetcar pulled by two starving horses.

Among the passengers, simply dressed and without make-up, was Madame MoonLight, who saw the ambulances heading down the wide and lonely avenue. The girl sighed. The Japanese were human, too, and they died. Without knowing why, she remembered that terrible day when that foreigner had shattered her heart forever.

Hours later, by candlelight, around a bare and poor table, Marina Leung Ba was handing out to the Kuomintang tigers some black bread, some tea and sugar, a bottle of sake and 1,000 military yen,

--Courtesy of the Japanese army and especially of General Namura,-- said the young woman mockingly.

--What have you got out of Namura,-- asked her commander.

SHe is madly in love with me. He wants to marry me. No less,-- said the young woman, holding back her laughter, --He doesn't mind risking his life in front of his Emperor for preferring a young Chinese girl.

--We need to find the names and pseudonyms of the Chinese informants on behalf of the Japanese,-- said the section chief, Dr. Xia Jiang, a quiet doctor, but fiercely resistant.

--The General is very secretive. What I do know is that the rumors are true. The Japanese navy is taking heavy losses against the Americans.

--And so,--said the doctor, her eyes widening in surprise.

--The general confessed it to me when I let him kiss my feet

The group burst out laughing.

--Well, it's true,--continued the young woman, also laughing, --My feet are a fighting weapon, very effective against the Japanese. We are a million times more beautiful than the Japanese. Even though they deny it, we drive them crazy.

Everyone laughed again, in a suddenly relaxed and cordial atmosphere.

The doctor imposed silence and announced.

--We are planning an attack against the casino. We must strike hard at the Japanese officialdom and if possible directly against Namura himself,-- she said in a cold and concise tone, typical of a military leader, automatically returning martial discipline to the group.

--They spend their time in the Moonlight celebrating fictitious victories,--Marina said quietly.

-- That will bring terrible reprisals against the population,-- said one of the plotters, frightened. --That mission has been decided by the joint secretariat, can we count on you Marina?

--Of course,--answered the young woman immediately.

--We must also maintain the concentration on the party order in agreement with the communists; it is necessary to take out the pilots imprisoned in the prisoner of war camp on the beach. We need those officers to incorporate them into the guerrillas,-- concluded the doctor. ---We have too many failures in group leaders, coordinators and command chiefs. They have to go out to do that job.

--Competition for the boys-- said one of the young guerrilla women, smiling mischievously. The meeting ended and they all set out to risk their lives in the dangerous traffic through the streets in the hours close to curfew.

Namura always insisted that Madame Moonlight would sing to the wounded Japanese in the

Hospital. She always refused with an excuse. That's why she didn't even believe herself when she agreed and was immediately driven to the hospital in the commander's own Nissan. She went, sang two Japanese songs, gave out quick smiles to the dying, blew a kiss in the air and even waved a Japanese flag. What did have the effect of a sledgehammer on him was seeing someone asleep in a bed on the third floor. Her heart burst. It was him. Unshaven, thinner, but it was definitely him. The young woman approached and with a head-to-toe shudder reached the foot of the wounded man's bed.

VII

A few days later; Fulvio was looking out the window in the autumn heat of two o'clock in the afternoon. He pondered what he had to do to get out of that hecatomb alive. As an intelligent man, he had no doubt that Japan would lose. His musings vanished as if by magic when he saw that miniature coming towards him. Precisely at him. So it was true of the Japanese, who said that the goddess Matsuì herself had come to visit them and arrived at the foot of his bed days before.

. The young woman approached. She stopped by his bedside in perfect Chinese silence.

My Madonna. God has brought me to paradise and I didn't even realize it," --he mumbled, frightened at the sight of that portentous apparition, --"I must repent for my sins. Because I have fallen in love with a Chinese goddess.

The young woman smiled at him enigmatically and with that swallow-like voice said to him in English,

--"Do you understand me? can I communicate with you?" --asked that apparition, which seemed to Fulvio to have escaped from the third gate of heaven.

--No, I don't understand you. I don't know how to speak the language of the Angels of Paradise,"-- answered Fulvio, feeling observed by that cat, who seemed to be looking at him, just as a cat looks at its future prey.

The young man tried to sit up in bed to see her better, "I don't know what I have done or not done to have the happiness of seeing that her beauty heals me immediately.

--Two days ago I came to sing to her. But he was asleep. He could not hear me. I came to complete my mission," --explained the infinite beauty of the girl, relieved to see that they could communicate in English.

--You'll have to excuse me. I was born an idiot. I swear I will never sleep again waiting for your return," --replied the man absolutely fascinated by the diminutive presence.

--Your injuries, are they serious,??" said the young woman with a sincere hint of concern.

--It is nothing. I only understand that I have a very dear brother in the Australian Air Force.

--Why,??" --asked those slanting black eyes, which did not blink at all and kept staring at him.

--Well, thanks to the fact that he mercilessly strafed my last ship. He almost killed me when he wounded me, he sent me here and let me meet her. That's why I love him, whoever he is.

The young woman leaned towards him. Without taking her eyes off him, she approached his ear, enveloping the man in a sweet fragrance of cherries and peaches, she began to sing in English a simple Chinese song; it was more like a poem that spoke of a poor peasant girl, in love with a handsome feudal prince who did not even look at her. That cruel indifference killed her with love; in her agony she asked to be buried on the road where the young prince walked, so that the geraniums planted on her grave would brighten the cruel and indifferent man's existence. When she finished singing, the young woman took her leave with a bow, thus taking revenge on Fulvio, as she stabbed him with 10, 20, 30, 1000, 10000 Cupid's arrows, leaving him in a cataleptic rapture at the sight of that sinuous walk.

Minutes later, the Major of the Bersaglieri Fulvio Gallipoli pushed away the Japanese doctors who prevented him from leaving the hospital, while in Japanese he asked them who or rather what was that apparition that in only seconds cured him and sent him straight to the gates of madness.

It was impossible to stop him. Fulvio Gallipoli went out to a cloudy and hot Shanghai, without precaution, serving as an easy target for any apprentice guerrilla, because on top of his hospital pajamas he put on his jacket with insignia; he walked looking for the young woman. He saw the Japanese military patrols going through the city. Something told him that it was not a good idea to ask for their help to find her.

He stopped a porter. He had no money. He would see how he would pay him, but he would not stop looking for that girl even if Hirohito himself prevented him from doing so