The Gladiator

A

When Gianfranco came into the kitchen, she was ready to put the Russian aside for his game. Her mother would cluck, but she didn't care. Then she got a good look at his face. "What's wrong?" she asked, adding, "You look like somebody who just saw a ghost."

"That's not fu

"All right." A

He didn't try to tell her it was nothing. She would have brained him with the Russian book if he had. It was big and square and heavy-she might have fractured his skull. All he said was, "You'll see."

Out she went. He led her to the stairwell. On the stairs, looking miserable and worried, stood Eduardo. "Ohh," A

"He's not a puppy." Gianfranco might have been joking, but his tone said he wasn't. "I can't go ask my mother if I can keep him."

"No," A

That only made the clerk from The Gladiator look even more miserable. "I couldn't," he said. "The Security Police had already raided the shop."

And what was that supposed to mean? "Have you got a tu

Eduardo turned red. Even with the cheap, low-wattage lightbulbs in the stairwell, A

"I'm already in trouble." Gianfranco sounded proud of it, too.

"Not if nobody finds out I was here," Eduardo said.

Part of A

"What's going on?" Gianfranco said, but he came. Eduardo sat down on the stairs and put his head in his hands. He couldn't have seemed more downcast if he were rehearsing in a play. A

Her father was reading a medical journal in the living room. He looked up in mild surprise when A

"You know about The Gladiator, si?" A

"The gaming place in the Galleria? I know it's there- that's about all," Papa answered. "And that silly girl was giving you a hard time about it."

"Maria's a lot of things, but silly isn't any of them," A

"Lucky for them," her father remarked. Not for the first time, he reminded her of someone who would smoke a pipe. He didn't, or anything else. But he had that kind of thoughtful air.

"Not for all of them." A

He jumped. His voice wobbled and broke as he said, "I ran into one of them-a guy named Eduardo. I brought him here. What are we going to do with him, Dottor Crosetti? I don't want to give him to the Security Police, not when he really hasn't done anything."

"Hasn't done anything you know of," A

"They don't want him for anything but working in the shop." Gianfranco sounded more sure of himself now.

"How do you know that?" Dr. Crosetti asked. He didn't sound angry.

"Because a Security Police officer was asking me questions outside The Gladiator this afternoon," Gianfranco answered. An-narita hadn't heard that. He went on, "It was all he cared about."

A

"It sounds wonderful," Gianfranco said.

"It's fine, Father," A

"Well, then, go get him, and we'll see what's what," Dr. Crosetti said. "And then you can both disappear. I've already talked with you. I want to talk to him."

Gianfranco looked miffed. "It's all right," A

Back to the stairwell they went. To A

"Come talk to my father. If anybody can figure out what to do for you, he can," A

"I've already talked too much. I don't want to do any more," Eduardo said.

"If you don't want to talk to my father, you can talk to the Security Police instead," she said. Eduardo winced and climbed to his feet. A

Down the hall they went. Gianfranco did the introduction: "Dr. Crosetti, this is Eduardo… You know what, Eduardo? I don't know your last name."

"Caruso," the clerk said. "Only I can't sing."

That made A

None too willingly, they left the living room. "What's he going to ask him?" Gianfranco whispered. "What's he going to find out that we didn't?"

"I don't know," A

"I hope not!" Gianfranco exclaimed. "My father would either make speeches at him or hand him to the Security Police. Or both."

That was about what A

Gianfranco nodded. "Here I am, all right, and I wish 1 were somewhere else."

Algebra homework wasn't what Gianfranco wanted to be doing. Across the kitchen table from him, A

They got chased away from the table about eight o'clock, so their mothers could set it for supper. Dr. Crosetti came out to eat. Eduardo didn't. What had A