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son-in-law didn’t have a real job, that his success might end at any moment and there he’d be, with mamma and me, a beggar if it weren’t for his parents, but only as long as they were alive. She knew what it meant to manage on your own and not ask anyone for help. She, unfortunately, had known real life. My father wasn’t bothered by this, or maybe he wasn’t aware of the contempt of his mother-in-law, who never paid him a compliment and regularly threw out the newspapers with articles about him or used them to clean the windows or to put under the feet of workers who came to make repairs in the house.
    Papa has always had his music, and nothing else in the world matters to him.

10.
     
     
    About the suitors who fled, about the well, about the hair like a mangy dog, about the scars on her arms, and about the brothel—grandmother told the Veteran all of this the first night they spent together at risk of ending up in Hell. And grandmother said that there were only two people she had really talked to in her life: to him and to me. He was the thinnest and the handsomest man she had ever seen, and it was the most intense and prolonged lovemaking. Because the Veteran, before he penetrated her, again and again, slowly undressed her, stopping to caress every part of her body, smiling at her and telling her that she was beautiful. He wanted to take the pins out of her hair himself and, like a child, sink his hands in that black cloud of curls, and unbutton her clothes and gaze at her lying naked on the bed, so he could admire her large firm breasts, her soft white skin, her long legs, and all the while he caressed her and kissed her where she had never been kissed. She could have fainted with pleasure. And then grandmother undressed him, carefully placing the wooden leg at the foot of the bed, and she kissed and caressed his stump for a long time. And for the first time she thanked God in her heart for having brought her into the world, for having pulled her out of the well, for having given her a beautiful bosom and beautiful hair and even, in fact especially, kidney stones.
    Afterward he told her that she was very good and that he had never encountered anyone like her in any brothel at any price. Then grandmother proudly listed her services. The prey: the man captures the woman, naked, in a fishing net in which he makes one opening, just so he can penetrate her. She is his fish. He touches her everywhere, but feels only the shapes and not the skin. The slave: she gives him a bath and caresses him with bare breasts, and offers them to him to bite but doesn’t dare look at him. The geisha: he simply has her tell him stories that take him away from the problems of daily life; she is completely clothed and they don’t necessarily make love. The lunch: she lies down and the man spreads the food out as if on a table that has been set, for example a piece of fruit in her vagina or jam on her breast or ragù or custard, and eats everything. The girl: it’s he who gives her a bath in the tub, with lots of bubbles; he washes her all over and in gratitude she will take him in her mouth. The muse: he photographs her in the most indecent poses, with her thighs spread, while she masturbates and squeezes her tits. The dog-woman: she wears only a bra and brings him the newspaper in her mouth, while he pats her sex from behind or her hair or ears and says, “Good dog.” The servant: she brings him coffee in bed wearing an outfit that’s modest but reveals her breasts almost completely, and she lets him milk them, then she climbs the wardrobe to clean and isn’t wearing underpants. The lazybones: she is tied to the bed because she has to be punished with the belt, but grandfather never really hurt her. Grandmother always performed outstandingly and after every service her husband told her how much it would have cost at the brothel. They put that sum away for rebuilding the house on Via Manno, and grandmother insisted that a small