“Why didn’t you do anything that night?”
“What night do you refer to?” She looked away from me, giving away the fact that she knew exactly what I was talking about, not that there was ever any doubt.
“You know what night I’m talking about. Don’t play games.” I had to remind myself that she was not the main target.
“No, no, I don’t….”
“The night she was raped right in front of you.” This part I wasn’t a hundred percent sure of until now until the look of remembered horror and disgust flitted across her face. I breathed just that much easier now. There was no doubt that she was there and that she knew and could give me the answers I sought.
My words shook her to the core, and she ended up dropping down onto the bench when her legs gave out beneath her. Her eyes had that faraway look of someone who’s lost in thought and memory. “There was nothing I could do. I was little more than a child myself.” Something in me relaxed at her willingness to answer.
“And after?”
“After, there was no one I could tell. You don’t understand, your father, he….”
“He’s not my father.” Why did her saying that piss me off so much? Just being associated with him in any way was a sore point of contention. Bad enough, she’d looked at me like a monster. I didn’t want her lumping me together with him in any way, not even in her mind.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to offend. What did your mother tell you about that night?”
“She told me everything, but I’m sure there were some things she didn’t know. Like why did it happen? Who knew it was going to happen? How did it start? I know she wasn’t friends with him, so how did she end up there that night?” I knew most of this already, but I needed to know what went down from the other side.
“That was so long ago; I don’t….”
“Don’t they teach you not to lie in places like this? You remember everything about that night.” Here, I went out on a limb. “In fact, you remember it so well that you ran away to this place to get away from it.” Her deflation and look of defeat were all the answer I needed. “Now tell me what you know about that night, don’t leave out a thing.”
I was betting on her being forthcoming for the mere fact that I’d found her. She may not have told the convent about her past after all and may indeed be in hiding. If I have to threaten her with exposure, guess what I’d do. She took a minute to compose herself, and then it all came tumbling out. Every sordid detail that Ma would not have known about and therefore could not share.
“That night started out like any other. The Riccis were known for their parties in the neighborhood. Everybody wanted to be invited. It was an every weekend thing when we were younger. There was a group of us, all close friends, all children of old friends that had grown up together and moved in the same circles for generations. Some of us were even distant cousins.”
“I was one of the youngest and had only been to a handful of parties at that point. But I’d heard the stories, seen some of it firsthand.”
“Seen some of what?”
“The games the others played. Their cruelty, especially your…especially Alonzo.” She said his name almost as if it burned her tongue. “Go on!”
“Their games seemed to get more daring as time went on. But nothing was as bad as that night, at least not then. Before they’d go too far, cross the line sometimes, but that night, it’s as if something had taken them all over. I couldn’t believe they were even considering it, but because I was younger and relatively new to the group, my voice was drowned out by the others.”
“I knew he had a thing for Sofia; everyone knew. But when I overheard what they were planning, I felt sick. I told myself it was a joke, as you Americans say, a prank. But when I asked, they just laughed it off as if it were nothing.”
“What did you overhear?” She looked at me as if weighing her words, but my look probably warned her to give it to me straight. But not even I was prepared.
“Sofia never gave Alonzo the time of day. While all the other girls in the village were vying for his attention, she stood out as the one who had no use for him. She wasn’t impressed with his wealth or his family name, none of it. She just wanted nothing to do with him or any of his friends, for that matter. Alonzo, along with some of the others, was very affronted by this. As he was the leader of the pack, they all looked up to him, and his prowess was theirs, that sort of thing.”
“It was a joke among some of them, and I guess the last time she shot him down in front of them, he took offense more than at any other time and his friends making fun of him for being turned down by a girl from one of the poorest families in the village fueled his anger and depravity.”
I didn’t respond, and she looked at me as if seeking permission to go on. A slight nod of my head gave her the go-ahead, and I looked away from her, turned my back even, to give her space, to make it easier for her to say the words she seemed to be having such a hard time saying.
“The weeks leading up to the party, they hatched a plan. It was the most abhorrent thing I’d ever heard, and I’d heard plenty since joining the ranks of their friends.”
“What plan did they hatch? Who are they?”
“It was all of them, but mainly Felice.” The name sounded familiar. It was the name of Ricci’s wife, whom he'd married just two years after the occurrence.
“What did Felice do?” I didn’t ask if she was the same one. I didn’t want to reveal the fact that I had a dossier on the entire Ricci clan.
“She befriended Sofia. Everyone knew Sofia was a very pleasant girl; she just didn’t mix with the wealthy families in the village. She usually stuck close to home, close to her father.”
I had a feeling where this was going and could already feel my hackles rise, but it was worse, much worse. I listened as she recalled the story of what happened that fateful night. How this Felice had befriended Ma, how she’d tricked her that night into thinking they were going someplace else before luring her into the Ricci mansion where a party was being held.
“Felice was besotted with Alonzo back then; she even went on to marry him after this. Anyway, that night she was the one who brought Sofia to Alonzo. They were all waiting, Alonzo, Luna, Antonio, Carlo, Bruno, Michele, Teresa´, and myself.”
“What about the brother? Martin.”
“Oh, he was away at university then. He never hung around with us; he wasn’t much like his brother. He was more of an academic than the rest of us and spent most of his time away at school or traveling to some out-of-the-way place to do research; he’s an anthropologist now.”
“As I said, we were all waiting when Felice came back with Sofia. Are you sure you want me to go on?” I was clenching my teeth so hard I could only nod.
“As soon as Sofia entered the room and saw us standing there, she tried to leave, but Felice and Michele dragged her into the room. They were all laughing… she was screaming to be let go. Her eyes… such terror.”
She shivered as if reliving it while I cautioned myself not to wrap my hands around her neck and squeeze. She was just a kid herself, maybe the twins’ age, I’m guessing from her youthfulness now. She couldn’t be much younger than Ma, but she was younger.