Street Boys by Lorenzo Carcaterra Read Free Book Online

“Nothing more than that.”
    Vincenzo walked around the large square, staring at the ground, gazing under piles of rubble, looking down at shattered cobblestones. “Not every bomb the Nazis dropped on us exploded. There are at least a dozen here in the square.”
    “If we can find some carts, we can gather them up,” Franco said.
    “How do you know the bombs will be of any use?” Angela asked. “They didn’t explode when they were dropped from a plane. What are we going to do?
Slide
them toward the Germans?”
    “I have no idea,” Vincenzo said, with a voice filled with weary irritation. “All I know is they are bombs and that they do explode.”
    Angela turned and sat under the shadow of the bronze statue of King Ferdinand I, leaning her back against the cold marble. “You haven’t said anything about me being a girl,” she said.
    “What’s there to say?” Vincenzo said with a slight shrug. “You want to stay, you can stay. Girl or not.”
    “Would you turn me away if you could?” she asked.
    “You’re not the first girl to fight for Naples,” Vincenzo said. “Eleonora Fonseca fought in the rebellion in 1799. Did pretty well, too, at least from what I read about her. She helped in the victory that made the city a republic.”
    Angela nodded her head. “What else do you know about her?”
    Vincenzo walked closer to Angela, a sparkle in his eyes. “She had her moments,” he said. “When the Cardinal came to power, he had the leaders of the uprising punished. He ordered Fonseca taken to the Piazza Mercato. She was put on a scaffold and executed.”
    Vincenzo glanced over Angela’s shoulder and winked at Franco. “Cheer up,” he said to her. “Nazis don’t use scaffolds.”
    “How many of them will there be?” Angela asked, a slight trace of fear creeping into her diffident manner.
    “We won’t know until they’re back in the city,” Vincenzo said. “If they really do come back.”
    Angela looked around her, at the boys and girls spread throughout the square, sitting under the warmth of a loving sun. “How do we keep them alive?” she asked.
    Vincenzo stayed silent for several minutes before answering. “The streets are our best weapon,” he said. “We use what they give us. The dark alleys and the paths under the sewers. Hidden walkways inside churches and museums. Tunnels outside the railroad station, guard towers of Saint Efremo, castle grottos that lead out to sea. If we use all that, we can fight and never be seen. We’ll be an invisible army. One that can beat the Nazis.”
    “
Beat
them!” Franco said with an air of frustration. “Entire
armies
couldn’t beat them. They’ve killed over four hundred thousand Neapolitans and none of us has even
seen
a German soldier except from a distance. But you can talk about beating them with an invisible army of children. The words of one lunatic put us in this place, Vincenzo. I’m not ready for the words of another.”
    “It’s been tried before,” Vincenzo said. “Against an army just as formidable.”
    “When?” Franco asked.
    “The sixteen hundreds, during the Spanish rule,” Vincenzo said, “a young fishseller named Aniello led a band of rebels against Ponce De Leon. They were short on weapons, but used what they had and fought well. Not very different from what faces us.”
    “What happened to them?” Angela asked.
    “They were betrayed,” Vincenzo said, jamming his hands in his pockets. “And Aniello was captured. The Spanish cut up his body and tossed it on top of a large pile of cow shit.”
    Franco looked at Vincenzo and grinned. Angela leaned her head down and covered her mouth.
    “What?” Vincenzo asked.
    “If you’re going to keep telling us these stories of yours,” Angela said, “it might be nice if one of them, just one, ended on a happy note.”

9
    16TH PANZER DIVISION, FIFTY MILES OUTSIDE OF ROME
SEPTEMBER 26, 1943
    Colonel Rudolph Von Klaus raised his head up to the warm sun, helmet resting on