ITALIAN BROTHERS 3 ENRICO PICCIN by Andrej Koymasky (C) 2005 written on February 2, 1996 translated by the author English text kindly revised by Dave
USUAL DISCLAIMER
"ITALIAN BROTHERS 3 - ENRICO PICCIN" is a gay story, with some parts containing graphic scenes of sex between males. So, if in your land, religion, family, opinion and so on this is not good for you, it will be better not to read this story. But if you really want, or because YOU don't care, or because you think you really want to read it, please be my welcomed guest.
CHAPTER 12 . The fallen angel
At times Enrico had also to treat some wounded Bourbons' soldier that the comrades in flight left on the field. The orders were to treat them like the others, but they were kept in a separate part of the field hospital. Once they were healed, they were let free to go back to their villages, but not a few of them, especially the common soldiers, asked to become a member of the Garibaldians.
Enrico was precisely visiting the Bourbons' section, when a young man asked him, "Doctor, do you think I can make it?"
"I think so." Enrico answered him with a reassuring smile.
"Aren't you telling me a white lie?"
"Absolutely not... What is your name?"
"Arcangelo... but I'm called just Angelo."
"Where are you from?"
"From Massafra."
"Where is it?"
"Just out of Taranto."
"Very well, Angelo, you will be back quite soon to Massafra, then, I give you my word."
"I don't want to go back there... I cannot."
"You can not? But why?"
"My family... They don't want me. I am the black sheep of the family, you see?"
"You can't be a black ship, with your name and the face of such a good boy! I can't believe it." Enrico said, looking at him and thinking that he really was a sweet and handsome young man.
Angelo looked at him with sad eyes and said, "And yet... That's why I enlisted, I didn't know what to do, where to go. At least there I had bread, and shelter, and clothes. To me, the Bourbons were not Bourbons... But that became my job, that's why I had to shoot at you and was shot by yours. And now you treat me, and I don't know any more what to do, I have nothing, nobody left."
"Would you join us?" Enrico asked him.
"Yes, I heard it is possible, but with my arm in this condition... I possibly will not even be able to hold a fusil as it has to be held. Well, it is not that with my arm unhurt I was so good, anyway..."
"Your arm will recover. And anyway you could also do other services. Moreover you would not be alone - here we all are as brothers."
"Yes... I noticed you are rather different from the Bourbons. You too, doctor, are different, you are kind, good."
Enrico smiled, "Well, Angel, now worry only about recovering and meanwhile think about it. There is no hurry."
"Thank you, doctor."
Enrico could read in the young man's eyes a sentiment of deep sadness, of solitude, of forbearance. In the following days, when he went to visit the Bourbons, he also noticed that Angelo seemed isolated from his comrades. He asked himself if it was him who wanted to isolate himself or if it were the others who isolated him.
Thus, when Angelo was able to start to get up, Enrico took him outside for a short walk and told him, "Angelo, I have a feeling that you don't get on very well with your comrades. Am I wrong?"
"No, you aren't... I am the black sheep, don't you remember?"
"I would like to understand."
"That's no easy. And then... if you knew, possibly, you too would turn your back on me. Yes, I am sure."
"How can you be so sure?" Enrico asked him with a smile.
"I am twenty six years old, my experience is that... Well, I know how things are."
"Couldn't I be different from the others?"
"Yes, it is possible. Your eyes are different, in some way. NeverthelessÉ it is not that I don't trust you, but..."
Enrico didn't insist. But on the following day he asked to Angelo, "Would you like better if I have you moved in the Garibaldians section? I have the authority of ordering that, if you want."
"Why? I didn't yet decided if I want to join you or not."
"There nobody knows you, besides me. Nobody would know that you are a black sheep, supposing that you really are one."
"Who knows... perhaps, even though sooner or later the black sheep are always singled out. You cannot take off your skin..."
"I've not yet seen this black skin." Enrico said looking him into his eyes.
"Doctor, you... a doctor is like a priest, isn't it?"
"Well, the priest treats the soul; the doctor treats the body..."
"But you have to keep a secret, don't you?"
"We certainly have to, we are sworn to it."
"Therefore, if I said to you why I am a black sheep... possibly you would stop talking to me, but you will tell nobody."
"I would tell nobody. And I don't think I would stop talking to you."
"I want to trust you. Do you have time, now?"
"I've enough time. There aren't urgent cases."
"Well, I, doctor... Oh, it isn't easy to tell it."
"Do as you feel like."
"You see me here, still weak even if I feel I'm getting better. But usually I... I am a type... how to say it..."
"Physically you are well built, strong. And perhaps even cheerful, am I wrong?
"Cheerful... I lost cheerfulness too many years ago."
"That's a pity. And how did that happen?"
"Because... because I discovered that people don't like who... the ones who are different from them, and I am different, way too different."
"Different? You seem to me a normal guy."
"Different, doctor, so different, because I... I get aflame for males, not for females!" the young man said all in one breath lowering his voice and removing his gaze from him. Before Enrico could react, he continued, "And those like me, everybody loathes them, even those who, provided nobody knows, come to enjoy themselves with me, mainly these ones.
"I was seventeen years old when one who before had a good time with me, when I told him that I didn't like how he did it with me, how he behaved towards me, as he was violent, he hurt me, and that I didn't want to do it again with him... he told everybody I was... what I am. And my father threw me out of the house and nobody of those who did it with me did lift a finger to help me, rather, they pretended not to know me or else they took me for a ride in the village square. They threw on me rotten fruits, they spit when I was passing. Then I had to leave my village.
"In Taranto, for a while I... well, if they gave me some coins, you see... was ready to do it with anyone, so that I could eat. Everything was alright, in my mouth, in my back, in every way. Then one day an officer, after he... did me, said: why don't you enlist as a soldier? I'll have you as my orderly, so when I'm horny you let me vent my yen. Why not? That suits him as so he doesn't have to pay me, but at least I get food, a roof, clothing... I thought. Therefore I became a soldier. For a while it worked nicely - in day time I was his servant and in night time I let him amuse with me in his way. But then that officer grew tired of me - I was then twenty-two, and he found a younger orderly.
"I don't know how the rumor spread. Possibly he told to some friends and the friends to others - with Angelo you can do all you like best. And thus... soldier, come to move the crates in the storehouse, a non-commissioned officer ordered me, and instead once there he lowered my breeches and mounted me! Soldier, go to help in the kitchen, and the kitchen-chief took me in the larder, shut the door and... like the others. At times, some of them preferred being mounted by me, but right these ones, afterwards, despised me even more than the others. Angelo takes it by everybody, takes it everywhere, Angelo does anything, is always at disposal, Angelo obeys...
"But at least they didn't insult me in front of everybody, didn't spit on me, or throw me rotten things at me. They acted as though nothing had happened, all of them, as long as I obeyed. And anyway I had no other place where to go, anything else I could do. Therefore... soldier, there is the lieutenant's sword to polish, go! And the lieutenant was waiting for me with that glimmer in his eyes and it was his flesh sword I had to polish. Soldier, the quartermaster has an errand for you, go, and hurry up! And the quartermaster mounted me as long as he needed to satisfy his fancy. Do you understand why the others don't get on well with me? Here I'm not even good for that, because here we never are alone and so they cannot amuse themselves with me, therefore they have nothing to share with me."
"Oh, Angelo... my poor Angelo..."
"The fallen angel, doctor." the young man said with a deep sadness.
"No, Angelo. Nobody will know anything about all that, if I have you moved in the Garibaldians section."
"For a few days, perhaps, but then... there are some of our soldiers who joined your army and for sure they will spread the rumor and all will be exactly like before, because I am different."
"Angelo, several of our men are like you, you know?"
"Like me?"
"And nobody despises them even if they can guess, even if they can think, even if they can know. And nobody can force you to do what you don't want to do, or with whom you don't want to do it."
"You say so because you don't know how things are, because it is not your problem, speaking with all due respect, doctor." Angelo said bitterly.
At that point Enrico decided he had to be open with the young man, so he told him about himself and, without telling their names, about his friends, then about his love for Maurizio. Angelo was listening to him, gaping.
Then, at the end, he said, shaking his head in amazement, "You are the first one to talk me so, the first to tell me that it is not only me to be that way, to be wrong."
"No, Angelo, we are not wrong, neither I nor you nor any of those like us. Nobody is wrong for being blond or brown, from the north or from the south, a Moor or a Christian, white or black... or for loving a person of his own sex or of the other sex."
"You talk rightly, you..." the young man said, persuaded, but added, "But the majority doesn't think in that same way."
"No, unhappily you are right. But we have not to let ourselves be over come. And we have to help each other to resist, and to be strong. And if you want, I can tell about you to my friends who are like us, so you can have friends, true friends, not people wanting to make profit of you. And I will be the first of your friends, of course."
"You... are you offering me your friendship?"
"By all means!"
"You... you can tell about me to everybody you want. And if you offer me your friendship, I will be your friend forever, a faithful and devoted friend!"
"Agreed, then!"
CONTINUES IN CHAPTER 13
In my home page I've put some more of my stories. If someone wants to read them, the URL is http://andrejkoymasky.com If you want to send me feed-back, or desire to help revising my English translations, so that I can put on-line more of my stories in English please e-mail at andrej@andrejkoymasky.com ---------------------------