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PARTISAN REVIEW
furiated by the pain. After swimming several strokes underwater he
came up and started toward the rock where Livio and Simona were
sitting. They were close together, talking uninterruptedly, with their
legs dangling. He didn't relish the sight; in fact, it took away all the
pleasure he should have felt from plunging hot and dusty into the
cool water. He swam angrily ahead, arrived at the rock breathless
and said, hanging on to a ledge:
"Do you know, this water's very, very cold."
"It seemed warm to me," said Simona, momentarily interrupt–
ing the conversation to shoot him a glance.
"I swam here in April," Livio put in; "It was cold then, I can
tell you."
With a curiosity that seemed to Giacomo somewhat flirtatious,
Simona asked him:
"Were you all alone?"
"No, I came with Nella," Livio answered.
Giacomo was trying to clamber up on the rock, but the only
place where he could get a solid grip was the one where Livio and
Simona were sitting. They seemed to be oblivious of his struggle and
he preferred not to ask them to move over. Finally he caught hold
of a jutting piece of the rock studded with jagged points, one of
which left a pain in the palm of his hand as if it had dug deep into
the flesh. Just as he got himself into a sitting position, the other two,
with a shout of: "Let's race back!" dove into the water, showering
him with spray. He looked furiously after them as they raced toward
the shore. Only when he had regained his self-control did he plunge
in and follow. Simona and Livio were sitting in the shelter of a cliff
and Simona was opening a lunch box that she had taken out of her
bag.
"Let's have something to eat," she said to Giacomo as he ap–
proached them. "But we must share it with Livio. He says he meant
to go back up the mountain, but in this heat it would be too
ridiculous."
Without saying a word, Giacomo sat down on the rocks beside
them. The contents of the lunch box turned out to be scanty: some
meat sandwiches, two hard-boiled eggs and a bottle of wine.
"Livio will have to be content with very little," Giacomo said
gruffly.
