Luigi Pirandello
[1] The passengers who had left Rome by the night express had to stop until dawn at the small station of Fabriano in order to continue their journey by the small old-fashioned local joining the main line with Sulmona.
[2] At dawn, in a stuffy and smoky second-class carriage in which five people had already spent the night, a bulky woman in deep mourning was hoisted in — almost like a shapeless bundle.Behind her puffing and moaning, followed her husband — a tiny man; thin and weakly, his face death-white, his eyes small and bright and looking shy and uneasy.
[3] Having at last taken a seat he politely thanked the passengers who had helped his wife and who had made room for her; then he turned round to the woman trying to pull down the collar of her coat and politely inquired:
[4] “Are you all right, dear?”
[5] The wife, instead of answering, pulled up her collar again to her eyes, so as to hide her face.
[6] “Nasty world,” muttered the husband with a sad smile.
[7] And he felt it his duty to explain to his traveling companions that the poor woman was to be pitied, for the war was taking away from her her only son, a boy of twenty to whom both had devoted their entire life, even breaking up their home at Sulmona to follow him to Rome, where he had to go as a student, then allowing him to volunteer for war with an assurance, however, that at least six months he would not be sent to the front and now, all of a sudden, receiving a wire saying that he was due to leave in three days’ time and asking them to go and see him off.
[8] The woman under the big coat was twisting and wriggling, at times growling like a wild animal, feeling certain that all those explanations would not have aroused even a shadow of sympathy from those people who — most likely — were in the same plight as herself.One of them, who had been listening with particular attention, said, “You should thank God that your son is only leaving now for the front.Mine has been sent there the first day of the war.He has already come back twice wounded and been sent back again to the front.”