Cosi Fan Tutti

XXX

The last lingering trace of light, a greenish glimmer above the bank of thick haze out to the west, had faded from the sky. Night settled on the town, muffled and dense, smothering sounds, it seemed, as much as sight. Certainly the three figures descending the steps of the Salita del Petraio made so little noise that they startled Don Castrese's cat which was out on the prowl, having detected the faint but unmistakable odour of fellow creatures in heat. It was only at the last moment that some sixth sense alerted the beast to the presence of the advancing trio, masked by silence and cloaked in darkness. It leapt nimbly on to a window ledge and immersed itself in an exacting ritual of washing and grooming, as though to exorcize the malignant power of this encounter.

The three strangers who had crossed the cat's path came to a stop outside the house opposite. The shutters of the first floor windows were closed, but a faint light filtered out through the slats and occasional outbreaks of laughter punctuated the muted hush of the night. The top floor, by contrast, was perfectly dark and silent, the windows standing open to let the air flow in.

'This is the place.'

The cat paused in its obsessional licking as the speaker, a shorter, bulkier, older figure than the other two, stepped up to the door and pushed each of the two buttons mounted on the frame, the superscribed names illegible in the dark. Abell and a buzzer sounded distantly, cutting off a further burst of laughter inside. For a moment nothing happened, except perhaps some quiet, hair-raising modulation perceptible only to cats. Then the windows on the first floor were flung open and a man's head appeared.

'Yes?' he barked.

'We're looking for Aurelio Zen,' said a female voice from the darkness below.

'Who?'

The name was repeated by the other two in chorus.

Another head appeared at the window, a girl in her twenties with long hair and sharp, lively features.

'What's going on?' she asked her companion.

'There's no one here by that name/ he called down.

The three figures below consulted briefly in an inaudible mutter. Then the one who spoke first looked up at the window.

'ZEN, AURELIO" she said, pronouncing every syllable with exaggerated distinctness.

'You've got the wrong opera, grandma!' the girl above jeered.

'I am Aurelio Zen/ said a new voice.

Everyone looked up at the top floor of the house, where another young man, naked to the waist, had appeared at the window.

'That's not him!' exclaimed one of the women indignantly.

'If only!' added another.

'He was never that good-looking/ commented the third, 'even at that age.'

The man at the lower window leant out as far as he could, craning up towards the upper Storey.

'Oh, Gesua, what the hell are you playing at?'

The three figures below again consulted briefly.

'We're going now,' the one on the left announced.

'But we'll be back,' added her companion.

'What's that man doing in Aurelio's house?' asked the shorter one in the middle.

They moved away down the hill, still conferring in an undertone, and were soon lost to sight.

'Maybe we should have told them he's at the opera/ said Sabatino.

'How do you know where he is?' Libera asked.

Sabatino smiled in a superior way.

'Because a friend of ours is currently listening in to all his phone calls, my dear. There are already quite a few little mysteries about our Don Alfonsetto. This just makes one more.'

Gesualdo's voice drifted down from the upstairs window.

'Maybe we should have followed them, found out who they are.. / 'Well, if you've got nothing better to do, Gesua…'

'What's that supposed to mean?'

'Are you alone up there?'

There was a pause. Sabatino and Libera exchanged glances.

Tolanda's here too/ Gesualdo finally replied, as though making an official declaration.

'Well, in that case/ said Sabatino languidly, 'I'd suggest you forget about volunteering for overtime work and take advantage of that fact, just as I'm about to with my companion/ With another of her rippling laughs, Libera pulled him inside and closed the window.