| [Read
the short story "Nick sat against the Wall"] "Nick sat against the wall
of the church where they had dragged him to be clear of machine-gun fire
in the street. He had been hit in the spine. His face was sweaty
and dirty. The sun shone on his face. The day was very hot.
Rinaldi, big-backed, his equipment sprawling, lay face downward against
the wall. Nick looked straight ahead brilliantly. The pink
wall of the house opposite had fallen out from the roof, and an iron bedstead
hung twisted toward the street. Two Austrian dead lay in the rubble
in the shade of the house. Up the street were other dead. Things
were getting forward in the town. It was going well. Stretcher-bearers
would be along any time now. Nick turned his head and looked down
at Rinaldi. "Senta, Rinaldi, senta. You and me, we've made a separate
peace." Rinaldi lay still in the sun, breathing with difficulty.
"We're not patriots." Nick turned his head away, smiling sweetly.
Rinaldi was a disappointing audience." [End of story.]
Nick Adams is many people;
a young boy growing up in Summit, Illinois; a soldier in Italy; a married
man in Austria; a fisherman in Michigan; a parent, a writer, a soldier
a veteran; he is everyman, he is Hemingway. (Stacy Charlesbois, Adult
& Young Adult Services Librarian, charlesb@metronet.lib.mi.us,
Farmington Community Library, Farmington, Michigan) |
