Stories of the Day: The Mafia and an Unrelated Funeral

Alberto's wife's father died a few days ago, from natural causes. His funeral was yesterday. Gianna left the house at 2, telling me she'd be back by four o'clock. Four passed, then five passed, and at 5:30 I heard the elevator coming up to our floor. Gianna and her son, Michele, came in saying "Sorry we're late, but something happened at the funeral.." Oh my, I thought, I hope everything is alright! Before I could ask what had happened, Gianna began recounting the events of the funeral. First, I should mention that in Italy, privileged families don't bury their dead. They build a family mausoleum, where the caskets are kept in comparments in the wall.

Well, after the funeral in the church, everyone went to the cemetery to see the casket being put in the family's mausoleum. The casket's spot was rather high up in the mausoleum, thus requiring a machine to lift it up and put it in it's place. As the machine was lifting the casket, something in the machine malfunctioned. Black oil sprayed everywhere, dousing the people standing closest to the machine, and the casket slipped, balancing precariously on the machine. A quick thinker managed to wedge a ladder under the casket, stabilizing it. The family waited for the machine to be fixed, and the casket was properly placed in the compartment. I suppose Alberto's wife's father wanted to go out with a bang.

After Michele left, Gianna and I decided to go grocery shopping. (Michele had pretty much cleaned out the fridge, and we were in need of food for dinner.) As we were unloading the groceries from the car, Gianna pointed out some graffiti painted on a wall. She told me Michele's friend painted it, and I made a disapproving face.
"Oh, but he was a troubled youth" she said. "His father was a lawyer, and the Mafia shot him in broad daylight in the center of Gallarate."
"What?" was my reply.
"Yeah, he defended someone in court.."
"But the Mafia is only in the South!"
"Oh, well they come up to the North to kill people sometimes."
Well sheesh. I was shocked that the Mafia had killed someone in the center of my town, but also shocked that nobody had ever mentioned it before.

Today I'm staying after school to help paint the backdrop for the school's play, and there's no school tomorrw. I'm heading back to Lecco on Saturday, so this may be the last post for a few days. Happy last day of April!