Nanna's secret

The canyons were beautiful, with their boisterous dancing streams, thick foliage, and flowering shrubs.

Not too much time passed before the small villages grew into large cities. The tidal wave of miners who returned from the West lived there.

That was a long time ago. There weren't even railroad or overland stagecoaches crossing the plains. The only people to be found there at the time were the immigrants, who made their way slowly through the winding valley towards the far west.

Attracted by the promise that riches would wait for them in that beautiful canyon landscape. It would be theirs if they were willing to work hard and mine the silver.

On the side of a large mountain, one of the busiest mining camps could be found. Anthony and Tomasso (Tony and Tommy) lived there, in a stone hut on the left side of the long and only street.

Both were Italians. Tony worked in the mines, Tommy had an ox plow and transported goods, provisions, and other loads for the miners to and from the settlements. This was not a vocation without danger in those days. An ambush always had to be reckoned with.

Tommy didn´t mind the hazards of his newfound profession. The work with his ox-plow might be dangerous, but it brought in more money than any other labor he could perform. The more money he made, the sooner he could return to Italy: to his Nanna. She was waiting for him there, on the other side of the world.

Tommy and Tony both loved Nanna. They had pretended to be lovers, ever since they were little children, playing between the fishing boats that were lined up on the beach, of their beloved Italian home.

Black-browed Tony would turn green with envy and argue with Tommy over and over again. Little Nanna, was a lover of peace, kissed both cousins, and said: 

-“Come, let's play that you are my twin brothers and I your only sister.” and thus harmony was restored among the playmates.

 Time flies for mortals when they are happy, and so the day came, where they were no longer children, but men who were allowed to love a woman the way men love. 

Tony's parents visited Nanna's mother and father and it was decided that their children should get married. Tony was made incredibly happy and there was no longer any trace of jealousy in his mind.

Nanna was in love with Tommy. What could a girl do when the one she loves did not have a single cent to his name. Her parents had chosen another one for her because this one had been promised a small farm by his father, the day he would bring home a woman who would want to marry him. Nanna could neither resist nor rebel. Tommy was as helpless as she was. She went to him, laid her head against his chest, and wept her heart out.

Tony had money on his mind, and the small farm would never produce the wealth he dreamed of. He decided to go to America to earn a lot of money. A glimmer of hope appeared for Tommy.

"I'm going to America as well," he whispered in Nanna's ear, "Maybe I can make a fortune there too. When I come back I will be a rich man, and I will be the one who gets to marry you. Will you be mine then until death do us part?"

Nanna did not answer but raised her arms to Tommy's neck and brought her lips to his.

The night before the two cousins ​​sailed to faraway America, Tommy and Nanna walked among the holly and old oak trees.

"I'm going to miss you so much, honey. I will be thinking of you all the time. Will you be faithful to me, honey? Promise to wait for me. I'll miss your kisses so much." Tommy bent over her hand and pressed kiss after kiss into her small brown palm.

"There," he said, "save these kisses for when I'm gone."

Nanna lay on her bed all morning, in her little room under the roof, the morning the ship sailed. She buried her lips in the palm of the hand where Tommy had pressed so many kisses. She sobbed with grief until she dozed off into an exhausted slumber.

The years passed. Tommy made a lot of money in America. He would return home soon enough, and then he could get married.

After four years, Nanna finally got a letter from Tommy, in which he wrote how much money he had earned. He almost had enough to come back. Nanna started counting down the days.

Not long now. It really wouldn't be long before Tommy would come back. Nanna was happy. Tommy was no less happy in his stone cabin in the mountains, transporting goods for the miners of the valley. His heart was so full of Nanna that he forgot to think of the dangers on his way.

-"You are a fool!" Tony had told him over and over. "You might earn more money with your dragging, but just you wait: one of these days you will be ambushed, or you will get an Indian`s arrow between your eyes."

Tommy harnessed his oxen for the long journey through the broad valley to the north. He was sure the saints would protect him. They had always had.

-"If I'm not back in two weeks, send out a search party for me." Tommy joked to Tony.

Soon, he would be back in Italy, he whispered to himself. Back to Nanna.

Fearless, light-hearted, and with a smile on his lips, he started the descend into the canyon beside his oxen. He cracked the whip and sang a song he and Nanna used to sing as children, playing among the fishing nets and the boats, back home, so long ago.

Bono, Tommy's big dog, followed in the dust sent to the heavens, by the cart's heavy wheels, as the wagon rattled over the rocky road.

 Everyone was Tommy's friend in the small mining town. When the thirteenth day came and there was no sign of Tommy, everyone was concerned. With heavy hearts, a dozen men followed Tommy's trail, hoping to find him. They exchanged few words with each other as they descended into the hot valley. When they arrived at a place where they knew Tommy had been, they saw circling black spots 

silhouetted against the blue sky. Dark shapes, sailing through the sky almost majestically, as only a vulture can.

Under the metallic brightness of the hot August sun, the men looked at each other without saying a word. They had understood, what is there not to say?

They rode on in silence to a place where the warped irons of the burnt wagon lay. An exhausted Bono mourned over something that had 

been his master once. The dog had guarded the dead Tommy for ten hot days. The poor beast's whimpers were long and mournful in the narrow passage where the whistling arrows had struck its master.

Alas, poor Tommy!

Later that fall, Tony returned to Italy and told Nanna that Tommy was dead.

Nanna did not cry. She locked her grief in her heart where others could not see it.

It had been her secret. Hers and Tommy's. They had kept it well. From now on it would be hers alone. She married Tony. Her mother and father wanted it that way. Tony loved her and had enough money now to take good care of a woman.

They were married in the little church on the hill, where they had been baptized as babies.

Nanna lived long enough to become an old woman. One morning she didn´t wake up and was found in her bed with her left palm over her lips. 

It had been her only disloyalty to Tony...