I looked forward to the commotion of the crowded house, the pots of water on the verge of boiling, the smartly dressed wives always ready to lend a hand in the kitchen. I waited for the first few glasses of prosecco before lunch to go to my head, sampled the various appetizers. Then I liked to join the other adults out on the patio for a little fresh air, to smoke a cigarette and comment on the soccer game the kids played without interruption in the yard. Jhumpa Lahiri on parties as parentheses.
They came from different countries, for work or for love, for a change of scenery, or for some other mysterious reason. The type of people for whom just moving to a new neighborhood in their thirtiesβgoing to a new pharmacy, buying the newspaper from a different newsstand, finding a table at a different coffee barβwas the equivalent of departure, displacement, complete rupture.
As kids they played together until dark; they went to the same elementary school and then the same challenging high school; they wandered off to buy contraband cigarettes from a shady guy behind a piazza that was quiet in those days. They went to the same university and, after graduating, rented a fifth-floor apartment in the thick of the city center. In the summers they travelled together to other countriesβexperiences they still loved to talk about. Not long before the girl was born, P had a brush with death.
A renowned doctor, always among those invited to the party, ended up saving her life with a tricky surgery. From then on, this yearly gathering became a constant: this sunny afternoon around her birthday, this merry, lavish lunch that brought together a wide range of people. She liked to throw open the door at least fifty times, offering something to eat, playing host, exchanging a few words with everyone.
To get there, you took a curved, picturesque road, lined with cypresses and tumbling ivy. A road that swept you away, an urban road that ferried you toward the sea and put the frenzied city far behind. At a certain point there was a sharp right turn; you had to keep an eye out, it was easy to miss.
