The Kiss

Homely Antonina Giurlando was all of 25 when she first fell in love, but even then she scarcely knew what was happening to her. Each morning a young field hand named Salvatore Funari would pass by her family farmhouse in the sun-baked Sicilian town of Scordia. At first he only glanced up at her window, and then, whistling gaily, went on. But soon he began to wave, and one morning he boldly cried "Buon giorno!" In time Nina found the courage to say "Buon giorno" too, and occasionally she and Salvatore would even hold a brief conversation. After two years of this, Nina began wearing her long hair tied severely back in the manner of the married women of the town. She and Salvatore, she decided, were engaged.

Then one night, returning home late, Salvatore saw a light in Nina's window. He knocked on her door, and when she answered, he impulsively kissed her. Happy and carefree, Salvatore promptly went home, but Nina was stunned. What had Salvatore done to her? Her four stern-faced brothers muttered darkly about the family honor. One village busybody sniffed: "A girl kissed is three-quarters compromised."

The four brothers--Sebastiano, Antonio, Giuseppe and Gaetano-called on Salvatore and said: "You have dishonored our sister. You must marry her." Salvatore protested in vain that he had only kissed her. The brothers spread their threats to the marketplace. Sebastiano told Salva-tore's mother: "You'd better get a mourning wreath ready for your door," and Antonio gave Nina a small Beretta pistol, with 150 rounds of ammunition.

Last week poor, simple-minded Nina was in prison awaiting sentence for what the weekly Oggi could only describe as "the most senseless crime in Sicily's history." Once too often the hapless Salvatore had passed by the Giurlando farmhouse, and Nina had fired four fatal bullets into his body. "Do you repent of what you have done?" she was asked by the authorities. "Why should I repent?" she cried. "I was dishonored." The medical examination that declared her still a virgin meant nothing to Nina. Monotonously, tonelessly, she kept repeating: "He kissed me. He kissed me. He kissed me."

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