Miracle at St. Anna

Angelo struggles to summon Arturo, who advises him not to think about the church and promises that Train has “plenty more” chocolate, though Angelo has checked, and Train’s pockets are empty. He watches as two jeeps with six American soldiers arrive. Nokes tells Hector, Stamps, Bishop, and Train to board the jeeps and to “get rid of that kid” (259).

Train protests that he pities Angelo and doesn’t want to leave him behind; Nokes expresses astonishment that a Black man would pity a white child before realizing that exhibiting the force of his racism while surrounded by armed Black soldiers is unwise. Train scolds Nokes for making Angelo cry and Stamps attempt to cover for him, saying it was his idea to bring Angelo with them. Nokes orders Birdsong to make the four soldiers comply while he retrieves the German prisoner (whom he does not yet know to be dead). Stamps accuses Birdsong of being excessively loyal to the racist white captain.

Nokes emerges from Ludovico’s house, furious that the German prisoner is dead. Train gives Angelo his helmet; Nokes threatens to shoot Train for insubordination. The soldiers in the jeep urge Nokes to bring Angelo. Train hoists Birdsong by the neck when he attempts to grab Angelo and Bishop holds Nokes at gunpoint. Ludovico watches from nearby, deciding that Train is the Mountain of the Sleeping Man come to life to protect Angelo, a “child of innocence” (267), and bring Americans to Bornacchi to end the war. He sees this as a proof of divine power.

Train drops Birdsong as the artillery fire nears. Nokes and Birdsong board one jeep and depart; the other jeep hesitates but leaves when Train, Bishop, Hector, and Stamps decline to board. As they drive away, Nokes’s jeep is hit by artillery fire, causing the second jeep to fall over the ridge and explode.

Stamps leads the men, Angelo, and the villagers to the ridge above St. Anna, save for Ettora, who has been struck by shrapnel. She dies contented that her spell has worked as Hector drags a screaming Ludovico away from the village.

Train wonders how he will get Angelo back to America as the evacuees climb through the snow to find a cave to hide in. Shelling rains down around them. Train feels his invisibility coming and suddenly realizes he can understand Angelo. Train feels something strike Angelo and lays him down, despite the rapidly approaching German tanks. Bishop runs back to aid Train, musing on the selfishness and absence of faith that has led him to miss out on having friendships in his life. He sees two bullets hit Train.

Bishop reaches Train as Stamps is shot and killed while trying to throw a grenade at the German machine guns. Train, dying, asks if Angelo is alive; Bishop lies and says he is. Bishop drags the dead man and boy to the church doorway, feeling himself shot in the back as he does so. He looks up at the carving of St. Anna, feeling he understands divine miracles, breathes two resuscitative breaths into Angelo’s mouth, and dies.

Angelo wakes beneath the carving of St. Anna to silence, alone except for Arturo. Angelo remembers everything that has happened even while experiencing a sudden certainty that he will soon forget all of the war and that this forgetting is important for his future happiness. Angelo, now invisible, grabs Arturo’s hand and flees, leaving behind Hector, the only American survivor, and a dead Renata held by her sobbing father.

Tim Boyle, the reporter who finds the head of the Primavera in Hector’s apartment after he shoots a customer, receives a promotion, even as his story is quickly forgotten. Hector is transferred to a psychiatric ward where he refuses to explain how he obtained the head or why he killed the customer. The statue’s head is returned to Italy. Because he is promoted to another beat, Boyle never learns that the dead customer is a mechanic named Randy Mitchell, born Rodolfo Berelli.

Rodolfo arrived in America following the war, luggage full of salt that was valueless in America. Only when he sees Hector’s mangled ear in the seconds before his death does Rodolfo realize that he is being killed for his crimes against Peppi (whom Rodolfo killed weeks before the end of the war). Rodolfo, still haunted by the deaths at St. Anna, does not resist death.

Hector spent his postwar years suppressing his experiences and drinking heavily, beginning to doubt his own experiences as Black and Puerto Rican soldiers were written out of American narratives about World War II. Hector’s murder case fades to obscurity until a lawyer from a powerful Italian firm, secretly backed by a rich patron, pays his bail. Hector vanishes.

Hector flees to the Seychelles where he can no longer suppress memories of the two days he spent trapped at St. Anna before being rescued by Driscoll. He sits on a beach and, after days of silence, eventually speaks to the young Italian man whose money secured his release. When Hector claims he was the only survivor at St. Anna, the young man (Angelo, now an adult), reveals himself and shows he has obtained the head of the Primavera. The two men embrace.