“Uh-huh,” Johnny… I say. I am glad that Papa is talking to me. This is Christmas. Papa never lets me sit on his lap when he is tired from work.
“That’s what ‘intern’ means. Like put in a prisoner-of-war camp.”
“They didn’t enter Nonno.”
“Intern. Not enter. No. There were too many Italians on the East Coast. They did some… I mean… well, not like out west. Uncle Nick lived in California. One day in that February they came to his house and they took him right out of the house. They searched to see if he had enemy weapons. They came back three times. They took Aunt Lu’s radio. They took the books, the Italian books. Let me see. Uncle Nick, at that time, was an importer. Do you know what that means?”
“Like important?”
“No. He bought things in Italy and had them sent here so he could sell t
