Giovanni had awakened an itch$$$ had released a gnaw in me. I realized it one afternoon$$$ when I was taking him to work via the Boulevard Montparnasse. We had bought a kilo of cherries and we were eating them as we walked along. We were both insufferably

Giovanni had awakened an itch$$$ had released a gnaw in me. I realized it one afternoon$$$ when I was taking him to work via the Boulevard Montparnasse. We had bought a kilo of cherries and we were eating them as we walked along. We were both insufferably childish and high-spirited that afternoon and the spectacle we presented$$$ two grown men jostling each other on the wide sidewalk and aiming the cherry pits$$$ as though they were spitballs$$$ into each other's faces$$$ must have been outrageous. And I realized that such childishness was fantastic at my age and the happiness out of which it sprang yet more so; for that moment I really loved Giovanni$$$ who had never seemed more beautiful than he was that afternoon.