Marco teaches Adele to fence

Marco’s decision to enroll Adele in fencing becomes a practical turning point in her childhood: the thread she believes is attached to her back disappears, and the distress that had followed her into school subsides. But the apparent solution carries a second consequence. By becoming the parent who handles the daily care, Marco gains decision-making power in the family; when the thread vanishes, however, the adults attribute the change to his increased presence rather than to fencing, and he chooses not to challenge their account.

Background and Family Change

The decision follows the Wizard Manfrotto’s interpretation of Adele’s thread. He recommends that Adele spend much more time with her father, even more than with her mother if possible. Marco and Marina accept the recommendation, though putting it into practice means overturning their established household roles: Marina has been the more present parent, while Marco’s work and other pursuits have kept him less involved in the small routines of Adele’s life.

Marco begins driving the three-quarters of an hour to Tor Carbone twice each day without the recriminations that had previously accompanied the trips. He takes on the duties Marina had handled, stays home more, and cuts back on photography, tennis, and poker. He also reduces his ophthalmology work, giving up conferences and a couple of competitions. To his surprise, this change does not feel like a sacrifice; he finds himself feeling better than before. For Marina, the rearrangement has a different effect: with many of her former tasks gone, she is suddenly left with a great deal of free time, which the narrative connects to the second crack in their marriage.

Caregiving and Decision-Making

The shift makes Marco responsible for more than transportation. He takes Adele to school, to the Wizard Manfrotto, and to the pediatrician; he buys her clothes, bathes her, and prepares her food. The narrative emphasizes that the parent who performs this care also acquires power over decisions concerning the child. Marco chooses the public Vittorino da Feltre elementary school near their home in the Monti district, despite Marina’s preference for private school. She has to accept his choice, just as Marco had earlier accepted the kindergarten in the Ardeatina ass despite disagreeing with it.

That new authority enables the fencing decision. One short afternoon in January, Marco takes Adele for a trial lesson and enrolls her without first discussing it with Marina. He then begins accompanying her twice a week, presenting his choice to his wife as a fait accompli. His rationale is pragmatic: even if the idea proves wrong, a little sport cannot harm the child. This unilateral action is both a paternal intervention and a sign of the altered balance of responsibility between the parents.

The Thread Disappears

The fencing lessons appear to work almost immediately. The children do not wear electrified uniforms, so Adele does not encounter the literal version of the thread Marco had imagined might emerge from the experience. They do use masks, flexible swords, and lightning-fast exchanges; the sport immerses her in masks, movement, and adrenaline, the elements associated with the imagined wire. Adele stops moving around people as they pass behind her back. At home, the family stops talking about the thread. She no longer tries to avoid school, and at school she stops crying alone all the time.

The resolution comes before Adele starts elementary school, at a moment when the problem might otherwise have become more complicated. The narrative presents the change as the kind of abrupt disappearance by which children’s problems can sometimes be resolved: from one day to the next, the behavior and distress are simply no longer there. For Marco and the family, this is a relief. Yet the direct sequence—fencing begins, then the thread disappears—does not become the accepted explanation.

Competing Explanations and Cost

The Wizard Manfrotto does not revise his theory: he maintains that fencing had nothing to do with the change and that the thread disappeared because Marco was now constantly present in Adele’s life. Marina, who had initially believed with Marco that fencing was responsible, eventually adopts the same explanation, treating the timing as coincidence. The adults therefore close the matter around a single account: Marco’s earlier absence caused the thread, and his increased presence cured it.

Marco believes that account is not true, but decides it is one he can accept. The version gives the discovery and credit to Dr. Nocetti’s intuition rather than to Marco’s choice of fencing or to Adele’s response to the sport. Marco does not contest the explanation; he thanks the Wizard Manfrotto and lets the dispute end for the sake of peace and for Adele’s sake. The child’s distress is over, but the cost to Marco is that the success cannot be acknowledged on his own terms.

Significance Within the Family Story

The episode links practical care to authority: as Marco assumes the everyday work of parenting, he gains the capacity to make consequential choices, including the choice to enroll Adele in fencing. His action is effective in its visible outcome, but the family’s explanation redirects its meaning toward his constant presence. The difference between what appears to have helped and what the adults accept as true leaves Marco with a quiet, chosen concession rather than an open argument.

That concession does not restore the earlier family arrangement. The narrative identifies it as the third crack between Marco and Marina, following the upheaval of their roles and Marina’s sudden, difficult freedom from her former tasks. Thus an episode that relieves Adele’s distress also deepens the strain between her parents: the child’s problem disappears, while the conflict over responsibility, authority, and the meaning of the solution remains.