In Over Her Head by Elsie Russell - Parnasse.com

BOCA DELLA VERITA
"If you lie, it swallows your hand," Ula announced. "Okay,
Sandro stick your hand in."
They stood before the old oracle's moon face, its gaping mouth
worn light from hands plunging in.
He rolled his eyes and stuck his hand in.
"Now, say that you love me. Do it!"
"O, Ula, ti volio bene. Ch'e bello vivere nell'amore." He
removed his hand.
"No, no, no!" She stamped her foot. "Put it back in."
He put it in again and looked up at her.
"Now, say it like you fucking mean it. Like this, 'Ti amo di
tooto il meeyo cworay!'"
"Your accent is still schifoso, amore." He took out his hand.
She shoved it back in. He glared at her and said it, but he wasn't
looking quite at her.
"Okay, Penny, your turn,"
Penny watched her hand disappear into the hole.
"Say 'I love Sandro with all my heart.' Say it!"
"What the hell are you trying to prove?" Penny turned around.
"Do it!" She stuck it back in.
"Fuck you, Ula! Yes, I love Sandro with all my heart, and so do
you. So does everybody! Look at him, it makes his life a living hell!
There, are you happy now? Look, I still have my hand." She backed
away from Ula and the mouth.
He put his arms around her and whispered, "Grazie, amore."
"I heard that!" Ula snarled, clutching the lower lip of the
mouth. "Well, I love you both and you can both go to fucking hell!"
She pushed herself up and sashayed out of the enclosure and towards
the river.
Sandro and Penny followed her, hand in hand, around the small
cluster of temples, one round, one square, that made a little park
between the monument and the river. Flustered and self conscious
now, Penny looked down at her feet. In the sandy gravel she spotted a
penny, all caked in dirt, so she picked it up, to have something to focus
on besides this insanity. The red was not shiny copper but layers of rust
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