My Brilliant Friend: Childhood: Chapter 16 Summary & Analysis

Just before the final test of elementary school, Lila encourages Lenù to skip school and leave the neighborhood for the afternoon. Lenù has never, within living memory, left the neighborhood. Lila devises a plan to tell their mothers that Maestra Oliviero is hosting an end-of-year party for her students so that they won’t worry when the girls aren’t home from school right away. Lenù tells her family about the “party,” and they all believe her lie—just as Lila predicted they would. The night before the excursion, Lenù is so excited she can barely sleep. She dreams of seeing the sea and glimpsing the nearby Mount Vesuvius.

Lenù and Lila meet early in the morning, as if they are going to class. Rather than head to the school, however, they turn toward the tunnel which separates their neighborhood from the countryside beyond. They hide their smocks and schoolbags in some nearby bushes and enter the tunnel hand-in-hand. They marvel at the echoes their voices make, and they laugh and shout as they head toward the other end. Lenù is elated by the idea of several hours of freedom alone with her beloved Lila. Unlike their other adventures to the cellar or Don Achille’s, this adventure fills Lenù with happiness rather than fear.

As the girls exit the tunnel and continue heading down the road, they hold each other’s hands and walk side by side—Lenù is comforted, since Lila is usually “ten steps ahead” of her on their adventures. After a while, the girls get tired and thirsty. Lenù starts to notice Lila looking at her strangely, and she feels Lila’s palm begin to sweat. Lila keeps looking back over her shoulder and stops talking—at first, Lenù attributes all of this to hunger or tiredness, but soon, she grows suspicious. 

Lenù notices that the sky is darkening—a storm is approaching. Soon, she can hear thunder. She turns to look at Lila, who is wearing a “new” kind of expression. Lenù realizes that Lila is afraid—she has never seen her friend exhibit fear before. As the first raindrops begin to fall, Lila suggests they head back. Lenù is reluctant, but Lila is “agitated.” She reaches for Lenù’s hand and begins dragging her back in the direction of home.

As the storm breaks, the girls begin running for home. By the time they reach home, they are soaked to the bone and shivering. They surreptitiously collect their schoolbags and put on their smocks, but as they enter the neighborhood square, Lenù sees her mother limping around with an umbrella in hand, searching the streets for her. Lenù runs to her mother, who slaps and hits her with the umbrella. Lila runs home. That night, Lenù’s mother orders Lenù’s father to beat Lenù. Lenù, however, feels faraway and disconnected from her father’s blows. She is still trying to figure out what happened to her and Lila’s plan.

The next day, when the girls encounter each other at school, Lila asks how Lenù’s parents punished her. When Lenù replies that she was beaten and shows Lila her bruises, Lila is surprised that that’s “all they did.” She is incredulous that Lenù’s parents are still allowing her to attend middle school. Lenù realizes that Lila tricked her—Lila got her in trouble in hopes that Lenù’s parents would punish her by keeping her from school. To this day, Elena still wonders if Lila changed her mind halfway through their adventure in hopes of helping Lenù avoid the very punishment she’d hoped her friend would suffer.