Chapter Text
“Quand nous chanterons le temps des cerises
Et gai rossignol, et merle moqueur
Seront tous en fête”
It had already been ten years since Marco had perished, but Gina still remembered him fondly and thought of him every single day and continued her life as if he was still there to accompany her every step of the way.
Gina had had three other husbands before Marco made her fall in love again, but after his death, she knew that her love life had already been fulfilled and did not wish to search for a new lover. Porco had and will always be holding her delicate and pumping heart, and she once did also hold his heart and still did, but his now was lifeless and slipped out of her grasp each day more and more.
After his death, Gina and Fio found comfort in each other, but when everybody else started to fall into the sleep of eternity, it became harder and harder for them to see each other without feeling that eternal absence of the ones they missed dearly. So without even realizing it, they had started to slowly drift apart until one day when everybody's absence had affected them so much that they didn’t even realize that another one was placed into that huge pile, and that was each other's absence.
Gina still with her eyes closed felt a feeling of melancholy pound through her heart and mind, it wasn't the discomfort kind of melancholy, but that kind that made her miss her youth and something she couldn’t fully recall. She opened her sleepy eyes, making her realize she had fallen asleep in her secret garden little tea house; slowly and half asleep she looked out the window just for the calm blue ocean to meet her eyes, and a little bit farther on the horizon she could see some strange new boats that she very much disliked. She stood up, went out of the little tea house and walked calmly to the balcony where Porco had once greeted her making loops and swirls that looked like he was performing some kind of mesmerizing dance with his hydroplane. She now placed her arms on that same balcony and placed her head in between her hands while looking out into the sky, remembering the day she thought she had lost her love bet and now realizing how wrong she had been by smiling happily at the clouds and far above.
Gina was still the beautiful woman everyone had adored and worshiped. But now a few graceful wrinkles decorated her beautiful face. Her hair had also started to grow old, and its gray strands shone brightly against the sun.
Gina went back to the hotel and back to her room where she took out a big brown trunk that had lost most of its color and some of its tips were more curved than pointy like they were years before. If you looked closely at the front you could see two gold initials that once shined and were the center of attention of the truck but now were almost invisible, the initials were a cursive M and a cursive G, people thought that they meant Madame Gina, but what they meant was Marco & Gina, she had it made that way purposely and had only told Marco who at first thought it didn’t really matter but after some time, he had grown a liking to that trunk that they had once shared. After staring at the trunk and the initials for some time, she finally opened it, revealing numerous clothes, books, different pairs of shoes and glasses, and a white hat. She took out the white hat, a white dress that had some frills at the end, a half-opened collar and puffy sleeves, she then took a pair of white short cuffed gloves, a pair of also white french heels shoes and finally a short gold necklace and a pair of purple drop shaped earrings and placed the outfit on her bed.
When she was about to close the trunk she noticed a photo that peaked through some clothes, she grabbed it and took it out very carefully, scared it would shatter into a million pieces from just touching her hand. When she got to look at it, she quietly gasped as her brain was flooded by memories of just that single photo; the photo was the one she had hung up in the hotel a long time ago, it showed her Porco and their other friends next to the first hydroplane she ever drove on. And as the memories, she thought she had buried deep down so many years ago, came back so did the crystalline rivers from her lacrimal duct; and in between those tears and sobs she smiled, she smiled at all those beautiful memories she had and was able to cherish because life had gifted her amazing friendships and partnerships.
As she composed herself after that bittersweet moment she closed the trunk put it below the bed, changed her outfit and exited her room, she then went downstairs past the hotel main entrance and went straight to the hotel’s club, but the quick walking pace that she had before decreased as soon as she entered the room, she sighed and tightened her hold of the beloved photo she had just found. She went behind the bar counter, took a last look at the framed photo, and hung it in a place where it didn’t stand out to anyone except if you looked closely at it for an amount of time. But even if anyone noticed, nobody would recognize the people that smiled back at them.
Gina smiled one more time, went up the little stage grabbed a little radio she had above a piano, she tuned in the radio until she recognized a faint sweet melody that belonged to one of Mina Mazzini's songs, and she placed it back above the piano and started dancing as if her body was made out of porcelain, she then closed her eyes and just let her body guide her for an unknown amount of time but that to her, it felt timeless. Before she could turn off the radio, an announcement came from it:
"The city council has announced that the old part of the harbor where the legendary hydroplanes were manufactured and where many well-known aviators, such as the American Donald Curtis and the city's forgotten treasure Marco Pagot, will be demolished to make a new and modern neighborhood…”
Gina's whole body and mind went numb from just thinking about the only place that still lived from her youth, the tears started flooding, and she tried to stop them until she surrendered and crumbled on the floor with her head in between her hands while a faint melody of the song Una casa in cima al mondo came out of the radio. She spent as much time as she needed just crying and letting everything out. When the crystalline rivers finally stopped she looked at her shaking pale hands that were beginning to age up, she firmly stood up with a decided and intimidating gaze that told everyone that she wasn't going to give up on the place where she had fallen in love.
She grabbed her purse, excited the club and went out of the hotel's main entrance and straight to her little boat without even trying to hide the puffy eyes and tear marks. She told her boat driver to take her to the nearest berth to the city hall; the whole trip she thought of how she wasn't going to let them take the harbor away, but mostly she thought of all the memories that included that place, and Fio also came into her mind and a smile popped in her face while looking up in the sky as the fresh air drew patterns in her face and her while she thought about what that not so young girl was doing now.
She descried the berth and before the driver could even try to moor the boat she jumped from the bow to the ground, shouted a quick thanks to her driver and started running between all the people and as she ran she felt young again she felt like it was 1930 again, she felt her legs go lighter and for a moment it felt as she was flying, her white dress billowed with the wind as well as her hat and her feet felt like she wasn't wearing heels. She didn't even notice people were staring at her, and she just kept running until she got to the city hall, where before entering she composed and prepared herself to fight for what she wanted. She took a deep breath and as soon as she opened the door she heard a voice arguing with somebody, a voice she knew very well.