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"It's great to have you back, Luca. Oh, and Giulia too."
"It's great to be back, Alberto."
It was summer time in Portorosso, Italy, and two well known sea monster boys, disguised as humans, were walking through town, enjoying cold refreshing gelato as they talked.
Their names were Luca Paguro, and Alberto Scorfano-Marcaveldo.
It had been a whole year since the two best friends have seen each other since Luca went with Giulia to Genova to go to school. Now that they were reunited, they were doing all they can to catch up with each other. And Alberto was a bit eager to know what the smaller boy had learned.
"Hey, did you ever find out what that phrase I taught you meant?" The tan boy asked him. "You know, 'Piacere, Girolamo Trombetta'?"
"Yeah, actually." Luca nodded with a smile. "Apparently it's an inside joke with the kids meaning 'Nice to meet you my name is twisty trombone'."
Alberto laughed. "That's so ridiculous."
Luca laughed as well. "Yeah."
"And, what about 'stupido'? Find out what that means."
"It just means stupid."
"Huh. No wonder those old ladies smacked us."
Suddenly, a house they were approaching exploded with loud activity.
There was shouting and banging coming from inside. It sounded like a man and woman were fighting. Alberto suddenly seemed to wilt sadly.
"What's going on?" Luca asked in concern, noticing his friend's sadness.
Alberto sighed. "It's Senor and Senora Berlusconi. They're fighting again."
"Again?" The smaller boy wilted sadly as well as he watched the house. "How often do they do this?"
"About maybe two to three times a week."
Suddenly, Senor Berlusconi came storming out of the house, fully dressed in his coat and hat. Senora Berlusconi came storming out after him, holding a pan.
"I'm done with you!" Senor Berlusconi screamed at his wife. "I'm going to the pub and I'm not coming back!"
"Oh sure! Run away Roscoe! Run away like the fucking coward that you are! You bastard!"
Suddenly, much to the shock of the juvenile sea monsters, Senora Berlusconi threw the pan at her husband, hitting him directly in the back of his head.
Senor Berlusconi stopped in his tracks and brought his hand up to the back of his head. He turned around to glare at Senora Berlusconi. There was murder in his eyes. Senora Berlusconi seemed to pale at his look. She tried to run back into the house, but her husband was on her in a second.
"You mother fucker! Now you've done it!" He screamed at her, grabbing her roughly by her arm and yanking her into the house.
Senora Berlusconi screamed and cried at Senor Berlusconi to let her go. From outside, the boys could hear what sounded like someone smacking another person. Luca didn't like the sound. He took a step forward to stop it, but Alberto quickly put his hand on his shoulder to stop him.
"No, don't, you'll just get in trouble." He told him.
"But shouldn't we do something?"
"The only thing we can do is tell an adult. We'll talk to our parents during supper. Come on. Let's head back."
With suppertime nearing, Luca and Alberto started heading back to the Marcaveldo house. As they walked, Alberto frowned in thought. "You know, I've heard those two say a lot of words to each other, but I've never heard that one."
"Which one?"
"Fuck. That's a new one for me. What about you? Any idea what it means?"
"No, but they sounded mad when they said it, so it must be a curse word." Luca shrugged. "I've heard a few around school, and Giulia's mom told me what they meant and that I should never say them, but I never heard that one."
"Yeah. Papa told me about the curse words that I asked him about whenever I hear them screaming at each other. He told me the same thing." Alberto smiled. "Maybe we can ask him about this one too."
"I mean, I don't see why not. What could go wrong?"
…
It was now dark out. The stars were out, shining around the golden light of the moon.
Luca and Alberto were cuddling each other for comfort on Giulia's tree platform, streaks of blue and green scales on their cheeks where their tears had wetted their faces, their eyes bloodshot red from the crying they have done in the past hour.
Luca was still trying to get the taste of liquid soap out of his mouth, while Alberto could still feel the stinging pain on his backside where Massimo had whooped him with a belt.
The moment the boys asked their parents what the word they heard meant, they immediately knew it was a mistake.
Daniella had grabbed Luca by the ear and dragged him to the kitchen, while Massimo had took his belt off right there and then, having no problem punishing his adoptive sea monster son in front of guests.
After they were punished, they were asked where they had even heard the word, and that's when they tried to stop their sobbing and explain to them about the domestic abuse they had heard in the Berlusconi residence. After the adults had left to inform the police and possibly help stop the situation, the two boys had ran outside and climbed into Giulia's tree.
Now they were in this position, trying to comfort and calm each other down.
"I can't believe he just whooped me for asking a question." Alberto sniffed. "He's never done that before."
"I've never had soap in my mouth either." Luca shook his head. "It must be a really bad word."
"It is."
The sound of Giulia's voice at her bedroom window caused the boys to look up at her. They tried to wipe the tears off their faces, but it was no use. They were too hurt and embarrassed.
Giulia looked at them with the most sympathy she could muster. "You guys ok?"
Luca sniffed and nodded. "We'll be ok… I think."
"Just be glad that's all you got. If you had known what it meant, you two would've really been in for it."
"Then it's a good thing we don't know what it means." Alberto frowned. "And honestly, I don't even care to know what it means anymore."
"Same here." Luca nodded. "But next time, instead of asking our parents, let's just look in the dictionary."
"Agreed. Only one question. What's a dictionary?"
Fine