Chapter Text
“Aha! Che figo !” Alberto held up the piece of paper as triumphantly as the Portorosso Cup, “A letter!”
Signor Marcovaldo raised an eyebrow, revealing one curious eye.
Alberto beamed up at him, “It’s from Luca! He must have made it to Genova then. No crashes or anything.”
“Crashes?”
Alberto shrugged, “Well there probably were crashes- especially if they went downhill at all . But this-“ Alberto flapped the letter above his head, “means that Luca made it in one piece. I knew he would. Obviously. It's just nice to, you know, prove myself right.”
“Why… would he crash in a train?” Signor Malcovaldo looked puzzled and Alberto sat up, excited to explain. Signor Marcovaldo was a quiet man who liked to sit and listen intently, which was fine by Alberto. Not very many people just let him talk (there weren’t very many people in his life to listen to him anyway) but Signor Marcovaldo always asked Alberto if ‘everything was alright’ when he grew quiet, gently prompting Alberto to speak his mind.
“Luca always crashes things,” Alberto said matter-of-factly, “Moving things. With wheels. His bike, our, er, the Vespa, our Vespa we made. If he’s in the train he’s going to crash it. It’s got wheels.”
Signor Marcovaldo chuckled and Alberto grinned. He thought it was pretty funny too- the mess Luca always got himself into. He conveniently did not mention the fact that Alberto got into just as many messes and many more crashes.
“Trains don’t crash, Alberto.”
“They don’t?”
“ Vediamo ...hmm,” Signor Marcovaldo hummed as he thought of how to explain it, “Not like bikes do. They are machines that run on tracks.”
“What are tracks?”
“Pieces of metal that they bolt into the ground. The train runs on them.”
Alberto squinted, “Okay… and how do the tracks make it so the train doesn’t crash? I can run on something but it doesn’t mean I won’t fall over.”
Signor Marcovaldo’s mustache twitched like he wanted to smile, or maybe he did and it just wasn’t visible to Alberto.
They didn’t open the letter that night. Instead Alberto learned about the places trains ran and how they stretched across the whole world, connected. Held together by railroad tracks and axles.
He tucked the letter close to his chest that night, rubbed the sharp corner of it until it was smooth and his eyes grew heavy from staring at the scribbled words on the front and the funny little picture on the corner. Alberto wondered why it was there. He wondered what it meant. Humans had so many different things to learn. So many small itty bitt things that seem pointless but actually all have meaning. Tomorrow, Alberto decided, he would ask about the little sticker in the corner and why it was important. Maybe it was there just to look nice.
Across the water, a couple of towns over, through the tunnel, following the tracks of metal bolted to the ground that snakes into Genova, Luca sat in an unfamiliar place chewing his nails.
“Do you think he’s gotten it yet?”
Luca sat at the kitchen table. It was larger than Signor Massimo’s and the room was much wider than his entire home in the sea. This place had multiple rooms that weren’t small to condense space. In fact, there was even a room for Giulia and Luca separately. He didn’t know why he had to sleep in a different room and he didn’t like it. For the week that he had been here Luca had been dragging out their interactions in the kitchen and living room so that he wouldn’t have to retire to his new room alone.
Giulia shrugged in the sun yellow light of the lamp, “Probably. It takes a few days for it to get back anyway.”
“Get back?” Luca worried his hands together, “They’re supposed to send the letter back to me? But I worked so hard to send it to him- them. I mean them.”
“No, I mean a response, silly,” Giulia rolled her eyes for a second and then refocused on the book in front of her, “To show you he read your letter, he’ll send one back.”
Luca’s eyes went impossibly wide, “He will?”
“Sì,” Giulia turned to smile at the hopeful gleam in Luca’s eyes that he got whenever he was excited about something.
The excitement dropped into panic at an almost impressive speed- if it weren’t Luca they were talking about here. Luca’s expressions were a fickle thing and his emotions were even more random. Fearful and then adventurous. Devastated and then content. Excited and then outrageously stressed.
“Does he know that??” Luca worried.
“Don’t worry, my papà will tell him! And he’ll probably help Alberto write it just like I helped you, ” Giulia said with an encouraging smile.
Luca breathed out in relief and then seized up immediately as the thought struck, “What about my mom?! Does she know?”
His mind was going in circles at this point because it had nothing else to think about. Here at the school, now there were plenty of distractions and Luca was lured into every one.
Giulia sighed, smiled, and got up, “Okay, ragazzo , I think it’s time to do something else. Do you want to see the library? It’s in the study room.”
“There’s a library?!” Luca gasped, “Your house is so big!”
That would do it.
It had been three days since Alberto got the letter. One week, two days, twelve hours thirty two minutes and- stop that . Alberto stopped counting the seconds. Stopped the internal clicking that went through his mind.
You better start making another tally wall.
Shut up, Alberto thought.
5-2 tally marks appeared in Alberto’s mind and he pushed away the urge to find the nearest rock and scratch it onto some unmarked wall.
He left you one week, two days, twelve hours, thirty-three minutes, and sixteen seconds ago.
Silenzio, Bruno. Alberto thought fiercely as he untangled the net at his feet. He glanced at Signor Marcovaldo’s knife. This would be so much easier if he had one.
He left you, Bruno insisted, a soft whisper that barely counted as a thought but definitely lingered longer than it should.
Alberto startled when Signor Marcovaldo patted his shoulder and the wet glove seeped water into his skin, turning it purple. At this point, Signor Marcovaldo only stared, not startled, when he saw the strikingly inhuman color of his skin. With his eyebrows he seemed to ask ‘Are you alright?’
“I’m fine. Just, you know, talking to the Bruno inside my head,” Alberto chuckled and then exclaimed, “ Silenzio Bruno!”
Signor Marcovaldo just stared and then nodded, like it was the most natural thing in the world, though Alberto knew it was a little strange. He was a little strange. Humans had looked at him oddly enough for Alberto to notice he didn’t say all the right things sometimes. His dad told him-
Signor Marcovaldo didn’t question him though; he didn’t even blink. Alberto appreciated that and wondered if it was too much to ask for him to pat his shoulder one more time.
“Haha! The catch is good today, eh?” He grinned broadly at Alberto, the triumph in his voice already proud, already showing Alberto that he did something right.
It was so easy to be a good kid around Signor Marcovaldo. He could almost forget that he actually was a bad one! Maybe he could fool Massimo for a bit longer. Maybe he could stay.
Alberto smiled to himself and pulled up the fishing net.
Three Days before Genova
They were laughing. Giggling so much they couldn’t stop. Alberto was biting his knuckle so hard he winced from the slight pain, and the action somehow made it infinitely more funny. Luca had taken to stuffing his face into his pillow and his high pitched laughter was hardy concealed by it.
“ Mamma mia ,” Signor Marcovaldo sighed.
Alberto reached over to Luca’s shaking shoulders and gripped them, stuttering out a “Sh-sh…” He tried but it dissolved into more giggles, “Luca! We-“
“ Ragazzi!” Signor Marcovaldo boomed and the boys froze. All they could see was the yellow light of his room flicking on and the imposing figure of his shadow.
Luca sat up straight and Alberto and glanced at him wide eyed. For a moment, Alberto felt a true trickle of fear run through his spine. His mind flashed with knives, fish heads, and a spear in hand. But then Signor Marcovaldo huffed loudly and flicked off the light again. The boys could stay. Alberto breathed out in relief and glanced over to Luca. Not a good decision to make because as soon as they saw each other they were spewing laughter again, trying desperately to keep it silent.
“Oh, my, god, Luca,” Alberto hissed at him but his grin was as wide as his affection for Luca, so he wasn’t really intimidated.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Luca wheezed out, collapsing against Alberto’s shoulder as he clutched his shaking stomach.
Alberto laughed around his words, “Seriously! It wasn’t that funny!”
Trying to spit out his sentence but unable to with the deadly force of his own laughter, Luca nodded up and down frantically, “It was. It was so funny. You- you-“
Suddenly he let out a loud bark of laughter and Alberto’s eyes grew wide as he slapped a hand over his friend's face, “Luca!”
“You should have seen your face!”
“Oh, come on,” Alberto whispered, eyes darting to Signor Marcovaldo’s window and Luca’s mouth that was covered by his own hand.
Even with his hand there, Luca kept talking, lips moving even with Alberto’s futile resistance, “You were like-“
Here Luca imitated Alberto’s terrified and disgusted face when he woke up to a spider making its web on his face. Despite the outrageously exaggerated state of Luca’s face, it really did look funny. Alberto couldn’t help but let out a breathy laugh as Luca’s laughing fit gently faded away. Finally safe from Massimo’s annoyance by Luca’s incurable laughter, Alberto let his hand fall away from his mouth. His palm was still warm from his breath and it tingled where Luca’s lips had grazed it.
Luca collapsed against his pillow with a smile and sighed, “My stomach hurts so bad.”
“Well that’s what you get for laughing at me!” Alberto said, situating himself next to Luca.
“It was worth it though,” Luca giggled once more, with finality, “It was really funny.”
“Hey, you would have screamed so loud if that happened to you!”
Luca grinned at him, unashamed, “Oh, yeah. I would have been terrified! Good thing it happened to you, though. Then it made it funny, not terrifying.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Alberto rolled his eyes and huffed a bit and he slouched into the wood, trying to rediscover that comfortable spot that he was rudely awoken from.
Closer to Alberto than before, Luca looked up at him with a sly smile just short of shy on his face, “You just don’t think it’s funny because you’re embarrassed.”
“What?” Alberto scoffed, and his eyes darted away because holy carp Luca’s eyes were big and bright and really close to his face . And he was making fun of him. Since when could Alberto, The Expert, be made fun of?, “I’m never embarrassed.”
Luca shuffled closer, quietly snickering, “You say that but you don’t have to lie to me, Alberto. I mean, we’re… we’re best friends right?”
“Duh,” Alberto slung an arm around him, “Of course we are.”
As he snuck a glance at his smaller friend, Luca smiled quietly to himself and pressed closer to his arm. Alberto looked away quickly.
“So… so that means you can tell me anything,” Luca said into his side, but the words were clear in the quiet of the night. Them, under the stars, listening to each other over the quiet sounds of Portorosso, “And I can tell you anything. Right?”
“Of course, yeah,” Alberto said a little softer than before, subconsciously tightening his arm around Luca upon seeing the worry etched into his face, “Is there… is there something you want to talk about?”
Luca began, soft, “Well. It’s just… you’ve always gotten upset when I brought it up before. But I think I know why now.”
“Oh,” Alberto stared resolutely at the fish in the sky, trying not to think about the red and black of that night. He was talking about school .
“And I… I want you to know that I won’t be like him,” Luca blurted.
Alberto blinked rapidly, his eyes filling up with tears against his will. Cavolo, he thought he spent all of his tears already, crying his eyes out at the tower, in the ocean. Luca’s hand reached up and tentatively tapped Alberto’s chin as an indication to look at him. Mouth open a bit in surprise, Alberto easily followed the motion and met Luca’s gaze. Every facial muscle of his tensed, but Luca gave him a hesitant smile and the crease of his eyebrows softened, “I’m not going to leave like he did.”
“And I’m sorry I said those things,” Luca confessed, burying his nose into Alberto’s ribs, breaking eye contact, “I… I never meant to hurt you so bad. And I know you were hurt. You- you don’t have to hide that anymore. You don’t have to pretend that you have the best life ever or that- that you don’t want to be left alone.“
“Well, then the same for you,” Alberto said, clearing his throat against the lump that had gathered there. He was still looking at Luca even as he was hiding his face in guilt.
“-what?”
Alberto tightened his arm around Luca, “If I can stop pretending to- you know, hide all of that, then you can tell me anything too.”
“Oh,” Luca said, wide eyed as he stared at the lined patterns of Alberto’s tank top.
Huffing, Alberto ruffled Luca’s hair tickling his side and said, “What? You didn’t know that’s how best friend things work? I tell you my secrets, you tell me yours. It’s easy.”
His pulse leaped as he felt Luca’s smile grow through the cotton of his tank top, a secret smile that Luca always wore when he was trying to hide his happiness. Their giggle fit finally died away as Luca leaned against Alberto, and his arm kept the warmth of them enclosed in their small space in the universe, their small hideout looking out to the stars. Luca’s breathing evened out, matching the rising and falling of Alberto’s and he breathed easily, happily, with Luca by his side. Right there. All night. And in the morning, he would wake up and Luca would be there still. Probably drooling, probably with his feet kicking and his arms over his head, but there. Because it was Luca. His best friend.
“Wouldn’t it…” Luca murmured, drowsily and Alberto blinked out of his sleepy haze at the sound of his voice, “Wouldn’t it be so cool if we could go to school?”
Alberto stiffened minutely, suddenly awake as Luca drifted closer to sleep, “Huh?”
“Yeah,” Luca nuzzled him, “You, me, and Giulia. Allllll at school. Learning ‘bout stars and things…”
“Oh yeah?” He said meekly. Listening because that's what he just told Luca he would do, right? Best friends tell their secrets, and this seemed like a secret Luca couldn’t say until he was half asleep, “You really… you really want to go to school, huh?”
Luca nodded and his curls shifted, sticking up with frizz from the friction against Alberto’s shirt. Some clung to his face, sweeping across his forehead in the perfect half circle, “It would be the best thing in the world…”
His words trailed off, ending in excitement and enthusiasm as he wished for something he thought wasn’t possible. Alberto stayed awake a bit after that. Thinking over his quiet confession that he trusted Alberto with. The fish above him kept him company as he stayed awake, remembering Luca’s excitement over books and learning new things. Before it was Alberto he went to for knowledge, but, quietly, tentatively, Alberto admitted to himself that he didn’t know everything. What happened when Alberto ran out of new things to teach him?
Luca knew how to walk. He knew how to change. How to jump off a cliff into the water. Luca knew how to design and build Vespa’s. He even knew how to ride a bike off a ramp and now he knew how to avoid crashing the bike into the water, unlike Alberto. Luca knew how to talk to humans. How to read. How to win the Portorosso cup. He… he knew how to do everything that Alberto knew how to do, and even knew it a little better.
Brushing the stray hairs away from his forehead, Alberto realized that Luca didn’t need him. Alberto had nothing left to be an expert on. He was just Alberto and sooner or later that wouldn’t be enough.
He’ll leave you when he figures that out.
But …Alberto curled into Luca, glaring at the half folded collar of his shirt, Alberto’s shirt, that he now wore, he said he wouldn’t leave me.
But what if he does?
Slowly an idea started to form in Alberto’s head. He brushed the stray curls away from his face.
What if you’re not enough?
“Hey… Massimo- er Signor Marcovaldo-“
Signor Marcovaldo was facing the stove as he said, “Eh. That was my father, call me Massimo.”
“Right, Signor Massimo,” Alberto said dutifully and then started laughing nervously as he said, “So, uh, I was wondering if you could maybe…”
He stared down at the letter in his hands, the corners of the paper creasing under where his thumbs pressed into it, and bit his lip.
What if he made him mad? What if asking him will waste his time? What if he thinks your dumb? Dumb little Alberto who can’t read or write even though you were already taught the alphabet-
“Yes?” Signor Massimo turned to him and immediately noticed, “Oh. The letter.”
“Yeah!” Alberto said and the paper crinkled audibly in his hands, “The letter! Kinda forgot about, if I’m being honest, but it’s, ah, I was wondering- since I-“
Alberto’s eyes darted up to meet Signor Massimo’s that were visible underneath the bush of his eyebrows, patiently trained on Alberto, waiting for him to speak.
“I can’t read,” Alberto said in a rush, the words leaving his mouth in a crammed, hushed sentence.
“Oh,” Signor Massimo sat at the table and asked, “Would you like me to read it for you?”
So it was that easy, huh? Alberto exhaled in relief and hurried to sit down in the seat across from Signor Massimo, just in case he changed his mind. Signor Massimo waited patiently for him to slide the letter over the table and first read aloud the address and the name stamped across the cover. Alberto arched his toes into the cold tile of the floor as he leaned closer and tried to memorize the words Signor Massimo was saying.
“That’s where the letter came from,” Signor Massimo pointed to the corner, “and that’s where he sent the letter to. Home.”
Alberto stared at the middle of the letter intently, trying to memorize the letters strung together, “Right. Got it.”
Signor Massimo said with pride, “Portorosso, Cinque Terre, Italy. And this-“
“That’s my name!” Alberto grinned, recognizing the familiar curve of the a, b, t, and o that stood out in his name. Luca wrote the L facing the opposite way Alberto wrote it, but he’d just have to tell Luca he did it wrong next time he saw him.
Then Signor Massimo began ripping the letter.
“Wait! What are you doing?” Alberto shouted in dismay as the paper ripped and Signor Massimo paused with his two fingers gripped around another piece of paper inside of it, “Oh. There’s…is there more?”
Signor Massimo nodded and slowly pulled out another piece of paper folded neatly into the letter. It folded open and Alberto caught a glimpse of a whole page full of words. His mouth fell open slightly.
“ Caro Alberto! Cara Mom! Caro Dad! Cara Grandma Paguro!
Genova is so big! The buildings are so tall here! Guilia took me to her secret hideout on the roof and we could see the ocean. It’s so far away and there are so many boats. We have to be careful if we visit the port. I’m so excited for my first week of school! I miss you!
Ciao Luca .”
After Signor Massimo finished, he hummed, “Secret hideout.”
Alberto took the paper gently from Signor Massimo’s large hands and flattened it on the table. Smoothing out the corners and the creased middle, Alberto asked, “Can you read it again?”
Signor Massimo turned the paper to face him but left it flat on the table and cleared his throat, “Caro Alberto-“
His heels thumped against the wooden legs of his chair as he swung them back and forth, listening to the same words over again with a smile.
He pointed to a series of words, “This is how you spell ‘I miss you,’?”
Signor Massimo nodded as Alberto sounded out the letters, holding the letter closer to his face.
“Do you-“
“Kay, thanks Signor Massimo, bye!” Alberto shot up from his seat with the paper in his hand and raced to his room, leaving Signor Massimo sitting quietly at the table, wondering if this was how all his evening encounters would go.
The room was an extra, right next to Guilia’s unoccupied room. The staircase to the upstairs separated their rooms from Signor Massimo’s room and the bathroom. Luckily, Alberto’s new room had a window and it led out to a roof- how cool was that? Alberto didn’t know why Guilia didn’t pick this room first. It gave him the perfect view of the ocean and he could always sleep under the fish- stars. Star fish. Whatever. He could sleep under them when the ceiling felt too dull and blank to hold his attention. Alberto could sleep about anywhere, a hammock, the roof, the ground, as long as he could see the sky.
Problem number one. The bed was extremely comfortable. Problem number two. He could not see the fish- the stars from the bed. Solution? Bring the bed onto the roof! He couldn’t fit the mattress through the window, and Signor Massimo would have definitely noticed that, so Alberto just bought out the blankets and pillows. He had to confess, he loved blankets. His hammock back on the island was all well and good, but it didn’t have a view of the fish, and it definitely didn’t have any blankets.
Alberto clambered out to the roof, the setting sun casting angular shadows on the building and his shoulders. Gripped in his mouth were several pencils, one sticking upwardly and wavering in his vision as he spread out his blankets and pillows that were strewn across the roof. He smoothed out a blank sheet of paper that he had grabbed on his way out.
“Okay,” Alberto said to himself once he had placed the pencils in the creases of the roof tiles, “How hard can it be?”
He wrote the address, Luca’s address, in the corner of his paper just like the letter, and reprinted everything perfectly. Erasing didn’t count because he erased it, alright? He kept the L of his name written the right way, thank you very much. Albert stuck the end of his pencil in his mouth as he thought, staring down the blank sheet of paper that was supposed to hold his own letter for Luca. He started with the same greeting and thought about only adding Luca’s name, but then, after a careful amount of consideration, he added Guilia’s name too.
“Caro Luca! Caro Jewlea!
I miss you.”
Alberto paused, struggling to find something else to say other than- I miss you. I miss you a lot. Do you miss me? Me, specifically, though. Do you still dream about flying our Vespa into the sky? I miss it when you told me your dreams too. Do you remember the one where we were riding through the fields together and I was like “Luca! Take over!” And then you were like-
Alberto frowned. How did you spell the sounds that Vespas make? “ Neeerrrm. Vrrrrr-!”
It was only when he heard Signor Massimo’s call from the kitchen that he realized he had gotten distracted, making the noises his folded paper Vespa made with his mouth as he drove it up and over the wrinkles in his blanket and pillows. Alberto jerked at the sudden noise and stared down at his paper in horror. The words that he had written:
“I miss you. I miss your dreems about Vespas. I miss you your ryding riding our Vespa. I miss you.”
They were folded up into little triangles that vaguely resembled a Vespa and Alberto stared at it with a mixture of anger and loss, as if his hands had done it all on their own.
“Coming, Signor Massimo!” Alberto scrambled for his papers and pencils, but as he moved to tuck them away under his mattress, he saw Signor Massimo standing in the entrance of his room.
Signor Massimo glanced down at his pencils and asked, “Do you need help with that?”
“Ah-“ Alberto hid it behind his back, “Heheh.”
Signor Massimo ushered them to the kitchen table once again and slid Alberto a steaming plate because he had rushed off without eating. Happily, Alberto tucked his fork into his pasta and displayed the rolled noodles to him. Signor Massimo gave him a small nod, but Alberto lit up with it and went back to eating dutifully. He was still kinda bummed he didn’t get to eat in the race- his Pasta eating skills were unmatched. An odd feeling panged him when he realized that he sorta missed having Guilia in his ear, declaring his time as not fast enough, only to shout for joy when he finished. It was nice to be encouraged for little things like eating. Sometimes on the island, Alberto would forget to eat. Not because it was depressing or anything- Alberto life was great. It just was a long trip to sneak into the fields of the Sea Monster farms and steal the crops they planted. Even longer work to catch a fish that he wanted to eat. And he would have to eat it underwater too because humans couldn’t eat raw meat without throwing it up. Yeah. He had tried it once. That was fun. Good thing Signor Massimo was the greatest cooker of fish in the entire universe .
“Grazie,” Alberto said, because he had manners, and a part of him wondered if he acted ungrateful if Signor Massimo would stop giving him food for free. Well, maybe it wasn’t free. Alberto fished in the mornings and evenings with him. That was working for food, right? As long as he worked he got to eat and Alberto was just lucky Signor Massimo was the greatest cook ever. Sure, if he was bad, Signor Massimo probably wouldn’t refuse to feed him, if he asked. But Aberto wouldn’t ask because he didn’t ask for things, he got them on his own. Maybe he could even learn how to make his own dinners and then he could stop worrying about the probability of not getting trenette al pesto.
Signor Massimo gestured to the letter, but his voice was not unkind, “You want to fold up your letter like that?”
Alberto felt himself blush but explained, “Oh no, this isn’t my letter. It’s a- it’s ah….”
“Rough draft?”
“Yeah. That,” Alberto pointed with a grin.
The other paper, the letter cover Alberto attempted to fold to resemble the original, was lying on the table and Signor Massimo inspected it.
“You are close,” He pointed to the address, “But this needs to go in the opposite spot because it is now the return address.”
His pride wilted a bit from the embarrassment of his penmanship in all its glory, but Signor Massimo explained gently and then showed Alberto how to write the correct address before asking him to try again. It was sort of like how he taught Luca and Alberto how to fish. Gentle, but stern in that way that made his distracted self perk up and listen instead of fiddle with the first thing he found at his feet.
“Caro Luca. Cara Giulia.
Your secret hideout sounds cool, but the one back home is better. I’ll keep it-“
“In all its amazing glory for you, don’t worry,” Alberto said aloud and Signor Massimo looked up from where he was writing down Alberto’s words so he could later copy it in his own hand.
Signor Massimo started to say, “Mmm.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” Alberto nodded, “It’s too long, isn’t it? How about- ‘I’ll keep it awesome for you while you are gone .’?”
With a nod as confirmation, Alberto went on.
“What kind of boats are there? Are they loud like Erocle’s? Things are great here. I’ve got my own room and everything. I’m surprised you didn’t crash the train, but I’m glad you got to the school safe. I miss you too.”
“Is it weird to say that?” Alberto mumbled to himself. He added the ‘too’ at the end but something about those three words: I miss you, I miss you, I miss you , ran as a loop around his head causing him to think that maybe it was Too Much.
Signor Massimo shook his head, “No. It is not weird to say. I miss them too.”
“Okay,” Alberto said, “Can you write down: ‘ Massimo misses you too.’?”
Dutifully, Signor Massimo obliged the shy request and Alberto felt a little bit better knowing that maybe the constant loop of I miss you, I miss you so much, wasn’t just him. Of course he missed his daughter, why wouldn’t he?
Why would he, Bruno asked, why would any parent miss their kid-
“Silenzio Bruno,” Alberto murmured and thought back, Because it’s Giulia. She’s a good kid. Of course he misses her. And concentrated on the painstaking task of copying the letters Massimo wrote down for him. I bet Luca’s mom misses him too.
“Hey, Signor Massimo,” Alberto said, “Luca’s supposed to write to his mom every day right? I bet she’s worried.”
Signor Massimo nodded, “Yes, she must be.”
Alberto frowned, “I wonder why she hasn’t come up to the surface then. I didn’t think she hated it that much.”
“Perhaps she is upset,” Signor Massimo offered with a one shouldered shrug and Alberto thought Livid, more like. Sea mothers like that didn’t just get ‘upset’.
“I was the first time Giulia left for the school year,” Signor Massimo added.
Glancing up to catch the expression of sorrow that weighed on Signor Massimo’s face, Alberto tried, “Um… why- ah. Why does she go away? There’s a school in Protorosso, right?”
Signor Massimo turned his head away and Alberto flinched, knowing he crossed some invisible line, “She goes to stay with her mother.”
“Right,” Alberto said and he didn’t ask again.
Two Days before Genova
“Um…” Alberto hovered over what he assumed was an entrance to their home, “Singora Daniela?”
“Hm? Who-“ Signora Daniela came around the corner of her small rock entrance, “Oh! Alberto, right?”
“Yup, that’s me-“
“The sea monster who kidnapped my son to a human town and taught him how to ride a bike,” Signora Daniela cut him off and leveled him with an unimpressed and challenging stare.
Immediately, Alberto drifted up a bit, already accepting the challenge and his hesitant face switched into a scowl, “I didn’t kidnap Luca! We ran away together. And I also didn’t teach him how to bike! Giulia did that.”
“Mmm,” Daniela eyed him suspiciously, “I don’t know. There's always a bad influence for these sorts of things.”
Alberto gestured around him to the empty sea as if to say ‘are you seeing this?’ But couldn’t seem to actually refute her accusations. He was the kid that ruined everything. Luca was the good kid before him.
Silenzio Bruno, said a voice that sounded a lot like Luca did that night when Alberto thought he was going to be alone forever again. That’s just the stupid voice in your head.
Alberto looked up and met Daniela’s eyes, head on, and took a deep breath, “Look, I know you don’t like me, but I need to talk to you.”
She’s just another stupid Bruno. Just another voice telling him stupid things. Alberto squared his chin like he saw Signor Massimo do to those other fisherman at the Portorosso Cup and followed Signora Daniela inside her small open hut. Looking around, Alberto tried to see traces of Luca in their home, but he couldn’t see anything other than a small rock figurine that looked like a doll made by Luca’s hand.
“Well,” Signora Daniela gestured to the chair, “Take a seat.”
Alberto quietly sat down and wondered if this was Luca’s chair. To his right was Signor Lorenzo, Luca’s dad, and across from him Grandma Paguro started swimming into the kitchen and sat down at the chair across from him.
“To what do we owe this pleasure fisher boy?” Signora Paguro said lightly, shooting him a grin that instantly made him feel a bit more at ease.
Signora Daniela asked before he could answer, “It’s about Luca, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, where is Luca? You two usually seem attached at the hip!” Signor Lorenzo commented.
Sheepishly, Alberto began to rub a hand on his neck until he realized the action would display how nervous he was and he abruptly dropped his hand, “Um. Yeah. It’s about Luca.”
Silence stretched on as they waited for him to speak and Alberto internally battled with the right way to say it.
“Well? What is it?” Signora Daniela asked and Alberto had a hard time remembering that she had smiled at him once when their eyes had met for the first time at the Portorosso Cup.
He breathed deeply and thought back to Luca, sleepily murmuring his dreams into Alberto’s shoulder. He could do this. For Luca.
For you, too, a quiet, snide voice reminded him. Alberto ignored it and looked up at the table, eyes darting between the three adults around him before he settled on Signora Daniela, the threat in the room.
“I sold the Vespa.”
“What?!” Signora Daniela was the first to cry, and the only to be loud about it. Beside him, Signor Lorenzo made a quiet noise of distress and confusion and Signora Paguro simply raised her eyebrows, “But- but Luca loves that thing! I thought you loved it! Wasn’t it your idea in the first place?”
“It wasn’t just an idea,” Alberto snapped, “it was a dream. And yeah we did love it.”
She started, “So, why…”
Alberto shook his head, pushing away any remorse he had for selling his lifelong dream. All he had to do was convince her and then this could work. Everything he planned would go perfectly. All he had to do was… Alberto turned to Luca’s mom… convince the sea mother that wanted to lock Luca away forever. Easy.
“Because there’s something Luca loves even more. And I’m going to help him get it,” Alberto said cryptically, still deciding what course of action he wanted to take. Begging? No way. Alberto would never stoop that low. Not to her, of all people. He could appeal to her love of her son though. She kept saying how proud she was of him and constantly reassured Luca that she loved him. Personally, Alberto didn’t know why she said it so much when she wasn’t showing him that she loved him. She just kept saying it like she was trying to convince him of it.
“Which is?”
“School-“ He barely got to finish the word before there was absolute chaos. Though he was sure Grandma Paguro didn’t make a single noise, the two other parents made enough objections and loud noises of protest to make up for it. Alberto winced as surely, the whole ocean could hear them. There goes the surprise element of it.
“Absolutely not!”
“But-“
“Why would you even consider that?”
“How could you even ask us that?” Signor Lorenzo accused, “After we just found him!”
“You think that we would send out baby boy out, on the surface, to a thing designed to keep our children away from us and lock them up and-“
“Like you were going to do with him before?” Alberto shot back.
Signora Daniela squawked, “What? We would never! Luca was homeschooled!”
“Oh!” Alberto laughed, “Yeah, sorry I must have been remembering it wrong! I just thought you were going to send Luca off and lock him up in the deep which is why he ran away in the first place!”
“You-“Singora Daniela deflated a bit but said sternly, “You take that back.”
Alberto spread his arms out, “Why? It’s true. We never would have run away if you weren’t going to send him there. It wasn’t about a Vespa, or being dangerous on the surface, or disobeying you or whatever. It was about keeping him safe.”
“Safe! From what? It was just his uncle he was staying with, Alberto,” Signora Daniela gestured to her husband, “His brother. To keep him safe from the surface!”
“From you!” Alberto burst, “ He- he was so happy up there. There weren’t even humans up there. Just me and him. And we had fun, and we built things, and we talked for hours and- he was happy! Why- why did you have to send him away? Why- why would you-“
“Kid…“ Grandma Paguro started, concern creased her normally impassive face.
“Why would you send him away?” Alberto’s voice cracked as he pinned them with two very green eyes, so hurt and open you would think Signora Daniela sent him away and not Luca.
She whispered, “What?”
“Why would you send him away,” Alberto repeated, “if you loved him?”
“To keep him safe,” Was her automatic reply and Alberto scowled angrily.
“That’s not true,” Alberto crossed his arms into his chest so he wouldn’t hit something, “If you really wanted to keep him safe you would have stayed .”
And the wording is what made her pause. It’s what really made her stop and consider the small sea monster in front of her, just a couple inches taller than her own boy. Just a couple of shades lighter and purpler. ‘Stayed’? Daniela wasn’t the one to leave. She was the one to send away but maybe, maybe it was the same thing in Alberto’s mind. Maybe it hurt even worse to see Luca’s parents actually go looking for him, actually caring enough to find him, when his dad never did the same.
Mortified, Alberto sniffed and cast his eyes down in shame, in anger, in disappointment. He really botched this one up, didn't he? Yelling and accusing the one person that was a roadblock to Luac’s new dream. Blaming her for something she didn’t even go through with.
“Alberto,” Signora Daniela said and Alberto squeezed his eyes shut, just waiting for her to tell him to get out of her sight and never come back, “Look at me.”
Her voice was stern and so Alberto looked up, “Why do you want Luca to go to school?”
“Because…” He croaked, “Because it would make him happy.”
Because he’ll leave me. He’ll leave me if I don’t make him go.
“You really think so?”
Alberto nodded hesitantly, “He… he loves to learn and it's a place where kids get to learn about everything.
“Alright then,” Signora Daniela sat down, “Tell us about this school and how it works.”
Blinking, he loosened his defense stance in disbelief, “You mean..?”
“Don’t get your tail in a twist,” She said and shot an encouraging look to her confused husband, “If you can explain more about it and it’s safe, then maybe, maybe, we can send Luca to school. Send him to the right place this time.”
Alberto brightened, his eyes especially bright and glossy as he hurried to sit down and scoot his chair up to the table. For the rest of his explaining- and he did explain it well because beforehand Alberto had asked Guilia everything he could about her school- Alberto kept his eyes mostly down, sometimes darting up to meet Grandma Paguro and Signora Daniela.
“And you should have seen the way he lit up when he talked about the stars!” Alberto smiled to himself and then the smile slipped off his lips when he remembered how dismissive he had been when Luca was talking about one of his dreams.
“Stars?”
“Those lights up in the sky- now keep going Alberto,” Grandma Paguro winked at him, “You’ve almost got her.”
Alberto smiled despite himself and continued, “It’s just that he loves learning. You must know that. That’s why he went up to the surface in the first place, cuz he was curious.”
And it was true. After Alberto’s initial push, Luca came up to the surface all on his own, every day after that. Alberto could count on his coming back if not mostly for his curiosity about everything on the surface.
“He always did ask so many questions in homeschool,” Signor Daniela chuckled, “You know I knew something like this would happen. I would always tell him- ‘the curious fish gets caught!’ But he would never listen to me.”
“Well- well if you let him go to school he could be curious and it wouldn’t be dangerous,” Alberto built up his persuasion, “School is actually a place where curious kids can learn and you don’t have to worry about him getting caught. Giulia will be there and he will have really nice teachers and he will make other friends-“
Grandma Paguro tilted her head, “And what about you, fisher boy? Are you going to school too.”
“It-“ Alberto laughed nervously, “It doesn’t matter what I do. I’m- I mean, all that matters is that Luca is safe and happy right? I mean listen, listen- he would come back every summer but just during the school year he could be learning new things about the stars and- and I don’t know, math and uh reading things- Luca loves reading things. He would fall asleep reading that book almost every night-“
“Alright, we get it, we get it,” Signor Daniela said and Alberto snapped his mouth shut.
Grandma Paguro lifted her hand and placed it on top of her daughters, “I think this could be good for him, eh?”
She had her back turned from Alberto and she whispered, “But I’ll miss him so much.”
“You would have missed him either way,” Grandma Paguro said, “If he went to the deep, you’d miss him. If he stayed here, heck! You’d miss him too because Luca, like Alberto here said, isn’t going to be happy. Not as happy as he could be when he knows there’s something out there just waiting for him.”
Alberto relaxed. This sea monster really saw Luca, didn’t she? Convincing Daniela was like swimming in circles because it would all come back to her- what she thought was best for him, how she would miss him. But Grandma Paguro really listened to Alberto and realized she saw the same thing in Luca that he did.
Because no matter how much Luca loved his family or Alberto- Lucas' dreams were so big and so bright that he seemed impossible to reach and to satisfy. Because he had an ocean full of ideas and questions that drowned out everybody else who was not going along with him. Luca was always looking away. Up at the surface, up at the stars and the moon, up at the hill, up to the train, up to Genova. Alberto saw it time and time again. Luca may be holding his hand, but he was looking forwards, always. And if Alberto planted his feet in the sand, he learned that night at the beach, Luca would let go of his hand and move forward without him.
This way, this way Alberto would be the one letting go of his hand, and Luca would finally, finally be looking back at him.
“Okay,” Signor Daniela said, “Let’s do it.”