Scipio's new life
Scipio walked slowly from Ida's house towards the apartment he shared with Victor. It was a long walk, but today he enjoyed it. It was June and it was late at night. He had been playing chess with Hornet and talked to Prosper all night. The house had been warm and full of people, so he was glad to get out in the cool night air.
Victor hadn't been there tonight. He had told Schipio that he had a case to work on, and for the first time he had refused to tell him about it. He said it was confidential and that his client had asked him not to say anything.
Schipio wasn't used to Victor keeping things from him and this really annoyed him. They were after all partners. Schipio never kept anything from Victor. Not anymore.
As he passed a certain little store that once used to be selling different junk and some valuable artefacts he began to think about what he now called "his past life". In that life he had been a boy of 13 who lived in a big house with his parents. He had been helping out a gang of homeless children. Or well, helping out wasn't the right word. He had been playing with them. He had given them food and a place to live in, but he had also been telling them that he was the greatest thief in all of Venice. This was so not true though. No he was just Schipio, the son of a rich man who couldn't take being at home too much. What he hadn't realized back then was that to these other children it had not been a game. It had been most serious. They had been trusting in him and depending on him for a living. They had no choice.
But that was then, he thought. Now it was different. Now they all had their own lives, and so did he.