Not much to say about this one. Um, there's an OC? But he's six, so he's harmless. Also, this is set way in the future. I'll leave the number of decades to your imagination.
Enjoy!
Disclaimer: Not mine. At all.
A Helping Hand (With Candy in It)
Celio can smell pasta in the air and knows that it is time for dinner. The sun is setting and his mamma will scold him if he comes home much later than this. He gives the soccer ball one last kick before waving goodbye to his friends and running off in the direction of his home. Or at least, what he thinks is the direction of his home. Five minutes and a myriad of corners and alleys later he realizes that he has absolutely no idea where he is.
Immediately panic sets in and his small, six-year-old body stars trembling uncontrollably. He looks around wildly, running back and forth, searching for anything familiar, anything at all that will let him know he is not lost forever.
He is about to let loose a desperate cry of: "Mamma!" when a man crouches down in front of him and holds out a hand. Celio looks down and sees a brightly wrapped sweet resting in the palm of the man's hand. He looks back up at the man's gently smiling face and sniffles.
The man lazily shuts one eye and waits patiently for Celio to take the candy from his hand, then he says: "What is your name, bambino?"
"Celio, signor," he replies, wide-eyed.
The man smiles widely at that. "Celio, eh? Then tell me, Celio, why you are crying."
Celio begins to lose his composure again as he recalls his plight. At length, between sniffles and hiccoughs, he manages to tell the man of the smell of pasta, the imminent scolding from his mother, the unfamiliar houses and his fear of never finding his home and family again.
The man, who has been patiently silent throughout Celio's entire explanation, does not now, as Celio fears and expects, run off, leaving Celio behind to somehow find a way out of this hopeless situation. Instead he continues to smile reassuringly and says: "Come with me, Celio. I'm sure that together we'll be able to find your home."
Celio gapes at the man. "How can you know that, signor?"
The man ruffles Celio's hair and looks exaggeratedly pensive for a second. Celio giggles despite himself.
"Your name," the man says, "Celio, comes from Latin, doesn't it?"
Celio nods, "Mamma says that it means 'heaven.'"
The man looks him earnestly in the eye and says: "A long time ago I swore to the sky that I would give my life to its protection and happiness." He grins at Celio again. "So I'm fairly certain that means you fall under my supervision." The man stands up then and holds out his hand to Celio. "Now tell me, Celio, what is the name of the street your house is on?"
Finally convinced that everything will be all right, Celio takes the man's hand and stares briefly at the large ring resting on his index finger, before answering his question.
He is not surprised when they find his house a short while later. Even at six, Celio knows that the ring marks the man as a man of his word. He sees his mother and lets go of the man's hand, running to embrace her.
She looks anxious, but that fades to relief once she hears him call out to her. She scoops him up into her arms, holding him tightly to her chest while scolding him for scaring her so much.
He begins to tell her of the man with the candy and then remembers that he abandoned him the moment he saw his mother. He turns around and finds the man standing at the gate, right where he left him. His mother looks up too and a look of surprise crosses her face.
Celio grabs her hand and drags her towards the man.
"Signor! Signor!" he calls, "This is my mamma."
The man inclines his head slightly and greets her: "Signora."
His mother still looks faintly surprised, but replies: "Signor." She hesitates a moment before adding: "Thank you for helping my son."
The man's one eye is still closed and he is about to reply when two men come around the corner and call out to him with words Celio cannot understand. The man responds with similarly unfamiliar words and then turns back to Celio and his mother.
"I'm very sorry, but I must go now," he winks at Celio, "my famiglia is not as patient as yours when it comes to dinner."
"Is your mamma waiting for you too?" Celio asks, and from the corner of his eye he can see his mother shoot him a look.
The man laughs then, and ruffles Celio's hair. "Not my mamma, no," he says.
"The other Celio then?"
The man smiles lazily. "The other Celio," he agrees, then turns, giving them a small wave as he does so and the dying sunlight catches on his ring.
Celio watches as the man joins the two waiting for him by the corner. He sees them usher him around the corner just as his mother starts to push him back towards the house. His right hand finds his mother's and in his left he still holds the candy he got from the man. He looks down at it and sees that it is grape flavored. He smiles and wonders whether grape is the man's favorite too.
I don't need to be more specific about who the Man is, right? Right?
