Chapter 11

Scipio returned that very night, scaling the slippery tile roofs of Venice to creep into the Casa Spaventa. His goal was to find Prosper, but he soon discovered that the boy wasn't sleeping in the room with the others.

As he quietly tiptoed around the air mattresses that held Mosca and Hornet, he saw Alex sleeping on the left side of the only two beds in the room, which had been pushed together. Next to her slept Riccio, clutching a brand-new stuffed animal to his chest. Scipio crept to the side of the bed, so that he could get a better look at Alex in the pale light that shone through a lone window above her head. He had never seen her sleep, all these weeks; he had even begun to doubt that she slept at all, but here was his proof. Her frown told Scipio of a troubled dream, a dream whose contents he couldn't possibly fathom. Realizing he was staring, he averted his eyes to the foot of the bed, and was warmed by the sight of Bo's little kittens curled at both Riccio and Alex's feet. He was startled when he heard a very soft voice.

"Salve."

His eyes flickered back up to Alex's face, where he saw that she was awake, the soft look of dreams, as bad as they may have been, still drifting across her eyes.

"Buonasera." Scipio replied, sitting down gently on the bed.

As the sleep faded from her face, she sat up more quickly.

"What is it? What's happened?" she asked in a hurried whisper.

"Nothing's happened. Go back to sleep." he whispered back. But Alex didn't lie back down.

"Why are you here, Scipio?" she asked, staring deep into his eyes.

She was always very direct when she spoke, never throwing her words out there to be misinterpreted, he had notice she never used names. When he heard his name roll off of her lips, it ignited a strange, almost painful sensation that burned softly somewhere between his heart and his stomach.

"To get Prop. But he's not here. Do you know where he is?" he replied, feeling it was better to just tell the truth and deal with the consequences in turn.

"No. I didn't realize he was gone. Where are you going?"

Scipio felt as though her green eyes would bore holes into his skull if he didn't answer her.

"I'm going to ride the merry-go-round. I'm going to get older." He said, trying to sound proud though he didn't feel all that proud at the moment. It was those eyes.

Alex was quiet for a second, looking as though she was trying to translate the words he had just said into a language she understood.

"Idiot!" She said, louder now, almost in a hiss. Riccio stirred in his sleep, turning onto his side and resuming his quiet snore.

"Have you even thought about what you're saying? Do you even understand what growing up means?" Alex asked, resuming her whisper.

"Growing up means not having to do as my father says. Growing up means being able to get away from him and that big empty house." He grimaced, bracing himself for a scathing lecture.

But something unexpected happened, which took Scipio completely by surprise. Alex's face softened into something very similar to sadness.

"You can get away, you don't have to grow up to do that." She said, the emotion he had seen in her face quite evident in her voice.

In response, Scipio relaxed a little, attempting to wrap his mind around the idea, to humor her.

"No. My father will have Venice turned inside out if I just up and disappear, and he'll find me. But he'll be looking for his 15 year-old-son, not a grownup. That's why I need the Merry-Go-Round, don't you see?" Alex knew that he wanted her to understand, desperately, but she was just as determined to stop him as he was to accomplish this task.

"If I grow up, I can really take care of the gang. I can get a job and a real house and we can stick together." He continued, fumbling with the familiar beaked mask that lay in his lap.

"Ida is willing to take care of the gang, she's willing to take care of you too."

Scipio only shook his head.

"Prop needs to grow up so he can take care of Bo, I need to do it to take care of you guys." The softness in Alex's face turned to fire.

"Stop treating them, us, like children Scip! You are just as much, if not more a child then anybody here. You're 15 and you act as though you are oh-so world-weary. You think you can see it all, but you see nothing! Not even what's right in front of you." She whispered violently, and Scipio watched as her eyes began to tear up, making them an even brighter shade of green.

The words she spoke, and the tears in her eyes made Scipio's stomach tie in knots, multiple times, and he choked on his words.

"And what is that?" He asked, searching for that arrogant and unfeeling part of him.

"Sono." She said, in an almost inaudible whisper, and suddenly that part of him was unreachable.

When he didn't reply, she continued.

"You don't have to do it, you could run. We could run. Anywhere you want to go I'll go with you, just don't do it." The tears rolled slowly down her cheeks, and Scipio reached up to brush them away, perfunctorily.

There were no words for him to say, his mind a jumbled confusion. Instead he stood up, leaning forward without any real intentions, but she pushed him away. So he headed for the door, in a trance.

"Growing up won't make things better," she said, quite clearly, as he reached the door. He stopped there, listening with his back turned.

"It won't make you wiser, it won't make life easier, and it won't make you happier." She sighed.

Scipio took a step further out the door, when he heard her again.

"You leave now. You do it tonight, don't expect anything from me. I love you, in whatever way you need that to mean. I love you as a friend at the least. But if you go to that merry-go-round, if you ride it I won't forgive you. I apologize ahead of time, but don't expect me to understand something that I don't even think you understand yourself."

He could hear her rustling her blankets, and one of the kittens mewed softly.

"Can't you just support me in my decision, whether you like it or not?" he asked, keeping his back turned to her.

"Not if it means losing you in the process." She replied.

Silently he slipped down the stairs and out of the house to the place where Ida kept her boat. There he found Prosper, and together they took the boat to Isola Seghreta. Alex had exhausted all of her efforts, and he had nothing to say anyways.

For nearly an hour after he left, Alex lay in her bed, crying into her pillow. Alone.

Sono- "Me"