Chapter 28
When the little bell over the door chimed, Barbarossa turned away from his customers with a welcoming smile to greet a new one. But his smile fell and his eyes widened, when a brunette, maybe sixteen years old, clad in a red t-shirt and faded jeans and trainers entered, followed by a dark haired youngster, whose age was hard to estimate, because he was wearing a bird mask, which covered half of his face, a white t-shirt blatantly stating "Thief Lord" and black jeans and trainers, too.
The couple next to him frowned and hastily Barbarossa shooed them into the small part of the shop that served as an office with the usual admonition not to touch anything. A couple of minutes later the bell chimed again and Barbarossa waddled into his office, where he found his friends waiting patiently for him. His face darkened considerably to an unhealthy shade of red, when he saw that they hadn't taken their allocated seats, but occupied the space behind his desk. The brunette German sat lazily in Barbarossa's chair with his feet casually propped upon the desk, twiddling his thumbs. The other youngster leant against an antic cabinet and cleaned with a silver letter opener, that had laid incidentally once in a desk drawer in a guest room at the casa Massimo, his impeccably manicured finger nails, emanating the air of indifference and ennui.
„You owe us money, Barbarossa." Prop opened the conversation amicably.
"I owe you nothing. I'm only the go-between. If the old man doesn't pay his debts, it's not my problem. Now get out of my chair!"
"It's yours, believe me, old man. It's yours. You see, our friends aren't happy and you're the next one in the chain. And you will give us the money – Euro by Euro and you will even be glad that you'll give it away to us. I'm going to work here five days a week, halfdays in the afternoons after school."
Barbarossa snorted and glared at Prop, who wasn't in the least about to get out of Barbarossa's chair.
"As I said I'll work here after school not to draw unwanted attention to me. My salary will be ten Euros by hour plus five percent of your profit of the goods I sell."
"Are you mad, boy?"
Scip tutted.
„If I were you, old man, I'd be a lot nicer to my right hand."
He played with the letter opener as if it was a knife. And the cold stare behind the mask only strengthened the impression of danger.
"Are you trying to threat me in my own shop?" Barbarossa turned even a shade darker.
"No, it's just a friendly advice, since we've been friends for so long."
"Now listen to me, both of you. I'm not going to hire the tedesco and I certainly won't throw away good money. Five percent of my meagre profit! Ten Euros the hour! That's a laugh. No, it's not a laugh, it's not even an offence, it's highway robbery. You're worse than thefinanza. You'll strip me off my last shirt, make me starve to death. I won't make any profit at all!" Barbarossa pulled out a handkerchief to wipe of the sweat of his front head. He breathed heavily.
„Easy, old man. We don't want you to have a coronary. See, you need badly help. The stress is getting to you and you don't get any younger with every passing day. Besides and let's put it plainly. This shop is a fraud. The real money comes from your receiving. Now, what is it? Hire my right hand or I'll have the police pay you a visit and then you'll get proper treatment in the prison hospital."
„Never bite the hand that feeds you, boy." Barbarossa narrowed his eyes dangerously.
"Who says your hand is the only one, Barbarossa? Remember the break at the Palazzo Pisani? Or the Messina earrings?…"
"You!???! Where are they?" Greed let the old man's eyes sparkle. Forgotten were heart trouble and asthma.
"This takes people with very deep pockets, lots of patience and the right contacts before they offer on the market. You have neither, old man."
"You don't say, Thief Lord."
"No, Barbarossa. I know to whom you sell our stuff. And I know where it goes from there. And I know what's in for you. This is too big for you and you know it, too. So don't try to play me for a fool. Now that we have established who's top dog here, my tedesco's proposal to let you pay off your debts with us is settled. Which is very fair after all, but let's say we're in a generous mood today."
Prop smiled as he heard his friend quote back Barbarossa. And with a last grand gesture Scipio threw the letter opener down onto the table. Right between Barbarossa's hands it skidded to a halt.
"See you, old man." And the bell announced that the Thief Lord had left the little stop. Silently Prop and Barbarossa looked at each other taxing.
"So…"
The bell chimed again. Barbarossa turned around to greet his customers. But Prop shot up from the chair and pushed the old man gently aside.
"Pardon me, I think I have customers."
Heavily Barbarossa fell into his chair, still warm from the youth's heat. His breath was laboured and he opened a drawer to take out his asthma spray. Maybe it wasn't so bad that the boy would help a little bit. With one ear he heard them chatting in German and a little while later the bell chimed again and the customers left with a big plastic bag full of Venetian souvenirs. Maybe it wasn't bad at all….He began to smile like a Cheshire cat as new prospects visualised in front of his inner eyes.
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And with the passing weeks and nearing summer, the Stella was buzzing with activities and a steady flow of money coming in lessened the pressure on Scipio's shoulders, who in turn concentrated more on his fencing and the upcoming tournament in July before summer holidays.
One weekend in June Annia had gone by train with Riccio to Florence to visit her sister and her boyfriend to have his teeth fixed. Her sister somewhat privy of what was going on with her baby sister in Venice had bought three pre-paid card telefoninos for the gang for emergency cases –one for Scipio, one for Prosper and the third one was shared by the rest of the gang and taken with them whenever one of them or the group left the Stella without Prop or Scip.
Hornet and Bo had visited frequently the playgrounds to scout for stressed out looking mothers and fathers and had finally found three couples who were just too happy to have found a girl that could go along well with their children to ask annoying questions like were Hornet lived or who her parents were. They had just to call a specific number and either the girl herself or one of her brothers answered. And the good impression the girl had made was confirmed each time when either of her two elder brothers waited at the landing stage for her, when she was brought home or picked her up at the respective houses late in the evenings to escort her home.
Mosca and Riccio had started to lend a helping hand at the central market early in the mornings before school time and soon enough the marketeers relied on their presence to help out and began to pay them in goods like fresh fruits, vegetables, fish and meat, which they brought home to the Stella.
And the schooling continued. Annia had even managed to lure Riccio back to the books and with her patience and aptitude he slowly managed to bring some order into the jumbled letters.
to be continued
