"What a horrible thing to say!" Daniela exclaimed when they told her about the incident. "And to a child, too. If I had that genie here, boy, would I give him a piece of my mind! Giulia, you're sure you're all right?" she asked, for what must have been the fourth time.
"Yes," said Giulia. "Signora Zigrino gave me a leaf to suck on, and I feel better now." What she really wanted was something warm to drink, but sea monsters didn't do that, and she didn't want to go home and let her worried mother see her upset.
"Oh, good." Daniela nodded. "Let me tell you, if he shows his sandy face around here, he'll be hearing from me, all right!"
"What kind of people were we, all that time ago, if the genie thought we would hurt her?" Luca asked. The incident had shaken him up quite a bit, too. He'd grown up, as many young sea monsters had, hearing scary stories about humans killing things for no reason. Those had turned out not to be true, but now it sounded like the opposite might be the case, that it was sea monsters who'd been hurting humans, and he didn't like that at all.
Grandma reached over to rub Giulia's back. "Don't worry about it, Small Fry," she said. "Nobody here is gonna let you get hurt. If I'm being honest, there probably will be people out there who won't like what you are, just like there'll always be humans who don't like us, but you know where to find your friends if you need to. Just like the boys do."
"Thanks, Nonna Francesca," Giulia said, and meant it. The reassurances from the adults helped a lot. She probably wouldn't have felt so bad, she thought, if this hadn't come right on the heels of her mother worrying she'd end up like the Creature from the Black Lagoon. The combination made her feel like nobody was going to want her, the humans or the sea monsters. If she wasn't the one anymore, and would never really be the other...
No, now it was like she was starting to regret it, and she refused to do that. Giulia had no reason to regret her wish. She'd gotten to sleep over at Luca's house and see the baby fish hatch, she'd helped the gannet fly away and gotten to touch the whale. All that was amazing, and there was plenty more to come, like figuring out what was written on the roof of Arturo's house and learning to cook. Being sorry about it would be silly.
"This sponge isn't gonna decorate itself," Alberto said, hoping to distract everybody.
"You're right," Giulia agreed, happy to be distracted. "Luca, where did we put that extra fish line Papa gave us?"
"Right up here." He swam up to take it down from a shelf.
"Great! Now we need something to make holes in the snail shells," Giulia said.
"Ask Lorenzo," Daniela told them. "He's got a couple of little chisels he uses when he needs to help his crabs moult. If those are too big, you might be able to borrow a smaller one from Signor Donzella at the forge."
It took a few tries to make holes in the shells without breaking them – after wrecking a couple of the particularly pretty ones, the kids went and found some plainer specimens to practice on and get it right. The next task was to thread the fishing line through the holes and hang them. This presented another unforeseen difficulty, in that the line was, of course, nearly invisible in the water. They lost several pieces of it, but eventually managed by looping it around their wrists while they worked. With that accomplished, they were able to hang their ornaments on the sponge, finally topping it with a bright red starfish. Underwater they didn't even need to wait for somebody taller to come and help them with this. Giulia was able to swim up and do it herself.
With the job finished, the kids moved back to admire their work. The result was definitely a little odd-looking, and was definitely something that could only exist under the sea – but it was also easily identifiable as a Christmas tree, and all three were satisfied with it.
Giulia began to giggle.
"What's so funny?" asked Alberto.
"I just thought I wished we had that camera," she said, "so we could get a picture like we did at my house!"
The boys laughed, too. "What do you think, Mom?" Luca asked, as his mother entered the room.
Daniela looked it over. "It's a very strange-looking thing," she decided, "but it's definitely pretty. Since you three are still here, would you like to run out to the garden and grab some caulerpa for dinner?"
"Sure thing, Signora Paguro," said Giulia. She turned to the boys. "You'll have to show me which one that is."
"You'd better ask Luca, I don't know anything about gardening," Alberto said. He had a rough grasp of which seaweeds were edible, but rarely knew what they were actually called.
Caulerpa proved to be a shrubby-looking, bright green plant with stems that ended in little button-shaped leaves. Luca showed Giulia how to pinch these off without squashing them, and they set about filling a shell bowl – and munching on a few while they were at it.
"I wonder where the genie went," Giulia said through a mouthful. The caulerpa leaves tasted rather like raw shelled peas, although a little crunchier.
"Who cares?" asked Alberto. "He can stay there instead of coming back here and insulting people."
"Yeah, he insulted us, too, remember," Luca reminded her. As if anybody in this community would want to hurt Giulia. It was as if the genie thought of sea monsters are being monsters in the sense that humans sometimes used the word, to mean something cruel and frightening, rather than just being another word for people.
"I've been thinking about that," Giulia said. "I know we haven't told anybody where I came from... maybe we shouldn't. At least for a while."
"They don't need to know," Alberto decided. "Kinda like how nobody needed to know about Luca and me."
That didn't help much, since Giulia already knew how that had nearly turned out.
"Hello, children!" a voice called.
Luca's gills drooped as he recognized it. "Hello, Uncle Ugo," he replied.
Sure enough, when the kids looked up, Lorenzo and Ugo were swimming over the rise, having just been somewhere near where the Branzinos lived. Uncle Ugo waved as they approached.
"Your father has been introducing me to some of his friends in the crustacean club," he said.
"Friends," muttered Lorenzo, making quote marks with his fingers. As far as he was concerned, rival breeders were just that – rivals.
"I will have to bring some of my yeti crabs the next time I come up here," Ugo continued cheerfully. "Fine creatures. I don't know how they'd do up here, but in the colder waters they have beautiful pelts."
"I didn't know crabs could have fur," said Giulia, intrigued in spite of herself.
"Oh, yes. It houses colonies of organisms that the crabs feed on," Ugo told her.
"So... it's like they eat their own lice?" Alberto asked.
"Yes, yes. Though the organisms do not feed on the crabs themselves, but on detritus in the water that gets trapped in the fur. You know... shed scales, fish poop, and bits of whale carcass." Ugo grinned toothily. "Lots of that to go around. Marine snow, it's called."
"That's... interesting," Giulia managed, less interested now.
"Many fascinating things in the Deep," said Uncle Ugo. "You should come and visit me there sometime, all three of you. It will be an educational experience for your young minds."
There was a moment of awkward silence as the three kids tried to think of polite ways to tell him that they would really, really, really rather not. Fortunately, before it could drag on too long, Luca's father interrupted.
"Luca," Lorenzo said, "it's almost time for supper."
"Yeah," Luca agreed uncomfortably. "I guess that means you guys better go," he told his friends.
"We could stay a little longer and help set the table or something," Giulia suggested. Neither she nor Alberto felt right about leaving Luca to face his unsettling uncle alone.
"No, it's fine," Luca promised. "I'll see you later this evening." He swallowed hard, then set his face in a determined expression before picking up the shell full of caulerpa leaves to go inside. "Silenzio, Bruno," they heard him murmur.
"See you later, kids," said Lorenzo.
"Goodnight, Signor Paguro," Alberto replied.
"Buonanotte," Giulia agreed.
The adults followed Luca indoors, and Giulia and Alberto looked at each other, each hoping the other would take the lead.
"He'll be okay," said Alberto, trying mostly to convince himself.
"His uncle is family," Giulia said. "My great-aunt Ilaria in Genova is kind of weird. She has all these old dolls in her house that she says she's gonna fix but they just sit around and some of them are missing parts or don't have any eyes. She wouldn't hurt anybody, though."
The two of them sat there among Daniela's vegetable garden a few moments longer, but eventually they had to abandon Luca to his family's tender mercies and head back to Portorosso. They were confident that Luca's uncle wouldn't hurt him, but that didn't mean dinner was going to be a pleasant experience. The best they'd be able to do was listen to Luca tell them about it aterwards, if he proved to be in the mood for it.
When they arrived at the beach near town, Massimo was waiting there with towels. He waded out into the surf to meet them.
"Papà, I'm fine, honestly!" Giulia protested as he draped one over her head. "It's nice today!" The sun was getting low, but there were still only a few clouds, and yesterday's chilly wind was gone.
"I'm not worried about you being cold," said Massimo, wrapping a second towel around Alberto. "Professor Hamid has arrived?"
"What? Already?" Alberto asked. He shook himself dry and wrapped the towel around him like a scarf. "The guy from Savona said she'd probably come after Christmas."
"Apparently she was on her way back to Napoli from somewhere else," said Massimo, "so she decided to stop for a look." He helped Guilia towel dry, and she felt her scalp prickle as her hair grew back in between where the fins had been. "When will Luca be here?"
"We're not sure. After dinner," said Alberto.
"Then if the Professor is still here, someone will have to come meet him, too," Massimo said. He looked both children over to make sure there were no signs of fins or scales, then shooed them up the steps towards the Pescheria.
Inside, they found Helena working on supper while Professor Hamid sat at the table having coffee. She was a small, stout woman with a round dark face and black hair held tidily back with a kerchief, and wearing a brightly-coloured dress with a long skirt. Machiavelli the cat was sitting on top of a cabinet, regarding this stranger suspiciously.
"My goodness!" the Professor said with a slight foreign accent, taking in the towels and the fact that Giulia was in her bathing suit. "Were you two swimming?"
"We raise tough children here in the north," said Massimo. "This is our daughter, Giulia, and my son, Alberto."
Alberto stood a little taller and smiled proudly.
"Kids," Helena said, "this is Professor Hamid."
"My name is Hafsah," said the woman. "Stefano told me what you described to him, Alberto, but why don't you tell me yourself?"
"I'm sure he'd love to," Helena put in, "but both of them need to go wash up and get some warmer clothes on. If you don't freeze in the ocean, I'm not letting you do it on dry land."
"Yes, Signora Marcovaldo," said Alberto.
"Already on our way," Giulia agreed, and the two of them hurried upstairs to obey.
When they returned, Helena and Massimo were serving dinner. This was poached snapper with tomatoes and garlic crostini, which was very fancy food by Alberto's standards – he was used to Massimo's much more basic cooking. While they ate, Professor Hamid told the children that although she lived in Napoli now, she had been born in Cairo in Egypt.
"I used to be able to see the pyramids from my bedroom window," she said. "It always amazed me to think that they were already ancient when Julius Caesar saw them, two thousand years ago – they were older to him then, than he is to us now. Queen Cleopatra lived closer in time to the invention of the automobile than she did to the building of the pyramids."
Giulia had never thought of it that way, and the idea was staggering. Alberto, whose concept of historical time was vague at best, was having trouble wrapping his head around the idea of thousands of years at all.
"My interest as a historian, however," Professor Hamid went on, "is in Egypt's trade with the rest of the Mediterranean. The ocean, which the ancients called Wadj-Wer, the Great Green, was essential how the civilizations around it formed and developed. None of us would be who we are today without it."
Alberto and Giulia exchanged a glance. Professor Hamid did not know that she might be missing a very important part of that history, and they couldn't tell her.
"Which is why Stefano thought I'd be interested in your shipwreck, Alberto," she went on. "What can you tell me about it?"
Alberto was happy to describe it, though Massimo had to gently remind him several times not to talk with his mouth full. "What I noticed first was all these big round things in a line, half-buried in the mud," he said. "I thought they might be big barrels, but they turned out to be rocks, and when I dug around a little, there was all kinds of other neat stuff down there." In between mouthfuls he described them: the big amphoras, crushed when the deck with the stones collapsed on top of them; the glass bottles; the jewelry; and the other assorted items. To his surprise, however, the thing Professor Hamid wanted to come back to was the first: the cylindrical stones.
"How big around would you say those were?" she asked.
"Huge," said Alberto. "As big around as Massimo's boat, at least."
"Him, me, and Luca couldn't have all held hands around them," Giulia put in.
"And how long?" Professor Hamid asked. "If you stacked them all on top of each other, how tall would they be?"
"Taller than the house," Alberto said. "As tall as the church spire."
She nodded eagerly. "What kind of stone were they made of?"
"It's hard to tell. They had algae growing all over them," said Giulia.
"I dunno, rock," Alberto said at the same time, with a shrug. Most rocks all looked pretty much the same.
"Well, let me tell you a story," said the Professor. "In Marsiglia in France, which was once a Roman colony, they discovered the remains of a temple the emperor Marcus Aurelius had built to honour his father, Antoninus Pius – the man on the coin you sold to Stefano. The temple was designed to have eight columns across the front, modelled on the Pantheon in Roma. The people who found it knew that these were made of grey granite from a place called the Mountain of Claudius in Egypt, north of Luxor, because they had a description of the temple from a travelogue written in the fifth century AD. When they dug up the remains, however, they discovered that there were only seven pillars from Egypt. The eighth was made of a different granite that had been quarried in France and brought down the river Rhone.
"There are several different theories about what happened to the eighth column," she said. "People have suggested that it got broken when they tried to move it, or that the project ran out of money, or somebody who didn't speak Egyptian got the numbers wrong when purchasing the stone. But another idea is that the ship bringing it to Marsiglia never made it. What I hope, Alberto, is that you have found the lost column from the temple of Antoninus Pius."
"That's so cool!" Giulia exclaimed. Luca would be excited to hear it, too. The shipwreck had been cool on its own, but it was very special to think they might know exactly where it had come from and where it had been going.
"What about the rest of the stuff?" Alberto wanted to know. "The bottles and things."
"That would have been extra cargo the captain of the ship brought on board to fill the space and make the voyage more profitable," Professor Hamid replied. "Or possibly also as ballast, since the column would make the ship top-heavy. There would have been wine or olive oil in the amphoras – more likely wine, since Egyptian olives are better for eating than for oil – and perfume or other types of oils in the bottles. The bottles themselves were also valuable."
"How do you find out for sure if the stone was for the temple in Marsiglia?" asked Giulia.
"Preferably by diving the wreck and getting samples," said the Professor. "Alberto, you said the column was not in one piece. You're probably right, since it would have sunk like... well, like a stone. Hopefully we can find some small pieces that we can compare to the same type of stone elsewhere. Granite from the Mountain of Claudius is a particular colour and has some very specific crystals in it."
"I'll get you a piece tomorrow," Alberto promised.
"Oh, no, there's no rush," she assured him. "I don't think your parents would want you risking your neck on my account – I'll come back in the summer with experienced divers."
"Don't worry about it. I'm amazing at diving," Alberto bragged.
"Alberto," said Massimo firmly, "I think you had better listen to Professor Hamid."
Alberto knew that tone of voice, and his shoulders sagged. "Right. Sure," he said. He wanted to protest that it wouldn't have been giving anything away, but he couldn't do that with their guest here.
Giulia then thought very carefully about how she was going to phrase her next question. "Professor," she said, "did the ancient Egyptians have any stories about sea monsters?"
"Sea monsters?" The Professor seemed surprised by the question. Helena, too, looked up sharply.
"We have a number of local legends in Portorosso," said Massimo calmly.
"Our friend Luca has been wondering how far back they go," Giulia added.
"I... I don't know," said Professor Hamid. It seemed this was the first time she'd ever given the idea any thought. "It's certainly possible. In the most ancient times they thought of the lands beyond the Nile valley as being very savage and inhospitable, so it wouldn't surprise me. I'll have to look into that." She smiled. "Have you ever seen a sea monster?"
Giulia giggled. "Yes, definitely."
"We see them all the time," said Alberto.
Helena nearly choked on a cherry tomato. She grabbed a glass of water to dislodge it, and Massimo patted her back.
"There's the one in the fountain," Giulia went on blithely.
"And the one on the tiles at the Latteria," said Alberto.
"And the one in the plaster of the fontanella near the Vespa dealership!" said Giulia.
"Something of a local motif, is it? Very interesting. I'll have to hope I don't meet any while I explore your shipwreck this summer," said the Professor.
"We'll tell them to keep out of your way," Alberto promised with a grin.
"That's very thoughtful of you," Professor Hamid said, chuckling. "For now, I'll settle for taking a look at the artifacts you've already brought up. Your mother said you were keeping them in your room, but she didn't want to show me without your permission."
"Sure!" said Alberto with enthusiasm. Having privacy was something that was fairly new to him, and he was pleased that Massimo and Helena had respected it.
"I don't know," Giulia said. "Maybe tomorrow. It's kind of a mess up there."
"It's not that bad," Alberto told her.
She grabbed his collar and leaned closer. "The genie left sand all over everything," she whispered, "remember? She's gonna wonder where it came from!"
"We can make something up," Alberto whispered back.
"Like what?" Giulia asked.
Alberto shrugged.
"I thought so."
They both sat up again, smiling their best innocent smiles. The adults were trying to look uninterested, but they could tell something was up – Massimo and Helena might have guessed what it was, while Professor Hamid was merely confused.
"We're gonna need some time to clean up," said Giulia firmly.
"That's fine," the Professor assured them. "I've got a room at the hostel up the hill. I can come back tomorrow."
"Benissimo! We'll clean up so good, you won't even know anybody was living there!" Giulia promised.
When the meal was finally over and Dr. Hamid left for the evening, everybody in the Marcovaldo household breathed a simultaneous sigh of relief. At least they were going to have some time to prepare before she came back in the morning. Giulia didn't even realize how nervous she'd been until the weight was lifted from her shoulders and she followed Alberto upstairs to start cleaning up.
"Man... keeping all these secrets is hard work," she said.
"You haven't seen the half of it yet," Alberto told her.
He was probably right. Giulia was used to looking out for Luca at school, but that had always been made easier by the fact that she could do things he couldn't. Now that wasn't true anymore, and they were going to have to find new ways to look after each other. That didn't mean she was sorry, of course... it just meant that she was starting to appreciate how things were going to get much more complicated.
Beyond the harbour, the Paguro family had also settled down to supper. This was a bit less nerve-wracking for the adults, but considerably more so for Luca, who also wished his friends had stayed just so he would know they were there. They weren't, so it was just him, his parents, his grandmother, and the intimidating Uncle Ugo.
"Oysters?" Daniela offered a plate of them to Ugo.
"Just a few, thank you," he said. "Foot up here in the shallows is often too rich for me. Nutrients in the Deep are scarce. It makes you appreciate them." He took a single oyster and put it in his dish next to the salad garnished with caulerpa. "So, Luca! Lorenzo tells me you've been going to school with the human kids."
"Yes, Uncle Ugo," said Luca. He was watching as Ugo's eyes darted in different directions and wondering which, if either, he ought to try to look at. It took him a moment to realize that his mother was now offering the oysters to him. Luca mumbled an apology to her and took a couple – but only a couple, because he didn't want to seem greedy when their guest only had one.
"What's that like, then?" Uncle Ugo wanted to know.
"It's a lot of work," Luca replied honestly, "but I'm learning amazing things. History and geography and science... did you know the sea we live in is tiny?" he asked. "There are oceans hundreds of times bigger, and some kinds of whale swim from one end of them to the other!" He wished he knew if there were people in those oceans, and how they lived and what they ate if there were, but of course his human teachers couldn't tell him that.
"Deeper, too," said Uncle Ugo. "Many kilometres down, some of the deepest trenches. Not the slightest trace of sunlight. The pressure, it is like a full-body massage. Very nice if your ribs can take it." He shook his head. "Poor Arno. He was crushed into jelly."
Luca tried very hard not to imagine that, and met with only minimal success – suddenly even two oysters seemed like too much food. At the same time, there was one thing he couldn't help being intrigued by.
"You've been there?" he asked cautiously.
"Yes, yes. I've been many places. Seen the ping-pong tree sponge and the giant isopod," Uncle Ugo told him. "The ping-pong tree sponge, you mustn't touch it, it will try to dissolve you. You like school, then?"
"Yes, I do."
"Pity. I had hoped you would enjoy the Deep. Great place to think, the Deep." Ugo picked up his oyster, but rather than pry the shell open like normal people did, he bit into it like a cookie. His sharp teeth went right through the shell without a problem, and it crunched as he chewed on it. "No sunlight. No sound. No distractions. All the great philosophers lived in the Deep. Of course, with no light, it's difficult to read their writings. I brought you some things." He reached under the table stone to grab his bag of worms, which he'd stuffed into a storage hole there.
Luca edged closer to his parents. "Are they... alive things?"
"No, no, definitely dead," said Uncle Ugo, which was not reassuring in the least. "Let me see." He dug around inside the bag for a moment before saying, "aha! Here!" and pulling out an object about the side of his hand, which he presented to Luca.
The item resembled a spiral shell, something like a nautilus but more tightly coiled and with pronounced rings around it, partially encased in rock. When Luca took it to examine, the exposed parts gleamed pale yellow by the light of the bioluminescent jellyfish that served as the house's lamps. The shell was made of pyrite, the mineral humans sometimes called fool's gold. After a moment, Luca realized what it was.
"It's a fossil!" he exclaimed. "A dead animal turned to stone!" Giulia had a book about them, and there'd been some on display behind glass at one of the museums in Genova. Luca had never thought he'd get to have one of his own.
"That is correct," said Uncle Ugo. "You won't want to take that up to the surface with you. The oxygen, it will make it crumble."
Luca turned the object over in his hands reverently, half-afraid it would fall to pieces. He wondered what kind of creature had lived in this shell. Had it been a tentacled thing like a nautilus or squid, or something more like a snail or limpet? Had it swam, or crawled on the sea floor? Either way, it was a wonderful present, and the last sort of thing he would have expected to get from Uncle Ugo.
"Luca," Daniela prompted him, "what do you say?"
"Thank you, Uncle Ugo! I love it!" Luca almost wanted to give his uncle a hug... but only almost.
"Good, good," said Uncle Ugo with a satisfied smile. His eyes darted in a dozen directions as he sorted through his bag again. "Also, this."
The second object he pulled out was also yellow and shiny, but this one wasn't fool's gold. This was the genuine metal, formed into an image of an ugly little face with a flat nose and protruding tongue. The right eye had an inlay of black glass, and a hole showed where a similar piece had fallen out on the left.
"Wow," whispered Luca, as he accepted this item, too. He turned it over, and on the back found some odd geometric drawings, similar to the ones on the roof of Arturo's house but not quite, being closer to actual pictures. "Again, thank you! Do you know who made it?"
"I think humans. They drew themselves on the back. Also birds. They like birds, the humans." Ugo pointed to one of the little symbols, which did indeed seem to be some kind of bird. "Always looking at the sky. Very distracting. They should try spending some time away from it. It would be good for them."
Luca remembered what his father had suggested over supper last night... at the time, the idea had seemed thoroughly unappealing, but now Luca felt like maybe his uncle would have an answer for him. "Uncle Ugo," he said, "do you know who Oannes is?"
"Did they teach you that in school?" asked Ugo.
"No, but I met somebody who called us – sea monsters – Children of Oannes, and he never explained what he meant. Dad thought you might know."
"Oannes," Ugo nodded. "He was a great sorcerer, long, long ago."
"Really?" Luca asked eagerly.
"He thought we should be friends with the humans, so he gave each people a gift. The humans, he taught them how to read and write and do sums. And us, he gave us the Change, so we could go on land and breathe the air. But the humans were greedy. They wanted to know all the secrets of his magic, and when he wouldn't tell them, they killed him and ate him to absorb his powers. When you and your friends come visit me in the Deep, I'll take you to see the Librarian. She knows many more things. Secrets."
"The... Librarian?" Luca asked.
"The Librarian of the Deep," said Uncle Ugo. "Diotima is her name. She is almost two hundred years old. You live longer when you don't have the sunshine slowly cooking you from the outside in. Someday she will die and I will inherit the Library. I will need to pass it on someday, too. Maybe to you?" he said hopefully.
Luca swallowed. "I don't know about that, Uncle Ugo," he said. But it was interesting to know that apparently sea monsters still did have at least one library. He couldn't wait to tell Alberto and Giulia... and maybe they could tell the genie, too. Maybe that would cheer the unfortunate being up.
"Too bad," said Ugo. He tossed the rest of the oyster in his mouth and crunched on it.
Luca set his two gifts, the fossil and the golden face, down on the table and dug into his dinner with much more appetite than he'd had a few minutes ago. He needed to eat fast and go see his friends – not because he wanted to escape Uncle Ugo, but because he couldn't wait to tell Alberto and Giulia what he'd learned.