Chapter 107

July 24th, 2024

After spending a day in Genova and stopping a couple of times in smaller villages on their journey towards Parma, the vanful of tourist had spent the night there. As per Jess' request this time actually at an airbnb, a fancier kind no less, Celeste having simply not felt like arguing about this anymore. It took conscious compromises. Jess would feel what it was like to live like a local, more or less, and Celeste had control over the ammenities, looks and reviews of the actual place.

But for Jess, the hypermodern apartment that they had ended up with still hadn't had that feeling, perhaps romanticized, he'd been looking for. But he was beginning to realize after having ended up in a fairly modern part of the town, that people really did live all kinds of lives around here. Modern mixed well with the old. And that perhaps there were indeed things he needed to correct in his mind that had at least in part flawed thinking. He could tell Celeste had been perhaps trying to make a point by choosing this particular location. She was good like that, often letting her actions speak louder than words. What he truly appreciated though was the fact that she hadn't rubbed it in, and just let these things sink in.

They'd just had a farmer's market sourced late breakfast - what else was one supposed to eat in Parma if not the famous ham on some freshly baked bread, a slice of pizza for Leo, and Celeste had headed off to a nearby playground to entertain Evie and Oliver, letting them blow off some energy before the drive, before they continued to drive towards Verona, planning to stop by at a tourist farm to show Oliver and Evie some animals as a change to the cityscapes. This, however, left Jess and Leo at least an hour to kill.

At the moment the two were leaning their elbows on the stone wall separating the street from the Parma river, just watching the river pass by, its water lever being quite low by the size of the riverbed.

"So what do you think?" Jess asked Leo, essentially asking whether he wanted to keep on walking or whether they should head back already.

"I could walk a bit more, I guess," Leo replied. "It's not like the rest of today will be much of a thrill for me," he assumed. He hadn't really accounted for so much of the trip involving the entertainment of those aged 7 and 3.

"Do I hear some disappointment in your tone? Because I could just put you on a train back and you could go fishing with Luke every morning," Jess teased, knowing that he probably wouldn't do that anyways. He also knew that Leo really wasn't one to fish, even if he humoured Luke every once in a while to go with him. These days mostly to see if Luke wasn't overdoing it and taking on some of the heavy lifting himself.

"Nah, I'm good," Leo replied.

The two continued down the Strada Giuseppe Mazzini, Jess enjoying the echo of the streets under the overhang of the apartment building, which created a convenient passage for people to access shops. These were quite common in Italy it seemed, but Jess enjoyed the way it shaded people from the rain and sun, mostly sun this time of year, knowing better than to choose the side of the road these passages were on around here.

As Jess began to see an overly typical lineup of clothing brands - Zara and H&M, he'd realized they'd made it to the shopping district. This was not where he wanted to be. Hence he made an abrupt right turn, forcing Leo to think fast on his feet. He also realized the boy needed to adventure in his life right about now, and if taking unexpected turns to discover the city by simply wandering was it for the day, that at least was something he could offer him.

The modernized cobble stone street, the stones laid in a curved pattern, and the narrow medieval buildings that surrounded it created a much different feel from the shopping district, actually allowing Jess to try to picture what this place was like in the past. He wasn't the one to medievalize the places, he rather pictured these areas around the time he imagined his ancestors to live in these regions. Late 1890s, early 1900s, maybe? Maybe 1930s?

The smaller streets formed an almost labyrinth-like network, it's high walls providing pleasant shade but also leaving Jess missing some vegetation. The American city planners, the former kind at least, knew well how to do concrete cities, but here there were literally acres of unvegetated stone which was much different from what he'd experienced in Nice.

Jess soon realized the majority of the buildings they were seeing were in fact University buildings. Naturally, at the end of July he couldn't really expect university to be in session, but still the area had surprisingly many young people wandering about.

"I think this is a university building right here," Jess mentioned, unsure if Leo had figured it out.

Leo was as tight lipped about comments as Jess had been in his age. He wasn't closed off, he just didn't make unnecessary chatter which was one thing Jess liked about him.

"You want to take a peek inside?" Jess suggested, seeing a number of people in their early 20s enter a alleway which seemed to head into the courtyard of one of the larger buildings. By the sound of those people, it seemed to be some sort of a summer school, he guessed, people speaking not only Italian but also German, French and some Slavic sounding language.

Leo shrugged.

It was there the vegetation hid, the courtyard having a small water fountain and lush greenery, despite looking a little dry, even a few trees.

But what provided more of a sight was the fact that there was a group of students there, sitting all around, sketching the fountain. Jess could tell this was something that drew Leo's attention.

Jess wandered a little and let Leo do the same, glancing at the drawings.

After a while the two decided to head off, knowing that they'd soon need to pick the direction back over the river to meet up with Celeste.

"Have you ever thought about what you want to do? Like after you graduate..." Jess decided to ask. To him it was clear what Leo was drawn to, but he wasn't sure if Leo got it similarly.

"Not a lot, work I guess," Leo shrugged.

"Because you know you could probably go to a place like that, well… maybe not this place, but a place.. Junior college or something," Jess suggested quite realistically. Leo wasn't great with anything verba - while his reading was a lot better now, it still took him effort. His math was mediocre, but Jess had no doubt he'd manage. He'd helped out on numerous occasions both at the Dragonfly and at the Apparatus Bay. He didn't have a problem with working or figuring things out.

"I don't know..," Leo scrunched his nose. College had never really seemed attainable.

"Yeah I know… I didn't feel like it was for me either. I don't know if you know this, but I actually didn't graduate high school until I was like 20 - I took classes at a night school finally. I had a little trouble getting to school in the mornings," Jess explained.

"You did?" Leo asked, this being the first he'd heard of this.

"Yeah. And, no, I don't recommend you do that," Jess laughed, raising his eyebrows a little. He was pretty sure Leo knew that, but he couldn't say that enough. Gathering up his courage and shutting down his pride to do that hadn't been easy at all. "I did a year of vocational school after that, but the rest I just picked up on the go," he added. "I guess what I meant to say is that you shouldn't rule some path out just because you don't feel like it'd be for you, not when you're this young at least. And while an artist's career is no horn of plenty, it might be something to balance work, whatever it is you end up doing," Jess explained, writing having first been the same way for him. He'd worked as a printer, hardly something deeply fulfilling, but it was the late night writing that had kept his brain alive, craving for something more in life and made him work harder.

"Maybe..," Leo shrugged.

"Hey, I'm not saying that that's something you should do - all I mean is that if you feel drawn to something like that, just don't dismiss that feeling. It was the same with me and books… Now that there are all types of courses one can take again, maybe that's something you could try. You'd meet some new people, get a new experience. I'm sure Luke and Lorelai wouldn't mind," Jess added.

"I'll think about it," the boy assured.

"Now… I also encourage you do use that phone of yours to browse for something else than that game you've been playing to kill time. Find something interesting for us to do the rest of the trip, while I'm driving, okay?" Jess encouraged him. He wanted to teach Leo to grab some control of what happened to him, to his life. Leo was quite passive like that, having for a large part of his life having very little control. And the pandemic hadn't really helped things either. Jess wanted Leo to suggest things, and feel like his points were heard, to slowly begin to realize what he said, did or didn't was what mattered.