When the kitchen phone rang at midnight, Luca's heart skipped a beat. Not again… He put down his pencil. This was where it all started. "Pronto. Marcovaldo residence, Luca speaking."

"Luca?"

"Mom?" He immediately cradled the receiver. "How are you? How is everything?"

"Ugh, the service down here is terrible," Mrs. Paguro said. "We've been trying to reach you all afternoon… "

"We're sorry for almost sending you down here," Luca heard his father faintly screaming in the background. "The deep is a horrible, horrible place!"

"Ah-ah-ah, Lorenzo? Lorenzo." Mrs. Paguro tried again. "Listen pesciolino carino, we just called to find out how you're doing. After the whirlpools. They've stopped, you know."

"I know," Luca sighed. "I got thrown in the mote today."

"Again?"

"Everyone's blaming sea monsters for what happened," he explained. "And the kids at school were calling me - "

"I knew this was going to happen." Mrs. Paguro sighed heavily. "So your father and I talked it over, and it's 100% up to you: do you want to stay up there or do you want to come down here and be with us?"

This was the first time his mother had given him a true either-or option. And it wasn't easy. "Well… "

"Luca, this is your uncle." Ugo's raspy voice came from inside the shell phone. "And if you come down to live with us, I will save you a whole fall of whale carcass. The fish nibble at it… the fish live there… but it's very well-preserved. The whirlpools have not gotten us down here, so there are a great many undisturbed whale carcasses - "

"Ugo," Mrs. Paguro chided. "Stop. You're scaring him."

"Oh. My apologies."

"I hate it here," Mr. Paguro cried in the distance.

"Okay, guys?" Luca asked. "Uncle Ugo, thank you for the offer but I think I'm gonna stay in school."

"Are you sure?" Mrs. Paguro said.

"That's what I would do if I were you… "

"Lorenzo! Stop influencing him! We said we'd give him a choice!"

"What choice! There is no choice! There's nothing to do down here! There's no stimulation down here! This is no place for a child!"

His dad was cracking up. "No, it's not that," Luca chuckled. "It's just that there are a lot of people up here with the wrong idea about us… maybe if I continue my schooling, I'll be able to show them they're wrong."

"Well, that's very good of you, Luca," Mrs. Paguro said. "I'm proud of you."

"Thanks."

"Hey Luca, do you know if there are any schools up there that fifty-three-year-old dad humans can go to?" Mr. Paguro asked. "Because I'd like to maybe - "

"Lorenzo, I swear to Poseidon… "

"Don't come down here, Luca," Grandma Paguro advised. "Everyone's crazy."

. . .

Gazing in the mirror at his tuxedoed reflection, Alberto screwed up his face. "That doesn't look like me."

"It does." Giulia appeared behind him, giving him a reassuring squeeze. "It looks like what we've seen of you lately. Responsible. Mature. Not at all like that scrappy kid in the tie-up shorts."

Nevertheless, Alberto tugged his tie. "I look dumb."

"Okay, sta'zitto. Do you have the thing?"

"Yeah… " Alberto unfolded the paper in his breast pocket, pacing the carriage. That was why he was on the train to Rome - to atone for his actions. Well Charybdis' actions, but he was still taking full responsibility as the vessel.

Luca and Giulia's big hairy mythology teacher took him to get exorcised at a little red church house in Genoa. He was nice. And Alberto was 100% cured and Charybdis-free.

It had been Alberto's idea, actually, to give the speech to Parliament. How do you begin to apologize for decimating nearly half of Italy's nautical population and practically all of the Mediterranean?

By throwing yourself to the mercy of the people in charge and promising to make it right, of course.

Giulia had been thrilled at the prospect of spending Christmas in the Capital, provided Massimo hand her over to her mother on Easter. Luca on the other hand…

"He said he didn't want to come." Giulia had broken it to Alberto as he was packing.

"What?" he said. "Why?" Massimo had promised to get the kids their own room, and they would all have a good time.

Giulia lamely lifted her shoulders.

"Oh," was all he could say. It occurred to him that they had switched places - Alberto was the one on the train and Luca was the one saying goodbye.

"But hey. Maybe you'll be able to see him over the summer." Giulia rushed to make Alberto feel better. "I'm sure everything will be back to normal between you two by then."

"Yeah… "

Back to normal.

. . .

Now Massimo lowered his giornale, regarding his son quizzically. "I'm just re-reading what I wrote," Alberto muttered. "Actually Giulia wrote it… I just told her what to say."

"And you could learn how to write in school," Giulia insisted. "Just stop being a baby and come with us already."

"Thanks, but no." If people had to get used to sea monsters matriculating, what would they think of a formerly-possessed one who'd killed sailors? The thought made Alberto itch and he scratched himself in the fancy suit Massimo got him on loan.

"There is nothing to be afraid of," Massimo told him, reading his mind. "Do you want to practice?"

"I practiced a lot at the house… "

"Do it again," Coach Giulia said, picking up the pencil she sometimes used on ornery students. "Make sure you don't stumble over your words this time."

"O-okay." Alberto squinted at the paper, his hands shaking slightly. Why was he so nervous! "S… sennesse… ?"

"Signore e signori… "

"Signore e signori of Parliament," Alberto remembered, thanks to Giulia. It was all coming back to him:

On August 1969, I made the worst mistake of my life. I ran away from home.

I got lost and swam into the Strait of Messina, into Charybdis' cave, where she put a curse on me, possessing me to do anything she wanted. That is why I'm the cause of all the destruction that's happened on land and sea, and to that I want to say I am really, truly sorry. I apologize sincerely to everyone I've affected, but words cannot bring back the lives I've taken. The only way to completely ask your forgiveness is to fully accept any punishment you see fit. I'm willing to do whatever it takes to make things right.

Alberto folded up the note. "That's it," he said awkwardly.

Massimo got up and walked towards him. His son looked so small and unsure in his little black suit. He bit his lip.

"That is very good, and professional," Massimo validated. "That is a very good penance. Some people will never accept your apology… but some people will. And you seem to know how to find the good ones."

Alberto visibly relaxed, his shoulders shaking. His son was always trying to put on a brave face and act so adult, nobody could tell when he was really hurting…

When Massimo was drawn downstairs by the sound of sniffling, he came upon Alberto breaking down at the kitchen table with Machiavelli nuzzling his head, the good cat that he was.

Alberto must have heard Massimo enter because his footsteps were like Jack and the Beanstalk's, but he didn't lift his head. Massimo clamped a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Sorry."

"Non piangere, bimbo," he said. "You're not evil. I know this. You still have a chance to change people's minds."

"I know."

"It's good to have you back," Massimo asserted because it was. His son's heart… just because Alberto was a sea monster didn't make him a monster.

Monsters didn't cry.

"Now enjoy your gift," Massimo instructed, standing up a red-eyed Alberto and pivoting him up the stairs. "You still have something to celebrate."

Just the strength to go on.

. . .

La Fine.