Sofia led the way through the sunlit waters, over a rise and into a broad reef covered with fanlike gorgonia sponges and billowing clumps of purple and green seaweed. All sorts of fish were flitting to and fro, from tiny silver anchovies to electric blue tuna to spotted, broad-winged eagle rays. And to complete the picture, on the rocks and the knolls of coral were literally dozens of sea monsters in every imaginable size, shape, and colour. Many of them had removed articles of clothing so the little red and white cleaner shrimp could pick at their scales. Others were setting out bowls and baskets of food for brunch, while children chased each other through the forests of sponges.
Alberto had to stop, staring at this crowd. There were so many of them... at least as many as lived in the shallow waters off Portorosso. These were all his family? That didn't seem possible.
One by one, the gathered sea monsters noticed the new arrivals. They looked up and smiled, and many of them, especially the children, rose from their places and came closer to see. Alberto swallowed hard as he realized they were looking at him. He wasn't used to being the centre of attention unless he was in trouble...
"Everybody!" Sofia called out. "The guest of honour has arrived!"
That seemed to be a cue. People who'd been keeping a polite distance began crowding around – and not around Sofia, nor around Luca, but around Alberto in particular, offering greetings and handshakes. One woman pinched Alberto's cheek. A man patted him on the head. Little kids stared at him with eyes wide open and pupils almost circular. Voices expressed the opinion that he looked like his father, or that he didn't, or that he didn't look like he had any human in him.
Nothing in Alberto's life had prepared him for this moment. Growing up almost alone with his father, then interacting with Luca, and then living with Massimo, he was used to dealing with one or two people at a time, and was learning to be part of a crowd focused on something else... but the last time he'd been at the centre of such a thing was at the finale of the Portorosso Cup, when he'd been sharing the attention with Luca and Giulia. Now he looked around for Luca and couldn't see him – there were too many people in the way. The only familiar face he could see was Sofia's, and she was smiling proudly.
Well, if she thought he ought to be able to handle this, then Alberto had better do so. He forced his face into a grin and summoned up all the bravado he could while people continued to pinch, pat, and prod him, and took what comfort he could from noticing the one person who was definitely not present. In the midst of all these Scorfanos and adjacents, there was no sign of Giancarlo.
"Nice to meet you," he said to one man. "Alberto Marcovaldo!"
"Marcovaldo?" another man asked. "What kind of a name is that?"
"It's my mother's name," Alberto replied. And Massimo's.
"Nonsense," said a woman. "You're a Scorfano like the rest of us!"
Alberto bristled. "I said..." he began, but then stopped. Would they be angry if he told them he didn't want to use his father's name? That he didn't feel Giancarlo deserved that kind of claim on his identity?
A child held out a hand. "Piacere," she said.
Alberto accepted the gesture. "Girolamo Trombetta!" he said... but he was getting more and more worried. How was he going to remember all these people? He was sure he'd heard several names, but he couldn't connect any of them with a face. And it seemed like there were more and more of them, an absolute tidal wave of relatives that he couldn't possibly keep up with. Sofia looked pleased, though, so he must be doing well, or at least faking it okay.
"Why are you all crowding him?" another voice demanded. "Look at him, he looks like a lobster in a trap!"
The swarm of Scorfanos parted a bit, and a teenage girl approached Alberto with her hands on her hips. She was seventeen or eighteen years old, with silvery-blue colouring and spiny rayed fins that made her look much like Sofia. Like several other people Alberto had noticed, she was wearing some jewelry – a choker necklace and matching bracelet made of tiny shells threaded into the shapes of flowers or perhaps anemones. Her dress was made of seagrass but had a little lace collar and black ribbon that must have been taken originally from human clothes. "How about you all back off, and he can meet everybody properly?"
Alberto breathed out. Finally, somebody understood.
As people backed off a bit, Alberto was finally able to spot Carlotta and Celia in the crowd. They'd been joined by an older lady with similar blue colouring, who was now holding Celia, tickling the little girl's snout with the end of her tail. That must be Carlotta's mother... and there was Luca, sticking close by them but watching Alberto. It was a relief when their eyes met, and Luca immediately came to join him.
"Who's this?" asked the woman who'd scoffed at Alberto's choice of surname. She was mostly purple like Sofia, although with the blunt-edged fins that must have come from the other side of the family, since Sofia's were spiny. Her belly was very swollen, to the point where Alberto wondered if she were going to lay just one egg or several.
"This is my friend Luca," said Alberto, throwing an arm around him to pull him closer, and clinging to him like a lifeline. "He's never been to Napoli."
"Hello, Madame. Nice to meet you," said Luca. He looked at Alberto for the other half of the introduction, but Alberto had no idea who she was.
"I think Lucrezia has a point," said Sofia. "Alberto needs to be introduced to you one by one. Would you do the honours, dear?" she asked the girl who'd come to Alberto's rescue.
"I'd be happy to," said Lucrezia primly.
The rest of the family finally and mercifully dispersed, separating into groups and settling back down for their lunches. Even Sofia went to chat to another older lady who was lying on the coral with the shrimp cleaning her back. The girl named Lucrezia stayed behind, and looked Alberto over with a skeptical expression.
"You're Uncle Giancarlo's kid, huh?" she asked.
"Yeah, that's me," Alberto replied.
"We've been talking about you all winter," Lucrezia told him. "Nobody's surprised that Uncle Giancarlo has kids we didn't know about, but it is kind of weird that he says you're part human. You don't look part human."
"Neither does Celia," Alberto pointed out.
"Yeah, but Celia's different," said Lucrezia. She looked around and then lowered her voice. "Can you really do the Change any time you want to?"
"Sure can," said Alberto proudly – and to prove it, he took a deep breath and did so. For the sake of showing off, he held it as long as he could without having to breathe. "See?" he asked, once he changed back.
"And you're sure you're the only one who can do that?" Lucrezia asked suspiciously.
"Sure I'm sure," said Alberto.
"I've tried and tried," Luca added. "When I got really bored in school I would try to Change, but I never managed it."
"I'm gonna teach Celia to do it," Alberto said.
Lucrezia snorted. "We'll see," she said. "Come on, my family's over here."
She took them to one of the groups who were settling down on the rocks. This was two men, who both looked a lot like Lucrezia and Sofia, two women who did not, one being bright spring green and the other pink, and a gaggle of children of all ages and shapes.
"Okay," said Lucrezia. "This is my Dad, your Uncle Girolamo. Nonna Sofia calls him Junior, because Grandpa was also Girolamo and when he was alive it got confusing. And this is my Mom," she indicated the green female. "Her name is Benedetta but everybody calls her Bettina."
"Hello," said Alberto. "Uncle Girolamo. Aunt Bettina." That he could remember.
"This is my big brother," Lucrezia went on, indicating the tallest of the boys. He was nearly an adult himself, with the beginnings of a moustache growing in on his upper lip. "He's Girolamo the third. We call him Girolino."
"Hi," said the boy.
"His girlfriend is Mariana. They're getting married next summer," Lucrezia said.
Mariana was so pale yellow she was almost white, and was accordingly sitting under an umbrella made of broad seaweed leaves. She gave a friendly wave.
"Her family is from out past the drop-off," Lucrezia explained. "That's why she's so pale – they don't get much sun down there."
"My Uncle Ugo lives in the Deep," said Luca.
"And this is my brother Anselmo, and here's Andrea and Emilia. They're twins. There are a lot of twins in this family."
"We've heard all about you," said the boy named Anselmo.
The smallest one, Andrea, approached cautiously. "Are you the one who goes to human school?" he asked Luca.
"Yes," said Luca, "that's me."
"Is it fun?" Andrea wanted to know.
"Sometimes. Sometimes it's boring and sometimes it's really hard work," Luca admitted, "but mostly it's really interesting."
"What do you learn?"
Luca thought for a moment, trying to pick an example. "In chemistry class we learned about how everything is made of little tiny balls called atoms. Water has three atoms. One is called ossigeno and the other two are idrogeno. On their own both of those are gases in the air, but when you put them together they become water. Water is the only substance that floats when it's frozen."
"Wow!" said Andrea. He turned to look at his own parents.
"We'll see," said Aunt Bettina.
Lucrezia moved on to the second half of the family. "This is Dad's twin brother, Uncle Guglielmo, and his wife, Elisabetta. She's called Bettina, too. And these are their daughters – the older one is Cousin Allegra, and the younger one is Beatrice."
Greentings were exchanged here, too, more briefly, and then Lucrezia moved on. As she did, she leaned towards the boys and whispered, "Mom and Aunt Bettina don't get along, but because Dad and Uncle Guglielmo are twins, they always have to sit together at family functions. It's always awkward."
"Why don't they like each other?" asked Alberto.
"Because Zia Bettina thinks they got their eggs mixed up," Lucrezia said. "She thinks Anselmo is supposed to have been her son and Allegra should have been my sister. Mom insists it's not true, and Nonna Sofia says it doesn't even matter because we're all part of the same family. Take my advice, and don't say anything about it in front of either of them, because they'll both complain about it all day. And especially don't ever take sides!"
"Got it," Alberto nodded seriously.
"Aunt Diana is always trying to get them to make it up," she went on, "but she always makes things worse. Never ask Aunt Diana for help with anything. She likes to try to solve other people's problems and it never works. If she hadn't gotten involved, Mrs. Gennari would never have ended up marrying a human."
"Really?" Luca said. "What did she do?"
Lucrezia was still talking, though. "So listen carefully to everything I tell you today. Somebody's gotta warn you about all the things that go on in this family, so you won't make anybody mad."
She moved them on to the next group, this one associated with the very pregnant woman who hadn't approved of Alberto calling himself Marcovaldo. Her husband was a large man with silvery scales and brilliant blue fins that made him resemble a tuna – he was lying on his back with his eyes closed, letting the shrimp pick between his toes, while his wife shouted at a group of little boys who were chasing each other in circles.
"Slow down! Somebody's going to get hurt!" she told them, then managed a weary smile at the boys as Lucrezia brought them closer. "Ah, here's the new Scorfano again."
Once again, Alberto's fins ruffled at the use of the name. "Did I meet everybody here?" he asked. "I'm Alberto Marcovaldo, from Portorosso, and this is my friend Luca."
"Luca Paguro," said Luca firmly. He was ready to defend Alberto's right to use the name he liked, and Alberto was glad to see it.
"This is Aunt Diana and Uncle Umberto," said Lucrezia quickly, "and their boys. The biggest one is another Girolamo, the twins are Antonio and Alessandro, and the little one is Danilo."
"Hi," said one of the twins, waving. Danilo took the opportunity to grab the waistband of his brother's trousers and put a small crab down the back of them. The older boy hollered in surprise, and Danilo darted away, laughing.
"Danilo! What did I tell you?" Aunt Diana demanded, and then sighed. "Oh, this one had better be a girl," she groaned, patting her abdomen.
Uncle Umberto opened his eyes. "Hello, Alberto," he said. "Enjoying yourself?"
"Yes," said Alberto. "I wasn't expecting so many of you."
Umberto chuckled. "Well, your father had four siblings – and your grandmother's a Gabbiano, they're known for big families. Her side are mostly over by the barrel sponges." He nodded his head in that direction. Alberto followed the motion and saw Sofia's distinctive hat. She was talking with another woman while more children swam around them, chasing an inflated pufferfish.
"I guess I'm gonna meet them, too," Alberto realized. He'd thought he was doing well remembering people, but there were just so many.
"Of course," said Lucrezia cheerfully. "Don't worry, even we forget each other's names sometimes. They'll put up with it for a while. Come on, Nonna's talking to Great Aunt Catarina." She led the way towards the Gabbiano side of the family.
"Wait," Luca said. "He said Alberto's father had four siblings. With Girolamo and Guglielmo and Diana that's only three. Who's number four?"
"Oh." Lucrezia scowled. "That'll be Uncle Leonardo. Is he even here?" She looked around, and then pointed. "There he is."
She was indicating a small group, with two men and a child. One of the adults was thin, and gold and blue like Giancarlo – that must be Uncle Leonardo. The other was shorter and dark green with trailing fins, and the little girl had bright yellow scales and was playing with three bright blue fish, each about the size of an adult's hand.
"That's him and Uncle Giorgio," said Lucrezia, "and their daughter is Flavia, but she's not a real Scorfano." She leaned closer again. "They found her in a sponge bed somewhere out near Sardinia, where her real parents left her because they didn't want her."
Alberto felt his insides twist. Why would this girl's parents have abandoned her? Did she feel like it was her own fault? Maybe she didn't... and if she didn't, maybe Alberto could make himself believe the same thing about his father. He almost involuntarily started towards her, but Lucrezia caught his wrist.
"Come on!" she said. "Lots of Gabbianos to meet!"
"What about Flavia?" Luca asked, as she escorted them away.
"You don't need to meet Flavia," Lucrezia said. "Like I said, she's not a real Scorfano. Nobody likes her, anyway. She can't get out of the water. Auntie Catarina!" she waved to the woman Sofia was talking to.
"One of our goatfish is named Catarina," said Luca, and swam faster to catch up.
Alberto took one last look back, then kept going. If nobody liked Flavia, then talking to her might make them not like him, either. Maybe he'd get a chance later, when nobody was looking.
It seemed to take forever to meet everybody. After the various great aunts and uncles and second and third cousins on the Gabbiano side, there were even more on the Scorfano side. Nonno Girolamo had a brother, who also had two children, and those children had children and even one of them had a baby of her own already. Alberto liked people generally, but this was way, way too many of them, and all the names and faces quickly blurred together in his head. By the time he was finally able to sit down and have some lunch with Uncle Girolamo and his family, Alberto was feeling so overwhelmed he was almost ill. Maybe if he'd gotten to meet all these people over the course of a few days it would have been fine, but this was far too much.
Luca was less of a people person than Alberto, and he was even more subdued. "I should have brought a notebook," he said, popping sturgeon eggs into his mouth one by one. "I'll never remember them all."
"You don't have to," Alberto told him. "They're my family." There was only one person besides Sofia and Lucrezia who he was absolutely sure he'd get right if asked again, and that was Flavia, the one he hadn't even met. Even now, he had no idea what the names of Uncle Girolamo's and Uncle Guglielmo's other children were, or what either of the Aunts Bettina's real names were.
"Lucrezia said it'd be okay if you forgot," Luca reminded him.
"Yeah, it'll be okay the first time," Alberto grumbled. "What if I get it wrong againa nd again? They'll get fed up eventually." Massimo seemed to have infinite patience with Alberto's screw-ups, but other people certainly did not. He'd only tried to eat lasagne with his hands once and Signora Bruzzone had never forgiven him, and Signor Ferrando had shouted and shouted after the accident with his truck.
"They're your family, said Luca, "and they know there's lots of them. They'll be fine."
Giulia, with her insistence that being related to Alberto meant they'd have to like him, would probably have said the same thing... but that didn't mean Alberto believed it. Surely it was better to not make a mess in the first place than to have to ask forgiveness, especially over and over.
One of the kids whose names Alberto couldn't remember was sitting by Luca, pestering him with questions. "What about sunshine?" he asked. "Is sunshine made of atoms?"
"Not exactly," Luca told him. "Sunshine is made of a different little piece, called a fotone."
"Aha! So not everything," the kid said proudly.
"Almost everything," Luca amended. "And even things that aren't made of atoms are still made of smaller parts."
The boy nodded. "What about sand? Is sand made of atoms? Or are the grains just really big atoms?"
Not far away, Aunt Diana approached and tapped her older brother on the shoulder. "Excuse me, Junior," she said to Uncle Girolamo, "may I borrow Alberto for a moment?"
"Hmm?" said Girolamo, with his mouth full. "Sure. Alberto?"
Alberto wanted to groan. "What for?" he asked.
"I just want to ask you something in private," Aunt Diana assured him.
It was going to be about his name, Alberto was sure. He sat up a little straighter, prepared to defend it. He wanted people here to like him, but he also wanted them to call him what he preferred to be called. If Aunt Diana thought she was going to just keep calling him the wrong name, she was going to find she'd created a problem instead of solving one. "Sure. Can Luca come?"
"It'll only be a moment," said Aunt Diana, which seemed to be a 'no'.
"I'll be right here," Luca promised Alberto.
Aunt Diana led Alberto a short distance away, down into a little hollow lined with purple seaweed and home to feathery black and yellow sea lillies. It was nice and private but also an easy place to escape from, which made Alberto feel a little more at ease. She couldn't really pressure him in here.
"Even if I hadn't been introduced to you, I would have known you were a Scorfano from miles away," Aunt Diana said pleasantly. "You look exactly like your father."
"Uncle Massimo says I have my mother's eyes," Alberto replied stiffly.
"Maybe you do, but the rest is all Scorfano," she said, raising Alberto's chin to study his face. "I can see it in your bone structure – that came from Dad, although your colouring is more like Mom's. Now," she let him go and looked around, as if to be sure nobody was watching. "We're breaking a couple of rules here, so we'd be obliged if you didn't mention this to Mom, but there's somebody here who wants to talk to you."
"Huh?" Alberto asked.
Diana pulled some of the waving fronds of the lillies aside, revealing a space between boulders big enough for an adult to hide in – and there was Giancarlo Scorfano.
"Hello, Alberto," he said sheepishly.
Alberto's eyes widened in surprise, then narrowed in fury. He hadn't wanted to see his father, and Nonna Sofia had specifically promised that Giancarlo would not be at this gathering! Alberto looked at Aunt Diana, who was smiling encouragingly at him, then at his father, who had one hand raised in greeting, waiting for a response.
"I gotta go," Alberto announced, and turned to leave.
"Wait, Alberto!" Aunt Diana grabbed his wrist. "Hear him out."
"I wanted to talk to you," Giancarlo agreed. "I wanted you to know what I've been up to the last year or so..."
"You could have written to me!" Alberto informed him. This was something his father had not done. There'd been a letter from Sofia at least once a month after her visit to Portorosso in October, but not a word from Giancarlo.
"You seemed really angry when you left," his father replied. "I figured you wouldn't read them."
He probably wouldn't have, but that didn't mean Giancarlo shouldn't have tried. "Let me go," he ordered Diana.
"Just hear him out," she repeated. "Your father loves you, Alberto."
Alberto bit her fingers. Diana let go with a squeal of surprise and pain, and Alberto fled back towards where the family – and Luca – were waiting for him.
"What under the waves was that?" asked Sofia, rising from among red sponge fronds to investigate.
Alberto pointed back at where he'd come. "Aunt Diana brought my father!" he said, pointing in the direction he'd come.
"What?" asked Sofia.
"He wanted to talk to Alberto," said Diana, appearing out of the hollow, shaking her bitten hand.
Sofia pushed her out of the way and dragged Giancarlo from his hiding place. "What did I tell you?" she demanded.
"I want to talk to him!" Giancarlo said fiercely. "He's my son!"
"He doesn't want to talk to you," Sofia snapped back. "I told you that you'd be allowed to see him if you could get his permission. You didn't even ask for it!"
"Because I knew he'd say no without even talking to me!" Giancarlo replied. "I want to show him what I've been doing. I've kept my job, I haven't gambled, I haven't been drunk. I want to show him where I work!"
"They're family!" Diana insisted. "Maybe you think Alberto is better off staying with the humans up north, but he's one of us, and he and his father shouldn't hate each other!"
"I don't hate him," Alberto huffed. "I just don't like him!"
That was when he became aware of the audience. For the second time that day, people were gathering to stare at him. Uncle Umberto had actually gotten up off his rock, though he still had cleaner shrimp scuttling in his fins, and Alberto could see Carlotta and Celia, with Carlotta's mother, watching from a distance. Great Aunt Catarina had come to see, and more people whose names Alberto didn't remember were arriving or popping out of the coral to see what everyone was shouting about.
This was what Luca's mother was talking about when she said somebody was making a scene. They were shouting and being emotional, and others were gathering around to see what would happen next. Out of the corner of his eye, Alberto saw Lucrezia join the spectators, and had a sudden sinking feeling as he imagined her telling somebody else in the family: "never talk to Alberto about his father, the two of them hate each other."
"Alberto," said Sofia.
"Huh?" Alberto blinked and brought himself into the present. His father was there with his arms folded across his chest, glaring at Sofia. Aunt Diana was behind him, haughtily standing up for her decision to bring him there despite Sofia's orders. Luca was hovering on the edge of the crowd near Uncle Girolamo's family, wanting to come to Alberto's aid but also not wanting to be part of the scene.
"Yeah?" Alberto asked.
Sofia put a hand on his back. "What do you think?"
Alberto almost asked about what. But if he did that, people would know he hadn't been listening and they might laugh at him. He looked around, hoping for some clue.
"Come on, Alberto," said Giancarlo. "You can even bring your friend! Is this the one who goes to school?" He looked over at Luca, who nodded. "I bed he'd like to see."
Oh, that was right. Giancarlo had offered to show Alberto where he worked. Did Alberto want to see it?
"At least give him a chance, Alberto," Aunt Diana urged. "He loves you so much. I think you'll be proud of him. He's come such a long way."
Alberto struggled for a moment. If he said yes, he'd have to actually go through with it, and he didn't think he wanted to do that. Maybe if he'd had some warning or something, but just being tossed into it like this made him mostly just want to go home. But if he said no, everybody would think he hated his father and they might gossip about him. Alberto didn't want to be on Lucrezia's list of family feuds. So he said, "just once, right?"
"I promise," said Giancarlo. "After that, I won't bother you again unless you want me to."
Alberto looked at Luca. Luca could only shrug.
"Fine," Alberto decided. "Just once."
"Splendido!" Giancarlo grinned. "You won't be sorry. Tomorrow morning, okay? Eight o'clock, at Mom's place." He faced his mother. "There. I said my piece, and now I'll go. Was that so bad?"
Sofia shook her head and didn't answer him.
Giancarlo left, keeping high in the water column so that everybody could see he actually was going far away and not lurking somewhere nearby, and everybody else settled down again. This time, Luca and Alberto decided to stick close to Carlotta and her family. Alberto was very much aware that the rest of the family were still watching him as they settled down.
Great. He hadn't even been here one whole day, and he'd already screwed up. If Alberto hadn't bitten Aunt Diana to get away, she wouldn't have shouted, and Sofia never would have known Giancarlo was there. Then they wouldn't have ended up arguing in front of everybody, and Alberto wouldn't now have promised to visit his father at work tomorrow. Why had he bitten her? Surely there was another way he could have escaped.
He still had the money Massimo had given him – Alberto had stuffed it into his pillowcase at the Gennaris' house. Maybe he could get that out, and he and Luca could get on a train for home tonight and forget the whole thing. It was tempting, but another part of Alberto recoiled from the idea. That would be giving up. He couldn't give up yet, he'd only just got here.
"Hey," said Luca, tapping Alberto on the shoulder. "Look."
Carlotta and her mother were on the edge of the big group of picnickers, but even further out were Uncle Leonardo and Uncle Giorgio, with Flavia. The little family was, however, no longer alone. Sofia was with them, grooming Flavia's fins as a human grandmother might brush a grandchild's hair, and the two were having an inaudible but clearly animated conversation, both smiling. It must be just the other kids who didn't like Flavia, because Sofia seemed to like her just fine.
"Alberto!" said Celia.
He turned to her. "Yeah?"
"Show Nonna Rita your Change!" the little girl said.
Alberto sighed.
"Please?" Celia begged.
"Guppy," said Carlotta, in a gentle warning voice, "Alberto is our guest. He's not here to perform for you. Isn't that right, Mom?"
"That's right, Angelfish," Margherita Merluzzo said to her granddaughter. "I'll get to see it if he wants to show me. He's not in the mood after arguing with his Dad."
Alberto scowled. He wanted to correct her, saying that Giancarlo might be his father but didn't deserve to be his dad, but correcting people didn't seem to go well around here.
"He's gonna teach me how to do it," said Celia. "That'll show everybody!"
"Show them what?" Luca asked.
"Nothing," said Carlotta quickly. "It's just she's been talking and talking about it, and some of the older kids don't think she'll be able to do it." She stroked Celia's fins. "You might be too young, you know. Alberto didn't learn until he was... what, thirteen?"
Alberto nodded. "Yeah."
"No, I'm gonna," said Celia, determined. "You'll see."
