Crossed fates
Chapter 9
America / Italy 2022
The day came for Deborah and her family to leave. Deborah's heart was overwhelmed by a thousand emotions: the joy of discovering her origins and the journey she had postponed for two years due to the pandemic, anxiety about what she would discover, a desire to see Gregg again and a sense of guilt towards her family. In short, it was a bundle of nerves that walked. Her husband had noticed her agitation but attributed it to the thrill of carrying out her research and nothing else.
In those days she had exchanged messages with Gregg who had consulted the archives of Rock Creek, Seneca and Sweetwater, the places that Achille had mentioned in his letters. He had for the moment left out California because Achille had only been there in the last few years and therefore he thought that there was nothing relevant and moreover Deborah would have concluded her journey there, where by the way he also lived, so they would have taken care of it at a later time.
The archives actually reported names and dates corresponding to their information. Gregg had marked all the addresses and once Deborah arrived, they would start searching.
In the meantime, his agent had managed to organize his transfer to Italy: they would have started with small concerts in the squares between the end of August and the beginning of September with songs by Gregg and covers to test the reaction of the public and if things went well, they would produced new pieces together. The idea was to have them also participate in some talk shows to spread their projects and to make Deborah known. Gregg had realized that, contrary to his expectations, as Deborah had pointed out, even in Italy he was enjoying some success. His agent had also taken care to get him an apartment in the center where he would live by the end of August.
When Deborah and her family arrived, Gregg picked them up at the airport and arranged for their transfer to Sweetwater : they would start there.
During the last few days in Italy, Deborah had bought some books on the pony express to get information and names about this old activity, so as not to arrive completely unprepared.
The meeting between Deborah and Gregg was exciting: their embrace and their chaste kiss on the cheek burned in their hearts but after a first embarrassment they tried to compose themselves so as not to arouse suspicion.
They all stayed in the same hotel and rested to work off the time zone.
The next morning, Gregg showed them the address he had found in the archives: it corresponded to the old station of the pony express that no longer existed but by asking around he had known that the place had remained as it was, with its ruins and remains of the old buildings, because it had become a tourist spot.
The excitement was sky high: they decided to go to the place early in the morning, to avoid the possible crowd of tourists, despite the mayor had told Gregg that in reality, at that time of year, due to the high temperatures, there was no 'were many visitors.
In fact, when they arrived, they met no one.
They found the remains of a bunkhouse that must have been the headquarters of the station, very badly reduced, and the ruins of three neighboring houses which, according to the stories of their uncle Achille, should have been the homes of his parents, the owner of the station and the friends of parents of Achille.
"So, where do we start?" Gregg asked.
"I would exclude the hut, now there is nothing left. But what exactly are we looking for? "Deborah asked. He spoke English and she answered in Italian, so they both tried to learn each other's languages.
"I don't know, we're so caught up in research that we don't even know what to look for. Documents, objects, letters or photos that can confirm the stories of your uncle Achille I suppose ", replied Gregg.
"Which is more related to yours than mine apparently ...", Deborah pointed out.
Her husband understood that this had to be their moment and said to his wife: "Take all the time you need, I'll take a ride with the baby and let him play a little, otherwise he'll get bored"
"Thanks honey", Deborah said and kissed him on the cheek, feeling very embarrassed. She saw that Gregg was also very embarrassed and that he had looked away.
She wondered if she would sustain this situation for a long time but decided not to think about it now.
They first entered the house which looked the oldest but which was closer to the bunkhouse. They looked around as they entered and were disappointed to find that cords were being pulled to prevent visitors from touching the furniture or antiques.
"What do we do now?" Deborah asked.
"I think we'll have to ask the mayor for special permission to conduct research. We will have to explain the situation to him and ask him to allow us to rummage through the remaining things ", stated Gregg.
Deborah nodded in disappointment.
He took her hand and said: "You will see, we will find what we are looking for, it will be just a little more complicated than expected".
They decided to just go on a patrol tour, trying to figure out who those houses belonged to based on Achille' stories.
Deborah informed her husband of the unexpected and after taking some photos, they returned to the city.
While Deborah rested her son, her husband accompanied Gregg to the mayor. Gregg was very embarrassed, especially since the man was not very talkative, so he tried to bring the topic to research.
The mayor, after hearing the whole story, said he couldn't allow them to touch the artifacts and objects, because it would have to involve the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and the time would be long.
Gregg, very disappointed, thanked him and the two men went back to the hotel.
When Deborah found out about it, she exclaimed: "I'm sorry but stupid laws won't stop me. I didn't come here for nothing. Tomorrow will be Monday and if today, which is Sunday, we haven't found anyone, let alone tomorrow. Love, "she said to her husband and immediately regretted having called him that," you will be the stake while you play with the baby and Gregg and I will look for what we need ".
"But we can't do it, if they find us they'll arrest us", protested her husband. "Gregg, tell her something, make her understand you can't break the laws!"
But Gregg replied: "In fact, I agree with her, we need to understand if it's all true."
The man shook his head and after protesting for a while, being in the minority, he surrendered.
The next day they went back to the site and as agreed, Deborah's husband stayed outside to let the baby play and make sure no one came, while she and Gregg entered. They moved furniture, opened drawers, looking for they didn't even know what. In the first house, at a certain point, they found a drawing in a drawer, a drawing that depicted some boys and two girls, in a party dress. There was the signature and the date: Ike, 1861. Ike ... one of the names mentioned by Achille in his letters. It was already a start. Stuck in the same drawer they found the photo of a blonde woman and an elderly man: they assumed that it was the owner of the station, Teaspoon Hunter, and the woman who took care of them, Rachel. So that was to be the woman's house.
They found nothing else. They went out, showed the drawing and the photo to Deborah's husband who hid them in his backpack and then entered the second house, the one closest to the first.
When they entered, they felt a shiver that ran down their backs, as if they felt they were in the right place. They looked down to the ground floor but found nothing but insignificant objects. They then climbed a staircase that led to the upper floor, which had been built to replace the original to allow tourists to visit the upper floor as well. They entered the first room they encountered, which must have been the bedroom. They dared not look each other in the eyes, prey to their emotions. They opened the chest in front of the bed but there were only old clothes. Deborah then went to the wardrobe next to the bed: she opened it and began to rummage and suddenly, hidden behind a broken panel, she saw like the side of a box.
"Gregg, come here, maybe I found something."
Gregg walked over to her, knelt beside her and helped her move the panel. A large abandoned box emerged that had probably never been found because the cabinet panels had given way and had buried it. They looked at each other and instinctively kissed each other, shivering at the touch of their mouths. Deborah immediately drew back and said: "Come on, let's get her out."
Meanwhile, Deborah's phone rang; was her husband: "What is it? Is someone coming? "
"Yes, tourists are coming, you'd better not be found rummaging".
"All right thank you. We found a box. We take it out immediately pretending that it is ours. Until the tourists have gone, we will visit the other house ".
Then she informed Gregg and they left immediately. They managed to be out before the newly arrived couple made their way to the house they had come from and they made their way to what must have been the third couple's house. They knew they had some time before the two tourists arrived, so they started rummaging here and there and even there they found old photos stuck between the furniture.
They decided to go back to the previous house as soon as it was free to see if there was still something, but they found nothing else.
They went back to the hotel eager to open that box and compare all the material found with the informations.
Deborah's husband offered to take the child to play in a nearby park. Deborah was extremely grateful to him for this sensitivity, she would inform him later.
As soon as they were alone, Gregg asked her: "Are you ready?"
She nodded and he opened the box: they found some precious objects engraved with the names of Deborah and Buck, letters, a diary and a portrait of them. Deborah was struck by the similarity of Gregg and Buck: the same magnetic eyes, the same criminal smile, as she called it, and the same hair color.
She looked at him and said: "I believe that as far as you are concerned there are no more doubts: you are a photocopy of your ancestor!" and smiled at him. He was beginning to understand Italian more and more and her gaze was enough for him to make sure he understood what she had said to him.
He returned the smile but said nothing. They continued to look and found other photos that always identified the same people, which also returned in the portrait found in the first house.
With great emotion they then took the letters: they all had the same handwriting, probably female, but also contained Buck's answers and the contents of some greeting cards. They deduced that they were not the originals and that someone must have copied them. It took them nearly two hours to read them all. Gregg read them because Deborah felt unable to understand what was written there. She had tears in her eyes to feel how strong the love that had bound those two people was and Gregg was also very shaken.
After reading, they shifted their attention to the diary: they opened it and noticed the same handwriting of the letters and a name: Nausicaa.
The first pages were monotonous, they were the thoughts and confidences of a girl who was in full adolescence; a few blank pages followed and then the writing resumed: the handwriting was the same but more mature, probably the girl had stopped writing for a few years and then started again at a later time.
"Gregg, look here", Deborah said suddenly.
He looked and saw that Nausicaa had written that she was about to tell the love story of her parents, a love that had been her source of inspiration and that deserved to be remembered.
Deborah passed the diary back to Gregg who began to read: it described the whole love story of Deborah and Buck, before and after the birth of their children, up to the decision to bury the original letters with them.
The names of the research conducted by Gregg and Deborah coincided perfectly with what Nausicaa wrote in the diary: they had made it, they had discovered who they were and what link there was between them: Nausicaa was Gregg's great-grandmother, while Maria was the grandmother Deborah's grandmother; Achille was the second-degree uncle of Deborah's grandmother and the brother of Gregg's great-grandmother.
Gregg and Deborah laid everything down, looked into each other's eyes, took their hands, and when Gregg kissed her passionately she did not flinch.
After the kiss they looked at each other again: Deborah was crying and Gregg was visibly moved.
"We still have one thing left to do, you know that right?" Said Gregg.
Deborah nodded but said: "I have to inform my husband first. This time he and my son must also be present, the whole family is involved ".
Gregg smiled at her. Deborah called her husband who returned immediately and was made aware of the discovery. He congratulated them both and then asked: "What are your intentions with these things? Do you want to return them or will you keep them? "
Deborah replied: "If no one has found them before there will be a reason, so I would say that they are more ours than the state or anyone else."
The two men nodded. They decided that the following morning they would go to the last place to visit. It would then have been useless to go to other cities, what they needed to know was all there.
They spent the evening discussing the discovery and comparing photos, letters and objects. Gregg took Buck's watch and things, while Deborah took her namesake's jewelry, although she would have preferred Gregg to keep them, she was a relative in law after all.
"Keep them for the woman you choose for yourself", she told him.
He replied: "I want you to have them" and he wanted to continue: "Because you are the woman I turn to with me", but he couldn't say. But she looked him in the eyes, understood and smiled at him, albeit with melancholy.
The next day they went to the old cemetery: they found all the tombs mentioned in the diary and right where it was indicated by Nausicaa, they found the chest with the original letters: they took it without anyone noticing and rearranged the earth.
While her husband held the baby well, Gregg and Deborah stopped in front of the graves of Buck and Deborah and instinctively took their hands. Her husband noticed this but preferred to let it go, hoping that this was dictated by the emotion of the moment.
Deborah then broke away from Gregg and walked towards her son: she took him in her arms and said to everyone: "I think it's time to go and finally let all these people rest in peace".
The two men nodded and followed her.
In the afternoon Deborah and Gregg shared the writings: she kept the copies of the letters and he kept the originals and the diary, as well as the portrait of Deborah and Buck. Deborah kept Ike's drawing and shared out the other photos.
Deborah made a long phone call to her mother and Gregg did the same. Gregg's mom wanted to meet Deborah and her family, but it was impossible at the time, so she was promised that when they got back to America they would visit her. Gregg, on the other hand, would have met Deborah's family as soon as they returned to Italy and her mother would also have to digest the news of her daughter's new job.
The next day, early in the morning, they said goodbye: Deborah and her family would continue their tour, while Gregg would return home to sort out the last things before the move.
Upon saying goodbye, Gregg told her: "Now nothing can separate us anymore. Ci vediamo a casa"
"Ci vediamo a casa. But remember the pacts ".
He nodded and kissed her on the cheek. She fought back the tears.