The adults sat and talked for what seemed like forever, going on about people Alberto had never heard about and probably wouldn't have cared if he had. Flavia must have known some of them, because she occasionally had something to say, but mostly she sat just playing with her fish. The boys didn't even have that option, and Alberto quickly started to find it unbearable. He wanted to groan and roll around in the seaweed to express his frustration, but he knew that was unacceptable behaviour.

"What is taking so long?" he whispered to Luca. "I'm so bored I think I'm going to die."

Luca sighed. "That's another thing families do. Sometimes the grownups want to sit around and talk, and you just have to deal with it."

"How do you do that?" asked Alberto. He was used to occupying his own time, but generally did so by drawing or making things, and he had nothing for that here.

"I usually just daydream," Luca admitted. "That's what I used to do while watching the goatfish all day."

Alberto was not good at daydreaming. Trying to sit and think quietly made him squirmy – he wanted to do something. He picked at his gills and his toes, poked at a sea slug as it tried to make its way under a piece of coral, and fiddled with a stray thread unravelling from his shirt. Finally, after what seemed like the entire afternoon, with Alberto's stomach grumbling because he hadn't had lunch, Sofia ruffled Flavia's fins and said, "well, I suppose I'd better be running along."

Alberto sat up sharply. "Yeah, us too, I think. I'm starved."

Sofia did a double-take. "Did your father not feed you?"

"No," said Alberto, realizing too late that either she or Uncle Leonardo would probably have been happy to provide food if they'd asked for it.

"Oh for heaven's sake," she sighed. "Come back to my place, I'll see what I can find you – nothing too filling or you'll have no appetite for your supper, but I'm sure we can get you a snack. And speaking of snacks," she added, to Flavia, "I've got some lovely pastries from that little place up the street from my house. Would you like to stop by for breakfast tomorrow and try some?"

The boys perked up. Maybe Flavia was only allowed out of the water if her grandmother was with her?

"Definitely! Thank you, Nonna." Flavia gave her grandmother a hug.

"Maybe we'll see you there, too," Luca offered.

"That would be lovely," said Nonna Sofia pleasantly.

She had been quite cheerful and pleasant while talking to the men and Flavia, so it was a bit of a surprise to see Sofia's mood darken considerably as they swam away back towards Procida. "I can't believe your father just left you to get back from Portici all by yourself!" she said.

"He didn't. He told Signor Granchio to bring us back," said Alberto.

"And he knows very well that Granchio has other things to be doing... and that he won't get in the water," huffed Sofia. "He's going to hear about it when he gets home, you mark my words!"

Alberto thought about what Lucrezia had said, about Nonna Sofia just waiting for an excuse tot throw Giancarlo out of her house, and decided not to say anything else about what had happened that day. "He gave me this to give to you," he said, and pulled the wad of money out to give to her.

"Thank you," sighed Sofia. "That's very honest of you, Alberto... and I am so glad you two are getting along with Flavia. She has trouble making friends, and she's quite scared to meet new people, but once you talk to her she's quite a bright child."

"It's no trouble, Madame," Luca said. "Our friend Giulia says underdogs have to look out for each other."

They climbed out of the water and up the steps to Sofia's house, where she gave them some vegetable-filled arancini to snack on until Carlotta arrived to take them home. When she did, the two women again sat down and chatted for ages, but this time Alberto and Luca had something to occupy themselves. Luca had a plan for getting Flavia's dads into a position where they couldn't possibly say no to her going on land... and even if they did, Sofia would probably take their side.

When Mike came home for supper, Carlotta was cooking, Luca was writing a letter to his parents and Alberto was working on one to Massimo and Giulia, and Celia was playing quietly in a corner. The atmosphere in the room was slightly tense... or maybe that was Alberto's imagination. Carlotta couldn't possibly know what had happened that day, because she could only have learned it from Alberto and Luca and they hadn't told her. Maybe she'd guessed something from Sofia's annoyance. Or maybe it was just that Alberto was tense, and was feeling it in the air around him.

When the door opened, Celia bounced up and ran to greet her father. Mike hugged her and kissed her cheek, then set her back on her feet and went to hug Carlotta from behind.

"Hi, caro," said Carlotta.

"How are you even real?" Mike asked her.

The boys looked up, frowning. What sort of a question was that?

"Same way you are," Carlotta replied. Her back was turned, but there was a smile in her voice.

"Doesn't seem right," Mike said, still holding her. "I mean... I met this amazing sea creature who's friends with the sharks, and then it turns out she gets out of the water and poof! She turns into the most beautiful girl in the world? I can't be that lucky."

"Stop it," Carlotta giggled.

"What? I'm not allowed to tell my wonderful wife that she still astonishes me?"

"We have company," Carlotta reminded him, although she was still leaning back into the embrace, letting Mike rock her back and forth a bit.

He looked over his shoulder at the boys. "I'm setting them a good example. Ragazzi, if you're in love, don't be shy about it! Shout it from the rooftops!"

"Oh, like you tried to do when you had too many drinks at that faculty party?" Carlotta teased him.

"That worked out great! I got to tell everybody in the ambulance how much I love you, too!"

Alberto looked at Luca. "If I ever act like that over anyone, you have permission to pretend you've never met me," he said.

The Gennaris laughed.

Now, with both of their hosts present, Luca decided it was time to put his plan into action. "Sir? Madame?" he asked. "I was wondering... I've been reading about the Edenlandia Zoo, and it sounds like it's way bigger than the one I've been to in Genova, and Alberto's never been to a zoo at all. Do you think we could go there tomorrow?"

"That sounds like a fine idea," said Mike. "It's been ages since we've been to the zoo. Would you like to go, Celia?"

"Yes, please!" Celia said.

Now it was time for Alberto's role. "Any chance we could take one of my cousins, too? We were talking to her today and she's never been."

"As long as it's all right with her parents," said Carlotta.

"We'll ask tomorrow," Luca said. "We're meeting her at Nonna Sofia's for pastries."

Supper was an oddly quiet affair. At Luca's house it was normal for people to talk over meals – Giulia had said that in her own house dinners had used to be quiet but once Alberto came along there was always conversation. Their first night at the Gennaris' Luca and Alberto had been talkative, and less so the second night. Tonight, there was barely any conversation at all. Celia in particular kept her eyes on her plate and concentrated on using her knife and fork, saying almost nothing.

"Well," said Mike, trying to break the uncomfortable atmosphere. "How was Portici?"

"Very interesting, Sir," said Luca.

"I don't want to talk about it," said Alberto. He knew he was failing at the whole thing where he was supposed to get people to like him... and yet if he had to talk about the day spent with his father he would either get upset or have to lie, or both, and that would be worse.

"Oh, dear," said Carlotta. "Well... why don't you tell the boys about the zoo, Celia? What are your favourite animals to see?"

Celia shrugged.

"Aren't there pretty fish from Africa?" she tried.

"Yeah," said Celia quietly.

Carlotta sighed. "All right, well, we don't have to talk," she said. "Sometimes we have hard days and we just need to eat and go to bed."

Celia nodded.

With the meal finished, Celia quietly helped her mother with the dishes while Alberto and Luca went upstairs, feeling... rather unwelcome. The day they'd arrived, Alberto had felt like everybody wanted him to be here. Now it was, just as he'd feared, as if they were having second thoughts. His father was in trouble, and Alberto had gotten Celia in trouble... the only people who really seemed to want him here anymore were Nonna Sofia, who he didn't know very well, and Flavia, who he'd only just met and who may have latched on to him and Luca just because she had no other friends.

But as they got ready for bed, Luca said, "I guess that's the hard part over!"

"What?" asked Alberto.

"You didn't want to see your father," Luca reminded him. "Now we did that and we don't have to do it again."

That did, in fact, make Alberto feel better. "You're right," he said. Now they could have fun, and now Alberto could get back to trying to distance himself from his father's behaviour. He still had time to show all these relatives that he could be smart and polite and well-behaved like Luca, not a liar and a thief like Giancarlo. He still had that money Massimo had given him so they could go home if they needed to... but it wasn't time to use that yet.


In the morning Alberto felt even better. It was probably what Giulia's mother – Aunt Helena – said about a Good Night's Sleep being a cure for almost everything. That was one of those things adults said that didn't sound as if they should work and then they did, and it was sort of annoying, but today, Alberto would take it.

They ate breakfast, and then Carlotta and Celia escorted them out to Nonna Sofia's house on the island again. Alberto had been used to doing whatever he liked without his father's supervision and knew that Massimo trusted him not to get into trouble if left on his own, so the way the adults hovered over their children here grated a little. They seemed like if they could keep their children in their mouths like arrowanas they would do it.

Like yesterday, it seemed the waters around Procida were a gathering place for the family, perhaps because Nonna Sofia had a house there. Or maybe she'd chosen to live there because it was a place people hung around anyway. There were already people in the waters below the cliff, including several familiar individuals. Carlotta and Celia paused to talk to somebody, while Luca and Alberto headed for the cliffside staircase.

"Hi, Luca!" a voice called out.

"Oh... good morning, Andrea," said Luca, steeling himself.

"You said atoms are just little balls, right?" Andrea swam up beside them. "So how do they stick together?"

"Well, atoms stick together into structures called molecole..." Luca began.

"But how?" asked Andrea. "Is there glue?"

"I don't know," said Luca. "We haven't learned that yet. Maybe you should go to the library and find a book about it."

"I don't like books," Andrea said. "All the letters look the same. You said atoms were just little balls, and that makes sense for stuff like water, because they all just roll around, right? But they have to stick together to make things like rocks and boats and fish, or we'd all flow like water. You need to find out how they do it and tell me."

"Hey!" Alberto pointed, and then waved. "There's Flavia!"

She was approaching, this time with Uncle Giorgio accompanying her along with the ever-present trio of fish.

"Hi, Flavia!" Luca also waved.

"Hi!" Flavia hurried up to join them. "What are you guys doing today?"

"We're going to the zoo!" said Luca. "Do you want to come with us?"

She scowled. "You know I can't."

"Don't worry," Alberto told her. "We have a plan."

They would get her out of the water and into Sofia's house, a place where they already knew she was allowed to be. Then they'd hit Uncle Giorgio with the idea of taking her with them just as they were leaving, so he wouldn't have time to think about it. And if he argued, they'd have a counter for anything he could bring up. There would be humans there, yes, but they were going so it couldn't be that dangerous. Carlotta would be with them and if she managed to be married to a human and have a job and nobody but her own family knew she was a sea monster, then she was the best expert on staying hidden – and she'd already said she would take Flavia along. If Flavia had nothing to wear, then they'd point out that everybody kept their human clothes at Sofia's house and she could just borrow something from one of her cousins. And if after all that he still didn't want her to go, they could invite him to come with them... he couldn't object to her doing something perfectly safe that he did all the time.

Luca had come up with most of this, but he wanted Alberto to be the one doing the talking. He was quite sure that if Alberto could talk Luca's parents into letting him go to school, he could also talk Uncle Giorgio into letting Flavia go to the zoo, which wasn't nearly as far away or for so long. It could only fail if Uncle Giorgio were completely unreasonable and the boys were pretty sure he wasn't. Listening to him talk to Nonna Sofia yesterday he'd seemed like a very normal and boring grownup.

Before they could start explaining this to Flavia, however, somebody else entirely said, "oh, look who's here."

Flavia went stiff as a board, eyes wide in terror – while the boys just groaned, because that voice belonged to Lucrezia.

"I'm sorry," she said, coming up to Flavia, "maybe you haven't heard. Alberto is here to meet his family, not some freak his uncles found in a sponge."

"Go away, Lucrezia," Flavia said.

"Why should I go away? I belong here. You should go away," said Lucrezia.

"Leave her alone!" said Luca.

Lucrezia sniffed. "You're a guest here. If you spend all your time with humans you must've heard somebody say when in Rome you do as the Romans do. Maybe you should pay attention to how our family does things and not be a problem – because if you're a problem, people aren't going to want you or Alberto around."

"I'm starting to think you're the one nobody wants around," Alberto told her. "I bet Nonna Sofia didn't invite you here for pastries this morning." Flavia nodded hard.

"Oh, please, you know she only does that because your Dads have threatened to move away if she doesn't treat you like her favourite," Lucrezia told Flavia. "It must be fun, knowing you're stealing her from her real grandchildren. You better enjoy it while it lasts," she added, leaning closer to Flavia's face. "Because they're going to get tired of you too, someday. They'll want grandkids of their own, and they know they're not going to get any from you because nobody wants their kids to be defective like you are. They're going to wish they'd never found you."

"We told you to stop!" said Alberto, and pushed her.

Lucrezia was absolutely shocked. She looked at him for a moment, then turned around and shouted, "Mom! Alberto hit me!"

Aunt Bettina rose up from behind a stand of seaweed. "What?"

"I didn't even do anything! I was just talking!"

"She insulted Flavia!" said Luca. He looked around – but Flavia had fled.

Aunt Bettina darted in between Lucrezia and the boys and looked at them disapprovingly. "You two are guests here. You ought to mind your business," she said.

"That's what I told them," Lucrezia said.

Alberto balled his fists and gritted her teeth. "She just came up in the middle of a conversation and started insulting her."

"That's no reason for you to resort to violence," Aunt Bettina informed him. "Every inch your father's son, aren't you?"

That was exactly the wrong thing to say if she wanted Alberto to calm down, and he very nearly shouted at her, but Luca grabbed his arm. "Alberto, don't," he said.

If it had still only been Lucrezia, that might not have been enough – Alberto might have at least tried to beat an apology out of her. But he knew he couldn't do that to a proper grown-up. He backed off. Aunt Bettina gave a short, stiff nod, and she and Lucrezia headed away.

"I'd hate to see her and Ercole get together," Alberto grumbled.

"They wouldn't," said Luca. "He hates sea monsters, and Lucrezia thinks humans are ugly."

That was true. "Maybe they'd be so busy bothering each other that they'd leave the rest of us alone," Alberto suggested.

"That'd be nice," Luca agreed. He looked around, but at some point Andrea had wandered off, too – Luca didn't look particularly sorry about that.

They climbed the steps to Nonna Sofia's garden and went to knock on the kitchen door.

"Come in!" she called.

In the kitchen, Nonna Sofia was just making coffee. Today she was wearing a red blouse and a white apron with flowers on it. It was the least fancily-dressed Alberto had yet seen her. She had a plate of fluffy zeppole topped with maraschino cherries on the counter next to her.

"Buongiorno, boys," she said cheerfully. "You didn't happen to see Flavia on your way up, did you?"

"Um... she was here with Uncle Giorgio," said Luca, "but..."

"Lucrezia was mean to her, and she swam away," Alberto said. He didn't see the point of lying. Better to tell the truth now before Lucrezia could offer her side of the story.

Sofia sighed, resigned. "I don't know what to do with that girl," she said. "When she volunteered to introduce you two at the picnic I thought there was no way she could pull anything with everybody there, but apparently she could, and now..." she shook her head and put two zeppole on individual plates for the boys.

"Maybe you should talk to her parents," Luca suggested warily.

"I have. They suggested I should spend more time with her," Sofia said, "but she's seventeen. She shouldn't need babysitting. I'm getting very tired of giving her second chances."

Alberto bit his lip a moment. "What about my father?"

Sofia had to think about it. "Your father has had a lot of second chances, Alberto. I think he's doing better this time, though. I think he's doing it for you." She smiled at him. "I'm sorry you're not having a better time here. I'm afraid this family can be a bit of a mess sometimes."

"Yeah, Luca told me that's what families do," said Alberto.

"It's not all we do," said Sofia, "but yes, families can be like that."

"At least I'm getting the full experience," said Alberto. "Why does Lucrezia hate Flavia so much?"

There was a moment of silence, and Alberto began to wonder if that was one of those rude questions. But then Nonna Sofia said, "she says I spend too much time with her. Flavia needs extra love for a number of reasons, of course... I just wish Lucrezia wouldn't make herself into one of those."

The fact that Sofia had answered the question without disapproval made Alberto feel a bit better. "Is it, uh, okay to ask things like that?" he wanted to know.

"Of course it is," said Nonna Sofia. "As I said... we're a bit of a mess, and you're going to need some help to navigate that. What else do you need to know?"

"Are the Gennaris okay?" Luca asked. "People keep talking about them like something's wrong."

"As far as I know, yes," said Sofia. "I know Carlotta worries about Celia terribly sometimes. She was actually delighted to find out you exist, Alberto."

"She was?" Alberto asked, startled.

"Oh, yes. You're nearly fifteen, you're healthy and happy, and that did so much to reassure her that Celia's going to grow up and be okay," Sofia explained. "She and Mike didn't expect to be able to have children, and they love Celia to pieces."

"So why do people keep saying they're not okay?" asked Luca.

"It's just gossip as far as I know," Sofia said. "Although... I suppose if something weren't all right, Carlotta might not tell me. I advised her not to marry him. Maybe she doesn't want me to say I told her so, although I've told her she can talk to me."

That was reassuring. "Why isn't Flavia allowed out of the water?" Alberto asked.

Sofia blinked. "Nobody's told you?"

"Not even Flavia," said Luca.

"Oh." Sofia thought for a moment. "If Flavia herself hasn't told you, I'm not sure it's my place to do so. Although I suppose somebody will... no, I think you'd better ask Flavia herself," she decided. "I don't think she's ever been the first to tell somebody about it, and it might boost her confidence."

That told them nothing at all, but apparently they were going to have to live with it, at least until the next time they saw Flavia.

Eventually Carlotta came up with Celia following her, and she poked her head into the kitchen. Celia came running for a hug.

"Zia Sofia," she said happily, "We're going to the zoo!"

"Are you now? You're going to show Alberto and Luca the giraffe?" asked Sofia.

"Yes!" Celia seemed in a much better mood today.

"We're taking one of the cousins, too," said Carlotta. "Is she here yet?"

Alberto made a face. "She's not coming."

"Yeah, it's just us," said Luca.

Carlotta could tell something here wasn't right. She looked at Sofia for an explanation.

"They were hoping to take Flavia – apparently nobody told them why she's not allowed. I think it would be best if Flavia told them herself," said Sofia.

That meant they wouldn't be able to ask Carlotta or Mike, either – that was annoying.

"All right," said Carlotta. "Well, let's go, then. It tends to get crowded quickly."


The zoo wasn't a bad place to visit – it wasn't as singular as some of the places in Luca's book, but Alberto had never been to a zoo and there certainly were some very strange animals up on land. Celia became much happier as she dragged the boys from exhibit to exhibit, showing them monkeys, lions, otters, and her very favourite, the giraffe. This was an animal something like a land goat that had been stretched way out. Its body was still about the usual proportions, but its neck and legs were both ridiculously long, and it was yellow with brown spots and two little horns on its head.

There had been a pair of such animals in the zoo near Genova, and Luca had tried to draw a picture of them for Alberto. Alberto hadn't liked to say so, but the drawing hadn't really made any sense to him. Now he decided it was because the animal didn't make any sense, either.

"You still wanna learn how to Change, Celia?" Alberto asked, as they had ice cream in front of a tank of playful seals.

"Yes, please," said Celia, much more polite now.

"Well, we can do that at the beach tonight," Alberto suggested.

"Really?" she asked, suddenly hopeful.

"That sounds much better than doing it in our kitchen," said Carlotta pleasantly.

Before returning to the Gennari home, they stopped by Nonna Sofia's place again. This time Lucrezia was in the kitchen with a group of friends, gossiping over glasses of soda. When Carlotta came in with the boys, the whole lot of teenagers fell silent. Whatever they'd been talking about, they didn't want anybody to hear it.

"Where is Sofia?" asked Carlotta.

"Garden," said Lucrezia.

"Thank you." Carlotta led the boys and Luca in that direction. As they passed through the door and stepped into the sunshine, they heard the kids inside start giggling madly.

Sofia was out in the garden working with some flowers, similar to how Uncle Leonardo had been working on his anemone the previous day... Alberto vaguely recalled that some of the conversation he hadn't really listened to was about gardening.

"Oh, hello, Carlotta. You heading back?" asked Sofia.

"Yes, we had a lovely day, and Alberto's going to resume trying to teach Celia," Carlotta replied.

"Yeah!" said Celia. "That'll show everybody!"

Sofia nodded cheerfully. "Alberto," she said, "when your father sent you home yesterday... did he say what he'd be doing after?"

Alberto swallowed. What was she suggesting? Did she suspect something bad had happened? Was his father in danger of losing his home? He tried to stay calm. "Not really," he said, "he just said he was going to talk to his friend, and Signor Granchio would take Luca and I back to the harbour."

"I see," sighed Sofia. "I don't suppose you've seen him since?"

"No, and I don't want to," said Alberto.

"Has he not been home?" asked Carlotta.

"Not yet today," Sofia replied. "It won't be the first time he's been away for a couple of days, but it'll be the first he hasn't warned me it was going to happen."

Alberto felt a sick feeling settle into the bottom of his stomach. He knew in his gut that this was trouble. His father was into something bad – again.

That left him with some mixed feelings... on the one hand, whatever this was he wanted nothing to do with it. He'd already gotten involved in Giancarlo's business once and once was more than enough. At the same time... he didn't want his father to lose his home, if for no other reason than because being away from his family and Nonna Sofia would make it much easier for him to get into trouble. They seemed all too ready to get rid of him... much like they were getting all to ready to get rid of Alberto. The different between them, however, was that Alberto had somewhere else to go. If his father were thrown out... who knew where he might end up?


In the evening, the boys and Celia went out and played in the surf, splashing each other and picking up shells. Alberto demonstrated his control over the Change several times, and Celia balled her fists and shut her eyes and bounced like she needed to use the bathroom, but she couldn't seem to make it happen.

"How do you do it?" she asked Alberto.

"I can't explain," he said helplessly. "It's something you just have to do. Can you imagine being wet and still being human? Like when your Dad has a shower and he gets out and his hair is all wet. Can you imagine what that feels like?"

Celia thought about it, then shook her head.

"How about being dry but being a sea monster?" he tried. "You know when you're first starting to dry off and you get a little sticky before you transform?"

Celia sadly shook her head again, and tears welled up in her eyes.

"Maybe you can't do it until you're older," said Alberto. He had no idea if he would have been able to do it when he'd been small – it would never have occurred to him to try.

"It's okay if you can't," Luca added. "Most sea monsters can't and we get along just fine."

"But I have to!" Celia protested.

"Why?" asked Alberto.

"Because it'll make people stop saying mean things!" she replied.

Alberto had been about to start walking back up to the house, but that made him stop short. It had been infuriating enough when Lucrezia was cruel to Flavia that morning, but Flavia was at least old enough to know Lucrezia was being unfair, and to try to defend herself. Celia was half that age, and Sofia had said she was only just starting to understand that her family was unusual. Who dared make fun of her?

If it was Lucrezia again, Alberto was going to chew her face off, Aunt Bettina or no Aunt Bettina. "Who's been calling you names?" he demanded.

"Not me." Celia shook her head. "My mom. They do it when they think I'm not listening. They call her awful things and they say Papa isn't my real dad because if he was I wouldn't be a sea monster!"

It took Alberto a moment to digest what all this actually meant – and then a lot of things suddenly made sense.

The Scofano family had been eager to meet Alberto, not because they actually wanted to welcome a child of the family loser, but because they wanted to meet somebody they knew for sure was half an half, so they could compare him to Celia. Celia wanted to learn how to Change at will not just because it was cool (although she clearly thought it was), but so that people would stop spreading rumours about her family. Alberto didn't just have to show everyone he wasn't like his father, he had to teach Celia this special skill, or people would never stop insulting her mother.

Maybe that was an opportunity, though. Lucrezia had said that of course the Gennari family were secretly miserable, because sea monsters and humans couldn't be happy together, but Alberto had seen how happy they actually were. If he could teach Celia to Change, that would show everybody, especially Lucrezia. If Lucrezia had to accept that she was wrong about Celia, maybe she would also listen to people telling her she was wrong about Flavia. And if Alberto could help the family, maybe people would think of him as the guy who did that, rather than just as Giancarlo's son.