Taking a decision
May 21th
8:00 am
Apulia, Italy.
When Gabriel woke up in the morning everything was quiet. His brother wasn't in his bed. His mood was normal the he remembered what happened last night.
He found his brother having a breakfast in the kitchen with a bowl of cereal and milk.
Perhaps he didn't sleep at all last night.
"Good morning Danny!"
"'Morning Gabe!"
Gabriel waited to hear his brother saying something about their dad but he kept quiet swirling his spoon in the bowl full of milk.
"Danny?"
"Yes?"
Gabriel had to take all his courage to ask that question.
"Any news about our dad?"
"No!"
"No call from the hospital?"
"No, nothing!"
"Where's mom?"
"Gone for shopping!"
Gabriel took a bowl and some milk. He put some cereal and tried to have a breakfast.
He stared at the bowl for many minutes without doing anything.
"What's wrong?" Danny asked.
"You know what? I'm not hungry!"
"Me too!" Danny answered stopping to swirl his spoon in the bowl.
Without saying anything they went to school.
Gabriel took a huge effort to cencentrate himself on following the lectures. Fortunately the school year was about to end. Another test and everything would be over.
When they turned back home their mom was waiting for them.
"Welcome back!" she said.
"How was school today?" she asked showing a dish of roast turkey.
"Fine!" Gabriel answered.
"Good!" Annabella said relieved.
"Mom?" Danny said.
"What?"
"How's our dad doing?"
"I don't know!"
"Any call form the hospital!"
"No… nothing!"
A moment of silence.
"Come on, I'm sure they'll contact us soon. Come on, eat your roast before it gets cold!"
May 27th.
13:30 pm.
Another school year was over. It ended some days earlier than the last one.
As every year the literature teacher Marcella did her end of school year speech;
"...and remember to read at least one book while on vacation. Keep your mind active and make some general refresh before school starts. After this I wish you happy holidays. Have fun!"
Just like every year Gabriel found his classmates discussing how to spend the summer holidays;
"Hey, how about to visit Paris this year?" Ezio suggested.
"Absolutely!" Angela answered.
"Nope, let's go to London!" Mauro suggested.
"No way, it rains very often and sometimes the weather gets pretty cold!" Ippolita protested.
"How about Barcellona?"
"Nope!"
"Rome?"
"We already have been there last year!"
"Berlin? Athens? Geneva…?"
"How about Malta?" Francesco suggested.
The kids were quiet.
"Malta?" Ezio said.
"Exactly! It's an island near Sicily!"
"But it's kinda far!" Mauro pointed out.
"What's the matter? We'll take a ferry and we'll be there in a day!"
"But we don't speak their language!" Ippolita pointed out.
"That's not a problem! Malta has a small community of italians, didn't you know Malta belonged to the Italians?"
"Really?" Ezio said.
"Yeah!"
The kids mumbled for a second.
"So?" Francesco said.
"Well… you win, I'll go to Malta with you!" Ezio answered.
"Me too!" Angela also answered.
Soon everyone agreed.
"Then we are decided, let's go to Malta!" Francesco announced.
"Yeah, let's go to Malta!" everyone answered.
When Gabriel and Danny arrived at home their mom was waiting for them.
"No news about dad?" Danny asked.
"No, nothing!" their mom sadly answered.
In the last seven days the atmosphere of their house was turning gloomy and sad. In the last seven days the phone couldn't stop ringing. They received calls from all their relatives, everyone asking about Enzo. Every time the phone rang Gabriel got agitated. He was sure it was the hospital giving some bad news about his father but everytime he was wrong; it always was some relative asking if Enzo was fine.
After seven days Gabriel just couldn't take anymore. He had to do something. He felt like the necessity to go away to go somewhere else, to leave that dark and sad house and its atmosphere.
Perhaps he had to go to Malta with his classmates but the idea to go in such far away place made him desist.
So he called his friend Carlo.
"I'm sorry Gabriel..." he said.
"...I'm going to spend my summer vacation at Como with my family next week! So I'm not going to spend the summer with you!"
Too bad.
08:00 pm
It was a warm night with no clouds in the sky. Gabriel and Danny could barely finish to eat their dinner before sitting on the couch.
Annabella just couldn't take anymore. She just couldn't see thir sons like that.
"Danny… Gabriel!" she said capturing their attention.
"Listen and please listen carefully, I'm just getting tired to see you like this. It's not fair to see you sad and worried. You are young and you are living the best part of your life, you have to be happy, you have to enjoy your life, you have to smile!"
Gabriel and Danny gave a look each other.
"But we don't feel like to smile!" Danny said.
"Yeah, what we have gonna do?" Gabriel.
"Listen… It's summer… It's time to be happy… to play… take a vacation!"
Gabriel and Danny gave another look each other.
"Yes but were?" Danny asked.
"Our classmates are already going to Malta and Carlo goes to Como with his family only!" Gabriel pointed out.
Annabella had an answer.
"Then why don't you go elswere? Why don't you go to see your uncle Giovanni?"
"What?" Danny said shocked.
A shiver ran down Gabriel's spine.
It was the worst idea possible. It was much much far away from Malta. Going to Canada was absolutely out of question for him.
Even Danny was unsure.
"We have to think about it!" he said.