The old dock where men liked to go for recreational fishing was an awkward place to get to, past the end of the current footpath and requiring a scramble across a series of big sandstone boulders. Halfway there, Maria was already thinking what a terrible idea it had been for Massimo to go there with his injured ankle, and was planning to lecture she was going to give his friends for letting him. Although she might have to wait while Helena took her turn first – as Massimo's wife, she probably had that right.
When they arrived, everything changed.
A small crowd had gathered on the rocks, many of them with nets, harpoons, or other weapons. Maria and Helena quickened their steps and forced their way to the front of this crowd, where they found Albino Bagnasco pacing up and down the dock, the aged wood creaking under his feet. Massimo's fishing gear was lying abandoned at the far end.
"What happened?" Helena demanded.
"Signora Marcovaldo!" Albino said. "I'm so sorry! I only turned my back for a moment, I swear!"
"But what happened?" asked Maria, annoyed that he hadn't answered the question. She rearranged her arms as she held on to Alberto, who could see the ocean and thought they were here for quite another reason. He made unhappy noises and pointed to the sea, trying to get his mother to understand.
"I don't know!" Albino said. "I didn't see anything!"
"Well, why did you leave him?" Helena demanded.
"I had to... uh..." Albino turned pink. "I had to see a man about a dog."
Maria rolled her eyes. "We are grown women, Signor Bagnasco," she said crossly. "We know how men are put together!"
Albino turned pinker. "So... I didn't want to go all the way back to town, so I went up the hill to go behind a tree. I heard a splash and a shout, and when I came out..." he swallowed hard. "Massimo was gone, and there was this thing climbing out of the water. I can't... I can't even describe it!"
"Try!" somebody else insisted. There were murmurs of agreement as hands tightened on harpoons.
Maria's stomach dropped. Her childhood had been punctuated by incidents like this. Every few years, somebody in Portorosso would spot a sea monster, and the whole town would get whipped up into a frenzy. The last time had been the summer she'd met Giancarlo, and a big part of the reason Maria had agreed to go away with him had been to keep him safe. If the same sort of thing happened now, with Alberto in her care and heaven-knew-what having happened to Massimo...
"It was like a shark!" Albino said. "All huge and grey, with fins and spikes and red eyes and a lashing tail. Santa Maria!" He made the sign of the cross. "I had nothing to defend myself, so I could only throw stones at it until it went back into the water. Now I know how Davide felt facing Golia! I'm so sorry," he said to Maria and Helena. "I don't think Massimo stood a chance."
The crowd fell into an astonished silence. Massimo was the largest man in town. If there were anybody in Liguria who could take a sea monster in a fistfight, everybody would have assumed it was him. If he had been snapped up by some creature from the depths, without even a chance to defend himself, what chance did anyone else have?
Alberto gave an unhappy squeal, and Maria had to grab a hold of him again. She decided she'd better say something.
"Don't be ridiculous!" she declared. "Massimo wouldn't just sit there and let something devour him. You know he's more determined than anyone here to catch a sea monster!" And that was her fault. Her fault for laughing at him in the attempt to protect Giancarlo.
"He probably just went to fetch a harpoon or something," Helena agreed, with a significant look at Maria.
Albino stared at them, uncomprehending. "Signore," he said sadly, "I'm afraid..."
"Don't worry, Signora Marcovaldo," another man, Signor Castello said. "We'll avenge him for you." He turned to the crowd. "We'll hunt that creature down and sell it's hide!" he declared, "and we'll give the money to Signora Marcovaldo and Signora Scorfano, now that they have to raise their babies alone!"
There was a chorus of agreement, fists and harpoons raised in the air.
Castello nodded and brought his hands together. "We need a plan," he said. "In this town we've been hunting sea monsters for years by just going out in ones and twos and tossing harpoons in the water. Clearly that doesn't work. We need to know how many people we have, how many boats, and how to distribute our resources. Let's meet in the San Sebastiano, and figure out how to get this done!"
Maria sighed and shook her head. Of course – they were going to the pub.
Various people set off following Castello across the rocks back to town. Many of them stopped to offer condolences to Maria and Helena, who did not reply, although Alberto continued to babble and bounce as he tried to convince his mother to let him go. The two men who'd been fishing with Massimo, Albino Bagnasco and Fernando Aretti, stayed behind. The latter went to gather up Massimo's fishing gear, while Albino, too scared to go back near the water, put his arms around Maria's and Helena's shoulders to escort them home.
"You two ladies shouldn't be out here," he said. "It's too dangerous. That creature must have been ten feet tall, maybe more!"
"I'm sure we can take care of ourselves!" said Maria sharply. Alberto squealed unhappily, reaching for the receding sea, and in the moment it sounded like he was agreeing with her and hinting that Albino ought to go away. She hoped he would interpret it that way, too.
No such luck. A moment later, Fernando had also joined them.
"Maybe, maybe," he said, "but Signora Marcovaldo in her condition..."
"I'm not as agile as I used to be," Helena admitted, "but I'm not helpless." She took the fishing gear rather forcibly out of Fernando's hands. "I think Maria and I can see ourselves home."
It was not to be, however. The men were determined to be chivalrous. They escorted Maria nd Helena all the way back to the door of the Pescheria.
Dario was just inside, gutting fish. Hearing people coming, he poked his head out and asked, "what's going on?"
"Signor Marcovaldo's had an awful accident," said Albino.
"Another one?"
"Just do your job, Dario," said Helena firmly. "Signora Scorfano and I will be along to help you shortly."
Fernando and Albino took the women upstairs, and Fernando actually went for the coffee pot, intending to make them something to drink. Maria and Helena exchanged a look, and then Helena went and took Fernando by the shoulders.
"That's really not necessary, Signor Aretti," she said, physically turning him towards the door. "I'm sure you're only trying to be kind but even if Maria and don't have to fight off a sea monster, we're more than capable of making ourselves comfortable in our own home."
"Indeed!" said Maria. "We appreciate your concern, but we don't know what happened to Massimo and we're not going to assume the worst without reason!"
"And we have work to do," Helena greed, "so we really don't need you right now."
Maria held the door open, and Helena shooed the two men through it as if they were misbehaving geese. Albino and Fernando both looked over their shoulders, wanting to protest, but Helena grabbed a broom – it was probably to sweep the floor, but it might have been to push them, and neither wanted to chance it. Still, they hesitated in the hallway, only for Alberto to add the perfect finishing note to the moment by beginning to scream.
The men fled, and Maria shut the door.
Now she could finally set Alberto on the bench, and he sat down and redoubled his wailing, having now missed two opportunities to go swimming that day. Helena peeled a banana and offered it to him. He grabbed it in both hands and took an enormous bite, which stopped him screaming – but tears continued to roll down his chubby cheeks, leaving trails of purple scales, as he chewed on the mouthful of mushy fruit.
"Finally!" said Helena, and grabbed the pot to make her own coffee. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
Maria nodded. Both of them knew there had been no shark monster – Massimo had fallen in the water, and the herb had worked its magic. But unlike Maria and Helena, Massimo didn't know what he'd had for supper last night, and now he didn't know what was happening to him. What must he be thinking right now? Where could he have gone?
"You're right," she said unhappily. "I should I have. I should have told him... something, anyway." It wouldn't have been much context, but it would have been some.
"Of course I'm right!" snarled Helena, and then she stopped short with her hand on the kitchen tap. For a moment Maria wasn't sure why, but then she realized: Helena was thinking that if the herb had affected Massimo, it might have done the same for her.
"Let me," said Maria. Helena turned on the tap, and Maria gritted her teeth and stuck her fingers under the flow.
Nothing happened.
Helena then tried it for herself. Again, there was no change. She sighed with relief and filled the coffee pot. "I guess that's not it, then. It would have affected us, too."
"I don't know," aid Maria. "He's got a bigger appetite than we do..."
"No, he doesn't. I've been ravenous for the last six months."
"Yeah, but you're..." Maria stopped, unable to speak the words eating for two when she knew what the implication would be. Babies were, technically, wet in the womb. Alberto had come into the world in his sea monster form, only to transform when he dried. What was this going to mean for Massimo and Helena's baby?
At least, she thought, that child would have a cousin they could look up to. Somebody who was like them.
"The other possibility is that something actually did attack him," said Helena.
"Or he just wandered off to be a big baby about getting injured," Maria couldn't resist adding. She could only hope it was that one, although... Massimo couldn't swim. He'd never learned how. He got along fine on land, just as well as people with two arms, but it was a different story in the water.
Helena put the pot on the stove, but did not take out the matches. Instead, she stood there for a few moments looking at nothing, then grabbed a bag and headed for the door.
"Where are you going?" asked Maria.
"I'm going to see those two old ladies," Helena declared. "This is their fault. They can fix it!"
Maria looked at Alberto. He'd managed to eat most of the banana – the parts that he'd missed were all over his face and hands, the front of his overalls, and in his hair. He was now sucking mashed fruit off his fingers.
When Maria was a teenager she'd used to babysit for the women in town, and there'd been one mother who'd often joked that babies absorbed food through their skin, like frogs. Alberto sometimes made that sound almost reasonable. She debated whether she had time to clean him up, decided she didn't, and scooped him up to follow Helena.
Alberto was hopeful that this was the time he'd finally get into the water, but he was destined to be disappointed. As soon as they turned to go up the hill instead of down, he began to cry again. All Maria could do was pat his hair, sticky with banana goo, and try to reassure him.
"I promised you a bath, remember?" she said, although she knew that wasn't what he was after. "You don't want to swim in the harbour, anyway. There's all kinds of garbage down there that's fallen out of boats."
Alberto continued to whine.
Helena was not in a hurry as she made her way up the hill, but every step was taken with force and determination. Maria caught up with her quickly, but said nothing as the two of them marched up the hill. Her mind was churning. If Massimo had been affected by the herb, what did he think must have happened to him? What had he thought when his friend started throwing rocks at him? Had he called out, only to find that Albino refused to listen? How long had it taken him to realize what he'd become?
She wondered whether Helena were thinking the same things.
At the top of the hill, Helena marched up to the door of the Aragosta women's house and knocked, hard. She waited a moment for an answer, but didn't get one fast enough – she raised her arm and banged on the wood again, just as Pinuccia opened the door. It was lucky the old woman was small. If it had been Concetta, Helena's flying fist would have hit her right in the face.
"Have some patience! We're not as quick as we used to be!" Pinuccia said. Then she took in the anger on Helena's face, and stood up a little straighter. "Did it take effect?"
"Not for us," said Maria quickly, "but Massimo's friends said he fell in the water and vanished."
"We need you to go find him," said Helena.
Concetta had arrived behind her partner, and the two old women exchanged a look.
"We can't just..." Pinuccia began.
"You can, and you'd better!" Helena interrupted. "He's out there somewhere and he doesn't know what's happening because Maria never told him anything! We can't go look for him ourselves, so you're going to do it!"
Concetta waited for her to finish. "Of course we'll help," she said, "but I was going to say that we can't just go walk into the water in broad daylight. We'd be harpooned on sight and that's no help to anyone."
"Harpooned on sight! Like they're going to do to Massimo!" Helena said.
Maria's stomach turned inside-out, and her heart fluttered with panic all over again. She'd been worrying about Massimo being lost and alone, and about how angry he might be when they found him and explained... but the fishermen had declared that they were going to go find the sea monster they thought had killed him, and that was what had been on Helena's mind. Hopefully, as somebody determined to catch a sea monster for himself, Massimo would have the sense to stay away from boats! But what if he thought he could ask a friend for help?
The women were staring at Helena, not sure how to answer that. Maria tried to explain. "Albino Bagnasco said he saw a monster climb out of the water, and threw stones at it until it went away," she said.
"And Giovanni Castello said he would hunt it down and avenge Massimo!" Helena agreed. "What are we supposed to say to them? We can't say Massimo wouldn't want them to do that because they know damned well he would, and we certainly can't tell them what really happened!"
"Of course we'll help," said Pinuccia again, "but we can't do it by daylight."
"But you've got to do something," Helena insisted, and Maria realized she was on the verge of tears. Her own panic melted away, and she reached to put a hand on her sister-in-law's shoulder. It was easy to descend into incoherent terror when somebody else was around to keep control of things. If somebody else were freaking out, then it was Maria's job to stay calm. Helena reached up and grabbed Maria's hand, and hung her head.
"Come inside," said Concetta, and opened the door wider for them.
In the parlour, Helena sat down heavily in a chair, and Pinuccia went to get something for them to eat. Concetta pulled up another chair for Maria, while one of the cats tried to jump into Helena's lap only to realize that her pregnant belly was in the way. It turned around several times, then perched itself precariously on her knees instead. Maria set Alberto on an ottoman, but he immediately climbed off and ran for the exit, hoping to splash in the garden pond. The door, however, was already shut. Alberto gave a cry of despair, and sat down on the floor to pout.
Maria wanted to do something similar. Her son was upset, her brother was in terrible trouble and in danger of being murdered, and her sister-in-law seemed on the verge of a nervous breakdown... and it was all her fault. Why had she ever come here? She'd hoped they could help her... and she'd thanked them by ruining everything!
"I'm sorry," she said, head in her hands.
"It's not your fault," said Concetta.
Maria ignored her and went on: "I should never have brought that stuff home."
"And I shouldn't have assumed it was basil just because it was on the floor below my spilled herbs," said Helena. "If this is your fault, it's mine, too."
"She's right," Pinuccia said gently, bringing in the teapot. "The part you young ladies had in this was just an accident. The only one who did something stupid was me." She set the pot on a mat on the table, and set out cups. "I'm not sorry I told you about it," she said to Maria, "but I'm sorry I gave you any. I should have just let you think and ask for it if you wanted it."
"What happens now?" Helena wanted to know. "What about Massimo? What about the baby?"
"I don't know about the baby, dear," said Concetta.
"We'll go looking for Massimo once the sun's down," Pinuccia promised. "Or at least, I will."
"We both will," Concetta said. "The Aragostas and the Cernias are both big families, and they'll know if it's gotten us back in the water it must be serious. We'll have plenty of people to search, and I doubt he'll have gone far from shore."
"No, he'll stay in places he knows," said Helena, and Maria nodded. In an unfamiliar environment, Massimo would do what anyone else would, and stick as close to home as possible. Although eventually he would get hungry... what then? Sea monsters did cook – Giancarlo had told Maria they used thermal vents – but Massimo didn't know that and wouldn't have had access to such a thing if he did. What would he try to eat?
Alberto could find him, Maria thought suddenly. Alberto was good at finding hiding places underwater... if she set him free in the sea, he'd find Massimo in no time. But that was far too dangerous, even if there hadn't been men with harpoons prowling the harbour. If only Maria could go with him!
Helena sat and cried for a while, while Concetta and Pinuccia did their best to comfort her. Maria assured her that Massimo knew the waters around the town better than anyone, and would surely be able to navigate them, even from a different perspective. The old women suggested that he might come home on his own once he thought it was safe... but by the time Maria and Helena returned to the Pescheria, about an hour later, it was clear that he'd have a long wait for that.
They arrived to find the piazza and harbour both bustling. Signor Castello had a map of the bay tacked up on a wall and had divided it into sectors for people to search. Somebody else had brought a stack of handheld radios, left over from the War, so that everybody could keep in touch. More people were busy fastening a long net across the entrance to the harbour so that no sea monsters could come close to the shore, while a small crowd of terrified children had gathered around Albino to listen to him describe what he'd seen to the town's single policeman. The policeman's teenage daughter was sitting next to him, making a sketch of it.
Maria couldn't resist looking over the young woman's shoulder to see how the drawing was turning out. It showed a hulking beast with all sorts of spines and scales and teeth, a thing out of a nightmare rather than real life. It did not resemble any sea monster Maria had ever seen... not that she'd seen very many. Giancarlo and Alberto were really the only ones.
"Is that really what you think you saw, Signor Bagnasco?" she asked Albino dubiously.
"If anything, it was bigger than that!" the man replied. "It would have to have been a vicious thing, to take down Massimo before he could shout." He leaned to look at the drawing, himself. "I think the shoulders need to be more muscular."
Helena took Maria's arm to lead her away. Once they had reached a safe distance, she murmured in her ear, "that thing in the drawing has two arms."
Maria had noticed that, too, and it had given her a moment of hope, but... "Albino probably only got a very quick look."
"Probably," Helena said, but Maria could tell she was going to cling to that.
Poor Dario was still alone in the shop, halfway through the pile of fish Maria had caught that day and trying to clean them while also helping customers – of which there were far more than usual for this time of day. Perhaps they thought they were helping by making a purchase in Massimo's memory. Dario was delighted to see the women arrive, and more so when Maria passed Alberto to his aunt and took over the cash register.
"Signora Scorfano!" Dario said. "Is it true that your brother got eaten by a sea monster?"
"No," said Maria.
"So what happened?" the boy wanted to know.
What had happened, Maria thought, was that Dario himself had a narrow escape – he didn't know how lucky he was that he'd refused Helena's dinner invitation! "We don't know what happened," she said. "Massimo is missing and Signor Bagnasco says he saw a sea monster. That's all. They're two different facts and they don't necessarily have anything to do with each other."
"Oh, okay," Dario said, although he still sounded uncertain. "I hope he's okay."
Maria cynically noted that if Massimo were dead there would be nobody to pay Dario's salary – but that wasn't fair. Dario had worked hard and the whole family liked him, even if it had taken Maria a while to get used to his presence. He would be personally as well as professionally upset by the loss. She kept her mouth shut.
At closing time they sent Dario home without a dinner invitation, and the two women sat down to a meal of preti e frati that had been offered by a neighbour – neither felt like eating pasta or pesto that day. Nobody talked much, not even Alberto, who was still upset that he hadn't been allowed to go swimming that day, as well as by this food's lack of potential for making a mess. Though the open window, they could still hear voices and the sound of boat motors, suggesting that the fishermen intended to keep up their hunt well into the night.
After supper, Maria decided she'd better fulfill her earlier promise to Alberto and let him take a bath. She filled the tub, and began undressing her son.
Alberto wasn't willing to wait for that. He still had his shirt on and one sock when he wriggled out of Maria's grip and crawled headfirst into the tub.
"You silly little monkey!" Maria laughed, and pulled him out to finish getting him out of his clothes. "You've been wanting a swim all day. This is the best I can give you." She peeled the wet shirt off him and put him back in the water.
Alberto squealed and thrashed his legs and tail, splashing water all over his mother's face and chest. She giggled and went to splash him back, but then felt her stomach drop. What if...
She turned quickly to look in the mirror, but saw only her normal, human face.
Turning her attention back to Alberto, she started going through his fins, grooming them the way the Aragosta women had showed her, and realized she was actually a little disappointed. If the herb had affected her, too, she could have gone out to look for Massimo himself. She could even have taken Alberto with her for the swim he'd wanted, and... no, that would be too dangerous with everybody out looking for sea monsters. Maria would have had to leave him with Helena. But then, what if Maria herself fell prey to the monster hunters? Who would care for Alberto then? Helena would be busy looking after her own child. Maybe the Aragostas would take him in.
Alberto squirmed, and Maria realized she'd stopped grooming him while her mind wandered. She shook her head.
"Sorry, Berto," she said. "You were doing such a good job sitting still, too!" She leaned down and kissed his scaly cheek, then continued to go through his fins.
"Ma?" asked Alberto.
"Yes, my darling?" she asked.
Alberto spit water in her face, and then squealed with delighted laughter.
"Cattivello!" Maria exclaimed, laughing as well. She reached into the water to tickle him. "Did you trick your Mamma? Yes, you did! Oh, my clever boy!"
Once he was clean, Maria took Alberto out of the water and wrapped him up warmly in a towel to dry. Now content, he was soon nodding and leaning on his mother's arm as she got him into his pajamas. He'd had a long, frustrating day, Maria observed... hopefully he would sleep well tonight, because Maria knew she would not.
When she looked out the bedroom window, she could see lighted boats bobbing out in the Ligurian Sea, some of them quite far from shore. Maria had hoped that all the hullabaloo might be over with by evening, but it looked like it would go on for some time. What if it were days, or weeks? What would Massimo do, out there all alone?
She put Alberto in his crib, and covered him up with a blanket – he was getting used to blankets, though he still tended to kick them off in the middle of the night. "Sleep tight, Berto," she whispered and kissed him again, then headed back downstairs to see how Helena was holding up.
Helena was standing in the kitchen with a cup in her hands, but she barely seemed aware of it. Instead, she was gazing out the window, watching the boats chug out of the harbour into the sea beyond. At the table were the two Aragosta ladies, Concetta working on her knitting and Pinuccia just sitting there, watching Helena. Maria cleared her throat as she came down the steps, hoping not to scare anybody.
This was unsuccessful – Helena jumped a bit, and dropped her cup. It rolled across the floor, but nothing spilled. She'd finished the drink and had simply never put it down.
Maria retrieved it, since Helena could not bend down, and went to sit at the table with the Aragostas. "Alberto's asleep," she said. "I see there's still a lot going on out there."
"Yes," Pinuccia agreed sadly. "I don't think we're going to be able to go out and search tonight. By the time everybody's gone to bed, it'll be too dark to find anything."
"Maybe it will have calmed down by tomorrow," Maria said.
"I hope so," said Concetta.
Pinuccia thought for a moment. "There's that low spot below the railway bridge, about a kilometre west of here," she said.
"That's a long walk," said Concetta, "and a long swim to get back to places he might be hiding."
Helena hung her head lower.
"We can't just sit here," Pinuccia protested. "Not when that young man is missing. And we certainly can't be discussing it with his wife and sister right here," she added.
"I know that, but you know we're both getting too old for long trips," Concetta said.
Maria saw how Helena's shoulders were drooping, and got up to put a hand on her back. "I can finish cleaning up if you like," she said. "You need your sleep. The baby needs you to sleep."
Helena nodded. "I just... I've been remembering when Massimo and I first got married, I thought the bed was very small. Now... now..." she swallowed, and when she spoke again it was with tears in her voice. "It's gonna seem so big and empty without him!"
Maria put her arms around her sister-in-law and pulled her close to hug her. Helena heugged back, and through her belly Maria could feel the baby moving, as if to react to its mother's sorrow. Little limbs seemed to be flailing, and Maria had to resist the urge to try to count them. Would there be
two arms and two legs, or would a tail be in there, too?
"Maria's right, Signora Marcovaldo," said Concetta. She set her knitting aside and got up, offering Helena a hand. "When they don't catch anything they'll lose interest, and then we can go search. Once we get together the people who know the area best, it won't take long at all."
"Maybe he'll find his own way to somewhere like the place below the railway bridge," Pinuccia added. "Somewhere he can get out of the water and change back without being seen..."
"He doesn't know that," Maria said. "I never told him how sea monsters work."
"What if they do catch something?" Helena asked tearfully.
Maria could picture it – Castello returning triumphantly to the harbour and hanging up the dead body of the 'monster', never to know who it was. Would he try to skin and mount his catch, as he had with the giant sailfish that was now on display above the bar in the San Sebastiano? Maria had to suppress a violent shudder at the thought.
"Massimo's got more sense than than," she told Helena. "He knows all the fishing spots and he'll stay away from them, and he's certainly not dumb enough to get caught in a net or snagged on a hook."
"Nets can be hard to see in the..." Pinuccia began, then stopped herself. "But he knows where people set them, and he'll stay away."
"Why don't we help Maria clean up," Concetta said. "You can turn in, and maybe tomorrow we'll get out for a look."
They helped Helena up the stairs, and got her tucked into bed. Maria went to check on Alberto, who was sleeping soundly, and then peeked again through the door of the master bedroom before going back to the kitchen. Helena was facing away from the door, her arms wrapped around Massimo's pillow and her face buried in the bedclothes. Maria shut the door very softly as she left.