Maria would have helped Helena with her cleaning, but every time she tried, she was shooed away. Instead, then, she sat down on the bench with Alberto napping in her lap, and told the story of her day. She talked about how Alberto liked playing in the seaweed and how he would bring her little treasures he'd found. She described how she'd happened across Daniela the shepherdess and had a brief conversation with her... and then she paused, wondering what to say next.
She really didn't want to talk about Giancarlo. She had no idea what she was going to do about his reappearance and it was much too early to ask for advice about it – but also, thinking of him reminded her of something. The conversation had quickly escalated into an argument, and after that she'd had to worry about not accidentally being rude to her hosts, so she'd completely forgotten... but Gianarlo had implied he'd seen Massimo.
Specifically, he'd blamed Maria for Massimo coming after him. Massimo must have shown up somewhere and surprised him, and if Maria were going to send her brother after Giancarlo, she would have told him to go to...
"The Island!" she exclaimed, jumping to her feet.
Helena turned around. "What?"
Maria had to think of an explanation. "I just thought... I thought, where might Massimo go that nobody would follow him? And everybody says the Island is where the sea monsters live!" That had been true even before Giancarlo and Maria had made a temporary home there – indeed, it was part of the reason why they'd chosen it. "I need to..."
"Please don't," said Helena. "Just... not now. Maybe after the baby... oh." She touched her belly again, and winced.
"Are they getting closer together?" asked Maria.
"I'm not sure. I haven't actually been timing them," Helena admitted. "Please, keep talking to me. I need the distraction."
"Of course." Maria looked out the window at the Island jutting above the flat of the sea, but reluctantly sat down again. Helena needed her right now. "Well... I tried to go to the Branzinos', but there was nobody there except their farmhand. Then Daniela invited me back to her family's home for lunch."
Now there was no more need to gloss over things and she could into detail again. She described the food, and how Alberto had played with the baby, and Ettore Branzino stopping by to chat about crabs with Arnaldo. Then, with the Gambero family's promise that they would keep an eye out for Massimo, she'd decided to head back to town, only to arrive and find that Dario had been looking for her.
Helena continued scouring pots, and didn't say anything until she was sure Maria was finished. Then she heaved a deep sigh.
"I'm sorry," she said. "I can't stop thinking about... about Massimo being out there and knowing everybody's hunting for him."
Maria couldn't help but think of that, too. The idea that he was on the Island, where anybody who saw him at least wouldn't immediately take him for a sea monster, helped a little. "He won't let them near him."
"I know, but these are Albino and Castello... people who used to be his friends." Helena sniffled. "Santo Pecorino, imagine knowing that's who wants to kill you!"
Maria shivered. The worst part, she thought, was that Massimo wouldn't even be angry at them – he was known around town as determined to catch a sea monster, himself. It had to be hard on him, though. Maria had gone happily into the water, knowing she would become something she loved, the same thing her husband and son both were. Massimo was out there thinking he'd become something he hated.
Helena's contractions continued intermittently, but as the sun went down, Maria felt pretty confident that the baby would not be arriving until tomorrow, or possibly the day after. Eventually, she managed to convince her sister-in-law that she should at least try to get some sleep.
"I won't sleep a wink," Helena protested through a yawn, as Maria helped her up the stairs.
"I won't either," said Maria, "but being awake worrying all night won't be good for us, or the children." If Alberto woke up and found them both wandering around the house fretting, he would put up a terrible fuss. He might not know what they were worried about, but he would know something was wrong.
Helena heaved herself into bed, grunting at the effort of moving her swollen body. Maria brought her a glass of water and set it down on the night table next to her. Her hand was shaking a bit, and some of the liquid sloshed out and fell on her hand. Where it touched her, it brought out cream-coloured sea monster skin with brown speckles – and in the dim light of the room, Maria was startled to see the spots glowing softly green around the edges. Helena noticed, too, and grabbed the hand to stare at it.
"After the baby's born and all the fuss dies down, you can come to the water with me and I'll show you," Maria promised.
Helena nodded, and let go of Maria's hand as the glow faded and the skin changed back. "I guess if it were going to affect me, it would have done it already," she said. She didn't sound relieved, but she didn't sound sorry, either. It was just an observation.
"I honestly don't know," Maria said.
She got Helena settled in bed and turned out the light, then crossed the hall intending to take her own advice, as difficult as she knew that would be. Maria laid Alberto down in the crib and smiled as he mumbled sleepy syllables to himself, then turned to get her nightgown out of the dresser under the window.
As she did, she looked out through the branches of the big tree outside and across the water, reflecting the blood-red sunset. At least, she thought, that meant the weather would probably be fair tomorrow, despite the band of dark cloud that was hovering over the horizon.
Then she looked again. At the top of the tower on the Island, silhouetted against the clouds... was that a flicker of light?
Maria's heart began to beat faster. It might have been her imagination... but she could have sworn she saw a soft orange glow, like those of the fires she and Giancarlo used to make when they would sit up there on clear nights and look at the stars. She'd always worried that somebody from town would see the light and come to investigate, but nobody ever had. It was obvious why not – if there were really something there, it was only visible when she looked directly at it, and even then she wasn't completely certain. It would be easy for somebody to ignore if they didn't know the place was inhabited.
But Maria did know, and now she wondered... who was there? Had Giancarlo returned? Maybe... but she doubted he'd go back to the Island while he thought Massimo might be there, and if Massimo were using it as a place to hide, he had no reason to leave other than to find food. He could do that in the shallow waters around the shore, just as Maria and Giancarlo had used to.
Maria didn't want to leave Helena, but she also didn't want Massimo to be away when his child was born. He would never forgive himself for missing it. But she'd promised she would stay... and what if Maria were wrong, and the baby did come that night?
She looked out again, and could have sworn she saw the fire flare up, as if somebody had just added fuel. Maria took a deep breath, and made up her mind.
"Come on, Alberto," she whispered, lifting him out of the crib again. He whimpered, but she couldn't leave him behind. If he started crying in the middle of the night and Maria weren't there, he would wake Helena. For the same reason, Maria did not go back downstairs. Instead, she turned the lights out, and wriggled out the window onto the nearest branch of the big tree in the yard.
This had been much easier when Maria was a child, and would have been easier still if she hadn't had to carry Alberto, but she managed. From the crook of the branches outside, she slid down to the ground, scraping her knees and tearing her dress on the rough bark before landing in a heap at the bottom. Papà had used to say he was going to build the children a treehouse there, but after Mamma died he hadn't had the ambition, and by the time Massimo and Maria were old enough to built it themselves they'd been too old for climbing trees anyway. Maybe they could build one for their own children.
She slipped out the gate, and her first stop was a couple of blocks up the hill, where she knocked on the door of the Dentone family.
A tired-looking woman answered. "Oh, buonasera, Signora Scorfano," she said.
"Hello, Signora Dentone," Maria replied. "I'm sorry to bother you, I know it's getting late, but can you send Dario back down to the Pescheria? I've had something come up and Helena needs someone to stay with her. Tell him not to wake her, just to stay in the house and keep an ear out. He'll be paid for the time."
The woman looked over her shoulder. "Figlio!"
"Yes, Mamma?" came from another room.
"Signora Scorfano needs you!"
Maria gave Dario a key to let himself into the kitchen and firm instructions to be absolutely silent, then headed down to the little path along the edge of the sea below the fence. It wouldn't be as safe as the more distant beach, but she needed to be fast.
"Are you awake, Alberto?" she whispered.
Her son in her arms let out a squeaky little yawn.
"We're going in the water again," Maria told him. She looked in both directions to make sure nobody was watching. To the right the path twisted off along the coastline below the railway tracks, and nobody was visible. To the left there was still some activity in the harbour, but the path was in shadow and she didn't think anyone was looking in her direction. She waded out into the water, set Alberto down in it, and then ducked under as soon as it was deep enough to cover her.
To Maria's dismay, this immediately made her more visible, as she found herself surrounded by a soft greenish light. It was coming from the spots on her arms, legs, and back, all of which seemed to have luminescent rings around their edges. Alberto noticed, too, and he squealed in delight as he swam to grab her hand and take a closer look. Maria gathered him up and headed out to get away from people before somebody noticed.
Earlier she'd wanted to stay high in the water. Now she tried to stick close to the bottom as she crossed the harbour, but this was clearly not a good place to be. The shallower parts, where children went swimming, were fairly clear – but beyond the buoy the bottom was strewn with junk like nets and hooks and parts of boats, and even old tyres and garbage that had been thrown in the water. She held tight to Alberto to keep him from trying to dive down and explore.
Once she was beyond the harbour, Maria felt safer to go near the surface. She continued to hold Alberto, though, as he protested and wriggled. And soon, she found she was attracting attention, though not from the fishermen.
This was not because of anything Maria was actually doing. Rather, she was soon surrounded by small fish and shrimp who were intrigued by the glowing of her spots. When she held out a hand, a dozen such creatures surrounded it. She could feel the fish trying to nibble at her cuticles, and the little legs of the shrimp crawling on her. What were they doing? Were they trying to groom her? Or did they think her glowing spots were food?
She got her answer a moment later, as she started to realize that the water around her was glowing in itself, not just because of her light. Above and blow, blue and green plankton were lighting up, and the fish and shrimp were feeding on it. Maria had to stop for a moment and just watch as the shadowy little shapes flitted through the glowing water. Here was another thing Giancarlo had never mentioned. Why wouldn't he? Had it never occurred to him that she would like to hear about it? Or was it like the sea monster community, where since she could never see it, it hadn't been worth mentioning?
Alberto watched this, too, green eyes wide and shining with reflected light. Then, to Maria's horror, he darted out of her arms and grabbed a little fish, which he immediately stuffed in his mouth.
"Alberto!" Maria exclaimed, grabbing him. "You spit that out!"
Alberto chewed faster, like a naughty puppy determined to get his stolen treat down before it could be confiscated.
"You'll choke on the bones!" Maria had to pry his mouth open and remove the poor fish, which was very much dead. She threw it aside, and several of the shrimp hurried to scavenge it.
Then a sudden shadow fell over them, and the creatures around Maria darted away. She looked up, and cried out in alarm as she realized a fishing boat was directly above her. The silhouette of the man on board was just barely visible against the soft glow of the night sky. He was raising a harpoon.
Maria grabbed Alberto and dived for the rocks at the bottom. She wriggled in among them as best she was able, and squirmed to turn around and peer back out at the surface high above. It took a moment to make it out, but she could see a harpoon in the water. It drifted gently down for a moment, then somebody pulled on the cord and brought it back up.
For a moment, the menacing outline of the boat was the only thing Maria was aware of. Then other sensations started to come through, like the fact that her tail was uncomfortably pinched in her hiding place, or that Alberto was struggling as she was holding him too tight.
"Sorry, darling," she murmured, loosening her hold a bit. She did not take her eyes off the boat, though. It was still there, hovering over her like a dark cloud, and she decided to wait a bit in the hope the fisherman would move on.
He didn't seem inclined to do so. Maria had no idea how much time was passing, but the longer she waited, the more she worried that Helena would wake up and discover she was missing. If she moved, however, the fisherman might see her glow. Perhaps if she tried, she could turn that off.
The problem was that she didn't know how to do that. She held Alberto in one arm and focused on her other hand, trying to will the glowing spots to go dark. It didn't seem to work. She had no more control over her bioluminescence than she did over the colour of her hair.
The boat did not move.
It could have been ten minutes, or it could have been two hours, but Maria's patience eventually ran out. She wriggled out of the rocks and started making her way out to the island again, staying so close to the bottom that she might as well have been crawling. Progress was slow, both because speed would take her higher and because she kept stopping to look up and see if the boat was following them. It didn't appear to be... or was it? Maybe it was just drifting in the water. It didn't have an anchor down.
In the end they did leave it behind, but Maria waited until she was well away from the shore before she moved back up into the water column. She couldn't get hurt – not when Alberto needed her, not when Helena needed her, and not when Massimo needed her. The close call had made her keenly aware of all that responsibility, and it seemed heavy on her shoulders. She was the only person who could bring Massimo home in time to see his child born.
Now she let herself pick up speed as she crossed the meadows and fields. There were no sea monsters out working after dark, but in some of the houses she could see faint pink or blue-green lights. She spotted the house where the Gambero family lived, but did not stop there. She had to get to the Island, get Massimo, and get home.
Unless... unless Massimo wasn't there. What if Maria's hunch were wrong? What if she arrived and found Giancarlo instead.
She would leave. She didn't need a boat to escape the Island anymore. He had no control over her comings and goings.
The beach they'd used to bring the boat up to was on the far side of the island, facing out to sea. When Maria waded out into the warm evening air, she found the boat was there, pulled up the stony beach above the tide line. Its bottom was damp, meaning somebody must have been using it, not long ago. She waited a moment for the breeze to dry herself and Alberto. Once they'd transformed, making walking less awkward, she headed up the hill towards the tower.
From here it was easy to see that yes, there was a fire burning at the top. Maria's steps quickened, and Alberto in her arms perked up and began babbling, excited to be back in what he probably still considered his home. As they got closer to the top, he squirmed and wanted to be put down. Maria set him on his feet, and looked up at the tower.
It looked very like it had when they'd lived there – a half-ruined structure with the rope ladder off some big ship dangling down to let people come and go. If Maria climbed that, everything she found would probably be familiar. The hammocks they slept in, the pots and pans she used to cook, the various toys and gifts Giancarlo had brought back for his wife and son...
Alberto let out a squeal and went running around behind the building.
"Alberto? What have you found?" Maria asked. She followed, not running but with long strides. There was a cliff there, after all.
She rounded the corner in time to hear a startled voice say, "Alberto?", and Maria stopped short.
There was Massimo, in the act of getting an armful of firewood from their old stash. His feet were bare and the bandage on his ankle was gone, though the stitches in his chin were still there. His trousers were rolled up almost to his knees and he'd lost his shirt, though he'd torn part of it up to bandage his forearm.
Alberto ran towards him with his arms held out, squealing happily.
"No!" Massimo dropped his firewood and held up his hand.
Alberto stopped, surprised, and stood swaying for a moment before dropping onto his backside. Maria came and knelt beside her son, squeezing his little shoulders to reassure him.
"Massimo," she said. "It's okay. You need to come home." She patted Alberto's shoulders again, then stood up to approached her brother.
"Don't come near me," Massimo warned her.
"Why not?" Maria asked. "Don't panic. Let me explain."
Massimo looked around in a panic, and then turned and jumped off the cliff.
"Massimo!" Maria ran to the edge and looked down, but saw only the dark water and the rocks. She didn't know what was under the surface there... she had always kept her and Alberto's games of hide and seek on the beach side, where they were less likely to be seen and it was easier for her to get out of the water if something happened. What if Massimo had hurt himself on the rocks?
Even worse, before Maria could stop him, Alberto had come running and jumped after his uncle.
"No!" Maria shrieked. For a moment she almost threw herself over the edge after them, but then she came to her senses and instead went scrambling back down to the beach. She'd go the long way around, where she knew what she'd be landing on.
If somebody had thrown a harpoon at her on the way, it might well have hit her. Maria wasn't looking at the surface. She was barely looking where she was going as she clawed her way past thick stands of seaweed and across the surface of rocks slick with algae. The only thing she could think of was finding Alberto. Massimo was an adult – if he did stupid things that was his own problem. Alberto had only jumped because he'd seen Massimo do it. If he was hurt, then Massimo would never hear the end of it even if fled to the other side of the world!
As she approached the cliff, Maria started to hear a sound she did not expect. Alberto was giggling.
She parted the seaweed ahead her, and there was Massimo. Maria had only Albino's description of his shark monster to go on, but even without that, Maria knew she would have recognized him. How had Albino not figured it out? Massimo was still built like a brick wall, huge and broad like their father had been. Like Maria, he had the thick fins and fluked tail of a shark. Unlike her, he was dark in colour, slate blue on his back and head, but fading to white on his chest and palms He was floating there in the water, watching dumbfounded as Alberto swam up to present him with a gift.
This was a big caramel-coloured conch shell. Massimo took it, and a small octopus poked its head out to look back at him.
"Alberto..." Massimo said.
Alberto dived back to the sea floor and came up with another object – a washer that must have been a fairly recent loss, as it was still bright and shiny. He started to swim away to find something else, but Massimo caught his tiny arm and brought him back for a look at him.
"Why Alberto?" he asked, although he didn't seem to be directing the question at anyone in particular. "Alberto did nothing wrong."
Alberto said something unintelligible.
"Don't worry, little one," said Massimo. "Uncle Massimo will look after you when your Mamma can't."
Something went tight in Maria's chest, and she shut her eyes. This whole time, she thought... this whole time, Helena had been right.
"His Mamma can look after him just fine," she said, emerging from the seaweed.
Startled, Massimo whirled to face her – and then kept going, not used to the extra inertia of floating in the water. He had to struggle a little to stop, and let go of Alberto, who hurried off to find another treasure. He was back a moment later with a glass cat's eye marble, which he proudly gave to Maria.
"Thank you, Alberto," she said.
Alberto beamed.
Massimo just stared. He was a man of few words at the best of times, but right now he looked as if he couldn't have spoken if he'd wanted to. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out. All he did was float in place as Maria and Alberto approached him.
"I told you it was okay," she said, unable to help sounding a little reproachful. The situation was kind of funny from her point of view, but from his it clearly was not. He'd had a very stressful and frightening couple of days and she had to respect that.
"Maria," he said.
She gave him a hug. Massimo stiffened for a moment, but then he put his arm around her and hugged her back, so tight she might not have been able to breath if breathing had been relevant. Maria let him hold on for as long as he wanted to. She knew she had to enjoy the happy part of this reunion while she could, because in a few minutes he wasn't going to be nearly so happy to see her.
He let go of her, and held her out at arm's length. "Where is Helena?" he asked.
"Helena's fine," Maria assured him, "but the baby is coming. Probably tomorrow or the day after. You need to come home."
"I can't," he said. "You can't. Look at us!"
"We change back when we get out of the water," Maria pointed out.
"Sooner or later somebody will find out," said Massimo. "Then we'll be hunted. They're already hunting me now."
Maria shook her head. "Come on, let's go back up on land, and we'll talk about this." This was it. It was time to tell... at least part of the truth.
They returned to the top of the tower and settled down around Massimo's campfire, where he fried some fish he'd caught that day for Maria and Alberto. They'd had a bit of supper, but Alberto had been too tired and Maria too upset to eat properly, so both were grateful for it.
"You must wonder what happened," said Massimo.
"Hmm?" asked Maria, mouth full. What was he talking about? She knew what had happened to them... what did he think was going on?
"It was a few days ago," Massimo said. "There's an older lady who comes to town most weekends. She seems to be friends with the Aragosta women. Have you met her?"
Maria shrugged. She avoided the Aragostas' friends. She didn't know which ones might know their secret, and could hardly ask.
"I was in the piazza, and some children had been asking me about sea monsters," he went on. "I described how I search for them and where I think they might be hiding, and these three women were there with their gelato. The one from out of town told me, those who hunt monsters need to take care they don't become monsters themselves! At the time I thought it was only a warning against being overeager. I certainly never thought her curse would affect my family, too!" He looked at Alberto, gobbling down his fish in evident fear Maria would take it away again. "Alberto doesn't deserve this.
Maria nearly choked. It wasn't funny, she told herself – not only had Massimo been frightened and alone, he'd also been blaming himself for the whole situation!
"You think this is a curse?" she asked.
"The Aragostas are friends of yours, so I thought if I could get a message to you, you could ask them to have their friend break the curse," Massimo added.
"It's not a curse!" Maria said.
"What do you call it, then?" he asked. "She told me if I kept hunting sea monsters I would become one, and I have. So have you and Alberto."
Here it came. Maria took a deep breath and kept her eyes on the food in her hands. "It's not... Alberto's always been a sea monster."
Massimo didn't respond.
Maria looked up and found her peering at him with a frown, not sure whether he could have just heard what he thought he had. How was she going to tell him? Maria really should have made a plan... but she'd never intended to tell him the story and so hadn't bothered "Remember the summer you first saw the sea monster was the same summer I met Giancarlo? Well... I guess you know now," she added, remembering that Giancarlo had hinted he'd seen Massimo. Massimo had probably seen him, too. "Alberto takes after his father."
Alberto finished his fish and offered the chipped plate he'd been eating from to his mother, hoping for more more. Maria gave him the rest of hers, then sat waiting nervously for Massimo's reaction.
"You've been living with us for weeks," he pointed out, puzzled.
"And I've been panicking the whole time, terrified you would find out," Maria admitted.
"What about you? Is it because you..."
"No!" Maria said immediately. She didn't know how that question was going to end, and she didn't want to. "Concetta and Pinuccia are sea monsters, too. They've been helping me with Alberto. Pinuccia gave me what she said was a magic herb, after I said I wondered if Alberto shouldn't have other sea monsters to raise him. It was really just for me, but I left it in the kitchen when I saw you hurt yourself." She looked at his unbandaged ankle – he'd been limping on it on the way up the hill. "Helena thought it was basil and she put it in the pesto. We all ate it. It was an accident. I'm sorry."
She'd hung her head again during this explanation, ashamed, but now she forced herself to look up and see what Massimo thought of it. Once again, he was sitting there dumbfounded.
"This is my fault," Maria added, in case he hadn't caught that. "Not yours."
"You laughed at me when I said I'd seen a sea monster," he remembered.
Maria looked away again. "I was afraid you'd hurt Giancarlo," she said.
There was another long silence. This one lingered until it was almost painful, broken only by the occasional pop from the fire and the noises Alberto made as he devoured his second helping. Overhead, the stars were starting to come out. Sparks from the fire drifted up and melted away into the darkening sky.
"I wouldn't have killed him," said Massimo. "I just never thought he was good for you, and..."
"... and you would have been even more determined to separate us," Maria finished for him.
"I'm glad I didn't know," Massimo decided. "If I had, Alberto might never have been born."
That was not the response Maria had expected, not even close. She needed a moment to realize what he meant, and then tears rose in her eyes. She squeezed them shut, trying to force the emotion out. Maria was not a crier.
"He brings you so much joy," Massimo added.
"He does," Maria agreed. She wiped her eyes and looked at Alberto, who was now watching her with concern. When Maria reached out, he got up and toddled over to sit in her lap.
"What now?" asked Massimo. "Is this permanent?"
"I don't know," Maria admitted. "Even the Aragostas don't know. They said nobody's ever put it on pasta before. It was only supposed to be enough for me, not for three people, and Helena doesn't seem to be affected at all, so..." she shrugged. "Obviously we won't know about the baby until it's born, but that could be any day now, and you need to be there."
"We can't just go home like nothing's happened," Massimo protested.
"Of course we can," said Maria. "I've managed to keep Alberto a secret this entire time, and the Aragostas have lived in town for years and people think they're a little odd but nobody seems to have figured it out. If they can do it, so can we." She stood, picked up Alberto, and offered Massimo her hand. "They're only hunting you because Albino Bagnasco told everybody he saw you get eaten by a sea monster. If you come back unharmed, they'll stop."
Massimo let her help him up, wincing as he stepped on his bad ankle.
"That, and you'll be able to give that a proper rest again," she observed dryly.
"What will we tell them about why I disappeared?" Massimo asked.
Maria didn't know. "We'll think of something," she promised.