Piccoletto

Father of the Year

"Alberto!" Giulia exclaimed as she leaned her head far out of her bedroom window. "Where were you? We've already eaten breakfast!"

Alberto was standing in the doorway of Giulia's walled yard, his face red with shame. He had just come back from his early morning plunge, feeling more guilty but determined than ever before.

"Sorry," Alberto said with an emotionless voice. "But I'm not hungry. Lets go look for-"

"Alberto," a low, gruff voice interrupted. Alberto switched his gaze and saw Massimo had opened the back door and was waiting for Alberto on the deck. Alberto froze up when he realized the way he looked was very suspicious. Not to mention he really liked Massimo and was trying his best to not make him angry. Alberto knew from experience that making parents angry never ended well.

"Yes?" Alberto asked with a nervous smile.

Massimo nodded his head towards the door, gesturing for Alberto to come in. Alberto gulped and stepped through the door. He looked up one last time at Giulia, who was watching the commotion from below. She shook her head in frustration at the delay and popped back inside.

Massimo followed closely behind Alberto, who sat down at his spot at the kitchen table in front of a plate of eggs. Massimo sat across from him with a giant flump! and crossed his arm. Alberto avoided looking at Massimo during the long, awkward silence. He looked down at his eggs and his stomach growled.

He looked up at Massimo and gave a nervous laugh, as he ignored the fork on his right and took a handful of the egg.

"Alberto," Massimo said, watching the boy scoop a handful of egg into his mouth. "How's your eye?"

Alberto slurped up the egg and gave a wide, cheesy smile.

"My eye? What eye?"

Massimo lifted a brow as Alberto felt his face get red.

"Ohhhh, that eye!" Alberto said with a chuckle. "It's a- it's fine! Doesn't hurt a bit, actually! See?"

Alberto put two fingers up to the corner of his eye where Ercole had punched him two nights before. Alberto winced as he brushed over some bruised bumpy skin, but played it off as a cough.

Massimo didn't look impressed. He sighed in disappointment.

"It looks infected."

Alberto cocked his head to the right. "Infected? Nah, no way, it feels great. . . ! What's infected?"

Massimo got up from the table and turned towards a kitchen cabinet. He began to speak as he searched through the shelves.

"It's when bacteria gets into a cut and makes it worse," he explained. "You need to put alcohol on it, figliolo."

Alberto gave a dramatic scoff. "What? No way, I never drink. I mean, not because I'm scared or anything, no. I just don't want to be like my da-"

Alberto cut his sentence off short as his eyes widened. He realized what he almost just said. Massimo turned around at this news too, a bottle of rubbing alcohol and a bandaid in his hand.

"Lean in," Massimo said, trying to switch the uncomfortable subject. Alberto leaned forward in confusion as he felt a cold, then stinging sensation over his eye. Massimo had rubbed some alcohol on it and covered it with a bandaid.

"Thank you," Alberto said quietly, looking back down at his eggs. "For everything."

Massimo sat back down. "Of course, son."

Alberto looked back up, eyes wide as his heart burst with pride. Did Massimo just- did Massimo call Alberto his son?

"Where are you going, Giulietta?" Massimo said, not bothering to turn away from Alberto.

Alberto looked over to see that Giulia had tried her best to get down the stairs and out of the house without interrupting their conversation, but she had been caught. She was stuck with one leg up, ready to take it's next step out the door.

"Oh, haha," Giulia giggled nervously. "I'm going toooooo. . . go do some deliveries for la pescheria!"

Massimo turned towards her. "But I haven't done my fishing with Alberto this morning."

Alberto and Giulia made eye contact and realized that Massimo was onto them more than they initially thought. Alberto widened his eyes and nodded towards Giulia, trying to get her to explain. Giulia only annoyingly shook her head back, trying to get Alberto to talk.

"Ugh," Alberto said, giving up. "Well- uh- we were just going to visit Luca this morning."

Giulia nodded frantically. "Esattamente, papa! Would it be ok ifAlberto and I go together this morning? I bet it'd be really important to Luca, with his family emergency and all that."

Massimo looked between the two suspiciously and landed on Alberto.

"How is Luca's situation by the way?"

Alberto stiffened and tried to sound natural. "Uh, good- well, we don't know. That's why we're going to go check."

Massimo knew the two were hiding something, like scheming siblings who had taken the last cookie out of the cookie jar. But he seemed to be upsetting them more than helping.

"And is everything ok?" he asked, in a last effort to comfort Alberto. Seeing him so anxious and upset was making Massimo feel like a bad father. Even though Alberto wasn't his son.

"Oh yeah," Alberto said, stuffing more eggs into his mouth. "I bet Luca's fine, he's just-"

"Not Luca," Massimo said gently. "Are you ok?"

Alberto choked on his eggs in surprise, and coughed them out onto his plate. As tears from the choking filled his eyes, he looked up at Massimo with genuine concern.

"Yeah," Alberto said, looking more tired than ever. "Everything's fine. Can we go?"

Massimo shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

"Ok then," he said with a sad smile. "Tell Luca I say hello."

In an instant, Giulia grabbed Alberto from his seat and pulled him away, breaking Alberto and Massimo's eye contact. As she quickly pulled him out the door, Alberto waved goodbye to Massimo with a small smile.

"Fate attenzione, Ragazzi," Massimo said.