When the morning comes

41 | complicated brotherhood

The path was made of gravel, and soon later the trees and bushes surrounded us fully, sometimes leaving a gap, where tourists gazed at the stunning lakes beneath the mountains. They'd clearly practiced their Italian, mumbling out a ciao every time we passed them.

I grinned when a typical British family tried to pronounce some Italian. Wondered if they realised I was as English as one could be. Then wondered why their children weren't at school. Perhaps, they were fleeing, too.

"Benjamin grew a lot taller. Mio Dio. Slowly turning into a young man."

"Oh, please. Let it wait a moment longer. He's only eleven."

"No, you don't worry. Some boys turn into a young man, ever so slightly, at the age of sixteen. Right Vincenzo?"

Vincenzo started cursing in Italian. Loud. Sounding angry, but out of experience with Aurora, it wasn't necessarily that. Not always, at least. A grin appeared on his face later. I chuckled.

"He behaves like a teenager sometimes."

"What's that mean?"

"Talking back. Attitudes. You name it." I shrugged my shoulders.

"Probably just the age." He smacked his hand upon my back.

"I guess. Hopefully when he turns twelve it will not get worse."

"I was talking about your age." Rafaelle let out a laughter, almost plopping closed my ear. "Old Papà's cannot handle as much anymore."

I shoved him away.

"It's fine. My little girl, she's ten now. She has that attitude. They're just trying to trigger your boundaries." Vincenzo nudged my shoulder with his'. "They'll get over it."

Topic closed. I didn't feel like talking about Benji's behaviour. I was here to have fun with my brothers. We hiked further up the mountain and I already started to feel the muscles in my thighs burning. Vincenzo and Rafaelle were, judging by the way they walked, used to it. I started to walk a little behind, but thank goodness Cappuccino kept me company.

His tongue draped out of his mouth, hanging at the right side. Sometimes he glanced up at me to see if I was okay. I would shake my head and point at my legs. Cappuccino would wail and run off. "Thanks, bud." I'd whisper, jogging a little to keep up with my brothers.

We hiked for an hour or two more, until Rafaelle pointed vaguely at something that was ahead.

"Let me show you a spot." Rafaelle started jogging, so I followed. It took us just a few minutes. He pushed through the bushes, Cappuccino taking the lead, clearly knowing where he'd wanted to go. I figured they had been here before many times.

With the branches of the trees and bushes scratching my bare arms, I hissed and scoffed, but when my eyes fell onto the place my brothers had taken me to, I became speechless.

The view we were given consisted out of a few smaller lakes, resting in between the higher mountains which surrounded them. As the air so blue, it reflected upon the lakes, giving away an outstanding picture right before my eyes. Which once was a tree, was now made into several seats and a wooden plank was transformed into a picnic table. A little further, a self- put together barbeque was montaged out of stones and a grill.

The view was outstanding, I'd never seen anything like this before.

"Wow."

"You like?"

"Love, more like it."

They smiled contently.

"Cannot believe Aurora never took you up here."