"Joseph!" Her cries echo through my head. My eyes snap open abruptly. "Louise," I whisper. Her voice vanishes.
Vision blurry at first, I wait a minute before sitting up. My body is sore with burns and bruises but I can walk. "Signore, you need rest, please lay back down."
"Wh-where is she?" My voice cracks from my dry throat. The doctor hands me a cup of water which I gulp down in seconds. "Do you mean the young woman whom you were brought in with?" I assume Louise was with me when I was brought here even though I have zero memory of it.
"Yes, yes where is she?" I croak. "Calm down boy, I'm sure she's fine. Louisa was sent with Maria down to the hospital. Her whole arm was pretty bloodied up from when she went into the fire to find you." She did what now?
"Is she alright? Can I see her?" I try to stand up on shaky legs but am pushed back down by the doctor.
"We don't know about her health but we do know about yours. If you leave now your injuries could increase," he tells me.
All of a sudden a sharp needle is inserted into my arm instantly making me feel drowsy.
"Wha- what was that you gave me?" My words slur as I begin to feel the world swirl beneath me.
"Medicine that will help you feel much better. Get some rest and I'll have someone check on your friend." With no choice I nod, collapsing back down on my cot.
It has to be hours later when I awake. My body feels stiff and hot as I rotate my head away from the sun.
"Just tell me he's fine." I hear a familiar voice. I sit up slowly feeling the after effects of the shot I was given.
"Joseph!" Louise gasps as she runs over to me. Just as I get to my feet Louise's arms fly around my neck.
"Ouch!" I laugh out of the unseeable burns on my body. "Oh my god!" She whispered, stepping back a bit. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to hurt you." Her eyes show worry as she examines my body.
"New York's hot summer sun is no comparison to that fire. I'm definitely staying inside this summer." I joke trying to lighten the mood. She bursts out laughing but still looking out of place afterwards.
"Are you okay?" She asks with glistening eyes.
"Never better. That shot the doctor gave me makes me feel like I could run miles. If you're okay we should definitely do it! Or whenever we find the time. We'd certainly get to Milan quicker." I smile down at her. I don't know why I feel all this confidence today but I do.
"Hang in there with him today, the shot I gave Joseph will certainly make him chipper than you're used to." The doctor informs Louise.
"So I'm going to have to deal with a child today?" A smile plays on Louise's thin lips. Lips I wish would kiss me again.
"Joseph!" Snaps Louise. "Are you even paying attention to me?" Frowns Louise. I nod at her gazing into her vibrant, big eyes.
"Will you stop looking at me like that? I'm trying to tell you our plan for today," pouts Louise as she leads us out of the infirmary tent.
"I'm sorry you look exceptionally beautiful today." I switched back to English. She stops to look at me. "You are such an idiot." She shakes her head with a small smile. "Only when it comes to writing and I know for sure that you're the best writer I've ever met." I slide my hand into hers which she immediately takes out of mine.
"Friends remember." Louise doesn't look at me. I frown as I take in the unfiltered air. The air feels smoaky and dirty after Genoa's attack last night. I wonder who attacked us. Perhaps America's allies.
"What's new with our friend Elenora?" Louise asks a nurse named Maria. "She had internal bleeding from impact but the doctors have fixed that and has many broken bones. They suspect she'll be paralyzed from the waist down but it's too early to tell." Maria pauses. "For now we wait." Maria nods before leaving us alone with an unconscious Elenora.
My eyes watch Elenora for a moment waiting for her eyes to snap open but they don't.
"I should never have brought her with me," Cries Louise. Her hands cover her pale face. Her arms are wrapped in white bandages, which I notice only now. There are a couple cuts on her face that aren't masked by bandages.
"It's not your fault, she wanted to come. It was her choice, Louise." Her eyes meet mine. "Yes but I should've forced her to stay behind." My arm wraps across her shoulder. It's the only way I know how to comfort her right now.
A second later a woman walks around with a cup of soup. The soup is a greenish brown color making me think of pea soup. George's favorite. How I wish I was at home safe with him now.
Starving from not eating in over a day, we scarf down the soup and bread we were given. "Save any for us?" I hear my Nonna say.
We whip our heads around to find both nonno and Nonna standing behind us. I find my footing as I run to embrace them.
"Are you okay?" I say finally letting them go. "Yes, but you two look worse off. What happened to everyone?" Nonna's eyes fall to Elenora.
So I tell them everything that went down. "Slow down and take a breather Joseph!" Nonno orders me. I'm too jumpy so there's no way I can't.
"Doc gave him a shot to help him feel better and let's just say he's a drunk child." Louise admits with a smirk.
"Am not." I frown at her. "Well it looks like you got yourself a broken nose there." Nonno tells me with raised eyebrows. My fingers quickly find my throbbing nose and find a small white bandage that was slapped over it.
"Well that's life," I shrug. Louise shakes her head at me unimpressed. "Do you still have the diamond?" I ask Nonno.
"Why on earth would I not?" Taking off his bag his hand dives deep inside it. He then pulls out the gorgeous diamond.
"Does that answer your question?" I nod still amazed by its beauty.
"Look you two can't waste another second here. You need to go to Milan before anything else happens." Nonna's tone suddenly grows serious.
"What about Elenora?" Louise stands up.
"She'll be fine. I know it! For now you two can't stay here. Your Nonno and I will stay with her and make sure she's alright."
"I can't leave her, what if her condition grows worse." Louise looks back down at her new friend.
"She's right Louise, we need to go. Elenora is in good hands." I look over at my grandparents.
"Here's my pack. Now it has some food remaining, a flashlight, a map, my old pistol and of course the diamond. I want you two to promise me not to go looking for too much trouble. Find your Beatrice and get the hell away from here. Tell your mom and George that we love them." Nonno hands me his well stocked bag.
"I will and don't you know Nonno, trouble always finds me. Very inconvenient. That's why Louise loathes me half of the time." Louise's mouth gapes open. "I'm only pulling your leg." I wink over at Louise teasingly.
"This shot better wear off by the time we leave Genoa." Louise rolls her eyes at me. "Me too child." Nonna's hand lands on Louise's arm. "Take care of Joseph, I trust you." When she says this, I know her fondness of Louise has finally grown on her.
"Thank you! I appreciate you putting faith in me. I will do my best," Louise replied before hugging both nonna and nonno.
"Was it hard for you to say goodbye knowing you may not see them for quite a while?" Louise asks once we board a train. "I hope it isn't my last since I'll be returning to nonno and nonna after we find Beatrice." Her eyebrows pinch in confusion. "I thought you were going to fight me about our plan."
"Look, Louise I understand now why you rejected me back on the ship," I start. "Reject is a bit harsh of a word choice to use, don't you agree?" Louise's eyes meet mine. "How about deny, or dispose? Is that word good enough for you?" I pout gazing out the window.
"Now look who's being harsh now," comments Louise. "Look what I was trying to say is that you were right. We're never going to have the chance to be together in a relationship that's hinted at as more than friends or perhaps allies." My sentence runs on longer than I replayed it in my head.
"So you mean romantically?" Confesses Louise. "Well, um, yes that exactly," I stutter.
"But of course that's not our kind of relationship, we're friends," I suggest. "Yes, good friends with fifty years of trauma ahead of us." Louise and I burst out laughing.
"I'm sorry but this is something we shouldn't laugh at Joseph." But Louise's smile doesn't fade. "Friends?" I hold my pinky up to her. "We're not that kind of clique friends." Her eyes hold mine for a second before she looks away.
"So I plan to stay here after we find Beatrice and help you get on a boat to the states." Louise looks down at her hands. "I think it's better for everyone else that I stay behind," I swallow.
"I don't think bringing Bea back with me is a swell idea either." Louise starts looking uneasy in the eyes. "That is if she and her family agree to come back with me. They'd have to move away under a different name and start a new life of lower class." Louise begins to fan herself with her hands. "It's a bit hot in here," comments Louise with a bit of sweat on her face. It is a little stuffy in our compartment.
"Well, at least they'd be together. That's all that matters. And hell I bet you'd never thought you'd be friends with a lower class gentleman like me." I bump here in the arm.
"You like me, don't you?" I narrowed my eyes on her. "I suppose so but it's kind of like I'm friends with a ten year old boy sometimes. Other than that the conversation with you is pretty consistent. Not to mention your overgrown hair." She smirks at me.
"Take that back!" She smiles and shakes her head proudly. I poke her in the arm several times, receiving a thousand of her adorable laughs.
Without giving it a second thought, my hand falls to her pale cheek. Louise's laughter fades as does her smile. She doesn't move away so I don't stop. My hand travels to the curls that have dangled in front of her face and I feel my head ducking to her lips slowly. Louise's eyes travel down to my lip as she begins to lean into me.
I don't know if it's that shot I was given, but I have all this confidence flowing through my body. Before my lips can touch her, a train worker barges into our compartment. She backs away immediately and is as far away from me as possible.
"Sorry, we're fine. We don't need anything sir," Louise spills out. All in English. "English," Mutters the train worker. His eyes widened between the both of us. "You are mistaken. We're Italians just like you." Louise says in Italian with panic laced in her voice. "Indeed we are, just on our way to Milan. To see family," I lie.
"Americans!" The man spits out at us with evil snared in his eyes. "No," I whisper. "You are mistaken, we're Italian." He doesn't believe us because he then sticks his head out of our compartment yelling, "Spies!"
Loud voices grow even closer each second. "Joseph, we're here!" I hear Louise whisper from beside me. Taking sight of the Milan sign and halted train, I get to my feet.
"We'll tell the family you said ciao!" I burst out of the train with Louise running in front of me. The night air is brisk and stiff on our cheeks as we run through the streets together.
Dashing into a movie theatre we decide it's our best hiding spot until the officers lose our track.
~ ~ ~
Chapter posted: 8/14/2021
Hey so Louise and Joseph are on the run again. Do you think they'll get caught before they make it to Beatrice?
Until next time. . .