So far on this road trip Luca and Marcello are the ones that have been talking to me the most. Vince would chime in every now and then but I think he is giving them the chance to know me more.
Meanwhile Leo is talking with Luciano in Italian about work. I would listen every now and then because I can't seem to be minding my own business.
"Quindi, pensi che le insegnerai a maneggiare una pistola? O imparare a difendersi? Perché avrà bisogno di sapere come fare tutto questo in questa vita."Leo asked Luciano after they were done talking about all the important business stuff.
(So, do you think you are going to teach her how to handle a gun? Or learn how to defend herself? Because she is going to need to know how to do all of that in this life.)
"Vorrei, ma non so nemmeno come iniziare quella conversazione con lei. Le sono successe così tante cose nell'ultima settimana e non voglio aggiungere altro costringendola a imparare tutto su come difendersi." Luciano replied.
(I want to, but I don't know how to even begin that conversation with her. So much has happened to her in the past week and I don't want to add to it all by forcing her to learn all about how to defend herself.)
"Puoi provare a sollevare l'idea oggi quando puoi parlarle o ogni volta che pensi che potrebbe sentirsi a suo agio. Fallo prima del Mafia Ball che è come tra 2 settimane." Leo said.
(You can try to bring up the idea today when you can talk to her or whenever you think she might be comfortable. Just do it before the Mafia Ball that is like in 2 weeks.)
Mafia Ball? What's that? What would you even do at something like this? Well I can't ask them anything about that because then they would know I speak Italian and I don't want them to know just yet.
Deciding to ignore them for now, I turned my attention back to Luca and Marcello wanting to know more about them.
"So, what do you guys do when you aren't working? Because from what I'm understanding so far is that all you guys do is work. Do you guys have hobbies or anything you enjoy doing other than work?" I asked them. Because all they have talked about is how much they work. They never went into detail about what they did, keeping it light.
"When I was a kid I learned how to play the piano and I continued learning it. Now I play when I am stressed or don't know what to do. It helps me take a second and think about my next steps." Luca said.
"That's nice, I would like to see you play sometime." I said, then turned towards Marcello to give him the chance to answer next. He looked at me and at first he hesitated to answer my question.
"I like going to the gym, I guess. Since I'm the oldest of my siblings I never really found time to get a hobby, also I spent most of my time with these guys. " I guess going to the gym could be a hobby.
Maybe when Luciano is going to talk to me about self defense and all that I can practise with them. They seem to know the most about this kind of stuff.
"So are you going to tell us a hobby of yours?" Luca asked, waiting for me to answer.
"I like to draw and paint. I also like to read. I just do these when I'm bored, stressed, or anything really." I said since that's what I like to do. "I even draw during passing period at school or when I'm waiting for someone to pick me up I go to the library to read."
We continued with the small conversation for a while then I decided to put my airpods in and take a nap.
Vince woke me up when we arrived. When I got out of the car the most beautiful view was in front of me.
"What do you think?" Luciano asked as he came standing beside me.
"It's a very beautiful view." I said as I turned to him. When I turned I saw everybody strapping on their bags and getting ready to move out.
"Glad you like the view. It's private property, we usually come out here every so often. Well enough talking let's get you ready to move." He said and started leading the way to the trunk of the car and gave me my backpack.
I'm pretty sure the essentials like clothes, food and water were in the bag. Luciano gave me another one of my light jackets to wear right now. I wore my jacket then put on my backpack and strapped it from the front.
When we were all done Luciano shut the trunk and locked the car and led the way. I followed behind him, usually talking with Luca, Vince, and Marcello. We'd been hiking for about 30 minutes when Leo came up to me.
They seemed to notice and started walking leaving me behind with him.
"How've you been Val?"
"I'm good. I'm still getting used to a bunch of things though."
"I know it's a big difference from what you're used to and what I did yesterday didn't help you. What I want to say is I'm sorry. After talking with your dad and brothers I realize what I did made me look like an ass."
"You're right it didn't help. What you did reminded me of Michael and I'm not gonna lie it scared me. This is all new to me and I don't know what to make of it yet, so please give me the time and space to understand everything."
"Okay I can do that. If you need anything don't hesitate to tell any of us, okay?"
I gave him a quick 'okay' as we continued our hike. I spent the rest of the hike listening to all of them talk to each other. They tried keeping mafia related topics out of their conversations. Every now and then I would chime in.
It felt nice being able to walk without having to worry about what might happen. It was also nice to see these men forget their work duties and focus on enjoying this day. They looked like normal friends hanging out. They all seem relaxed.
Around 3:30 we got to a waterfall and decided to take a break to eat lunch. They all sat in a circle with me between Luciano and Vince. I was about to sit when Luciano stopped me. He took off his jacket and placed it down on the ground then told me to sit.
He then took my backpack off my back and took out the food that was in there. He handed the lunch bag to me then put my backpack behind us. While they were all taking out their food I opened my lunch bag to see that it was thermal insulated to keep the food warm.
I opened the containers to see that it was pasta with some steamed veggies. We all started eating and talking about things here and there.
After we were done they wanted to go swim in the lake at the end of the waterfall. They all started to get ready to swim when Luciano came up to me.
"Hey, do you want to join them or not?" I didn't want to show them all the scars on my body since I was still uncomfortable with it, so I made up an excuse.
"I would love to but I kind of can't." I said with fake sadness. I hoped he would get it since it was embarrassing to actually say it. And judging by how uncomfortable he got I think I succeeded.
"I sit here with you since I didn't really want to swim either. Although I do have something I want to tell you." We both made our way to sit back down.
"What about?" I asked.
"I want you to learn self defense. I'm not going to sugarcoat it since you know about our real business. It's dangerous and as much as we are willing to protect you, you need to learn to fend for yourself."
"Alright, I won't argue with you because I've been wanting to learn self defense. I just never had the time. But who will be teaching me?"
"Each one of us," He said pointing to himself and my cousins and brother in the lake, "will be teaching you. Saturday and Sunday are your days off other than that I will be teaching you on Monday, Leo gets Tuesday, Luca gets Wednesday, Marcello gets Thursday, and lastly Vince will have you on Friday. You get to end your week off with the more sympathetic one."
"Wow, that's a lot but I think I can handle it. What time will said training be?"
"Since you get off of school at 3 we'll give you a couple hours for yourself you'll start at seven. Also since I don't trust the people in the outside world you will be training in the gym we have a home." That seems reasonable so I told him okay.
"I also have one more thing I want to talk to you about." Luciano said. I turned my attention to him once more to see what he has to say.
...
So I don't know if any of y'all remember but in chapter 14 I said I was actually drawing something Val was drawing in the story. I finished it a while ago but I forget about it. Anyways if you wanted to see it, this is what it looks like.