Meanwhile, Libero was coming back from the stable, all smiling.
"Camilla had a female baby cow! More milk for us!"
Aunt Ida invited them indoors. The table was set and the smell of a delicious lunch was floating in the air. The kids were hungry and ate everything. Gaia could not stop telling her aunt her emotions that she had felt throughout the journey.
After lunch, Gaia helped Ida cleaning up. Libero, on the other hand, dragged Elio around the farm asking him, or rather ordering to help him out.
In the evening, aunt Ida explained that the attic was going to be their summer bedroom. However, for now they were going to sleep on the sofa bed in the living room up until the attic was going to be ready.
Gaia rushed upstairs and followed her aunt to see the attic. Elio, on the other hand, was shocked by the additional bad news.
They walked up to the first floor, where Ida and Libero would be sleeping. On the same floor, there was also Ercole's bedroom, the youngest cousin who was off to summer camp. Ida pointed at the wooden ladder that was leading up to the attic. She was not going to climb up there as she was already tired of going up and down the stairs. In fact, she had already been during the day in order to air the room.
In the meantime, aunt Ida went into her bedroom and secretly called up Giulia, her sister-in-law, to update her.
The phone did not even ring twice. Giulia picked up straight away.
"Hello dear, how is it going?" asked Ida.
"Everything is going well, thanks. But tell me. How did he go?"
"He managed to walk here from the station without passing out. He thought I was going to drive them home. Libero lied and told him that our cow, Camilla, was in labour." Ida was laughing.
"I would have liked to see him sweat!"
"After we had lunch..." Ida began to say, but Giulia interrupted her.
"Did he eat anything?"
"Yes, he ate both the first and the second course."
"Wow! At home he doesn't even have a bite of a sandwich."
"It's hard though." said Ida. "But I'm sure he will get better."
In the background she could hear Carlo ask questions and laugh.
"TV and video games are gone. In extremis, extremity."
Elio, was lying on the bed. He could not move his body. It had been years since he moved that much.
At school he would always make up excuses to skip gym class.
"Elio call your sister here. I need some help with dinner."
Elio could not believe what he had just heard. She could not be for real.
But Aunt Ida spoke with such a tone that would not allow any negative answer.
"Elio, did you hear what I say?"
"Okay." he replied and proceeded towards the stairs all grim faced.
He stopped right beneath the wooden ladder and began yelling her name.
Despite her brother's yells, Gaia was not answering.
Then Elio, even more upset, decided to climb up the stairs. In the semi-dark room of the attic he was feeling anxious. Step after step, the journey to the attic seemed never-ending. As soon as he arrived with his head underneath the hatch, he began yelling his sister's name. But again, no one replied. He forced himself to walk the last steps. And then something from above grabbed his arm.
Elio stayed still, with his eyes shut and the terrorised look on his face.
"Got ya!" yelled Gaia, who had noticed that Elio was in awe.
"Get away from me. You scared me. You should've answered."
Gaia did not take the bait as she was intrigued by what she had found, and said:
"This attic is packed with odd things. Come over here. Look at this..."
Elio finished walking up the stairs and followed his sister, who was browsing through old pictures.
"This is so funny." she said, passing the pictures to Elio.
"What is funny?" asked Elio.
"What?" asked Gaia. "Do you not recognise him?"
"Who?!" asked again Elio.
"It's dad!" exclaimed Gaia.
"Dad? You're right. I didn't recognise him dressed up like this. He looks a little bit like Libero. They're basically wearing the same clothes!"
Finally, after a very long time, he smiled. Gaia, in the meantime, kept looking at the other pictures.
"Have you seen this one? I think it's a very young Libero. He seems so serious and sullen that it doesn't even look like him."
The picture portrayed a pale and frail child with a blank stare in his eyes.
"He looks so alienated" commented Gaia.
In the picture, he was standing in the garden and was holding in his hands his toy cars. The photograph had been taken at dusk with the sun setting behind him. Libero was alone in the picture, however there was a second shadow running along his.
Elio spotted it and worriedly said:
"Can you see this shadow?"
"Which one?"
Elio began feeling nervous.
"This one here. Do you not see it? This shadow does not correspond to anything" he said, pointing his finger at the picture.
"This? It's the shadow of the tree."
Gaia was not really convinced either, but she tried to reassure her brother.
Elio did not want his sister to think he had gone crazy, and decided to switch topic of discussion.
"We have to go downstairs. Aunt Ida made me come here and call you. She needs your help."
"Are you staying in here?" asked Gaia as she was jumping towards the stairs.
Elio thought that there was not a chance that he was going to stay there on this own.
"No, I'm coming with you" he replied.
Gaia found her aunt busy making dinner and began helping her out.
Elio was about to lay down on the couch when he heard Ida's voice.
"What are you doing? Come and help us. It's not time to rest. Set the table, please.
"Where's Libero?" asked Gaia.
"Surely he's closing up the stables." replied Ida. "Elio, if you are finished, could you go and call him over here?"
"I'll go." offered Gaia smiling.
"No, I need you here. Let your brother go."
"Yes." Elio tiredly replied, who was unusually hungry.
He stepped out of the front door and looked around for his cousin, who was sitting on the tractor in the field and watching the sky.
Elio walked towards him and had the impression that everyone in the family had gone deaf: he called him several times, but Libero did not answer.
"I really hope it's contagious. At least I'll be able to lay down and I won't need to listen to anyone's orders. " meditated Elio.
He had to walk right under the tractor to have an answer.
"Why are you yelling?" asked Libero.
"You should come inside. Dinner's ready" replied Elio.
"Come on up." said Libero, as if he did not hear any of the words Elio was saying.
"Up there?"
"Yeah,