Quarter Moon

Maria Grazia Gullo - Massimo Longo

Quarter Moon

The Sentinels of Campoverde

Translated by Laura Jurinich

Copyright © 2019 M.G. Gullo – M. Longo

The cover image and the graphics were created and edited by Massimo Longo

All rights reserved

ISBN

ISBN-13:

Table of Contents

Prologue

"Everything will be alright, you're a big boy now...Go back and play with the other kids. We'll meet each other again, I promise!"

The kid watched him with teary eyes as he was walking away; him, the one person who had been playing with him since forever.

The kid ran back towards the rides in the sunny park, where he went back playing with the other children of the neighbourhood, as the memory of his imaginary friend was already fading away slowly.

After making his way among the other kids, he could finally get on the slide finally. He didn't waste any second and he started slipping down the slide, pushing as hard as he could. He didn't even get to slide until the end, when he saw a little blonde girl run sneak away from her mother and run towards his feet. He did not manage to slow down and hit her violently.

The little girl lost her balance and hit her head on the concrete edge of the slide.

He tried to reach the little girl and make sure that she was okay, but he got unkindly pulled away by her mother, who came at her aid. All of a sudden, a crow of grandparents and mothers gathered around the poor little girl.

As he was trying to crawl his away from the adults' legs, he only could only hear

that she had fainted. "Somebody call an ambulance!"

With that voice fiercely echoing in his ears, fears began assailing him. He ran towards the woods at the rear of the park.

Suddenly, everything around him became dark. A cold wind was carrying strange noises. Unknown verses started echoing together with the chattering of the parents in the park. They were coming from behind a group of trees, from which a long shadow was revealing itself. Then, that voice that was propagating from different directions became more and more insistent. He was reaching out to him more and more, until he had the feeling it was whispering in his ears:

"Damnabilis ies iom, mirdo cavus mirdo, cessa verunt ies iom, mirdo oblivio ement, mors damnabils ies iom, ospes araneus ies iom…"

He put his head in his hands to muffle the sound, but it was useless. He dropped to his knees and he closed his eyes...

"Damnabilis ies iom, mirdo cavus mirdo, cessa verunt ies iom, mirdo oblivio ement, mors damnabils ies iom, ospes araneus ies iom…"

First Chapter

He's so elusive when I try hugging him...

"Elio, Elio, come over! Help me with the groceries before the storm comes, please."

Elio was staying still in his brand new shoes and was staring at his mother, who was relentlessly juggling all her errands.

"Elio! Don't just stand there! Take this!" She shook him up and put a big bag full of vegetables in his arms.

Elio was not willing to do anything else. He climbed up the outer steps of the building, turned around and pushed the door open. He began staring at that unbearable red flicking light of the lift. Then, he gave up on waiting, and walked up the stairs to his flat. He placed the groceries on the kitchen table and walked straight into his bedroom to listen to some music on his bed.

Just long enough to go upstairs and his mother tiredly went look for him.

She stood at the door yelling: "What are you doing? We aren't finished yet, come and help me!".

"Yeah, on my way..." replied Elio without moving. He actually just wanted to get rid of her.

Giulia walked away, hoping that this time it would be different. She was hopeless. She was struggling to encourage her own son, who was becoming more and more indifferent.

From the entrance, he could hear the clear steps of his sister that was calling his name with cheerful voice. "Elio! Elio! Move your butt away from the bed and help mum. She's waiting for you downstairs." she yelled knowing that it was going to be in vain.

Elio did not move a single inch. Instead, he turned up the volume of the music and kept staring at the ceiling, as if nothing was happening

Giulia, who was more exhausted from the argument with her son than from the fatigue, ended up unloading the groceries with her daughter, Gaia. As she was walking up the stairs of their five-story building, where the lift seemed to be out of order every other day (and ironically, it always seemed to be not working every time she had to take groceries upstairs), she kept thinking about Elio. The building was painted white and orange, just like every other council estate of Gialingua, the neighbourhood where they were living. Twenty families lived in that estate, distributed in twenty flats facing on the opposite sides of the building itself.

"This is the last time you are doing this!" she yelled at him from the kitchen. "We'll fix this as soon as your father gets home!"

Elio was not even listening to her as he was immersed in that monotonous music. Nothing and no one would shake the feelings of boredom and paranoia that were surrounding him. His dull world was like a shelter to him. That was his personality and the world had to get over it.

Gaia was totally different: she was fifteen years old, with bright eyes and short black hair. Twenty-four hours were not enough for her to keep up with all her interests.

Giulia was a dynamic woman too. But, as opposed to her daughter, she had blonde curly hair, was a bit overweight but was quick and determined. She was the classic forty-two-year-old mother: always on a tight schedule trying to maintain a balance between work and family.

It was dinner time. However, no noises could be heard from Elio's bedroom. In fact, he had not moved since he ran towards his bed and put his headphones on.

He heard the sound of a key in the front door lock. At the same moment, with the door still semi-closed, Giulia's angry voice was already raging on her husband:

"We cannot keep doing this!"

"Honey, let me get into the house first..."

Giulia kissed her husband and went back to complaining.

"It's about Elio, isn't it?" he sounded rather resigned when asking.

"Yes, it is him." replied Giulia.

In the meantime, Carlo took out of his bag a food container that he was going to leave in the kitchen. Then, he was going to put his briefcase into the wardrobe. Inside the briefcase, he would always keep a spare t-shirt because of the heatwave that was striking the region that May.

He was a kind, forty-two-year-old, tall and thin man. His hair had completely gone grey, but once it was like his daughter's. His tapered face was hollowed; on his aquiline nose he was always wearing his round metal glasses.

"Can we talk about it later?" he kindly asked his wife, hoping that she would distress.

"Yeah, you're right honey." she replied, but she kept on complaining until dinner was served.

Luckily, Gaia could not stop talking about her day, looking at her little disappointments in a positive light.

Giulia had just finished setting the table when she said:

"Call in Elio."

"It's pointless and you know it." she replied. "You know that he's not gonna move an inch unless dad calls him..."

Giulia, then turned to her husband:

"He's been in that room since I drove him back home from school. He's getting worse."

"Didn't we say that he was going to come back on his own from this moment on?"

"I was in that area...I was doing groceries..."

"You always make up excuses to protect him, but then you complain about his behaviour!"

Carlo was shaking his head as a sign of disapproval. Then, he got off the couch and went to the kid's room.

He entered the bedroom without knocking and found Elio exactly in the same spot where Giulia had left him. His was staring with dead eyes to the ceiling, was still wearing his white Wi-Fi headphones, and had not even taken his shoes off.

Carlo could not believe that he was the same boy he would always go for a bike ride with. Now he was sixteen years old, was as tall as him, and his green eyes were still beautiful, but they seemed as if they were dead. In the last couple of years, he had been suffering from depression. Carlo had not heard his laughter in such a long time that he had forgotten how it sounded like. He was feeling sorry that he could not spend as much time as before with him. However, he doubted that, as of now, his attention would be appreciated.

Unfortunately, many years prior to that, Carlo had lost his job following the financial crisis. Following an increase in earnings, the company was relocated abroad, like many others.

Carlo struggled to find a new job. At the end, he was offered a position in a different city. Every day he had to cover a great distance and change several means of transportation, which caused him to be away from his family for most of the day. He would come back home so tired that he would be absent-minded. After dinner, he would lie down on couch and inevitably fall asleep despite his attempts to keep his eyes open.

Carlo hinted that Elio should take his headphones off. Elio agreed with him just to avoid being scolded.

"It's dinner time. Come and eat." He ordered. "Your mother said you've been stuck in here since 4 pm!"

Elio got up from the bed, and with his eyes on the ground, walked past his father. Then he walked towards the kitchen, without even making an effort with his father.

Gaia was already sitting at the table that she had just prepared, and was texting her friends and making plans with them.

Elio sat in front of his sister. Yet, he did not speak a single word to her throughout the whole dinner.

The dinner turned out to be uneventful. Everybody was chatting about their daily occurrences, except for Elio, who only ate two bites of a sandwich and went back to his room as soon as possible. His mother was disappointed by this gesture, and so was his father, who looked very grim faced.

When only Giulia and Carlo were left in the room, whilst they were clearing the table, they started addressing the same old topic: their son's bad behaviour.

"What are we doing wrong? I just cannot understand! Gaia is so dynamic, happy and full of life!" said Giulia

"I neglect him way too much!" blamed himself Carlo, as always.

"You're not the only father in the world that has to spend many hours away from home. I, on the other hand, am at home every afternoon" she repeated again as she did not want her husband to feel the burden on his shoulder.

"It's not a matter of character, Giulia, because Elio was not like this before, and you know it!"

"I also wish it were not, Carlo, but kids change when they grow up. And then, they get worse and worse, don't they? At school it's a disaster. Hopefully he won't need to resist, otherwise we won't be able to send him to summer camp...we can't let him go to the summer school...he'll get bored!"

"Giulia, the other kids usually have fun at summer school. Francesca and Giuseppe's children are enjoying it very much. You know very well that he's not gonna do anything at summer camp! We need to find another option, something that makes him fight back. He doesn't even look alive. Do you remember how vital when we were his age?"

"Of course, I do!" My mother would yell on our doorstep that dinner was ready. But, most of the time, I would not even hear her because I was busy running in the fields and rolling over the grass. We were free and happy. We certainly cannot offer him this kind of life in the city. Yet, he does not know how to make the most of summer camp. He doesn't have any friends, no one to invite over and help him cure this monotony he's been living in. He doesn't let anyone get attached to him. Sometimes I ask myself how he feels about us. He's so elusive when I try hugging him..."

"Giulia, teens do not want to be cuddled by their mothers. I am sure he still loves us, but we're not communicating with him in the right way. We need to find a new one. We need to find a way to wake him up. Maybe he could talk to Ida? She's got two young boys. Maybe she can give us some useful advice. "

"Are you afraid he's gonna turn out like Libero? That he's suffering from a hereditary psychological disorder?"

"No, with Libero it was different. His problems were due to his father's death. But there is a common ground, and Ida's experience might be useful. She really worked miracles with that boy after they moved to the countryside. And she did that all on her own! With the farm too."

"Yeah, do mention it to her. I trust your sister. She has her own way of seeing things, and I like it."

"When are we getting the school report?" asked Carlo to his wife.

"June 19th..."

"It'll be too late to decide what to do. You should ask his Italian teacher to have a one-on-one discussion with you. We have to decide where we are sending off our kids. Applications to both summer camp and summer school close before the 19th." suggested Carlo.

"Yes, you are right. We need to be sure of the situation, although he doesn't do that badly at school. It's just that he doesn't put his soul in anything he does. Do you know that the new tenants from the second floor have moved in? They seem to be good people. Mrs Giovanna told me they moved here from Potenza. That's far! It certainly won't be easy for them at the beginning. They have a son who's the same age as Elio. I could invite him over some afternoon..."

Giulia then noticed that Carlo, who was lying on the couch, had already fallen asleep.

"Come on, honey, let's go to bed." She gently whispered to him to wake him up.

Second Chapter

A cold whisper was obsessing him

Elio was standing on the wide pavement in front of his school. All the other kids around him were speeding up, quickly getting in their parents' cars or chasing each other around on the way home. He, on the other hand, was dizzily looking everywhere for his mother's car as if it were his lifeline, hoping that she had not left yet after the one-on-one session with his Italian teacher.

After the school yard emptied out completely in a short amount of time, Elio gave up on waiting and started walking home. He hated walking. And he hated even more walking down that unbearable lime tree-lined road that connected school to his house.

He waited a few more minutes and then he decided to head home on his own. Then, he ordered his foot to move forward. For anybody else it might seem an easy task, but for Elio, who had been communicating very little with his legs, was a struggle.

He turned left on Via del Corso; and at the corner he found himself in front of that stretch of road he despised. A grove of lime trees ran along the main road. To anyone else it was only a grove of beautiful lime trees in bloom whose perfume was carried along by the wind, and made the whole neighborhood smell good. As he was starting down along the line of trees with difficulty, he got the feeling of being followed.

He turned around sharply and thought he had seen a black beast hide behind a tree.

"It can't be" he kept repeating to himself "Have I just seen a clothespin glasses on that strange dog's nose?"

He frighteningly went back to walking as he was seeing shadows behind the trees. As if that was not enough, the wind was blowing through the branches. A cold whisper was obsessing him; it was tickling his ears and then getting stuck in his brain.

He could not understand the meaning of those sounds. Caught up in that nasty feeling, he ordered his body to try and run away. He was sweating, and the more he ran, the more those sounds seemed to be chasing him and the closer the shadows seemed to be getting to him.

He started running as fast as he could. Then, he heard a brutal voice order him to stop running. He turned around sharply and once again noticed a black figure hide behind a tree nearby. He had already reached the intersection with the main road, which could have marked the end of that nightmare.

However, he felt a cold breeze behind his neck. He turned around again, this time without stopping, but something hit him hard and threw him onto the ground.

Elio was startled and curled up in a ball with his head in his arms.

In that very same moment, he heard a familiar voice call him:

"Elio! Elio! What the heck are you doing?"

It was his sister who was scolding him. She was upset because he had run into her. Afterwards, she realized that Elio was in an awful state.

She calmed down and asked:

"How are you feeling?"

Elio, after hearing her voice, raised his head.

Gaia noticed that he was freaked out, all sweaty and his face was paler than usual. For a second, she tried to figure out why he was running. It was very unusual for him. It seemed to her that he was running away from something or someone. In the meanwhile, she helped him up.

"Why were you running like that?" she asked. "Did something scare you?"

Gaia could not remember the last time Elio had run. Elio did not answer. The only thing he wanted was getting away from the road as soon as possible. He turned the corner without saying anything.

Gaia went worriedly after him.

"Elio!" she called him again.

"It's nothing!" replied Elio rudely. "It's really nothing!"

Elio's behaviour was causing Gaia to get angry again.

"It's nothing, uh? You literally just ran into me. Yet, you say it's nothing!"

Elio apologised to her only to avoid further discussions, which would only wear out his body even more.

"I'm sorry." he said.

Those superficial apologies ended up upsetting Gaia even more. However, she kept walking behind her brother, worried about him.

By Sunday morning, Carlo and Giulia finally had made a decision. As they were making breakfast, they were discussing their idea whilst waiting for their children to wake up.

"She was very kind to make that offer. Hopefully, the kids will behave." said Giulia with a big smile on her face.

It was a hard decision to make, but Carlo and she were feeling weirdly enthusiast about it, now that they had come to terms with it.

"Gaia will be glad." said Carlo. "Elio, on the other hand, will remain indifferent as usual."

"I'm not sure...Gaia made friends with a lot of kids in summer camp. She'll be upset. And about Elio, he’s gonna hate it anyway." commented Giulia.

"I can't wait anymore. I'm gonna wake them up." suggested Carlo firmly, and walked towards their rooms calling them by their name.

He did not even let me rinse their face.

"Your mother and I decided what you're going to do in the summer. School ends on Friday and on Sunday Morning you'll be all packed and off to the train station!"

"But summer camp doesn't start for another two weeks!" Gaia pointed out worriedly, who looking at her mother. From the kitchen door, she was watching what was going on in the corridor.

"As a matter of fact, you won't be going to summer camp this year" replied Giulia and by doing so, she confirmed Gaia's fears. "We thought we'd give you the opportunity of spending the summer in an old-fashioned way; the way we used to spend our summers when we were your age".

"What is that supposed to mean?" asked Gaia, whilst Elio was silent and grim-faced.

"You will be outdoors, run until you lose your breath, swim in the pond and spend the summer nights at local fairs" replied Carlo to his daughter.

Gaia could see her parents look at each other and laugh, and immediately thought they were pranking them.

"Stop pranking us. What's wrong with you this morning?"

"This isn't a prank. Aunt Ida offered to host you for the summer." Carlo finally revealed to his kids, who were staring at him incredulously.

"This is a nightmare. I'm going back to sleep!" said Gaia, who was visibly upset.

"I thought you would be happy" said her father.

"Happy? I had already reached my friends! I've waited all winter!"

"Gaia, you will make friends at auntie's too." Giulia encouraged her.

"But why would I want to? I like it there at summer camp. I can stay outdoors and dive into the lake. I don't need to be anywhere else."

"Yeah, you don't. But Elio does. He needs to change air." added Carlo.

"I knew it!" she blurted out. "It's because of Elio! Then why can't he go to Aunt Ida on his own?"

"We don't want him to go all alone." insisted Giulia.

"I am not his nanny!"

"But you are his big sister. Why aren't you saying anything, Elio?" asked Carlo.

Elio didn't say a word. He only shrugged his shoulders, which blew up Gaia's mind.

"So? Nothing? Nothing matters to you. Come on, tell mum and dad that you won't be doing anything in the country-side either."