March 1587 Arancia, Italy
On the hill that overlooked the small town of Arancia stood a lone figure consumed in sorrow. No tears escaped Paolo's hazel eyes, but he was in no less pain. In the distance, smoke billowed from a small hut that he once called home. He could see the flames beginning to snake out one of the windows his father had created, leaving black scars.
His father.
Barely a week past spring, the wintery chill still clung to the twilight hours. The thick layer of clouds were beginning to thin out. To the mountains in the east Paolo could just make out the changing color of the sky from the rising sun. Looking up towards the heavens, the young man mouthed a silent prayer.
Never again would Paolo return to the town of Arancia. With both of his parents having succumbed to a mysterious fever there was no one to argue otherwise.
The last image of his parents was of them lying in their bed, eyes closed, holding the other's hand.
Present Time
Evan Jase sat in the front seat of his dad's truck. The angry rumble of tire on pavement did little to drown out the angry lecture he was receiving because of poor grades. An impromptu parent-teacher conference set off the motions of discipline within the Moore household, starting with his mom. When Marilyn answered the house phone at three in the afternoon, she did not expect to hear about her son's unsatisfactory citizenship. She immediately reprimanded Evan and told him his dad would deal with him. And when her husband John arrived home from a local job, Evan knew his life would cease to exist--figuratively--for the next week or more.
"I'll ask you again, and I don't want some crappy answer. I dunno and I forgot are not okay," John said with sarcasm. He was trying to focus as much as he could on the road ahead of him, but the disappointment in his son was overbearing.
Evan shrugged his shoulders. "Sometimes I don't feel like doing it. So I don't."
"That's it then? That's all you have to say?"
"Were you hoping for something better?"
"Don't get smart!" John demanded. "This is your senior year. You only have, what, three months left? Now is not the time to be screwing up. How the hell do you even get a D in word processing? All you do is sit in your room on that computer all damn day. You should have an A in that class."
Evan ignored his dad. Secretly, he wanted his dad to rile up. If he were to be grounded he wouldn't have to deal with his family. He knew that ignoring was a much better way to earn punishment than any kind of remark.
"So, you have nothing to say, huh? That's how it's gonna be?" John was ready to really dig into his son, but he didn't want to lose control of the truck.
Evan had nothing to say.
"You just wait until we get home. You won't have nothing but a mattress left in your room when I'm done with it."
The rest of the drive was in silence. Not even the radio was on to break the awkward tension that filled every nook and cranny of the cab. When they arrived home, Evan trudged into the house and upstairs to his room. He had nothing left to care about. If John took away his computer and phone and TV, well, they meant nothing to Evan--at least not lately.
****Note: content is incomplete. Changes may occur. This is a preview of my upcoming story. My other work and future updates can be found at delfinoplaza.com. Feel free to write me with comments or questions at thedelfinoplaza@gmail.com.