Page 27 of Ti Amo

“I’ll translate. Eve, look at me baby.” Her daughter’s head turned and she blinked up at her mother. “Papa said,firefly, firefly, yellow and bright… bridle the filly under your light… the son of the king is ready to ride… firefly, firefly, fly by his side.”

“Would my girls like me to tell you the story of the firefly that goes with the lullaby?”

Mira chuckled and sat up against the headboard. She brought Eve in her lap and cradled her against her breast so she could face Giovanni. Her daughter refused to be held like an infant. She broke free of her arms and crawled over to the center of the bed and plopped down clapping her hands, bobbing her head.

“Looks like you have a fan of your singing. You want daddy to tell us a story baby? Go ahead. We can’t wait to hear it.”

He cleared his throat. “When I was a little boy my Papa would take me into Tuscany whenever he had overnight business. He always made it an adventure. On summer nights we would go to Lake Garda and fish long before the sun was set to rise. I can remember sitting in the boat with him and my Uncle Rocco on the lake with the forest surrounding us. I was terrified of the swarming lights buzzing everywhere.”

“Hear that baby? Daddy’s scared of fireflies!” Mira joked.

Giovanni gave a snort. “If you’re going to make fun I’ll skip the story.”

Mira poked out her lip in a fake pout. Eve leaned back a bit to look up at her mother with concern. “Sorry Papa, please continue. I promise to be good.”

He ran his hand across her thigh, “Papa likes it when you’re bad.” He wiggled his brows.

Mira rolled her eyes. “The story?”

“Yes, yes the story. Let’s see where did I leave off? Oh! At night the lake would light up with a million fireflies blinking. Fish would jump out of the lake to catch them!” Giovanni’s hand shot up and tickled Eve. His daughter exploded in giggles. “They love to eat the glowing bugs. My papa and Uncle Rocco would catch tons of fish because of the frenzy in the waters,” he said, pulling a laughing Eve toward him and burying his face into her tummy to blow air bubbles. Eve kicked her small feet and beat her fist on the mattress continuing to giggle. “I asked my papa why did theluccioladance around dangerously close to the water. Didn’t they know the fish would eat them?”

Eve flung herself at him. She dropped on his chest and laid there. Mira eased down into the covers and moved in close. Her hand rested on his hip. “My papa sang the nursery rhyme to me. He said that the firefly was the most important gift from God. They were harborers of the light, a beacon of good fortune for any man led by their magnificent glow. A threat to the creatures of darkness who worked to destroy and lead righteous men from their destined path. And that is what you are for melucciola, my light out of darkness.”

When Giovanni closed his eyes he saw his father on the lake, forcing him to remain seated next to him and face his fears of the glowing bugs buzzing everywhere in the darkness. He was just five and his mother often had no say if he could accompany his father on these trips. Giovanni always felt like he was such a big boy on those trips. Funny how Don Tomosino who never showed a soft side to family or friends felt relaxed enough to share a nursery rhyme with his boy.

“A long time ago there were princesses and princes, witches and trolls and a whole kingdom that lived off magic. Actually there was a princess who was friends to everyone in the kingdom, and she was promised to a prince born of a righteous birth from a Roman King. Everyone in the land was overjoyed except a jealous mean ole troll who wanted the princess for himself. Unable to resist the urge to possess her he stole her in the night before the wedding and took her across Lake Garda.”

Eve kept her face pressed to his chest listening to his heartbeat as he told the story. He kissed the top of his daughter’s curly head but his eyes remained locked on Mira’s lovely face, turned toward his, as he continued the story. “Everyone in the kingdom was saddened and the king was confused. He didn’t know how to rescue her. Lake Garda was dark during the day but the darkest at night. Men would get lost in its waters trying to cross the channel. Rumors of man-eating fish swimming the lake scared every man, woman, or child. But the prince could not be separated from the fair princess and vowed to risk it all to save her from a fate worse than death; losing her soul by marrying that mean ole troll. The princess was aware of the dangers her prince faced in trying to rescue her. She knew that his love for her would make him foolish in his haste to find her and devised her own plan.”

“What plan was it?” Mira asked.

“A dangerous but brave plan.” Giovanni smiled. “She plied the troll with wine promising to be his bride. She waited for him to fall asleep. When he passed out, she began to sing into the night, calling out to her prince. The fireflies were birthed from her lovely voice. The ugliest, filthiest, fattest, hairiest black bugs rose from the rank retched swamp that the troll dwelled. The princess’ beautiful voice transformed them. Rubbing their hind legs together in harmony with the princess’ voice they emitted little sparks causing fires to blink in their bellies and light the night. She sent them across the lake to guide her prince to her singing all the way…firefly, firefly, yellow and bright … bridle the filly under your light, the son of the king is ready to ride, firefly, firefly, fly by my side.”

Eve had drifted to sleep on Giovanni’s chest, and Mira looked down at her surprised. She hadn’t even fed her yet. Eve never went back to sleep after waking in the morning. Nearing her terrible twos she gave her mother the blues if cereal wasn’t in a bowl for her within minutes.

“Looks like my littleluccioladidn’t like the story. She fell asleep.”

“You are amazing with her,” Mira said.

“She’s my rib. She understands me.”

Mira leaned in and kissed him softly on the lips. “Ti amo,” she said between the kiss.

“I missed you very much, Bella. I thought of you every day, and night.”

“I thought of you too. Often.”

A sly smile formed on Giovanni’s lips.

“Did you know that your army has arrived?” she asked changing the subject. “There are like three trucks outside and at least half a dozen men walking around. Scared me half to death.”

He frowned. “Did they see you?”

She remembered her little nightshirt and how he fixated on her breasts when she returned to bed this morning. “No. No one saw me,” she said.

“Good.”

“So it’s still going on?”

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