Page 1 of Rome for the Holidays
ONE
VINCENZO SALVATORE
ROME, ITALY
TEN YEARS OLD.
“But mama,why must I write this letter? It is stupid.”
His mother whirled on him, “Vincenzo. You will write the letter because it is required of you for school.”
He went to argue, and she held her finger up, “And if you do NOT write it, I will tell your father you are misbehaving, and we shall see what he does then.”
Vincenzo grumbled under his breath, turning away from his mother to return to his room.
His teacher had given an assignment to the entire class today that made Vincenzo grind his molars together in frustration.
She wanted them all to become pen pals with a student from a small town in America. So, they could better understand English.
Vincenzo knew he would never use his English, so he thought it was a waste of time.
But his father insisted that he learn English, Spanish, French, and Russian.
Vincenzo hated learning all languages, yet he also knew he would take over for his father one day, so he knew it was best to learn what he could.
While he didn’t want to write the letter, he would.
He just needed to write about his family, if he had any siblings, what his parents did, and anything else he chose.
He knew he couldn’t tell what his father did, but he could answer everything else.
He wrote about his little sister, Elena, and his little brother Elio, and how he liked being older because he got to be in charge.
He wrote about his cat, Amara, and how he found her on the side of the road when he walked home from school one day with his best friend Giovanni, and they saw this tiny ball of different colored fluff.
He wrote about how they went over to it, expecting it to be nothing, but it lifted a small head and meowed at them.
Vincenzo had picked it up, put it in his pocket, brought it home, and showed it to his mom.
She had been hesitant at first but had given in.
Vincenzo wrote about how his father also fell in love with the tiny kitten. Vincenzo even saw Amara asleep on his father’s shoulders once.
He wrote about the house he lived in, how it had a big courtyard with a fountain, a large fence surrounding it, and a magnificent view of the ocean from his bedroom.
He talked about how great of a cook his mother was and how he loved the meringue that she made, how delicious it was and how he begged her to make it for every special occasion.
He wrote about how great gelato was and how sea bass was his favorite food, especially when it had baked vegetables.
He finally finished the letter by writing that he hoped to hear back from whoever got his letter.
That they could be friends. He wrote about how neat it would be if he could have a friend in the United States.
He ended the letter and put it in the envelope his teacher had sent along.
He made sure he took his time to write it in perfect English as his teacher required and sat back, glad his mother made him do the assignment.
He put the envelope in his bag, then went to find Amara.
