Tweedledum and Tweedledee (6 page)

Victor went quiet all of a sudden. He stopped drumming on his pants.

"What's wrong buddy?" I asked.

"Call a doctor," he said.

"What? Why? Is something wrong with you? Are you alright?"

Victor turned his head and looked at me. Then he screamed: "CALL A DOCTOR!"

14

April 2014

S
TARTLED,
I
JUMPED UP
and ran to the phone. I called the front desk downstairs.

"Yes?" the lady asked.

"I need a doctor to the penthouse suites," I said. I looked at Victor who was walking in circles, massaging his temples while humming. I was scared he was having a seizure, but he wasn't shaking or rolling his eyes like he usually did.

"What is the emergency, Mrs.?"

"Mrs. Frost. I have to say I'm not sure. But my son is not feeling well, I think." I bit my lip, knowing it sounded like I was just a crazy overprotective mother.

"Okay," the woman said. "We have a doctor onboard. I'll send him to your room right away."

"Thanks." I hung up, slightly surprised that the woman had taken me this seriously. I looked at Victor.

The door to Christoffer's room opened and he peeked out. "What's going on? Is Victor alright?"

"Yes. Everything is fine, Christoffer. Just go to bed. Victor is just having a fit that's all."

"Do you need any help, Emma?" he asked.

I was moved by his compassion. I wasn't used to that from a boy his age. "No. It's sweet of you. But I'll take care of it."

"Okay," Christoffer said, and closed the door again.

I stared at Victor. His body was shaking all over. "Could you please tell me what is going on? Why did I have to call for a doctor?" I asked.

Victor was humming and walking. It was about to drive me nuts. "Please, just talk to me, buddy. Tell me what's going on."

"Three, four, five…three, four, five," he kept repeating.

"Three, four, five? What does that mean?" I asked.

But Victor had somehow escaped to his own little world and I could no longer reach him. He was humming and saying the numbers over and over again.

There was a knock on the door and I ran to open it. Outside stood a small elderly man in a white shirt with a brown bag in his hand.

"Did someone call for a doctor?"

"Yes. Yes, I did," I said. Then I looked up at the door leading to my suite and saw the number three hundred and thirty eight. I looked at the doctor.

"Three, four, five," I said.

He looked at me like I had lost my mind.

"Three, four, five," I repeated.

"Excuse me? I was told there was some sort of emergency?" the doctor asked.

"Yes. I believe it is in room three hundred and forty-five," I said and closed the door behind me, making sure it locked. "Follow me."

We walked down the corridor and I knocked on the door leading to room three hundred and forty five. "Hello?"

No one answered.

"Listen. I…," the doctor said. I could tell he thought I had lost it.

"Wait a second," I said and knocked again. "Hello?"

There still was no answer. I had a bad feeling. "I think we need to get in there immediately," I said. "I bet you have a key?"

"There is nothing here that indicates that it should be necessary. I really don't think…"

"But I do. There is something very wrong here," I said. "We need to go in immediately."

The doctor inhaled deeply and looked at me. "Are you sure, I really don't want to…"

"Just do it, damn it!"

The doctor shook his head and found the key-card in his pocket. He slid it through the reader and the door clicked open. I stormed in, thinking I was either going to save someone's life or get arrested for breaking and entering.

Luckily it was the first of the two. On the floor inside the suite, I spotted Mrs. Colombo lying pale and lifeless. The doctor gasped and stormed towards her.

"She's out cold," he said and kneeled next to her. He turned her to the side to prevent choking.

I spotted something on the table and picked it up. "Insulin. She must be a diabetic," I said.

"Let me see," the doctor said. "She's probably suffering from hypoglycemia.
I have injectable glucagon
in my bag." He opened his bag, pulled something out and gave the woman a shot in the thigh. Soon after, she woke up. The doctor helped her get to her bed.

"What happened?" she asked confused.

"You fainted," the doctor said and put a pillow behind her neck.

"Alberto," the woman suddenly cried. "Is he back?"

"You need to get some rest," the doctor said. "Where is Mr. Colombo?"

"He went downstairs to look for our son. He’s been missing since last night. We thought he just went to the casino. We know he spent some money there last night, but he never came back. I guess I got a little upset and forgot to eat."

"I'm sure your son is fine," the doctor said. "You shouldn't let yourself get upset like this. Now let us get ahold of your husband and get him to come back here."

"I can call him," Mrs. Colombo said. "If you'll just hand me my phone over there."

15

April 2014

M
R.
C
OLOMBO WAS CLEARLY
distressed when he stormed through the door to his own suite. His wife was still lying in her bed.

"Ivana," he yelled. "Are you alright?"

Ivana explained to her husband what had happened. He grabbed my hand and shook it. I felt slightly star-struck. Alonzo Colombo was probably the biggest star in race driving in Europe right now. Not that I knew much about the sport, but I did know that he drove for Ferrari and that he was a seven-time Formula One World Champion. He was regarded as one of the greatest drivers of all time.

"Thank you for being there," he said.

I smiled and blushed. "No problem, Mr. Colombo. I'm just glad I could help."

"Call me Alonzo, please. Let me know if there is anything we can do for you in return."

I shook my head. "I don't need anything, thank you."

Alonzo Colombo turned to look at his wife. "I told her all day to eat. But she's been so upset over Alberto's disappearance that she could hardly get anything down. I had a feeling something like this might happen. I never should have left you."

"Did you find him?" Ivana asked nervously.

Alonzo bit his lip and shook his head. "No. I talked to a guy working at the casino who dealt black-jack cards for him early in the morning. One of the cabin-boys told me he helped Alberto get into the suite around eight in the morning. Alberto told him he had lost his key. The bartender at the casino served him a drink around eight-thirty. After that, the leads end. No one has seen him since then."

"So he was fine this morning? That's a relief," Ivana said.

"Yes. It is. But what worries me is that no one has seen him since. And I’ve been all over the place. The upper deck, the pool area, the wave pool, all the bars and restaurants in this place. Even the tennis courts. He was nowhere." Alonzo Colombo sighed. "I don't understand where he can be. I mean, he was drinking in the morning hours…maybe he's passed out somewhere?"

"Could he have left the ship?" I asked. They both looked at me. "Not that it’s any of my business."

"Oh my God, Alonzo. The woman is right. What if he came back here, saw my note and knew we were angry, then left the ship?" Ivana had tears in her big eyes. "Oh my God, Alonzo. What if he has run away?"

"Now don't get yourself upset again, Mrs. Colombo," the doctor said. "You need to get something to eat right away. Let me order some food for you."

Ivana didn't answer the doctor. She kept looking at her husband. Alonzo Colombo was getting red cheeks. "He knows he's not allowed to leave the ship on his own," he hissed angrily.

"Oh God, Alonzo. It's all our fault. We've been too harsh on the boy and now he has run away."

Alonzo's anger turned to sadness. "It's me isn't it? I've been too selfish. I know I have. It's been all about me the last several years."

"You think he ran away?" Ivana asked.

"Let's not jump to conclusions," Alonzo said. "He could still be on the ship passed out somewhere, drunk." Alonzo hit his fist into the dresser next to him. "I can't believe they would give alcohol to a fourteen year-old. I'm gonna sue those bastards."

"You really think your anger will help get our boy back home?" Ivana asked.

I looked at the doctor, who was still on the phone ordering food for Ivana Colombo. Meanwhile, the couple was fighting heavily now and yelling at each other. I was starting to get really uncomfortable.

"Why would he be drinking in the first place? He's just a kid," Alonzo said. "It's all your fault. You should have kept an eye on him."

"Typically, you to push the responsibility over on me. Aren't you the father?"

"You tell me. You’d been with so many guys when I met you, he could be anyone’s, couldn't he?"

"How dare you?"

This was getting to a point where I was no longer comfortable in the room.

The doctor hung up. "There. Food is on its way up. Shouldn't be long. Now, remember to eat. I don't want to have to come up here again."

Ivana wasn't listening to him. She was snorting and staring angrily at her husband. Alonzo grabbed a vase and threw it against the wall in anger. It shattered all over the floor.

"Maybe it’s time to call the police?" I said. "The ship leaves tonight and, if you want to find your son before that, you might need some help. Especially if he’s gone into town."

They both looked at me like I had overstepped some boundary and entered where I didn't belong. I shrugged. "Just a suggestion. I don't know if they'll do much when he hasn't been gone for longer than he has, but it's worth a shot. After all, with your name and status, they might be willing to bend the rules a little. What if it was a kidnapping? It wouldn't look good on the city's reputation would it? Sorrento is known as a place many celebrities and rich people spend their vacations. They’d want to have a reputation for being a safe place wouldn't they? Anyway, it was just a suggestion. I need to get back. I left two children all alone in my suite. Hope you feel better soon Mrs. Colombo."

16

April 1978

H
E HAD KEPT THE
twins. No one else wanted anything to do with them, so no one questioned it when Officer Maraldi decided to take them back to his own house and lock them inside his basement. At first, he had no idea what to do with them. He kept them locked away and fed them using a bowl he placed on the floor like they were animals. They didn't speak at all. They never told him where to find the rest of the Slovenski Gang and it irritated him that he had come so close to nailing the gang, but still hadn't succeeded. The gang still roamed the streets of his district in the city of Rome and there were days when he was certain they were laughing at him while they did. Every day, he had tourists come to his station and report stolen passports, wallets and cameras. And every day he had to tell them the same thing.

"We'll look for your stolen goods, but I'm afraid I can't promise you much."

It annoyed him immensely and, at first, he thought that if he brought the twins to his house, he would be able to get them to talk eventually and they would tell him about the gang's whereabouts, but it never happened. He tried everything. He beat the crap out of them, he fed them and promised ice cream for dessert if they told him, then beat them again because they didn't answer. He tried it all, but they had shut up and refused to speak a word.

Officer Maraldi knew they were capable of talking. He heard them at night speaking to one another. Lying in his bed upstairs, he could hear their puny voices through the ventilation shaft. But he didn't understand a word they spoke.

Two years had passed now since he brought them to his house and he had found a new way they could be of use to him. It was actually his colleague, Luigi who had come up with the idea. He was the only one who knew that the twins were in Maraldi's house.

"We could make money off of them," he said one night when they were hanging out in a park nearby playing Bocce.

"How so?" Officer Maraldi asked, then threw his metal ball. It landed in the sand with a thud.

"Fights," Luigi said and walked to the end of the lane, lifted his ball, aimed and threw it. It landed closer than Maraldi's. Luigi smiled. "We can arrange fights with them."

Maraldi liked the idea right away. So one Friday late afternoon, he walked down into the basement. Afraid of getting beaten up again, the twins crawled backwards into a corner as soon as they saw him. Maraldi covered them up in a blanket and tied them down, then carried them into his old truck and drove them downtown. Luigi met him behind the old building at the harbor. Maraldi opened the truck and they carried the twins out.

They didn't remove the blanket from their faces until they were inside the ring. Then Maraldi and Luigi both walked behind the closed gate. The twins both looked at Maraldi. For a split second, he wondered if this was going to be the last he saw of them. There was no way they would survive this, he thought to himself.

When the pit-bull entered the arena, the twins turned to look at it. Then they whimpered loudly. The crowd laughed and then clapped. Bets were made and people were watching the spectacle with great enthusiasm and fascination. Never had they seen anything like this.

"Quite the crowd those
Spider-boys
of yours can draw," the guy arranging the fight said to Maraldi. "It's the biggest crowd this year. Too bad we can only do this once." Then he left laughing.

The pit-bull growled. It came closer to the twins. It was drooling and snarling. The twins crab-walked backwards. The crowd cheered on the dog. The twins looked up at Maraldi like they expected him to step in.

But, of course, he didn't. He watched the spectacle with as much joy and captivation as the rest of the crowd. The dog roared, then jumped them and let its teeth sink into their back. Blood gushed out from the wound and the twins both screamed. The dog drew back, then circled them before it attacked again, biting one of their arms, forcing them to fall to the ground. The crowd was cheering…yelling and screaming for the dog to kill them.