“What are these?” I breathed out. “Soldier geese?”
The gaggle coming for me seemed to be waddling with purpose—Charge the people! Honk. Honk. Hooonk.This battle cry seemed to echo through their ranks.
“My father,” Rocco said. “He decided to get them. They make a lot of warning noise, as you can tell.”
“Please tell me his geese are not trained in weaponry.”
Rocco turned and noticed the gaggle running at us. One of the geese was doing this weird maneuver, pouncing from the ground, catching air, while honking his head off. I didn’t think they could cause real damage, but I saw the way the one was going after Ermanno. It was still going at him. He was acting like he was a knight and swinging a pretend sword at the goose. His technique wasn’t working. If anything, it was irritating it.
“They are coming for us.” This from my husband, who delivered this line with a deadly straight face.
In a move that made me cry out, he scooped me up and set me over his shoulder.
The gaggle converged.
I could feel one of them hitting my heel.
“These are nutso geese!” Then the look on my husband’s face, when he’d said,they are coming for us, came back to me in a delayed reaction, and I exploded with laughter.
The first true laugh since Aunt Lola had passed. It hurt, but it proved that no matter how badly we hurt, life finds a way to keep moving forward.
I was wheezing by the time we reached Ermanno, who was still feuding with his nemesis. The two gaggles cornered us, and when Ermanno went to kick out to scare them, he overcompensated somehow, and his leg went up before he went down.
“Geese m-m-merdaaaa!” he screamed. “I am in geese cock-a-doodie! These geese are like the inspector—inspector gadgets! They have used their shits to overtake me! Run,SignorFausti. Run for your wife’s life! Take me,bastardi!” He was hitting out, but when one backed up, another took its place.
They were, in fact, all going after the downed Fausti. They were pecking at his clothes and hair. I briefly wondered if Luca had fed them some kind of pellets or feed that made them thirsty for blood—our blood.
“Do not allow them to keep you down!” Rocco shouted. “Rise and fight!”
This entire scene was so ridiculous, and it was making me laugh so hard, I couldn’t even have slid off Rocco’s shoulder if I wanted to. I was limp with it. If I’d had a bladder issue, Rocco would’ve gotten it.
It must have caught.
Rocco started laughing too. Roaring with it.
Then, out of blue—or maybe not so out of blue, I just hadn’t noticed them—a bunch of soldiers made a wall around us. Rocco’s brothers, along with their wives, were in the mix. All of them, except for the most serious of soldiers, were laughing too. Especially when Romeo started to egg it on.
And, incidentally, he was the reason Ermanno knew the word “cock-a-doodie.” Sometimes Shorty spent time with Romeo andJuliette, and Romeo had him on a movie marathon roll. The movie “Misery” was one of his favorites.
“I, too, once had to battle geese!” Romeo yelled. “Irish geese. I had their cock-a-doodie inmyhair!”
“You saved me from it, though,” Scarlett said, her cheeks so pink from laughing, she was glowing.
Romeo kept his hands at his sides and bowed to her. On the way up, Dario slapped Romeo in the back of the head, but it was more playful, and everyone started to laugh harder. Especially when Ermanno was finally able to stand and started taking steps toward Romeo like he was going to hug him. Ermanno was covered in goose crap and feathers.
This time, the gaggle changed directions and went after Romeo, as if Ermanno had suddenly earned the title of their fearless leader, and he was sending them into battle.
“Ah no!” Romeo began to wave his hands in the air, making himself seem bigger, which was huge—there was nothing small about these men. He was doing it to Ermanno, too, who had a grin on his face. “You will not touchthishair!”
Finally, Rocco set me on my feet, keeping his hands on me, and he made a joke about the geese crap making it to Romeo’s head through his hair. It was unexpected, but everyone continued to laugh, sighing to catch their breath. It was the first time any of us had had some kind of pressure release as of late.
In the next second, it seemed as if the brothers looked at the same time toward a downstairs window overlooking the grounds. As if they all felt a presence we hadn’t. All but Scarlett, but I had a feeling she didn’t look on purpose. The window seemed to be an eye into the room where we’d be having lunch with Luca and Maggie Beautiful.
Luca was at the window, his eyes seemingly made of stone, drinking whiskey in slow sips.
“We all must go.” Rocco said it plainly, but I knew for Dario and Romeo, it was an order. When Ermanno went to join us, Rocco shook his head and sent him to a solider, who nodded at Rocco, accepting the silent order my husband had given him.
“He’s hungry,” I said, watching as Ermanno walked away.
