Amira
Dante walks back to me, along with Ben.
“Looks like they made up...” he says.
“That's good news.”
In just a few hours, I learn that ‘angry Bruno’ can be a very intense man. I still don't feel entirely comfortable in his presence, especially when he shows possessive behavior towards Sarah.
“Yeah, I've never seen such intense love before.” He whispers with a smile.
The little boy's stomach growls loudly.
“Ben, are you hungry?” I ask, he nods quickly as he plays with a rope in his little hands. “Let me see what I can get you.”
I get up from my seat, but Dante holds my arm and slowly makes me sit down again.
“I don't think it's a good idea for you to go over there, Bruno and Sarah must be making...peace.”
“Oh, I better wait for them to get back then.”
“Can I go over there?” Ben asks Dante, pointing to the corner of the boat where there are some nets made into a big ball.
Dante, ‘the cautious one’ gets up and walk to them.
“Let's see if you can play there.”
He looks for sharp or dangerous instruments on the floor; when he sees that they are only nets, he lets him play freely. He watches him for a few moments and then comes back to me.
We both try to cope with the awakeners by using Ben as an excuse; being alone means trouble, means intimacy.
The last time didn't end very well.
I decide to break the ice at the same time he talks; as a result we are bumping into each other, overlapping our words.
“Go ahead.” We said at the same time.
He gives me a shy smile. Takes a big breath and asks. “How do you feel?”
I pause a few moments to examine myself before my answer. I need to figure out what I'm really feeling.
“Confused, I think...I don't know.”
He looks at me so intensely that I have to look away.
“I know my father and my brother were horrible men, I don't feel pain for their deaths, but at the same time I feel that it's wrong, I should feel something, right?”
He changes his posture by resting his elbows on his knees; he looks relaxed but at the same time, defeated.
“Families don’t hurt to each other Amira, they might be blood related, but they are far away from family. You need to nourish your relationships to call them love ones.”
“Do you feel love for your brother?”
“I don't remember much, so it would be weird to love someone I don’t really know,” he stops to consider the rest of his words. “I just feel gratitude and respect for him, for now.”
“You don’t remember anything from your childhood?”
I'm really interested. He must have an extraordinary defense mechanism, it's not surprising to me that he turned his mind off to endure my father's terrible punishments and atrocities.
