Bella Notte

by Jesse Kimmel-Freeman

  “It's beautiful. Thank you for showing me.” I squeezed his hand affectionately.

  “I'd like to show you all beautiful things, mia bella.”

  I once again saw that emotion behind his beautiful eyes that I couldn't understand.

  I stared out the window until everything blurred together into a beautiful shade of gold. My eyes felt heavy and, since I had hours to go until we were in Italy, I decided to let the sleep come.

  I dreamt once more of that beautiful song. As I sang the song in my dream, I felt strong arms close around me and hold me tightly to a warm body. I sighed, felt safe, and light, as though I were moving through the clouds myself. My dream faded away but the feeling of safety stayed as the darkness took me.

  As sleep began to fade, I felt as though I was lying upon a cloud. I blinked open my eyes and realized that I was in the room with the bed in it. How did I get here? I looked around and my answer was sitting in a chair across from me. Dominic was asleep curled in it.

  I knew I couldn't leave him like that, as I knew he had done this for me, so I climbed out of the bed and gently shook him.

  “Dom, Dom, you should take the bed now. Come on, get out of that uncomfortable chair,” I whispered by his ear, his hair tickled my cheek as I spoke to him.

  “Ah, Emma, my love, this is the best dream I've had yet. Stay with me, my dream woman,” he mumbled through barely open lips.

  I shoved him a little more forcefully. “Dom, wake up and please take the bed.”

  “Huh? Oh. Did I wake you, Emma? I'm sorry. I told you when you were falling asleep I wouldn't leave you, and I meant that.” His eyes still held the sleepy haze of a nap, but his body was more alert.

  “What? I've been trying to get you to lie down in the bloody bed. You wake me? Ha. Now, will you please sleep in the dang bed, so I don't worry you are going to injure yourself?” My tone became terse.

  “I do not want to leave you. I gave you my word. I will keep it.” He stifled a yawn.

  “Good grief, I will lie next to you on the damned thing if you will get some comfortable sleep.” I sighed. What are you doing?

  “But you will be uncomfortable; yes that is the correct word, very uncomfortable. I can stay awake for you, mia bella.” He yawned again, thus causing me to yawn as well.

  “Look you crawl in under the super fluffy comforter, and I will lay on the other side on top of the comforter, with a lighter blanket. Deal?” I yawned back at him again. Why am I so tired? Why aren't I thinking all these things through more thoroughly?

  My head ached with questions I didn't care to answer as I laid down once more. I felt the bed sink to the left of me as Dominic crawled into the bed. I pulled the light blanket off the foot of the bed and threw it over me. I thought he had fallen asleep fully because his breathing had a slow pattern to it, but, I was wrong.

  “Thank you, Emma. My Little Emma Bird,” he mumbled on a breeze of sleep.

  I fell asleep to the rhythmic breathing of Dominic and the gentle hum of the plane.

  When I awoke, I didn't know if it was day or night or where we were. The engine was off so I figured we had landed somewhere, but where?

  Dominic laid so close to me that I could see his golden lashes closed gently around his enchanting green eyes. Why is he so different now?

  The temptation to reach out and stroke the soft locks that tumbled around his face was too much for me. His breath came out in light caresses against my skin. How can he be so sweet and innocent and yet so cruel? How is this the same man from my birthday? What happened? My head once again swam with questions that I did not have any answers to, but the biggest problem was why I wasn't thinking about Mike. I simply laid there watching Dominic sleep in the dark room, feeling dreamily safe, and as if it was how everything was supposed to be. Something is seriously wrong in my head- my life is perfect back at home, it doesn't matter that I don't fit in there. Here I feel like everyone is like me- it is home. But I knew as much as I argued with myself there was something that felt right when I was with Dominic, and something that pushed Mike further away from me as a result. It scared me.

  The knock at the door was very gentle, and I knew it was Grandpa. Tap, tap. The only sounds I had heard besides Dominic's sleeping sounds, and it somehow felt intrusive.

  “Emma, darling, we have landed and now we must take a car to the ferry that will take us the rest of the journey. Please get ready.” His voice was a small whisper through the door, almost as though he knew exactly what I was thinking and he was trying as hard as possible not to interrupt my pocket haven.

  “Thank you, Grandpa,” I whispered back and I knew he heard me, even though it was barely audible.

  I shifted my weight and stared at Dominic once again. My stomach twisted into a knot over the feelings that I didn't understand and what it could mean about Mike and I. I was so confused. Well, best wake the boy up, Emma. You don't want to stay on this plane, Lord knows where it is. I could only feel myself wonder if that wasn't true. What if we did get left behind? What would happen? I reached toward his face. That won't be happening! My hand stopped abruptly. Apparently, I did still have some sense left in my head.

  “Dominic, wake up.” I shoved his shoulder. My mind was still whirling from what had happened.

  “Eh, five more minutes.” He grabbed me into a bear hug as though I was his stuffed animal.

  “Dominic, wake up and let me go before I beat you with your own arm!” I felt my temper take the place of the confusion I was feeling. Why is my temper so close to the surface these days? He let go. “I'm sorry, Emma. I didn't realize. I would have never …” He blushed fiercely. What is with him?

  “Don't worry about it. Grandpa said we needed to get ready to take the car or something. Where are we?” I figured he would know the answer to that question, even though he couldn't answer any of the questions that seemed to plague my every action and thought.

  “We are in Grosseto then? It is very lovely, but I guess we will leave very soon. Then we will drive over to the Castiglione della Pescaia and someone will be waiting for us to take us to Isola d'Elba. Once there we will have a small drive over to Pomonte, to our home, Castello di DeDominico.” He sounded distracted and the words sounded like a quick travel guide.

  I didn't want to hear his tone any longer so I didn't ask any questions. I got up out of the bed, straightened my wrinkled clothes and went to the door. I looked back to the bed and I could only imagine what it would have looked like. I sighed. Dominic followed me very closely. I opened the door and stepped into a draft of the cool night air flowing in. Night? How long did I sleep? I stepped out into the darkness and found my family getting the final things out of the plane and placing them into the trunk of a large black car. I looked about as I wrapped my arms around myself for warmth. It was lovely. The sky was a beautiful black with twinkling stars. The airport was clearly not a common place for landings. It was more like a really big field with runways cut into it. Off to the right was a road, surrounded by trees leaning into each other. It was beautiful. I got out my camera from my pack, that I found sitting next to the car waiting to be put in the back seat for me, and snapped a few shots.

  “Hey, Dad, why is it so dark here? I thought the difference in time was like ten or eleven hours? This seems like way more,” I asked over my shoulder as I snapped a few more shots of the various roads that went off of this deserted airport.

  “Well, we had a layover, more importantly we needed to make sure everything was okay before we went to fly overseas, so we had to stop in New York. Don't get angry. We didn't wake you because you will need your sleep. These next two weeks will be filled with non-stop activities.” He smiled at me like there was something I was clearly missing. Ugh, I hate not knowing what's going on.

  Dominic walked up next to me and didn't say anything, merely wrapping a large black coat around me before walking away. It was an odd gesture but I figured he was starting to get excited about almost being home.

  We all
piled into the car and then it pulled out of the airport onto one of the small roads with touching trees. I snapped pictures until my brain could feel the flash permanently burned in.

  We drove on this road for a while, and then I saw some cobblestone buildings and took a few pictures but we quickly got back on another small, lonely road. I want to come back through here and see all these beautiful places without the night sky hiding them from me.

  The next hour dragged on as the world was filled with trees and stuff I couldn't really make out. I got bored. Then, there were lights ahead. They looked like small pin pricks in the night. It's a town!

  I leaned out the window as far as I could with both Grandpa and Dominic hanging on to me.

  “I'm not going to jump, you guys, I want to see the town. I mean I so didn't get to see Grosseto, and that is supposed to be bigger than these little places, so I want to see it before it disappears too.” I sighed at them breathlessly as I struggled to get a clear view of the small town coming into view.

  “Emma, darling, this is Castiglione della Pescaia. You will be able to come back here. We will arrange it. But we cannot have you getting hurt falling out the car window because you want to see it now, and we are not close enough anyways.” Grandpa was clearly trying to reason with the irrational.

  “I can see how excited you are, Emma. I promise I will bring you here, mia bella. But please be patient. For your grandfather's sake at least.” I knew he was smiling, and I knew he would keep his word.

  “Okay. But you promised. Don't forget that,” I mumbled.

  I could tell as we came down off a hill that the town was covered in red topped roofs. It was odd as that was the only real detail that stood out. The little houses seemed to sleep with this dark night. I still didn't know the time or how I had slept most of the day away. It didn't matter in the end I suppose. I knew if I really wanted to know the time I could do the math of figuring it out in relation to our time back home. But I didn't really care to know. Somehow time had stopped mattering. I was in a beautiful and mysterious place and it was all new and fascinating.

  I stared out of the window as the ocean came into view and I saw a boat meant for carrying cars. Wow, we don't even have to get out of the car? That is freaking awesome!

  The car windows were rolled up and the cool night air stopped blowing into my face. It somehow saddened the experience. Someone said something about the air being cooler on the water and what not, but I didn't care. I watched as we drove onto the small boat and then my father waved to someone and something clanked shut. I figure it was the ramp being raised. Shouldn't we get out and talk to people? I mean, this is a bit rude. But I didn't know the customs here and I sure as heck wasn't going to get out of the packed car and start talking to people who probably wouldn't understand me anyways.

  The motion of the water and boat was lulling, but I fought against it. Why the Hell am I so damn tired? It was frustrating. I watched the twinkling lights of the small town fade into a dim haze and disappear. I knew we were headed for some sort of land mass, I guessed an island, though no one ever thought to explain anything to me. I couldn't see it out there. How far could it be? I started to feel worried about being out in this ocean, in the dead of night, with no clear end in sight. What if something went wrong? Who would save us? Panic stiffened my body and froze my movements. Dominic noticed right away. He gripped my hand softly, yet firmly. This soothed my nerves slightly.

  “Do not worry, my Little Emma Bird, we are almost there.” I wondered how he could possibly know such a thing in the middle of this darkness.

  Once again I was shocked into silence when the boat touched the island and lowered the ramp for us to drive on. I wanted to get out and thank whoever had stayed up to let us get across the frightening sea in the middle of the night, but we pressed on. I really don't understand this lack of manners. Or maybe I am missing something?

  We drove on a bumpy dirt road that made me think of Dominic's description of what turbulence would feel like and I smiled to myself. It felt like a long time, but I am sure it couldn't have been that long.

  I think I must have nodded out because I woke up with my head on Dominic's shoulder and he was absent-mindedly stroking my hair. He stopped as soon as he felt me shift, but I did not move my head. The road was still dark, but I could see that we were coming up on a large castle-like home that was well lit. Dude, he wasn't kidding when he said he lived in a freaking castle! There were many people standing outside waiting for us and as we got closer it was like there was a party going on.

  “What's with all the people?” I asked to no one in particular.

  “It is a celebration of your visiting. Yes, you personally, and my home coming,” Dominic said to me in nothing more than a whisper.

  The car stopped and we piled out, everyone looked so groomed and well dressed, and then there was me in my crumbled t-shirt and wrinkled yoga pants. I sighed and I pouted visibly.

  “Don't worry, mia bella, you can change. They won't be going anywhere. I will show you to your room, quickly,” Dominic said as he took my arm and led me through the crowd of people.

  It was terribly difficult for me not to stop and stare at the exterior of the castle, but once I got inside it was impossible. It was decorated in a collection of different cultures and places. It was as though each room was designed after a different location on the Earth. It was breathtaking.

  “Dominic, it's beautiful,” I breathed.

  “It is a hobby of my family to try and recreate parts of the world that they find to be beautiful and misplaced.” He spoke as he guided me through a room that was clearly decorated after a part of Africa.

  We walked up granite stone stairs into a hallway that had walls covered in paintings from every genre and era I had ever studied. I bet they are all originals. It was beautiful to see so much beauty in one place. He stopped in front of me, which I didn't see, so I walked straight into him. I smiled at him apologetically. He smiled back and pushed the heavy wooden door open.

  “This will be your room. It is one that I had designed for me, but I could never figure out why. I think it must have been because of you.” He stumbled over the words as he stepped inside the room and set down my bags- which I hadn't even noticed he had picked up.

  The room was not decorated as a location; rather it was done in a style. It was as though a fairytale bed chamber and a classic monster movie had been smashed together in such magnificence that I wanted to cry. The huge bed was the central piece in the room and it was a lush feather bed that had sheer red curtains surrounding it from the ceiling to the floor. All the bedding on it was black and I could guess that the sheets were satin. There was a window that held the shape of a tower window. It had thick wooden shutters drawn shut. The entire room had a slight curve to it. There was a dressing cabinet that was a deep, red wood on the left side of the room by the window; it had intricate carvings surrounding the outside edges. There was a full length cast iron mirror standing next to it. The metal curved into a bat on the top and bottom of the mirror. On the opposite side of the room was an emerald overstuffed reading chair with a small side table with a tiffany-like lamp that had dragonflies on it. The last piece of furniture was a desk that was the same deep, red wood of the cabinet. It had nothing on it, but it too had carvings on it.

  I stepped into the room and felt the thick, black shag rug that was placed so that it surrounded the bed. There was nothing on the walls, but it was the exact kind of room I would have dreamed for if I had a room in a castle.

  “It's perfect! Thank you, Dominic.” I turned and gave him a hug.

  “I am glad you like it. There is a bathroom connected to this room as well, but I am sure you didn't notice it. You see that piece of wall that is just to the right of the bed? It doesn't look as rough as the rest of the stones?” he told me as he pointed to a spot on the wall.

  I nodded my head.

  “Well, if you press the engraved bat on the wall right there, it will open, and yo
u will be in your own private bathroom. Now, I shall leave you to get freshened up. I will tell them you will be down shortly.”

  He looked at me once more and then quietly left the room, closing the door behind him.

  I thought to lie on the bed, but I knew I would want to lay there and not get ready to go downstairs. I went and pulled a pair of my jeans out of bag and a plain black sweater. I also grabbed my black boots and my makeup bag and headed for the mysterious hidden bathroom. God, I love this place. I am so going to have to explore the rest of this castle and find out its other secrets. I can't believe Dominic had this room designed.

  The bathroom was as amazing as the bedroom. It was done in a dark granite rock that had lots of sparkles put into it. The shower was like a small waterfall, and I swear that the tub was really a heated spring. The counter was carved into the rock and you had to push a button to show the mirror. I could easily see that this could make some people claustrophobic, but I loved it. It was like I had my very own cave!

  I tried hard not to waste too much time exploring the different things of the bathroom, and I got dressed quickly, washed my face, combed my hair out so it fell down my back, put my black eyeliner and crimson lip gloss on, and then I left my new sanctuary and headed back downstairs.

  I found my way through the maze of rooms that made you feel like each room was a different country. Everyone, who turned out to be only about ten people, was gathered in an Aztec looking room complete with sacrificial table. I found that my choice of attire fit the atmosphere. Everyone was to be wearing something nice but not too nice. My Grandparents were deep in conversation with people I had never met, but they looked familiar, so I figured they must be Dominic's grandparents. My parents were chitchatting with the DeDominicos'.