by AD Hartley
‘Dad, wait!’ Carlo said. ‘I’m scared, Dad! And Randy has told me some things I don’t understand.’
Luigi paused as memories from years ago, formed themselves. Randy told you? he asked vaguely as past conversations slowly retuned to him. ‘Randy?’ he mused. ‘Randy…?’ Luigi suddenly looked furious. ‘You told him?’ he shouted, rounding on Randy! ‘You told him?’
‘No, I didn’t tell him.’ Randy answered anger and fear on his face. ‘Though I had every right! You promised me, Luigi! You promised me the factory if I didn’t tell him!’
‘I changed my mind.’ Luigi said, simply. ‘After what you did, you can’t have expected I would just give you the factory when I died.’
‘But the boy!’ Randy cried. ‘I wouldn’t have agreed to keep my silence if I had known. He should have been told!’
‘That was not your choice!’ Luigi shouted back.
‘No! It was Helena’s!’ Randy retorted. ‘You didn’t even let me see her, Luigi. In the end you took my love and my child!’ he wept, convulsions shaking his trapped body making the debris above him shake alarmingly.
‘Took? Neither were yours to take.’ Luigi said. ‘In the end, neither were yours.’
‘What is going on?!’ Carlo shouted at both men, thoroughly bemused, scared and angry.
‘Carlo,’ Randy started before Luigi could speak. ‘You are my Son.’ he said, reaching out to touch Carlo’s leg, but the movement was too much and a low rumble echoed through the room. Dust and concrete started to rain down upon them. Randy covered his face from the debris as Carlo bent down to try to pull him free one last time, but as he did so a large piece of rubble dislodged itself from the ceiling above. Carlo briefly touched Randy’s hand when an invisible force picked him up and pulled him through the doorway into the study as a suffocating load of rubble crashed into the spot he had just vacated, covering Randy and obscuring him from sight.
Confused, Carlo looked around the see the vague outline of his father wrapped around him, having dragged him from the stairwell. More parts of Luigi’s body seemed to be melting away as they sat wrapped around each other and Carlo abruptly fell through Luigi, who began to fade alarmingly.
‘Dad? I’m scared Dad. What’s going on?’
‘I don’t know.’ Luigi answered, as he became less and less substantial.
‘But Randy, he’s…’
Luigi looked around but could see no sign of his old friend. ‘He’s gone, Carlo.’
‘What he just said…’
‘I’m not sure there is time for me to explain, son. It was all in the book, but the book has been destroyed.’
Carlo looked around the old study, the final remaining part of the factory. The ceiling had almost completely fallen into the room and above them smoke could still be seen curling up into the sky.
There was so much Carlo wanted to say, so much he didn’t understand, but he was so dazed by all that had happened his only considerations were now primal.
‘How do I get out, Dad?’ he asked though tears, survival his only thought.
The rapidly fading Luigi looked utterly dejected. ‘I don’t know, son.’ he said, floating, barely visible above the rubble. ‘I think I will be gone soon. You have to hang on. You have to be brave and hang on until they find you.’
‘But what if they don’t find me?’ Carlo asked, choking back his fear. ‘I don’t want to…’
‘Don’t say it, Carlo. You’ll be alright. You just need to hang on.’ Luigi said, kneeling close to his son and reaching out to touch him. ‘They’ll find you.’ he said as his hand passed through Carlo’s. Luigi looked at his hand, a ghostly tear forming in his own eye. ‘They’ll find you.’
But as he looked at his son through his own hand, he felt his spiritual body jolt.
‘Don’t leave me, Dad!’ Carlo cried as his father fell backwards.
But Luigi’s form suddenly erupted with colour in swathes across his torso, as if someone was colouring him in with thick fervent strokes. He fell forwards again and was then pushed upright, floating in the centre of the room. He looked at his hand, which was almost as substantial as it had been before he appeared in the factory and then a sudden realisation entered his mind.
‘Newton, you little beauty!’ Luigi shouted to the sky. ‘Carlo, stay here.’ he said as a look of deep concentration crossed his face and he disappeared.
Newton finished scribbling on the scrap of paper they had found in Abi’s bag along with a green felt tip pen. It wasn’t the neatest penmanship of his life, having been scrawled using Ben’s back as a table, but he had managed to summarise the secret that had held Mr Leodoni to this life. He looked around at his friends and was greatly relieved, if a little surprised, that none of them had yet asked what that secret was. He knew that they were too worried about Carlo to be concerned with anything else.
‘Now we wait.’ he said with a sad little smile.
‘How long?’ Abi asked.
‘I don’t kno…’
‘It worked!’ Luigi shouted making the four children jump in shock as he sprung from the air in front of them.
Norton tripped over the bucket falling heavily onto his bottom. ‘Must you do that!’ he complained, though no one was listening.
‘What happened?’
‘Where is he?’
‘Is he OK?’ the gang all shouted across each other.
Luigi waved his hands to beckon them into silence, now fully substantial once more, or as substantial as a ghost ever got. ‘I’ve found him.’ he said, with a smile. ‘You were right, Newton, you clever, clever lad. You were right!’
‘Is he OK?’ Abi asked, still very concerned.
‘He’s OK. Battered, bruised and I imagine now in a very bad mood, but he’s OK.’
Relief spread through the group, but reality returned as Ben asked ‘Where is he? Can he get out?’
‘He’s in the study.’ Luigi said, ‘But there is no way out. The Fireman will have to rescue him.’ Ben nodded his understanding and made to run off to tell them, but Luigi called him back.
‘I need to go back to Carlo now to let him know help is coming. As soon as I’m gone tell the emergency services. But first, thank you. Thank you all. You are the greatest friends I could ever have hoped Carlo would find. Look after him for me.’
The gang nodded, slightly uncomfortable with the display of affection.
‘And, Newton. You understood more about what was going on here than even I.’ Luigi pointed to the scrap of paper in Newton’s hand. ‘This is what was keeping me here.’
‘I will never tell anyone.’ Newton said.
‘I know… I know… which is why, I think, that note is the only thing keeping me here now. You were right. So I must ask one last thing. Once I am gone, give me fifteen minutes and then destroy that.’ Luigi said, pointing at the note.
‘But if I am right and I destroy this, you will…’
‘Yes.’ Luigi answered. ‘As it should be.’
Newton nodded sadly while Ben, Abi and Norton looked on, not really sure what was being said.
‘Thank you again.’ Luigi said to the group. ‘Now go. Go rescue my son!’ and with that, Mr Leodoni disappeared.
‘Dad!’ Carlo exclaimed as his father reappeared in the study. ‘I thought you had left me.’ he sobbed as he leant against the wall, cradling his injured leg. ‘I was so scared.’
‘It’s OK, son. It’s going to be OK. I’ve told the others. Help is coming.’
Carlo seemed to sink into the wall as relief over took him and he slid down to sit on the floor. ‘This has been a very peculiar day.’ Carlo said, feeling more tired than he could possibly imagine.
‘Your father is a ghost. I thought you would be used to perculiar by now,’ Luigi said with a smile as he came to sit next to his son.
‘Father…’ Carlo whispered. ‘You are my father, I suppose?’
‘Yes, I am.’
‘Then why did Randy say he was?’
Luigi start
ed up at the smoke and let out a long ghostly sigh. ‘This is a conversation we should have had a long time ago, but dying somewhat got in the way, although it made the mistake of not having told you even more foolhardy.
‘Before you were born, just before you were born, mind you, I found out that Randy, my best friend of many years, was having an affair with your mother.’
Carlo was stunned. On this strangest of days when so much had happened, Carlo was willing to accept almost anything was possible… anything but the betrayal of his father by his Mother. Carlo had been led to hold his mother’s memory in deference by his father, who had told him of her grace, kindness and beauty throughout his young life. It seemed impossible to reconcile this new information with the memories of her he had been given by Luigi. How had they not spoken of this before?
With a pained expression, Luigi continued. ‘By the time I found out, your mother was eight months pregnant with you. Eight months during which I believed I was to be a father. I was devastated when I discovered that she had betrayed me and I was wracked with doubt that the baby she carried may not be mine. On the day I found out, your mother had gone to the hospital for a routine check so I confronted Randy first. He thought the baby was his and fully intended to support your mother. I truly believe he thought Helena would leave me. It took all my resolve to hold myself back from hitting him. I sacked him and told him I never wanted to see him again. But it was just minutes later I received the news that they had discovered that damned lump while Helena was at the hospital.’
Carlo started to cry again. He had always known that his mother had died of a tumour not long after his birth, but the circumstances surrounding it were new to him and distressing to hear.
‘When I got to the hospital your mother was in a terrible state. She was worried sick that her illness may cause harm to you or that she may die before you were born. The doctors decided an emergency C-section was the best way forward to protect you and allow them to treat your mother properly. My God, Carlo, you were so small when you arrived.’
‘They operated on your mother the following day and after the operation when I was finally allowed to speak to her I couldn’t bring myself to tell her I knew about Randy. But as I watched her, looking so small and frail, I knew in my mind that Randy was wrong; she would not have left me. Though I believe now I may have been fooling myself.’
‘Your mother asked to see you and they brought the incubator into the room for her, though she was not allowed to hold you as you were so tiny. She knew she was dying and asked me there and then to make sure you grew up to be a good man. She knew you were a Leodoni, even if I didn’t.’
‘Later that evening I was told that Randy had appeared at the hospital demanding to see her, but I was angry, Carlo, so angry with him. I refused to allow him into the ward. Your mother died later that night while you slept peacefully next to her bed.’
Carlo wept openly. His emotions, already fully stretched, were now running rampant as his father revealed the truth behind his birth.
Luigi wiped away his own tears and continued. ‘After your mother died you were kept in hospital for two more weeks. During this time Randy demanded to see you, certain you were his son. He threatened to take the matter to the courts. I wasn’t willing to have your mother’s name dragged through the mud in public and I had promised her I would raise you well, so I had no choice and eventually I relented to see him. Randy and I argued and fought for hours in the study at the factory, but I was firm in my resolve. I would raise you as my child whether you were or not as Helena had wanted.’
Carlo wiped his eyes on his dusty sleeve and took a deep breath. ’I can’t believe this.’ he said, shaking his head.
‘Tell me about it.’ Luigi replied, but then he paused. ‘What time is it?’
‘Dunno.’ Carlo said, looking at the clock on the opposite wall, which had previously moved both backwards and forwards but was no longer measuring the passage of time.
‘How long have I been back?’ Luigi asked?
‘About ten minutes.’ Carlo said, with a shrug. ‘Why?’
Luigi swore. ‘Because I’m almost out of time.’ He took a deep breath and plunged on. ‘Randy wasn’t willing to let me have my way and he was ready to get a court order to command a DNA test. I couldn’t allow that, I wasn’t as certain as your mother that you were mine, so I struck a deal. I offered Randy my Empire. Leodoni’s was to be his. Not immediately, but once you reached an age when we would be financially able to cope without the company. When that time came I would retire and leave the company to Randy, if and only if, he allowed me to raise you as my own son promising never to tell you that he may be your father.’
‘But then Randy might be my father.’ Carlo blurted out.
‘No, he isn’t.’ Luigi answered with a smile.
‘How can you be so sure?’
‘Well, for one thing, I raised you and know you better than you know yourself and I can tell you now, you are one hundred percent as much a Leodoni as me and your grandfather.’ Luigi laughed. ‘But also… I had your DNA tested. I never told Randy, but you are and always will be, my son.’
Carlo started to gently weep again. ‘I’m not sure what to say.’ he sniffed. ‘It’s all so much to take in.’
Luigi put his arm around his son, but found it passing through his shoulders as once again he began to slowly fade at the edges.
‘Carlo, there’s one more thing.’
Carlo sniffed and choked back a small chuckle. ‘How can there possibly be any more after all that?’ he smiled.
‘I’m afraid there is, just one more. Now that you know the truth; the secret that was keeping me here; the secret that I was protecting you from; it cannot hurt you anymore. I didn’t know it but that’s why I was here. Your friend Newton worked it out. There is no longer anything holding me here.’
‘I’m here!’ Carlo shouted. ‘I’m here!’
‘Yes you are. And I am more proud of you than you can ever know.’
‘But you can’t leave me! Not now, I need you!’ Carlo wept, as his father slowly continued to fade.
‘I don’t think you need me, Carlo. Not anymore. Look what you achieved. In the end it wasn’t me or Randy or Lucy that pulled Leodoni’s back, it was you. You are a better man than I.’
‘I miss you.’ Carlo whispered through the tears.
‘My beautiful, boy. I will tell your mother how you have grown.’ Luigi said, standing and floating to the centre of the study.
Carlo looked up and could see smoke through the barely visible form of his father. In the distance he could make out shouts and enquiries as the firemen neared the back of factory’s remains.
Luigi looked up and smiled, a slight look of relief on his face. ‘You will be OK now, Carlo.’
Carlo could see the shadows of his rescuers cast upon the smoke and realised his father’s presence was slowly merging with the swirling clouds up into the night sky.
‘I love you.’ Carlo said, watching as Luigi disappeared.
‘I love you too, son.’ Mr Leodoni replied. ‘I love you too.
What I Did During My Summer Holidays
Carlo sat in bed watching the rain trickle down the window feeling pretty depressed. He had been pulled from the rubble five days earlier and had been in hospital ever since where the stream of visitors was hardly overwhelming. The school term had started keeping visits from Abi, Ben and Norton to a minimum, though Newton had been a Godsend. Already so far beyond everyone else at the school by the age of fourteen he had been granted permission to study an advanced college curriculum which allowed for plenty of time for him to “think”, much to Norton and Ben’s amusement, time which Newton had used to spend with Carlo.
On learning that Newton had read the diary before it had been destroyed, Carlo felt able to open up and fully recall what his father had told him, some of which had been written in the diary, some of which hadn’t, and between them they were able to piece together a full account of the Le
odoni’s secret.
The diary had recounted how Mr Leodoni had decided to use tiny amounts of Mrs Leodoni’s ashes in the Ice Cream and Newton recounted how he now regretted ever eating a single cone. Carlo sympathised and both agreed that parents were weird.
Newton had found it strange that Mr Leodoni had allowed Randy to continue working at the factory after all that had happened. It was clear from the diary that the relationship was extremely strained, yet they abided as colleagues for over a decade both harbouring the secret. Carlo, who knew his father’s thinking better than most, thought Luigi was merely protecting his son. Much like the diary, it was probably easier for Luigi to do so if he was close to the source of the secret, no matter how difficult it was for him to pretend that all was well between him and Randy for so long. From Randy’s point of view, he had sacrificed a lot in his own mind, so there was no way he would leave the factory if it was due to be his one day.
The final entries in the diary were of most interest to Carlo as Newton tried to give a good account of Luigi’s notes. It seems in the weeks before his death somehow the authorities had become suspicious of an illegal substance in the Leodoni’s produce and Mr Leodoni had suspected Neil was the culprit having been over looked for promotion in favour of Lucy. The local authorities were in the process of starting an investigation into the allegations when Mr Leodoni had died.
But in his final entry, Newton said, Mr Leodoni had expressed his suspicions that it was actually Randy who had informed the authorities having discovered what Luigi had been doing with the ashes, resulting in a huge argument. It was Luigi’s belief that, disgusted, Randy was going to have Leodoni’s closed down and force Luigi to hand the factory finally to him as had been promised 14 years earlier.
The rest of the story Carlo, Newton, Abi, Ben and Norton had all played a part in. Discussing it back and forth with Newton had given Carlo a headache, but they finally settled on a version of events that they agreed was likely, and could relay to the rest of the gang, minus the Leodoni secrets.
