"The Hidden Catacomb" Unfinished

It was around the year 1780.?Italy was becoming a country full of catacombs.?During that time, there were also many Mafia families emerging.?One Mafia group was the Bernolio family.?It wasn’t a famous Mafia group, but still was an important one.?The Bernolio family had a profitable business going on.?They would import beer and wine from all over Germany and France.?They were able to do this cheaply and then sell it at high price.?Most of the time, they just kept the wine and beer for themselves.

The Bernolios would unload their cargo and store it in a room in their large house in Italy.?As time went on, they began to get into brawls with another Mafia group, the Cardinellies.?One day while the Bernolios were unloading a cargo of French wine, the Cardinellies attacked the Bernolios’s home.?The house was totally burned down to the ground.

Luckily, the Bernolios were able to flee from their house unharmed.?They escaped with the wine they hadn’t unloaded, yet, and some of the wine and beer that was in their house.?In fear of death, the Bernolio family decided to hide out for awhile.?They traveled by wagon for eight hours along the back country roads of Italy.

The Bernolios were traveling along when one of the wagon wheels broke off.?They stopped to fix the wheel.?Some of the men that weren’t fixing the wheel took a walk along the vasts fields.?As they walked along, they came upon a small church.?It , too, was burnt down to the ground.?It was an odd place for a church.?There wasn’t even a town insight.?The only thing that was in sight were vast meadows of dark green grass.?Not a even single soul was in sight.?You could tell this by the morning dew still being on the blades of grass.?One of the men decided to survey the inside of what used to be the church.?

The man was walking around the debris and charcoaled wood beams.?The floor was made out of stone, so as he walked no sound was made.?Then he walked over to where an alter once stood.?He heard a creak in the floor.?He took another step and heard another creak.?He called for the other men over to help move some of the debris that covered the floor.

When they were done, the men found that in the floor was a wooden door.?The men opened the door and peered down into the darkness.?To their amazement, the men found a staircase.?Then, with a lighted lantern, they traveled down the long winding staircase.?They were at the foot of the staircase when they looked around.?The men found themselves to be in a large room.?It was like a cave, with an unusual odor.?There was also a hint of moisture in the air.?There were four long tunnels that branched off from the room.?They found out that they weren’t in a cave but an abandoned catacomb.

It was late in the evening when the men told their family about their discovery.?The vote was anonymous.?They would unload their cases of wine and beer in the catacomb.?There, they would also hide out until it was safe to return home, if ever.?No one really minded the smell too much that night.?Everybody was too tired to even worry about it, and they were glad that they weren’t traveling anymore.

The next night, the father of the Bernolio family told of a secret room below their old house.?“In that room, you will find the oldest bottles of French wine.?These bottles are worth so much, that a single bottle could be sold and last a family for generations.?Four of you men shall ride out to the house and bring back the bottles of wine.?Then we will hide them here in one of the vaults of?the catacombs.?The entrance to the vault will then be sealed for all of eternity.?Only three people will be witnesses to where they are hidden, myself being one of them,” said the father with a stern face.

“Father, if I may speak?”

“Go ahead.”

“Wouldn’t the bottles be of more value if we sealed them up until we needed to sell them?”???asked one of his sons.

“Do you know what you are saying??Those bottles will never be sold.?They have been in this family before my great grandfather was born.?The only way to preserve them is to seal them up for eternity.?I have a feeling that they will be useful in the future,” said father Bernolio.

The next day, the four men carried out the plan as instructed.?The bottles were hidden and sealed up for all of interenty.?The family kept hiding out for a couple more weeks.?Every so often, a messenger for the family would go back into town to learn about the latest news.?The messenger would then relay the news back to the family.?By now the word on the street was that the Bernolios?were all killed during the fire.?Others claimed the family fled to France.?Most of the townspeople leaned towards the idea that the Bernolio family fled to France.?Some merchants even swore to seeing the Bernolios boarding a ship going to France under a different family name.

This was good news for the Bernolio family.?However, it wasn’t safe for them to return to the town, and it wasn’t safe for them to flee the country or flee to France.?This was in fear that the Cardinellies were looking out for the Bernolios in France and in the town.?They found their best chance of never getting discovered by the Cardinellies was to start their lives over again.?Their last name would be changed to the Minellies.?Their family crest would be changed, and all legal papers would be changed.?This was accomplished by some swift, under the table work.?They would rebuild?their home where the church once stood.?The catacombs would become their wine cellar.?As for the old legal documents that proved they were the Bernolios, those were not burned.?Being a wise thinker, the father of the Minellies thought they should be sealed up and hidden in the catacombs.?For some reason, he had a vision that they would become useful in the future.?The father of the Minellies was a different man.?There was the normal logic that most people had and there was his logic.?He seemed to have future visions.?Visions that no one else saw.?Visions that seemed to be unreal at the time.

It was a year since the Cardinellies attacked the Minellies.?They have lived in their new home peacefully.?They still continued their shipments of beer and wine from France and Germany.?They?usually performed these shipments early in the morning or late at night.?They were still living in fear that the Cardinellies would track them down and try killing them again at their new house.??The Minellies never seeked revenge against the Cardinellies.?They were more peaceful and were also outnumbered against the Cardinellies.??Sometimes other people would try following the Minellies from the harbor and would report strange occurrences.?They spoke of how they would be behind the Minellies’s wagon when they would reach a certain point in the road, and then, the Minellies would just disappear.?The wagon was on the road, and then it was gone.??However,?as time went on, the chance of the Cardinellies finding out the Minellies were actually the Bernolios was becoming very slim.?Twenty more years passed and the Minellie family still lived in peace, though they lived in sadness.?The father of the Minellie family passed away.?He was given a respectful burial and was laid to rest in peace in the depths of the catacombs.?“May the Holy Ghost show mercy on the soul that disrupts this tomb,” was engraved on the stone slab that covered the father’s body.

The night of his death, the father of the Minellie family had waken up with an awful chill and a sweat that soaked the sheets.?He had had another vision, but this one was different.?This vision was so scary that he wrote about it on a piece of paper.

“Tonight I had another vision, this though was like no other.?Never before have I been this scared of what I saw.?It was in the future.?There was a young boy that was searching around the catacombs.?He had an expression on his face that caused him to look so very puzzled.?He was searching, but for what I don’t know.?The part that has terrified me so is the outline of a man in the shadows of the boy.?I could only see one thing about the man, he had a tattoo on his wrist.?He lunged towards the boy.?Then I woke up.?I am in fear that my family will be discovered by the Cardinellies.”

v v v v v v v v v v v v?????????????????????????????

Space in the catacombs was becoming rare.?The Minellies had almost one hundred times the amount of beer and wine they had in their old house.?Along with their secret stash, the family also had grown.?The youngest grandson of father Minellie now was married and had four sons of his own.

Then it finally happened.?The Cardinellies found out the true identity of the Minellies.?It was a cold, rainy Wednesday morning when they were attacked again by the Cardinellies.?This time a group of hit men, hired by the Cardinellies, went after the Minellies.?The brawl between the two Mafia groups lasted for only an hour.?However, it was a long, cold hour.

Every Minellie was killed by the Cardinellie hit men, except for five people.?Michael Minellie managed to hide in the depths of the catacombs.?Next to his side were his four young sons.?An hour after the fighting was over, Michael came forth from the catacombs.?The house was unharmed, but all of his family members were dead along with his wife.?No one was spared their life, not even the little children.

Michael knew what he had to do.?He carefully laid each family member in a section of the catacombs.?Each person’s body was laid against a rack of wine.?He figured that no one would dare take the wine of a dead person, especially the wine that a person was laying on.?This was in fear that the person’s spirit would come back and haunt the tomb raider forever.

After all the bodies were laid around in the catacombs, Michael sealed up the only entrance with some bricks and mortar that were next to the entrance door.?However, he forgot to seal the wooden door in the floor. ?He left the catacombs, grabbed some money, and boarded up the doors and windows of the house.?With his four sons near his side, he left the area with the only family he had left.?They boarded a cargo ship and fled from Italy to Ireland.

Michael thought about the vow he made to his father before his death.?He thought about how he said he would never seek revenge against the Cardinellies, no matter what happens.?He imagined what would of happened if he did.?Not only would he be killed, but his sons probably would be killed, too.?Then, the whole Minellie family would be dead, and there would be no one to carry on the name.?The family and its name would perish forever.

The journey was long and hard.?The boat was cramped with other immigrants going to Ireland.?The seas were also rough, and many people became sea sick.?After a long time of traveling, the ship finally arrived in Ireland.?Michael decided to give his children up for adoption.?It was hard in doing so, but it was the safest thing to do.?At least his children would be raised up in good, Irish families.

?Many years passed and Michael remarried to an Irish, country girl.?He had another two children, both boys.?His other four sons, that he gave up, grownup now, also all married.?His first two sons both had four children, and his other two children each had two kids of their own.?Years passed, and the Minellie family was reborn, and grew.?

Then one year, one of Michael’s great grandchildren went back to Italy for a trip.?While he was there, he met a girl that he soon married.?He also moved out of Ireland and back into the house in Italy that his great-grandfather lived in.?Many years passed.?Occasionally, a Minellie family member would move into the Minellie house in Italy.?People would move in and out, but they would never know about the hidden catacombs that lay beneath the house.?The people were also all relatives that related back to Michael Minellie.

v v v v v v v v v v???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????It is now the present day.?Wesley Minellie was playing street hockey with his friends in Chicago, Illinois.?Ryan is an average fourteen year old.?His mother was at home while his dad was at work.?It was around noon, and Ryan’s mother was fixing lunch for his friends and him.?She was putting a pizza in the oven when the phone rang.

It was a long distance call from Italy, and it was sad news.?Ryan’s grandparents, from his father’s side, had passed away.?They were living in the Minellie house in Italy when they died.?Ryan’s family was to travel to the old homestead for the funeral and the hearing of the will.?At the same time of the call, Ryan’s father, Michael Minellie II, came home.?Michael was talking to Jaime, Ryan’s mother.

“I felt that there was something wrong, so I decided to come home.?It was a slow day, anyway,” said Michael.

“Honey, I have something to tell you...,” Jaime was saying as she was interrupted by Michael.

“Oh I knew it, Ryan is in the hospital,” said Michael almost about to collapse.

“No, no Ryan isn’t in the hospital.?I think we should sit down.?Before you came home, there was a phone call.?It was from Italy.?I don’t know how to tell you this.?Your parents just passed away,” said Jaime.?She started bawling, and Michael, trying to hold back his own tears, went over to comfort his wife.

“I just wish we could have gone to Italy.?At least so Ryan could haven known who his grandparents were,” said Michael in a sighing voice.?“Did you find out how they died?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Well, did the biopsies show anything?” asked Michael.

“No test were ran.?No hospitals won’t perform such test.?They believe that when a person dies, they should not be disturbed.”

?“Did the person on the phone say anything else?” asked Michael.

“Yes, it was your father’s lawyer.?He said that he didn’t know of any other relatives close to your parents.?He asked how soon we could come,” said Jaime.

Just then the back screen door slammed.?Ryan walked in and found his parents in the living room.?“Mom, is the pizza done yet?” asked Ryan.

“Wes, your father and I have something to tell you.”

“What is it mom?” asked Ryan.

“I just got off the phone.?Your grandparents from Italy just passed away.”

“Are we going to Italy for the funeral?” asked Ryan.

“Yes, of course we are,” replied Michael.

“Hey Wes, come on!?We’re going down to the Metro parking lot to play street hockey!” yelled Pete, Wes’s best friend, from the street.

“Go on Ryan, I’ll call you in before dinner,” said Jaime.?“Oh wait, what about your lunch?”

Ryan looked over at the burnt pizza that his mother pulled out of the oven.?“Ah, I’ll just stop by Papa Chris’s and grab a bite to eat.”

“Okay, do you have enough money?”

“Yes.”?Ryan ran out the front door with his hockey stick.?He caught up with Peter and some other guys.

“Honey, where’s the travel company’s phone number?” asked Michael from his upstairs den.

“Its in with all your other business cards, in the wood box on your bookcase,” replied Jaime from the kitchen.

“Oh, thanks.?Well,” said Michael as he came down the stairs, “I’ll call and see when the soonest flight to Italy is.?Then, we’ll take it from there.”

“Oh, there’s just so much to do.?I have to call Ryan’s school, and get a dress, and Ryan needs a new suit.?Then, I need to get someone to watch our house and take care of the dog, and...” said Jaime trying to think of what else needed to be done.

“Don’t worry, honey.?We’ll just take things one at a time.?Tell you what, I’ll take care of everything, and we can take Maggie with us.?Now we don’t need to get a dog sitter,” said Michael.

An hour later, Jaime was sitting at the kitchen table trying to drink her cup of coffee, which was starting to turn cold.?She was thinking of how they didn’t really have any pictures of Ryan’s grandparents.?Michael was on the phone at the time with the travel agency.

“Hello, this is Michael Minellie.?I’m doing okay today.?The reason I am calling is that I need three tickets to Italy.”

“Okay, well Mr. Minellie there are a couple flights out of O’Hare to Italy.?When would you need to be going?” asked the travel agent.

“Well, I would like to or actually I need to leave as soon as possible,” replied Michael.

“Let’s see what I can do.?I’ve got a flight out of O’Hare on June first at 10:50 in the morning.?Wait, I forgot coach is all booked up for that flight. ?Now hold on, there are three seats left in first class, however,” said the agent.

“Okay, we’ll take them.?Is the flight nonstop?”

“Yes it is, and there won’t be an extra charge for the first class seats.?Now, let me double check.?I’ve got three reservations in first class for the price of coach.?You will be boarding your flight through terminal A on a nonstop flight to Italy at 10:50 A.M. on June first.?Is this correct?” asked the agent.

“Yes, I believe so.?Thank you for all your help.?Oh, my family will be traveling with our dog,” said Michael.

“Your family dog, that shouldn’t be a problem.?The plane has a special area for pets.?All you need to do is present a paper, signed by your Veterinarian, that says your dog has had all the shots it needs at this time. I’ll be sure to make a note of that,” said the agent.

“Thank you again.?I’ll be picking up the tickets and itinerary tomorrow after I finish working.?Bye,” said Michael.

“That will be fine, and thank you for doing business with us, good bye,” said the agent before Michael hung up the phone.

“I got the tickets, dear.?We will be leaving on the first of June.”

“That’s fine, Michael.?Wait, June first, that is in only two days,” said Jaime with a surprised look on her face.

“I know it’s soon, but we were planning on leaving as soon as possible,” said Michael.

“How am I going to get everything done?” said Jaime exhaustedly.

“No problem.?I’m not going into work until we get back.?I’ll call the school tonight to get Ryan out of school until we get back.?I’ll also call Mrs. Hann and see if she can watch our house while we’re gone.?Then, tomorrow we’ll go to the mall.?You can pick out any dress you want while Ryan and I get some new suits.?I’ll also pick up some other stuff that we will need for the trip,” said Michael.

“Oh honey, I’m so sorry, said Jaime.

“For what dear?” asked Michael.

“Well, here I’m getting so uptight about everything, leaving you to take care of all the work,” said Jaime with a tone of sympathy in her voice.

“Don’t worry, I’m fine, and I don’t mind doing all the work.?That’s what life is, problems and problem solving, isn’t it??Oh shoot, I said I would pick up the tickets after work tomorrow, but?I’m not going to work tomorrow.?I guess we’ll just have to pick them up after we stop at the mall.”

“Michael, come sit down.?You’ve been working so hard.?You need to take a break.”

“I guess you’re right, Jaime.?I’m just trying to keep my mind off of the thought about telling Ryan who he really is.”

“I know, Michael.?It’s going come to a time that we will have to tell him.?Here, have this cup of coffee.?Things will turn out alright.?We just have to wait and see.”

“Ryan!!?OH, Ryan!?Come home for dinner,” yelled Jaime from the front yard.

“Hey Wes, your mom is calling you,” said Jake.

“Oh man, I got to go home for dinner.?Well, see you later, guys,” said Ryan as he left the Metro parking lot.

“Hey Wes, wait up,” said Pete skating over to where Wes was.

Some other guys were standing by Wes.

“I just wanted to talk to you, Wes.?I mean what’s up??This had to be one of your worst hockey games that you have played on this lot,” said Pete.

“Ya, I know Pete.?I’m sorry man, but I just wasn’t up to playing this afternoon.”

“Why?” asked Jake.

“Well, its not very huge, but my grandparents from Italy passed away.”

“Oh, hey man, I’m really sorry to hear that,” said Mikey.

“Ya, we’re really sorry, Ryan,” said Pete.

“Well, I never really met them and stuff.?I got to get home now.?I’ll talk to you guys later,” said Ryan.

Ryan’s father was at the dinner table reading some of the day’s mail while Jaime finished making a salad.?There was one letter that Michael found unusual.?It was in a small, black envelope addressed to Michael Minellie.?There was just a piece of paper inside that said, “Too bad your parents died.”?It was typed and there was no return address and no name of who sent it.?The letter scared Michael, but he knew it would scare Jaime more, so he stuck it in his suit coat pocket.

“Go and wash up for dinner, Ryan,” said his mother with her head peering into the refrigerator looking for some salad dressing.

“Yes mother,” replied Ryan.

During diner that night the conversation was mostly quiet until Ryan stirred one up.?“So, did you get the plane tickets?”?He asked his father while taking a bite of his salad.

“Don’t talk with your mouthful, son,” said Michael but not with as stern of voice.?“ I did make the ticket reservations, and I’ll pick them up tomorrow.?Our flight is nonstop out of O’Hare at 10:50 in the morning on June first.?I’ll be taking off of work, and we’ll be going to the mall tomorrow to get a new suit for you.”

“Wait, tomorrow’s Monday.?I have school on Mondays.”

“Yes Ryan, but your father has already contacted the school and told them that you won’t be coming in for a couple of days.”

“Alright, no school!?Now I don’t have to take my diagraming final,” said Ryan with an excited voice.

“Now Ryan, you must remember that you are going to the funeral of your grandparents.”

“Yes mother,” replied Ryan.?“Wait, we leave on June first and are staying a couple of days.”

“Right.”

“Won’t I just miss the rest of the school year?” asked Ryan.

“No, we are leaving Wednesday and will get back on Sunday.?School doesn’t end until Friday, the tenth.?You still will be here for the whole last week of school.”

“We don’t get out till June tenth,” said Ryan with an astonished look on his face.

“Yes, son.?Remember that they had to extend the year because of the blizzard in December, which gave you six extra days of Christmas vacation.”

“Oh ya, now I remember.?I went tubing with Pete and everybody that week.”

“Now honey, I understand why Ryan isn’t too sad about my parents leaving this world.”

“I’m sad dad, but shouldn’t we be happy that they are going to a better place now?” asked Ryan.

“Yes we should, and that was a very good point you made.?I do realize that you are sad, but not too much because you never knew who your grandparents were.?That is partly my fault, and I’m sorry,” said Michael with a sympathetic voice.

“Dad, what are you talking about?”

“Ryan, why don’t you clear your dishes and go watch some T.V.,” said Jaime.

“Okay mom,” replied Ryan with a confused look on his face as he left the table.

June first finally came.?Ryan and his parents arrived in Italy on a cold rainy Wednesday evening.?They traveled to the old homestead.?Even Michael couldn’t believe how large the stone house was.?It wasn’t even a house but a mansion.?On the front steps of the mansion was Michael’s parents’ butler.

“Hello there, Michael.?I was just waiting until you came.?I was your parents’ butler, Jon.?I was told that you were coming, so I wanted to make sure you arrived okay.”

“Thank you, Jon,” said Michael.

“Well, here is the key to the front door.?I set all of the other keys on the table in the front hall.?I also made sure everything was in order in the house.?I hope you like it.”

“I am sure we will, Jon.”

“I guess since you are here now, I will be leaving.”

“Wait, where are you going?”asked Michael.

“Oh, this is my night off and I figured that you didn’t want me to be hanging around,” said Jon.

“Where will you be staying at?”?asked Jaime.

“Oh, just at my brother’s house that is in town.”

“Well okay, nice meeting you, Jon,” said Michael.

“The same to you, sir.”

The funeral was the next morning, and the family was tired from the flight , so they didn’t have much time to explore the mansion.

The funeral was like all others.?Very few people showed up for it.?Ryan’s grandparents were buried next to each other in a section of the cementary where other relatives of Ryan were buried.?There weren’t many family members buried in the cementary which surprised Michael.?During the procession, Ryan noticed one person that seemed to stand out from the others.?This guy was dressed in all black and had a skull tattooed on his wrist.?He looked around eighteen and didn’t speak a single word.?He also stayed in the back at the church and at the burial.

After the funeral, the family went back to the mansion and met with Michael’s father’s lawyer for the reading of the Will.?Ryan’s parents were in the den with the lawyer while he explored this huge mansion.?He went into every room in the whole entire house.?He found that many off the rooms were dusty and not kept in shape.

“Well, why would these rooms be kept up.?Grandma and grandpa only needed the main rooms of the house when they lived here,” Ryan thought to himself.

Ryan was astonished.?There was a great deal of old wood furniture pieces for England, and Germany, and Italy.?The floors were covered with elaborate handwoven through rugs from Italy. Great painted portraits were hung with care on the walls.?Even the modern electrical lighting work was installed with such care, that it blended in with the old Italian Gothic style of the mansion.?The mansion was humongous, and he still hadn’t explored the land around the house.

Now, after running around the house, Ryan returned to the bedroom he was staying in.?He reached into his back pack for a can of pop.?Just then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a small gardener snake crawl out of a hole in the wall.?Ryan walked over to where the snake was and picked it up.?As he did so, he felt that the floor was different in this area of the room.?He reached for a broom and cleaned off some of the dust on the floor.?Ryan found that there was like a door in the floor.

He reached down and pulled on the door.?It was a heavy, wooden door and creaked loudly as it opened.?Ryan peered down, but he saw nothing, nothing but absolute blackness.?He closed the door again and found a large throw rug to cover it.?He decided to go around the house and try to find a flashlight.

Meanwhile, Ryan’s parents were talking with the lawyer.

“Well, let’s take a look at the will here.?Hm.,” said the lawyer.

“What?” asked Michael.

“Oh nothing, just all this legal writing.?Okay, here it is.?You have been left this house and all the property around it.?You also have been left with all of the possessions within this house.?At the bank is a C.D. that will reach full maturity in ten years.?Once the ten years are up, you will have a total of 300,000 dollars.”

“Oh my gosh!?Well, I don’t know what to say,” said Michael in an astonished tone of voice.

“Honey, what are we going to do?” asked Jaime.

“Well, I don’t know??We’re not leaving ’till Saturday.?That should give us enough time to think about it.”

“Oh folks, there is one clause that I should point out in the will,” said the lawyer, interrupting Jaime’s and Michael’s conversation.

“A clause, what clause?” asked Michael with suspicion.

“The clause is that you can never sell this house and never take any of the possessions in this house.”

“We have to stay in this house?”

“Not quite like that Michael.?Your parents told me about a tradition.?You have to keep this house and when you die, this house will be passed down to your son.?I understand that you live in Chicago.”

“Yes, Edgebrook.”

“Oh, I know some people that live near that area.?Anyway, you can still live there.?It’s just that you have to keep this house,” said the lawyer.

“Well, it would be senseless to live in Chicago when we have this huge mansion here.?I’m sure I could get a new job here, and it would be a good opportunity for Ryan to live in another country,” said Michael.

“Sorry to interrupt again, but your father told me that your are in sales management.?Well, we do have a job that just opened up in the city.?Its only about a forty-five minute commute.?We also have the strongest school in all of Italy, so you know Ryan would be getting a great education.”

“Thanks, I still need to think it over, though,” said Michael.

“I wouldn’t mind living here.?It would be different for the first couple of months.?However, it would be a good experience for Ryan living here,” Jaime said.

“All right, that’s it.?I’ve made up my mind.?I have decided to stay, and if it doesn’t work out we can always just move back,” said Michael.

“Great, I do suppose that you will need to go back to Chicago to get your affairs in order,” said the lawyer.

“Yes, of course.”

“Okay, I’ll go back to my office to get the job information and any other information that you might need.?Then I’ll fax it to you by tonight.”

?“Wait, you said that you’ll fax us the information?” asked Michael to the lawyer.

“Yes, that is what I said.?Oh, I’m sorry.?I forgot to tell you that there is a fax machine over there on the bookcase,” replied the lawyer while pointing to the fax machine.?“Well, I guess I’ll be leaving now.?I hope you enjoy your new house.”

“Oh, before you leave, I have one quick question for you.?I thought that in Italy, more people would speak more Italian. . .”

“Yes, of course.?You are wondering why we speak so much English.?Well, that is our town’s second language.?The children are taught here from first grade to know how to speak English.?They also learn German, as well as Italian.?I speak English most of the time because I deal with a large number of English speaking clients, that are either being sued or are suing.?Your parents’ butler knew little English, but your father taught him English.?He knew that you didn’t know too much Italian, so he decided to make it easier on you,” said the lawyer.?

“Thank you, and we will most definitely enjoy our new home.?Good night,” Michael said as he closed the front door.

“Everything just seems so sudden.?I mean, here we are living in Chicago, then we just come over here for a funeral, and now we are the owners of this huge mansion in Italy,” Jaime said.

“Yes, it is all very sudden, honey.?I just think that we shouldn’t tell Ryan, yet.”

“Oh yes, I agree,” said Jaime.

“I just don’t know how to tell Ryan who he really is,” said Michael in a depressed voice.

“Don’t worry.?We’ve talked about this before.?It will all just work out,” said Jaime.

Meanwhile, Ryan was running around the house looking for a flashlight.?After not finding one in the house, he ran out to the carriage house.?It was dark and eerie.?There was a slight, misty odor in the air.?Ryan was searching around the carriage house.?He stummbled upon a large work bench and found a lantern on the bottom shelf.?Boy was he in luck, a new flint was put in, and it just had been filled with oil.?Ryan found this strange.?No one has been in the barn for almost a year.?The oil would have already evaporated by then.?It was as if forces from the heavens filled the lantern.

“Great, now all I need are some matches.”

Ryan fumbled through the bench drawer looking for a book of matches.

“Where are those matches??I have a whole box full at home, but no I forgot to bring some.?Oh wait, what am I doing, I brought my lighter with me instead.”

Later that evening, they all sat down for some dinner.?After Ryan was finished, he told his parents that he was very tired and then went right off to his bedroom.?He waited till his parents were asleep.?It didn’t take that long at all.?They too were very tired and fell asleep around ten o’clock.?That was when Ryan got to his work.

He pulled out his lighter and lit the lantern that he got from the carriage house.?He quietly walked over to the door that he covered with a throw rug.?Ryan reached for the handle and opened it with a loud creak.?He waited a moment to check if his parents stirred.?The coast was clear.?They didn’t even hear a thing.?It really didn’t matter anyway.?There could be a tornado outside, and his father wouldn’t hear it at all when he sleeps.?As for Ryan’s mother, she was so tired, she could sleep through the whole entire next week.?He went back to the door and peered down into it.?Then, taking the lanteren some of the darkness disapperead.?Ryan found the long, winding staircase and walked down it.

The air was chilly and damp.?His teeth chattered and goose bumps rose on his neck as he took every step with curiosity for what layed ahead of him.?He finally made it to the foot of the staircase.?With the lanteren in one hand, he peered around.?He discovered that he was in a large, circular room.?The floor was made of soft, red dirt.?Ryan explored the room and found what resembled an alter in the middle of the room.?He walked over to where the alter stood.?It was very dusty, so Wes took off his shirt and used it to wipe off the entire alter.

It was a beutiful alter, totally made out of a dark green marble.?There were some candles scattered on the alter, so he lit them.?The candles added some light to the room, but not enough to light up the whole room.?There was a picture hanging over the alter.?Ryan couldn’t make out what the picture was of because it too was full of dust.?He took his shirt again and tried wipping off more of the dust.?After he was finished dusting the picture off, Ryan stood back and just took a close look at the picture.?He found out that it was actually a portrait of the Virgin Mary.

???????????He left the picture alone and found something else that was unusual on the alter.?In the middle of it was a crystal wine glass and a bottle of red wine.?There was a little writting on the bottle, but Ryan couldn’t make out what the date was on it.?He did find that part of the date was 18.?He decided to oped it and just take a little sip.?He couldn’t believe it.?It was the best wine that he had ever tasted.?However, there was something different with it.?He had never tasted a wine like it.?It was so good that just a sip turned into half the bottle.?He put down his glass and put the cork back on the bottle.?Ryan looked down at his watch and saw that it was getting late.?His parents would be getting up soon.?He took the lantern and climbed back up the staircase.?He closed the door with another loud creak and threw the rug back over it.?He changed out of his clothes which were dirty and shoved them underneath his bed.?Quickly, he crawled into his nice, warm bed and fell asleep.

The next morning, Ryan’s parents woke up early.?He heard his mother running around the kitchen, so he decided to wake up also.?Ryan was also pretty hungry.?He had some eggs and toast for breakfast.?Then when he was finished with that, he told his parents that he wasn’t feeling well and that he should go lie down on his bed.?Of course, Ryan’s parents had no objection to this and before the either one of them could say something, Ryan was already in his bedroom.

He locked the door behind him and started pulling the throw rug off of the catacomb door.?He started opening it, when, all of a sudden, he felt a rush of air go through his body.?It was like as if he opened up a casket.?Ryan didn’t think anything of it at the time.?He lit the lantern and started creeping down the staircase again.?The air felt different this morning.?He couldn’t figure out what it was.?The air seemed colder, and there seemed to be a draft.?He walked on over to where the alter stood.?Suddenly, a gust of wind blew and extinguished the lit lantern.?Ryan knew that this was most definitely strange for a few reasons.?The room was underground and enclosed, so there shouldn’t be any wind.?The lantern hadn’t gone out before, so it shouldn’t have gone out just now.?Also, the room shouldn’t be any colder than it was a couple of hours ago.

Ryan pulled out his lighter and lit the lantern again, along with the candles on the alter.?He looked carefully at the alter.?There was something different, he thought to himself.?That was when he immediately saw it.?He noticed that the wine glass he drank out of the night before was still there, but he also noticed a second wine glass sitting there with a fresh bottle of wine.?He couldn’t figure the whole situation out.?He wasn’t sure if he was drunk and may have put the second glass there or not.?However, where would the second glass come form.?All that is in the room is the stuff on the alter.?Then he remembered that he wasn’t drunk.?“After all, I only had half the bottle last night,” he thought to himself.

He sat down on a large stone in the corner of the room.?Ryan was still trying to figure out everything.?That was when it happened.?Ryan just sat there astonished, not being able to move a single?muscle in his body.?There in front of him was a man that he never, ever met before.?The man looked young, but dusty-like.?He walked over to the alter and poured the wine into the two glasses.?Then he walked over to where Ryan was sitting and handed Wes the glass that he drank out of the night before.

The man took a sip and then gestured for Ryan to take a sip.?Ryan did so.?The man sat across from Ryan who was now in total shock.?The man started up a conversation.?“Oh, pardon me if I’m a little dusty.”???????????

“Are you a ghost?” asked Ryan.

“Well, I guess I am, but you can think of me as whatever you want,” said the man with a chuckle.?Ryan still just stared at the man.?“I understand that you are Ryan Minellie.”

“Yes, yes I am Ryan Minellie.”

“Good, I have been waiting for a very long time to meet you.”

“Wo, back it up a bit.?You’ve been waiting to meet me?”

“Yes Ryan, I have.”

“Hold on, you’re telling me that a ghost that I have no clue how long has been dead, has been waiting to meet me?”

“Yes Ryan, I am a ghost and I have been waiting to meet you.?However that is an entirely different story.”?The man took a sip of his wine and then said, “Let me properly introduce myself.?I am Luke Minellie.”

“Luke Minellie?”?questioned Ryan.

“Yes.?Just think of me as a long, long lost relative for right now.”

“Wait, who’s putting you up to this??Is it my dad?”

“Ryan, what do you mean?”

“You know perfectly well what I mean.?Trying to act like a ghost to scare me, who put you up to it?”

“Ryan, I am a ghost.?I have not been put up to do this by your father.?I have come to help you, not scare you.”

“Ya right, I’m going to believe you’re a ghost.”

“Have you ever seen a ghost?”?asked the man.

“No.”

“Have you ever heard a ghost?”

“No.”

“Then, you have the nerve to say that I am not who I say I am without ever actually meeting or hearing a ghost before in your life?”

Ryan, now seeing that the man was getting mad, decided to lay off.?He quickly changed the subject.

“Luke, where did you come from?” asked Ryan.

“That’s an easy question.?I came from just past that wall.” Luke pointed to the part of the wall he was talking about.

“Wait, what’s past the wall??Who are you??Why are you here?” asked Ryan.

“Too many questions at one time.?I already told you that I come from past the wall, and I am here to help you.?I can’t, though, tell you what is past the wall.?That is something that you will have to find out for yourself.?See, here’s the deal.?Every now and then, since I died, I come out here for a drink of wine.?Then, last night I saw you drinking the wine out of my wine glass.?Oh, by the way, how is the wine?”

“Well, what can I say, Luke.?It’s the best wine that I have ever tasted in my life.”

“I thought so, since I saw you finish half of the bottle last night.?Now back to what I was saying.?That’s why I got the second glass and the new bottle.?Now you and I can share in the drinking of the wine.?Now, I can’t tell you anymore.”

“Wait Luke.”

“Ryan, all that I know is that I was instructed along time ago, even before your grandparents were a twinkle in your great-grandparents eyes, to meet a boy here on this date.?Now, I must leave you.?You must figure out the rest without my help,” said Luke as he got up and started walking towards the stone wall.

“Wait, but what about the message?” asked Ryan.

“The message??Oh, the message is this ‘The line shall not be crossed’.”

“The line shall not be crossed.?What does that mean??Hey! Luke don’t leave.?What is the?line?”

Luke stopped and turned around, “I can not help you any further.?I told you what I was instructed to tell you.?It is up to you to figure it out.?I suggest that you turn to someone else for the answers.”

“Someone else??Who??My father?” asked Ryan.?His question went unanswered as he saw Luke walk through the stone wall.?Then, all was silent again in the room.?Ryan sat there, alone and confused.?He thought about what Luke had told him.?Then, he took another sip of wine and put his glass back on the alter.

Ryan then walked over to the wall where he saw Luke go through it.?He ran his hand over the stone.?It was cold, wet, and smooth.?His hand ran smoothly, and then he felt a bump in the wall.?He ran his hand back over it.?As he did so, some of the mortar came off of the wall and then fell to the ground.?Ryan could tell that there was something engraved in the stone.?He peeled off some more of the mortar and could see that there were three words in the stone.?The words were ________ ________ _________.?Ryan couldn’t make out what they meant or what language they were in, so he didn’t pay too much attention to the writing.

Ryan looked down at his watch and saw that it was almost noon.

“Oh shoot! I’d better get back upstairs before mom comes in my room for lunch time.”

Ryan ran up the stairs and closed the door behind him.?Then, like always, he threw the rug back over the door.?He blew his lantern out and threw the sheets off his bed.?At least his mom would think he had been sleeping.

He crept out of his bedroom.?He was on his way to the kitchen when he passed by the study.?He heard his parents talking.?Ryan decided not to go in yet, but instead stay out in the hallway for a while.

“I got those job papers, Jaime,” said Michael.

“That’s good. I still can’t believe we just inherited this mansion.”

“Yes, I know what you mean, Jaime.?However, now I question about living here.”

“Don’t worry, Michael, it will be fine,” Jaime said, trying to reassure her husband.

“It’s just thinking about what has happened on this soil.?You know, the bloodshed and all,” said Michael.?

As he said this, he was thinking about a dream he had the night before.?He saw himself telling his son who they really were in the study.?Then, he saw two more visions.?One was a vision of Ryan inside a room that was foreign to Michael.?The room was dark and cold.?Next, he had another vision.?He couldn’t make it out clearly enough.?Only one thing stood out in his mind.?He saw a person’s wrist with a tattooed skull on it.?Then, Michael woke up.?He didn’t tell anyone about his dream, yet.

“I’m not totally sure, but I think I have an idea of what you are talking about.?It will be fine, honey,” said Jaime.

Just then, Ryan walked through the door of the Study.

“Okay, what’s going on around here?” asked Ryan.

“Ryan, it’s you.?How long have you been standing there?” asked Jaime as she turned around to see her son walking through the door.

“Long enough to know that we’re staying here,” said Ryan, now standing in front of his father’s desk.

“Honey, I thought you were in bed, resting,” said his mother.

“Well, I was,” said Ryan trying to remember what he had said at breakfast.?I just got up for some lunch, and I was walking down the hall to the kitchen.?Then, I found you two in here talking.”

“Lunch?” asked Michael with a chuckle.

“Yes lunch,” said Ryan.

“Ryan, its only been an hour and a half since we had breakfast,” said Jaime.

“What?” asked Ryan with a puzzled look.

“Your mothers right.?It is only eight-thirty.?I think it’s your fever talking,” said Michael.

“I don’t have a fever, and I am feeling fine.?My watch says it is twelve-thirty.?However, I will be getting sick if I don’t find out what the ...”

“Don’t say it, Ryan,” said Jaime sternly.

“Heck is going on around here.?What were you thinking I was going to say?”

“Oh, never mind, son,” said Jaime with a sigh of relief.

“Ryan, I think the time has come to have a talk,” said his father.

“Dad, we have already had this talk.?I don’t smoke pot. I never did and never will.?I don’t do drugs or smoke.?That stuff is bad for you and can kill you, and if everyone just said ‘No’ this world would be a safer place,” said Ryan.

“That’s good, at least one teenager in this world has morals.?I’m talking about a different talk, however.?I think its time to tell you who you really are,” said Mike.

“Who I really am??Speak of the devil. I was just wondering about that same question,” said Ryan.

“Oh, well then here have a seat, son,” Michael said pointing to the chair in front of his desk.

Ryan sank down into the big, leather chair.?Michael, now in front of the desk, took a seat on the desk’s edge.

“Ryan, you must understand that I don’t know all the answers.?Neither did my parents, your grandparents.?They were told only a little of our family history.?Then they tried to tell me the little bit of history the knew.

It was a long time ago in Ireland.?That was where Nick Minellie grew up.?His father was the son of Michael Minellie, the one that I was named after.?Michael Minellie fled from Italy to Ireland.?Why??Nobody really knows.?Anyway, Nick got married and had a family.?Then, the great Potato Famine hit Ireland.?With his wife and kids, Nick came over to America.?Over the years, his kids had kids that married and had kids and the family grew.?Then my father was born and later got married and had me.?Now, I have you.?I don’t know why as a family, we haven’t kept in touch.?I also don’t know why my parents got this huge mansion.?Thinking about it, I guess I don’t know much about our family history,” said Michael looking out of the window.?That was when he noticed a black Limo pull away from the front of the house.

“Great, but I still have one question,” said Ryan.

“Yes son, what is it?”

“Well dad, you said something earlier about the bloodshed on this soil.?What did you mean?” asked Ryan.

“What did I mean? I meant with all the Mafia groups in the past and how they would fight and stuff.”

“Oh, okay,” said Ryan.?His mother saw his disappointment and looked back at Michael.

“Okay Ryan, the truth is that we do have Mafia blood in our family.?That’s all I know, really,” said Michael.

“Mafia blood, no way.?I’m a part of a Mafia,” said Ryan with astonishment.

“Now son, we don’t have pure Mafia blood, I think,” said Michael.

“Also Ryan, there hasn’t been too much Mafia activity for a while.”

“I know, but still the Mafia,” said Ryan.?“Uh, I got some things to take care of in my room, Mom.”

“Hold on son, we still have on thing to talk about.”

“We do?”

“Yes we do.?We need to talk about moving,” said Michael.

“Ah yes, I heard about that when I was ...”

“Yes, I know Ryan, when you were eavesdropping on us,” said Jaime.

“Now mother, would I do such a thing?”

“Son, you know that we were left with something in the will, don’t you?”

“Yes dad, of course.?You met with the lawyer yesterday while I was exploring the house.”

“Very good, but what you do not know is the important part.”

“What is it, dad?”

“In your grandparents’ will, we were left with this mansion and all the property around it,” said Michael.

“Wow, that’s a lot of property.?Were we left with anything else?”

“Yes Ryan, but that isn’t the important part now,” said Jaime.

“Your mother is right.?Now we are faced with a very important decision that your mother and I wanted to include you on,” said Michael.

“What is it dad?”

“Well, we now own this house, but the thing is that we can’t ever sell it.?It must stay in our family.?That is the way it has been since it was built.?So, either we stay in Chicago and leave this house to sit here, or we move out of Chicago and stay here.?Also, along with the house, we also get everything inside,” said Michael.

“So, then that way we wouldn’t need to move any furniture, right?”

“Right, Ryan.?We wouldn’t need any of our old furniture,” said his mother

“There is also another part.?There is a job that just opened up.?If we stay, I have a good chance of getting it.?I hear its a good one, and I would be making more than in Chicago,” said Michael.

“Well, would we be going back to Chicago?” asked Ryan.

“Of course.?We’ll stay here like we planned.?Then we will go back to Chicago.?There, we’ll get our personal things and sell all of the other things, including our cars and house.?You can say your good-byes, and then we will need to leave,” Michael said.

“I know what you are thinking.?You’re afraid of not making friends here.?Though, I’ve heard the schools here are great and there are a lot of kids your age in town.?We are also close to the city,” said Jaime.

“Well, let me think about this.?Living here, having a free mansion that’s almost twenty times the size of the house in Chicago.?We have tons of land, free furniture, free cars, good schools (like I care about that), a job already waiting for dad, lots of money plus the money we get form selling our things in Chicago.?I guess we should stay.?It doesn’t really make much sense to stay in Chicago and pay all that money in taxes and stuff and also pay for this house, sitting deserted, left to rot.”

“So, what are you saying, Ryan?”

“Dad, I am saying that we should stay.?It would be fun living in another country.”

“Well then, its decided.?We’re staying here.?I’ll call the lawyer back up and make all the arrangements.”

“Wait, when are we going back to Chicago?” asked Ryan.

“I already told you, Sunday morning like we planned.”

“Great, now that is all settled.?Do you still need to get something done in your room, Ryan?” asked his mother.

“What, oh yes, I forgot about that,” said Ryan as he left the room.?“I’ll be back up for lunch.”

“Okay son, we’ll have lunch around one o’clock,” said his mother.

Ryan was almost to his room.?His father, then, walked over to the door of the study and shut it.

“I feel guilty,” said Jaime.

“Why?” asked Michael.

“Well, its just that we made the decision to stay here,”

“Yes,” said Michael.

“Though the thing that makes me feel guilty is that we made it before we talked to Ryan.”

“I know, but we needed to make one soon.”

“Yes Michael, but then we lied to Ryan and told him that we hadn’t decided yet.?However, we did make a decision.”

“I know that I didn’t handle the situation too well.?At least we didn’t make a decision and totally leave Ryan out of it.?We still made a decision, and we still included him in it.?Ryan just doesn’t need to find out at which point we included him in on it,” said Michael.

Meanwhile, Ryan went back into his bedroom.?He locked his door shut and walked over to where the rug was.?He removed the rug and opened the door.?Once again, Ryan traveled down the long, winding staircase with the lantern in his right hand.?When he reached the bottom, Ryan walked over to the alter.?He poured himself another glass of red wine.?He then sat on the stone where he talked to Luke earlier and thought about what his father told him earlier.

Back at the Study. . .

“I guess your right.”

“ Let me see, I think that I’ll drive into town.?I’ll see if I can talk with Greg and get some more information about living here,” said Michael.

“That would be good.?By the way, who’s Greg?” asked Jaime.

“You know, Greg Bowers.?Mom and dad’s lawyer.”

“Oh yes, I remember now.”

“Hey, would you like to come into town with me?”

“Sure, I’d really like to see what the town is like.?Maybe Ryan would like to join us.?I’ll go see if he’ll come,” said Jaime.

“Okay dear, I’ll pull the car around front.”

Jaime knocked on Ryan’s bedroom door several times.?“Ryan, oh Ryan.?Your father and I are going into town.?I was wondering if you would like to come,” said Jaime.?

After standing in front of Ryan’s door for several minutes with no response, Jaime concluded that he was sleeping.?She went back to the study to get a piece of paper and a pen.?She wrote Ryan a note.

It read: Ryan,

Your father and I went into town.

We should be back before one o’clock.

???????????????????????????????????If you are hungry, you can fix yourself

some lunch.?See you later.

Mom.

She took the note back and slipped it under his door.?Then, Jaime left the house, locking the front door behind her.?She walked down the steps of the front sidewalk and hopped into the car.

“Where’s Ryan?” asked Michael

“Oh, he’s still in his room.?The door was locked, and I didn’t get a response from him.”

“He probably is sleeping again with his discman on again,” said Michael.

“Probably. I left him a note saying where we are,” said Jaime.

“That’s good,” said Michael.

Ryan’s parents drove off to the town while Ryan stayed back in the catacombs.?He finished off the glass of wine and decided to pour himself another one.?He walked back over to the alter and opened the wine bottle again.?Ryan started pouring the wine when a spider crawled out of the bottle.?Another spider followed the first one.?Then, like a dog flinching when lighting strikes, Ryan threw the bottle.?With a loud clash, the bottle smashed against the stone wall.?Glass flew all over the place.???

Ryan walked over to where the glass was.?He kneeled down looking at the broken pieces of glass.?Ryan also found something else within the pile of glass.

“What is this?” he thought to himself.

What Ryan found were small pieces of mortar and stone.?Ryan, then, thought about the mortar that fell off of the writing on the wall.?Then, he looked up at the wall.?Ryan noticed that some of the wine, dripping from the wall, splashed on the writing.?He tried wiping the wine off the wall when he noticed a hole, with a diameter slightly larger than a nickel, in the wall.

“This must of been from the bottle,” he said out loud to himself.

Ryan stuck one of his fingers in the hole and found that is was about over an inch in depth.?There was also something else that was different about the hole.?Ryan found out that there wasn’t any soil on the other side of the wall, like an extorior wall.?Instead, there was another room.?The wall that Ryan thought was an extorior wall is actually an interior wall.

Ryan, then tried to pull his finger out of the hole.?There was only one problem with this, his knuclee slipped in the hole too far.?He pulled, but his finger wouldn’t budge out of the hole, it was stuck.

“Come on!!” yelled Ryan pulling on his stuck finger.?After about five minutes of pulling, Ryan finally gave up his struggle.?His yelling of anger soon turned to tears of fear.?Here he was, with his finger stuck in a wall several stories below the ground.?Plus, no one knew where he was.?It wasn’t long until he started getting tired again, and his saddness turned to anger again.?With his free hand, Ryan tightened it into a fist.?Forcefully, he started punching the wall.?The first punch he threw, nothing happened, but the wall didb’t feel that hard.?Then, he threw another punch at the wall.?This time, as he removed his fist, Ryan found that he made a slight dent in it.?He punched that dent again and again, and with each punch, the dent got deeper.?Finnally, the dent crumbled, and turned into a hole the size of his fist.?He was saved.?All he had to do now was to punch a hole near his trapped finger.?It took about three strong blowes to the wall with his fist to make a hole by his trapped finger.?Finnally, on the last punch, a large pice of rock, in the wall, crumbled, and his finger was freed.

Ryan stepped back for a moment and looked at the stone wall.?The wall in which he thought was solid now had three holes put into it by the fist of a fourteen year old boy.?Ryan took the lantern and held it up to one of the holes.?With the little light he had, he could see that there was something behind the wall.

Then Ryan thought to himself, “If I tear down the rest of this wall, I would be able to find out what lies behind it.?Now let me see, it would take to long if I knocked it down with my hands.?I need something more powerful and stronger,”

Ryan had an idea.?Quickly, he ran up the staircase and out of his bedroom.?Ryan stepped on the note, from his mother, without even knowing it as he opoened the bedroom door.?He ran down the hallway and out the backdoor.?Ryan slammed open the door of the carriage house.?He looked aroundat the aray of tools on the wall.?Then, he found the tool he was lookin for.

“Ah, the good’ole, twelve pound sledge hammer,” Ryan said as he picked it up and examined it.

Ryan closed up the carriage house, and walked back to the mansion with the hammer in his hand.?Ryan travelled down the hallway full of excitement that he failed to notice the house was silent.?He went back into his room and locked the door.?Ryan went back down the catacomb staircase with the hammer in one hand and the lantern in the other.

Meanwhile, Ryan’s parents were driving into the town.

“Jaime, I’ve been thinking.”

“About what ?”

“Well, I was wondering. . . Well, I feel guilty about making the decision to stay here before asking Ryan , but I don’t know why,” said Michael.

“I was thinking about that, too.?I guess we shoulnd’t feel guilty.?I mean, when you moved from St. Louis to Chicago, did your parents ask for your permission first?”

“No, of course not.?I was only eight years old.?My father got a new job up there, so I had to move.”

“Right, it was the same with my family, when I was younger, when I moved from Sydney, Australia to Chicago,” said Jaime.?“Our parents didn’t think anything of it, and that’s the way it is for lots of families.”

“I know, I just thought that Ryan wouldn’t want to stay here.”

“I was thinking about that.?There must be a reason, why he wants to stay, that we don’t know about,” said Jaime.

Michael didn’t respond.?The car was silent again for a few minutes.

“Michael.”

“Yes, dear.”

“I was thinking again.”

“About the move?” asked Michael.

“No.”

“What then?”

“Well, it seems like we got so worked up over telling Ryan the truth.”

“The truth?”

“Ya, about our family history.?You know.”

“Oh, that truth,” said Michael, “yes, I guess we did.”

“Well, why??I mean, the only thing that we told him is that we have relatives, that are mostly dead by now, who were in the mophia,” said Jaime.

“I didn’t quite tell Ryan the whole story.?I haven’t even told you all of it.”

???????????“There’s more to the story?”

“Yes, there is more.”

“How much more?” asked Jaime.

“Put it this way, there are several more chapters of the story.”?There was a pause of silence.?“Oh, look we’re here at the town,” said Michael trying to avoid further conversation about his family history.

The town was small, but beutiful.?There were coblestone roads, and the aroma of fresh bread filled the air around the bakery.?There were losts of little shops ad resturaunts.?Michael and Jaime drove down further to what was considered the newer section of the town.?It was a nice area, mostly consisting of large homes.?The homes were mostly owned by profitable, Italian bussiness men that worked in the city, but wanted to raise their families in the country.?Across the street, from some of the houses, was the school.?Michael parked the car in the school parking lot, while Jaime walked up to the school’s front door.

She pulled on the handle, “Shoot, it’s locked.”

“The school isn’t opened today!” called a lady from the sidewalk.

“I begg your pardon,” said Jaime as she walked up to the lady.

“I said the schools not open today.”

“Oh, well thank you anyways,” said Jaime.

“You aren’t from around here, are you?” asked the lady before Jaime started to walk away.

“Thats right, we aren’t from around here.”

“I could tell.”

“Really, do we stick out that much from the crowd?”

“No.?Let me introduce myself.?I’m Francesca Rullie.”

“Nice to meet you.?I am Jaime?Minellie.?This is my husband, Michael,” Jaime said as Michael walked up to her.?“Michael, this is Francessca.?Francessca, this is my husband.”

“Hello, nice to meet you.”

“As is the same with you.” A pause.?“What happened to the school?” asked Michael.

“Oh, it is closed today.”

“Well, are you folks just visiting?”

“Kind of, its a long story.”

“Well, I love stories.?I have all day.?I mean, I don’t want to impose on you, but . . .”

“Well, if you really want to hear it.”

“Yes of course.”

“Excuse me Francessca, but I have to take care of some bussiness, first.?I was wondering if you could help me, I’m looking for Greg Bower’s office.”

“Greg Bower, the lawyer?” asked Francessca.

“Yes.”

“Sure, his office is just a couple of blocks down the street from here.?I’ll take you there, if you don’t mind walking.”

“That would be great,” said Michael.

“Well, I guess I’ll start telling you the story.?The two of us and our son. . .”

“You have a son?”

“Yes, his name is Ryan.”

“Oh, well how old is Ryan?”

“Let’s see, June seventeenth, he will be 14 years old.”

“Really, I have a son, too.?His name is Chris.?He will also be fourteen, soon.?Well, back to the story.”

“Oh, yes the story.?The three of us live in Chicago, Illonoise.”

“You live in the United States?”

“Yes.?Michael’s parents were living here.?Then, we found out they died, so we came over for the funeral.?Right now, we are staying at their house.”

“Wait, you’re staying at the?Minellie mansion?”

“Yes, why do you ask?”

“Oh, no reason,” said Franccessca.?“Oh, Michael, one more block straight ahead, and you should be at Greg Bower’s office.”?There was a slight pause, and then Francessca started talking again.?“Oh Jaime, we?have to stop here.?They just have the best coffee on this side of town,” said Francessca as she pointed to the little coffe shop that sat on the sidewalk.?How about it??I mean, finish terlling your story over a nice cup of coffee.”

“Well, I would like to finish my story, and a cup of coffe does sound pretty good,” said Jaime.

“Oh befroe I foreget, I need to take you to some of the shops.?They just have the cuttist things,” said Francessca.

“Okay.?Well, I’ll be at Greg’s office.?Then, I think I willstop at that nice looking tobacco store down the street there.?Why don’t we just meet back at the car around two o’clock.”

“Sounds like a plan to me,” said Jaime as her husband continued walking down the street.

Jaime and Francesca started to walk down the street again until they reached a little Italian restaurant.?Above the restaurant was a small gift shop.?Creeks could be heard as the two ladies walked up the old wooden stairs. “Cling,” rang the bell on the store door as Francesca opened it for Jaime.

“Oh thank you,” Jaime replied.

“Oh, hello Francesca,” said a lady from behind the counter.

“Hello,” answered Francesca.

“Who do we have here?” asked the lady.

The attention of the entire store was now placed on Jaime’s presence.?She felt sick as if the climate of the room rose 30 degrees.?There were several older ladies staring at her.?One in particular couldn’t stop looking at Jaime.?It was quite obvious that the ladies could tell the Jaime was an outsider.

“This is Jaime Minelli . . .” said Francesca as she was interrupted by the lady behind the counter.

“Excuse me, what is your name?” asked the lady with a bit of shock.

“Jaime.”

“Yes, I heard that part.?I meant what is your last name?” asked the lady.

“Minelli.”

“Yes, she and her husband came over with their son from America.?They’re staying up at the mansion,” said Francesca.?

“Excuse me.”

“Yes Jaime,” said the lady from behind the counter.

“Are you the only florist in town?”

“Yes I am.”

“And the best one too,” Francesca added.

Jaime started to look around the store as Francesca and the lady behind the counter started talking about some personal items between the two of them.?As Jaime looked through the shelves, she could feel everyone’s eyes still on her.?She glanced over her left shoulder and noticed two older women whispering to each other in the corner.?She looked over her right shoulder and noticed the was a women standing down the aisle from her, whom was trying not to stare.

Now she felt really uncomfortable.?She felt the?