La Casa Nostra (Claudio Marchisio AU)

One

A trip from Milan to Sicily takes fourteen hours and twenty minutes by car. A car ride with my eldest brother from Milan to Sicily feels like it has taken seven days.

He came a day before we left and we left very early this morning, around two o’clock, so we should get to Sicily around half past three.

I will miss Milan. I’ll miss seeing my mother’s family every day, working in their bakery every day. I got used to the customers and the lifestyle.

It was so calm and peaceful.

I loved it.

Now I have to go back to the dangerous lifestyle of having a father who is one of the head leaders in the Sicilian mafia.

He moved me to Milan to get away from the dangers.

A few months ago members of a gang who were planning to overrule us. They would ambush on family dinners, they would shoot at us they even held one of the other member’s wife hostage.

But they failed because they were just a minor difficulty in the mafia’s eyes. They had connections everywhere.

Mafia have connections everywhere. Connections with political leaders, corrupt police officers, secret spies all of Italy.

They were taken out easily.

That’s why I was allowed back.

“Stop sighing Roma, you’re coming back to family. It’s the summer of 1950. Be happy.” My brother Pedro says looking over at me in the car making me sigh and touch my pleated skirt.

“I know, I am happy. It’s just I’ll miss Mother’s family.” I say and look over at him.

“Maybe you’ll get to visit them soon.” My brother smiles.

I have a big family.

My Father, Abramo Salvatore is one of the main leaders in the Sicilian Mafia. He’s strong and loyal.

My Mother, Pia Salvatore is one of the most gentle and kind hearted people you will meet. She always seems to know what to say.

My eldest brother, Pedro, he’s twenty seven, well he’s the most mature. He knows that he wants to stay and help with Mafia business as much as he can. He’s dating my friend Isabella. He and Isabella are one of those beautiful couples that you get jealous of.

Next is the twins, Giovanni and Giorgio, they’re identical twins and you can barely tell them apart. My mother struggled with their pregnancy but luckily they are all here. They both have a long lists of lovers on the go at the mature age of twenty five.

The twenty four year old Enzo is next. The funniest out of all of us. I don’t know if he wants to stay within the family business forever, but while he’s here he sticks with us. Eventually I think he will leave but you never know.

Mario, probably my second favourite brother, after Pedro. He’s a twenty three year old with a good aim. As much as my Father hates to admit it, Mario is the best shooter we have. From around twenty feet away he can get a bulls eye on his first go.

The youngest out of my brothers is Nico, if you can tell my parents like names that end in “o”, Giovanni is the odd one out, they also had all of my brothers very close together, but I don’t want to get into detail about that, all I know is that they kept trying all of those years for a chance that they could get a girl. Nico is twenty two years old. He’s like the black sheep of the family. He isn’t the best with girls but he’s the only one out of all of my brothers who are married. They all have the theory that it’s because he won’t be able to get another girl other than Rosalina.