It's Always Been You

The Song

Festa del Mare was fast approaching, and Portorosso was busier than ever. It was to be expected, with how much preparation was needed for the festival to run smoothly. Still, it was odd to see the sleepy little seaside town so active. So many people were out and about in the piazza, cobbling together concession stands and a small stage for the music they’ll play. 

The festival had been bigger and better for the past three years, ever since the sea folk showed up. A little over a year after Alberto and Luca first arrived, other sea folk started to come to the surface. It was a nice change after having the only sea folk in town be Alberto and the elderly couple. It started with a few brave folk from Luca’s village. They would spend a few hours above the surface before returning to the village, and when Nonna Paguro came by for cards, she would go on and on about how fascinated her neighbors had been with the entire experience. 

Slowly, more and more folk began to come, and some decided to stay. Alberto would never forget how his heart had swelled in his chest when he heard the news that a family of pearl-harvesters had decided to open up a jewelry shop.

The villagers brought their culture along with them, and Alberto thought that Portorosso was all the better for it. Slowly but surely, their community was growing, and he couldn’t be happier.

He’d been so happy lately that he’d actually started humming and whistling to himself. He had no idea why, but he just got a sudden urge one day, and now he just couldn’t stop. For the past two weeks, Alberto has had a persistent melody stuck in his head. It never seemed to really go away, and Alberto found himself whistling it often. He actually started to build on it, adding more to the song and even starting to write down lyrics. 

He knew nothing about songwriting, so he doubted any of the things he wrote would sound good, but that didn’t seem to matter. All that really mattered was that he was getting down words and he always felt so relieved after doing that.

Alberto was humming the chorus of the melody as he tied off the larger fishing net and pulled out his knife. He’d been picking up more shifts with Massimo lately to help meet the demand for the festival. There were more sea folk coming this year, and more sea folk vendors - which meant that there would be more demand for seafood. 

Alberto had been thrilled when Massimo had mentioned getting more cage traps for crabs. He’d always loved going hunting for crabs when he was younger. The tough shells were wonderful to chew on when his adult teeth had started to come in and he’d been taken over by the persistent need to bite. Once he was done with this catch, Alberto would go check the traps. 

“You seem to be in good spirits today,” Massimo’s deep voice rumbles from the other side of the boat. Alberto glanced up from where he was crouched over the net, knife still in hand. 

“Do I?” Massimo only hummed in answer. Alberto shrugged as he offered a lop-sided grin. “Guess I’m just excited for the festival. The food is always so good.”
“Ah, yes. There will be quite a few sea folk cooking this year, yes?”

“Yup! Nonna Paguro is going to bring sea cucumbers. She has a few she makes the traditional way, but she wants to try cooking some the human way too. I figured there’s no better time for me to finally try it.” He was actually looking forward to it. Luca couldn’t understand why - he’d always hated sea cucumbers. But Alberto had always found that food that most people thought was gross was actually pretty good. Growing up, a lot of kids had hated eggplant, but the first time Alberto had tried it, he’d fallen in love. He figured that sea cucumbers would no doubt be just as good.

“Luca’s nonna has always had quite the affinity for those, if I remember correctly.” 

“Oh yeah. She was telling me all about it when I helped her and Luca find some a few weeks ago.” The idea of fried sea cucumber sounded especially promising, now that Alberto thought about it.