To The Ocean And Back (Part 1 of a Luca Series)

Underdogs Reunite

May 27th 1968, 3:18 PM

"Ok. Now are you sure you have everything, Giulietta?"

Giulia groaned, milking every ounce of it so that it would match the engine of the soon coming train that would take them to Portorosso. "Yes, Mamma. Everything I need is in my suitcase. Clothes. Books. Toiletries. The dead bodies of my mortal enemies who contribute to the injustice of the world. Same old stuff."

Mrs. Marcovaldo sighed, using her finger to gingerly smooth a stand of Giulia's hair across her forehead. "Dead bodies, hmm? You know, I don't think they allow those on the train. You might have to ask the conductor about their rules and regulations regarding that department."

Gasping with great theatricality, Giulia facepalmed herself. "Gah. You're absolutely right. Wait, wait. Maybe they'll decompose before they can ask questions. Of course there's also the smell factor. Definitely a problem." She snapped her fingers as if the idea for this totally make believe scenario was in arm's reach. "Ooh, you're perfume! We'll cloak the odor with your lavender mist perfume as they decompose."

"Lovely. Truly lovely, Giulia." Laughing softly, a laugh that made someone feel like they were riding along Cirrus clouds, Mrs. Marcovaldo tightened her sky blue headscarf. "But tell me, dear daughter, how long does it take for a body-well in your case multiple bodies-to decompose?"

"Easy, that's...huh. I don't know actually. But I think I know someone who does." When Giulia tapped the shoulder of the seventeen year old boy sitting on her right, he barely registered her. His face was buried deep in a novel. Of course it would be. When he pulled his face out of its pages, it wouldn't be a surprise if the letters would imprint themselves on his cheeks. "Luca?"

Luca gasped, looking up and around as if he awoke from a nightmare which was crazy considering that all around him sunlight cast rays all along the platform of Geneva's train station. He blinked once, two times before finally registering where he was. "Huh? What was that, Giulia?"

"Whoah. You must've been deep inside your head today. I just asked you the most fundamental question and here you are, reading yet again as if...as if I don't matter. But don't worry about me. I'll be fine. Not like I'm one of your best friends or anything."

If there was one thing Luca loved, and in a small way was annoyed by, it was Giulia's dramatization of every day life. At times, she reminded him of a thespian actor in a renaissance play. Not only would she dramatically fall over a velvet rolled armed sofa, but she'd fall off of it to as if that's what queens did. "Ok. I'm sorry. What was your question?"

"How long does it take for bodies to decompose?"

"Wha-that's your question? Why would you want to know that?"

"Why would I want to know that?" Giulia planted a fist on her hip. She looked over Luca's head to her mother. "Mom, isn't he adorable?"

"Luca, feel free to take some of those tablets for headaches." Mrs. Marcovaldo winked at him.

"Hey!"

Luca laughed and decided to oblige. Any distraction would do. Over the last few weeks of school, he's been a bundle of nerves. School was, and will probably always will be, a guiding force for him, but who knew exams were so hard. Especially for the older kids. As much as he loved his literature classes (it was way more enticing than Precalculus and Physics), all that writing and all nighters pulled with expresso made him feel groggy and a little heavy headed.

"Ok. Let me think." Luca used the bookmark Mrs. Marcovaldo made for him to mark his place, a strip of leather with wilted bluebells, and closed the book he was reading, City Of Night by John Recky. He made sure to put a false slip cover over the real one, making it look like he was reading A Wrinkle In Time. "Well, there are factors you have to take into account. The environment, the person's weight." He plucked the pen he kept behind his ear and started chewing on the tip, a habit he developed when he really began to think. "The time it would take a dead body to typically decompose would be around...um...twenty four? Yeah, twenty four to seventy two hours."