The River Beneath - Sample

THE RIVER BENEATH OUR HOUSE MICHAEL ROMANO2 THE RIVER BENEATH OUR HOUSE

The River Beneath Our HouseCopyright © 2017 by Michael RomanoAll rights reserved. No part of this book may bereproduced or transmitted in any form or by anymeans, electronic or mechanical, includingphotocopying, recording or by any informationstorage and retrieval system, without the writtenpermission of the publisher, except by a reviewer,who may quote brief passages.ISBN-13: 978-1540463890ISBN-10: 1540463893 MICHAEL ROMANO 3

CAPITOLO UNO Here We Stand, Venice, Italy ... Wow! My Mom and Dad are teachers of ItalianRenaissance and have been hired to teach atthe academy in Venice for at least six years. I looked at my brother, my twin, and said,\"Works for me,\" He smiled and nodded yes! Just imagine Will, Italy, just like Dad hasalways been telling us about and we'll be therethis summer, in just two weeks! My name is Amy and we are the Romanofamily. What a great last name to live in Italywith. Packing to move to a foreign country canbe tricky, but I am asking my aunt Gina, whoMom calls a clothes Diva and she said it wouldbe an adventure she'd be happy to help with. After all my bags were packed, I cameacross the emergency kit Dad told me never tobe without.4 THE RIVER BENEATH OUR HOUSE

Let's see, eight way pocket knife,compound compass, fire-starter and telescope,and my band aid kit with antibacterialointment, oh, and can't forget, ten waterproofmatches with starter tips. There, I'm so ready. Will didn't have the same trouble. Six pairof jeans, two nice pants and six shirts ofvarying kinds. We each had nice shoes, two kindsatennies and sandals. Everything in two casesand one carry-on. We both had headsets with all our songson one little machine, although our tastes werecompletely different. I liked contemporary rock… well I am fourteen you know, and he likedoldies and even older ones, like doo wop. Well, plane day was here. Pockets full ofgum and small goodies, we found our seat. Mom and Dad in front, with Will plus meright behind. Mom, always cool, brought a twelve-inchflat screen movie player and six movies, fourfor us and two for them. MICHAEL ROMANO 5

Between the music and movies, the flightjust went by so quickly. That and a three hournap. Landing in Milan, the college had a goodsized van fully equipped with goodies, liquidrefreshments and a driver named Guido whoturned out to be our butler! To Venice we went, stopping only at thedock to take us to our new home. Turns out, Guido was our water taxidriver too. An eight or ten minute drive halted whenhe pulled up in front of this huge house righton the canal. \"Questo è il Vostro, suo Palazzo, Mifamilia Romano,\" (This is your palace, myRomano Family). Looking up and up, I asked, \"Which part?\" \"All of it,\" Guido replied. Even Dad wasimpressed, Mom was simply stunned. We ran in first as we were apt to do,running up and down the stairs giving them awork out. After the poor man brought all ourluggage upstairs, we all sat in the kitchen,6 THE RIVER BENEATH OUR HOUSE

munching on the cold cuts and cheese platterleft for us. MICHAEL ROMANO 7

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\"I am to explain the house's rooms to you.\"\"There are six floors. Four used and twounused, because of periodical flooding. Used tobe for merchandise years and years ago, but westay out of there as it can be wet anddangerous. “O.k,” I whispered to Will, “got to seedown there first chance we get!” Mom and Dad had to check in with theUniversity so after the automatic speech of\"Don't get in trouble,” they shouted as Guidoboated them away. As soon as they were out of sight from theroof garden, we shot down stairs to thebasement levels. “Man Will, down on this the bottom level,there are sure are lots of large iron doors rustedshut.” Will said, “Probably storage for the thingsbought and sold. The half circle iron hoopslook like they were for padlocks.” Pulling out my eight-way pocket knife, Iopened up the file, so did Will, with his. Westarted chipping at the rust around the edges. MICHAEL ROMANO 9

It looked like it was welded but was kindasoft and scraped off easier than we hadexpected. Only there was so much of it, thatafter three hours, we'd only gotten a quarter ofthe door cleaned. \"Mom and Dad will be coming homesoon,\" Will said, “so we'd better get upstairsand unpack into the dressers so it looks as wewere busy working,” I shook my head yes,then up the stairs we ran. Stuffing things where they belong soquickly, we had time to start dinner. Let’s see,beautiful tomatoes, garlic and olive oil. \"Hey look Will, all these spices in the rackon the sink, you grate some of that chunk ofcheese they left for us.” While the sauce bubbled, I put some waterand salt on, and Will grabbed the pasta. \"Wow,such long spaghetti, about a foot and a halflong! We were just done when we heard thelooooong squeak of the front door. Mom and Dad came upstairs looking tiredfrom the flight and right to work, but their eyeslit up when they smelled dinner, then saw it.10 THE RIVER BENEATH OUR HOUSE

\"What's all this?\" Dad asked with a hungrysmile. \"Our turn,\" we said. Sitting down to eat, William carved up theloaf of succulent Italian bread saying, \"Oneheck of a full day eh?\" We all nodded while stuffing our faceswith spaghetti. Boy, I thought, we are going to sleep welltonight. I leaned over to Will whispering, \"Can'twait to scratch more tomorrow to see what wecan see!” He turned towards me to nod yes with amouth full of pasta hanging out and started tolaugh, what a mess! FINE CAPITOLO UNO MICHAEL ROMANO 11

CAPITOLO DUE They’re Gone Will, Let's Get to Some Serious Scratchin'! This a bright mew Monday, we both gotup so early in order to make Mom and Dad agreat breakfast in order to get them out earlyand us back to scratching. Had their lunches ready and labeled,sitting on the end table on their way out. \"Boy, what a morning, and lunch too.“You guys aren't planning to throw a partywhen were at work?\" Dad said with a smile. \"Not this time, Dad!\" Off they went, again to the roof garden.“Hey Will, these tomatoes will look good in asalad tonight.\" \"Never mind that, let's get to scratching!\" Inodded and bumped him aside to get outfront. \"Hey, we got farther than I thought,maybe we can finish today.\" He nodded andwent right to digging into the rust.12 THE RIVER BENEATH OUR HOUSE

The morning went by and having gottendown the rust scraping down to team work, itwas cleaned off. Figuring out it wouldn't be \"that\" easy, sowe brought some of Mom's ever present\"Machine oil\" she used first on her sewingmachine, then on everything that squeaked orscraped. Some squirts here, and more there, ohmuch more over those two places. \"Voilà!\"(…that's French for “Wow”), the metal hatchlike door started to open. But ... but, it wasn't aroom! Just a large platform of a little widerthan the doorway and close to fifteen feet out. Walking slowly to its end, we saw, a steepset of stairs going down in a slight curve, intothe darkness. \"Let's get Dad's and Mom's emergencyflashlights and see what we can see,\" I said to anot so brave brother Will. Bringing a ball of twine, some snacks, thetwo flashlights, especially my emergency kit,we loaded up all out stuff into our back packsthen down we went. MICHAEL ROMANO 13

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\"But that's running water, and the canalsdon't run that fast,\" I wobbly answered. Towards the sound that became loudereach step down we took, and a faint glow, thatbecame brighter as we descended, sped us on. Finally, we were in a flat good sized litroom. Walls all in tiled pictures and the floorwas polished rock that had been warn fromages of use. Around the left wall it opened up ratherhugely. There was the river, running through amassive underground canyon! Along the walls,was spaced, torches in ornate (super fancy)iron holders, lighting our way, and anyone elsewho was down here. Will heard me mumbling that to myselfand asked, \"Do you think there in anyone elsedown here?\" The light's we \"borrowed\" from Dad, litthe cavern up pretty darn well, and we wereusing only one! As we rounded the corner, it and the riverbecame a lot wider, a \"lot\" wider!16 THE RIVER BENEATH OUR HOUSE

To our, either amazement or purescaredliness, we looked at each other after thefirst fifty or so steps. After twice as many more, we could hear,hear ... water running. \"Well we are next to the canals,\" Will said. \"Will, turn on your light to see how widethis place really is.” As we swept the beams from the right tothe left, we stopped dead in our tracks andgulped. Right in front of us, well about fifty yardsaway, was a good sized, well little \"buildinged\"town! Hundreds of these odd shaped places withthatched roofs, seemingly to all be made ofsmooth yellow clay. Quickly, we lowered our lights and thereseemed to be shafts of sun coming in frommany different places. \"Look!\" Will said, \"There are lights in thewindows, people are in them! MICHAEL ROMANO 17

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\"Shhhh\" I whispered, \"Lets just sneak upand not let anyone see us.” Well, till I lookedover my shoulder, anyway. There stood a bunch, ten or more, uh, littlepeople, not smiling, and did I mention, withbows and arrows? The first out front said, \"Chi sei e cosa staifacendo qui ... e come sei arrivato qui?\" Will turned carefully asking out of thecorner of his mouth, as his Italian was wayworse than mine, \"What did he say?\" \"Ummm, ‘Who are you, what do you wantand how did you get here?'” \"Will, I'll answer in English to see if hespeaks it.” So I tried. Well, that was a bad idea as itseemed to excite a few who pulled back ontheir bowstrings. \"Aspetta, aspetta, Abbiamo alloggiato incasa di cui sopra con la nostra madre e papà\" \"I told them that we were living above inthe house with Mom and Dad.\" Will just shookhis head nervously.20 THE RIVER BENEATH OUR HOUSE

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Their leader then said in English, \"I willspeak to you in your tongue because you hurtmy ears when you try Italian.” \"Well,\" thinking to myself, \"that was veryrude.” But I figured it was a double, plus as itmade him happy and the bows went down. Leading us to the center of the town, thecrowd behind, and now to both our sidedseemed to be growing at an alarming rate, andnot a one smiling as befitting a weary traveler.I read that last line in a book. Will was none too calm, then we stoppedat this much larger building with an entry ofeight feet wide but not very high steps. Guessthey're just right for a three foot tall, at best,folks who seem to think of us as evil intruders! “We take you to our Mayor and he willmeet you.” \"There, Will,” I whispered, \"we're going tomeet the Mayor and all will be well.\"22 THE RIVER BENEATH OUR HOUSE

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That thought went from smile to not asmile as they put shackles (Long chained handcuffs) on us and their idea of an armysurrounded the Mayor's big place with armedmen and a few armed ladies. Well, they aren'tsexists! FINE CAPITOLO DUE24 THE RIVER BENEATH OUR HOUSE