Elementary Virtue: The Prophecy

by Sonja Wuthrich

  Defiantly, he looked at the Signora, and his displeasure was quite obviously written all over his face. Tiziana smirked, "Did I disturb you making an important call?" Gregory stubbornly remained silent. It was none of the old trout’s damn business who he called. "What is it, that's so important? Did you want to inform Keanu that you noticed how crazy your idea was? That you got carried away in your anger?" He looked at her confused, why did this woman always know everything? "No definitely not, and besides, he provoked me. He constantly reminds me how unable and stupid I am. I simply can’t stand it any longer. He is impossible to work with. That's why I wanted to call my girlfriend and hear her voice before I die tomorrow. What's the problem?" She rolled her eyes, "Oh boy, don't be so dramatic, you are not going to die tomorrow." He looked doubtfully, "How would you know? Oh, I forgot, you are the fortuneteller. But, Keanu has more experience fighting than me, and he has hurt me more than once in training, you know that, after all, you fixed me up afterwards." She shook her head with a smile, "Then call your girlfriend, but don’t tell her no such crap that you are going to die tomorrow, you don’t want to upset her unnecessarily, right? I am sure about that." He shrugged looking leery at her. In the dark, his eyes shone like a cat's.

  "Boy, I hope your eyes will get back to normal as soon as you have fulfilled your task. Otherwise, your girlfriend will have to buy a good pair of sunglasses. If she wants to look deep into your eyes." He stared at her blankly, "Excuse me?"

  "I know the legend Gaetano, and when the last savior was ready for his mission, they say his eyes glowed in the dark like a cat's, and his eyesight was as strong as a cat's. Unfortunately, he wasn't emotionally ready to fulfill his destiny, and he trusted the wrong people. He was betrayed and then he got killed. This girl of yours, she makes you vulnerable, your love makes you vulnerable, and therefore you should not waste your powers in unnecessary duels with Keanu. It would be better if you find out what your real purpose is and how you can solve the task. Then you will understand what will be the consequences for Sicily or even humanity if you fail and mess it up. Decide well Gaetano soon it will be too late and don't forget who the real enemy is. It is not Keanu that much I can tell you." She got up leaving him behind.

  Gregory lay down thoughtfully into the white hammock hanging in front of his trailer. He looked up to the sky full of stars wondering about what Signora Tiziana said to him previously. It was clear that she was completely right with everything she told him. The duel was a stupid idea, and he did well working with and not against Keanu. His phone vibrated and fell out of his pocket. As it was completely dark out there, he had a hard time to grope around before he found it. He took the call slightly out of breath, "Hey," he heard Leyla's voice as close as if she was standing beside him, "hey, I am lying on a hammock, and it would certainly have plenty of room for two." He sighed, "Above me the sky is full of stars, and it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling to know, that we are under the same sky. Even if we are so far apart." "Hmm," he heard her voice, which was slightly shaking. "Are you crying?" She sniffed, "Yes, I am crying, you are sitting at the other end of the world, and your voice is so close that it makes me feel as if I could just reach out my hand to touch you. I miss you!"

  Gregory felt deeply moved. How could he ever distrust her? Even if someone would learn something from her, she would never give anything away about him on purpose. Last time when things had gone wrong, it hadn't been her fault. He had triggered the disaster by himself because of his jealousy. "I miss you too, more than I ever thought possible. What have you been up to lately over there?"

  "Not much, you know that I am grounded. Your parents are here, and especially your mother showered me with questions lately. I must say she is a very determined person if she wants to know something." Gregory laughed, "Yes I know her methods of interrogation only too well. How are you holding up against her?"

  "I am silent as a graveyard."

  "I'm sure about that. How's it going with the gang, what are Aiden, Brooklyn, Mila, Shane and Akandos up to?"

  “You are not going to believe it, they wait tables in their spare time in this new club, 'The Crowd', and they are trying to fill up my empty bank account with their paycheck so that my in-home punishment grounding will finally come to an end."

  "Stop, to hear that makes me feel sad, knowing that I'm the real reason for your empty bank account. I feel so damn guilty."

  "You don't have to," her voice had taken on a compelling pitch, "I would do it again and again, and for your information, I would do anything for you. Besides, I would give anything to have you here with me right now." He sighed, "Same here, and I would give anything to kiss you right now."

  "Well, unfortunately, that's out of the question, but at least I can hear your voice, that's a lot better than nothing. Can you please send me a selfie, so that I can look at you? I promise you that I will delete it heavy hearted even if I will never get tired of looking at you, but I guess I’ll' have to delete it so it won’t fall into wrong hands." He grinned, "Ok I'll do it, but only if I get one from you, or wait, maybe two. One of your beautiful face, and one in your hot turquoise bikini." She giggled, "Wow, you are really going for it, well then I want a topless shot of you."

  "God, you're a bold one, well I think this is doable as long as you don't ask me to send a picture of the bottom part, I guess it’s okay." She screamed, "What's wrong with you?" He grinned, "Don’t get excited, I'm suffering from an acute withdrawal of affection, you should understand that," he laughed nervously, "sorry, I got carried away, it was just a joke."

  "Better that way pervert." she couldn’t help laughing. "Sorry I'm a little out of control, because of my duel tomorrow, and I wanted to hear your voice again before I bite the dust."

  "What? Are you're crazy? With whom you are going to fight? No way, I don't want to lose you. In this case, send me a picture of whatever body part you want to. I can handle the sight of your ugly toes somehow, but please, please don't carry on with the duel, the fight or whatever you have in mind," she was completely off balance. "Calm down, I am not going to do it, that was just a stupid idea."

  "Guess you could say that. What’s going on with you anyway down there? Did you find out stuff about your mission being the savior?"

  "Well, I heard all kind of things. But, the less you know, the better. They killed the last savior because of exposed secrets."

  "I get it, and you're probably right."

  "Of course, I'm right, and by the way, did someone happen to come into your life who is particularly interested in your love life?"

  "Not really, I am still grounded. Wait a minute. There's this girl, Ana. She is here for a Holiday, and she is new in my judo course, but she has enough on her plate to worry about. She keeps on telling me about her problems. She has a crush on a guy, and it doesn’t really, let's put it that way, go well. He's a celebrity, you know."

  “But it could be that someone has set her up for spying on you, right?"

  "Yes, that's possible, but I haven’t had the feeling that I shouldn't trust her so far." "Did she ask you about your love life?"

  "Not directly. Oh, my god Gregory, when you called, and I didn’t have good reception, I said that you're on an island and that the network is not that great. Now I feel very guilty." He heard her voice faltering, and she was again close to tears.

  Donna Tiziana had been right. Gregory didn’t blame Leyla at all if this Ana girl had something to do with the Vultures. Maybe she didn’t know that she was used as their spy. Only the fact that Leyla had mentioned an island was enough. For the Vultures, there was just one island to think of, and the hunt was on. "Don't worry Lela. Maybe she doesn't have anything devious in mind," he tried his best to calm her down, "you said she was nice and had herself problems with a guy, so maybe she just asked you casually about your life. She doesn't sound to me like a backstabbing bitch. Probably she just wanted to show interest in your love troubles, as she had been crying about hers in your lap. Perhaps she was approaching you on
purpose because she is a spy of the Vultures. There are many islands in the world. You don't have to worry about anything. Just relax and calm down."

  "But if they’ll find you, it's my fault, damn it!"

  "Don’t worry, they won't find me because of you, I will make sure about that, and if they should find out about where I am anyway, it has nothing to do with you. Believe me. I'll be prepared. "She still sobbed quietly and meanwhile her sobs turned into hiccups. Gregory smiled. She was sweet, in her fear for him.

  "Send me your pictures I need them more than ever. They will give me strength whatever may come. Besides, if you need me, you can contact Giacomo. But, please only in an emergency, when someone’s life is at stake, or worst. You know what I mean. I'll send you his number. Please encrypt it well."

  "Sure thing, I’ll take care of it, and I need your pictures too, or I am not getting through the whole thing un-shattered. I would like so much to be with you now."

  "I know, but trust me, that is not a good idea, now as things are. The pictures are almost on their way, and if someone happens to see them, I don’t care. Sending pictures currently is the smallest of my problems." She had recovered in the meantime, "I'll find out whether Ana is a tool of the Vultures and if she is they will get to know me," she said it grimly. He grinned to himself. There she was again his little warrior Amazon.

  "Take care of yourself," she whispered. "You too, we will meet again soon, try not to worry too much about me. I have to hang up now and go to sleep. Tomorrow will be a tough day. Don't ever forget that I love you."

  "How could I ever forget that? I love you too." They said goodbye and Gregory remained lying thoughtfully in the hammock, and then he crept carefully into the trailer in which Antony was lying on his mattress snoring loudly. Gregory rummaged through Antony's stuff, anxious to make any unnecessary noise until he found what he was looking for. Gregory took Antony's neon green selfie stick. God, it looked quite weird, and then Gregory went outside to take pictures for Leyla. He did his best to make sure he looked good on them. After all, she should get a sizable memory and not a blurred selfie. It took some time until he was satisfied with the result. Behind him, there were the fairy lights of the circus and above him the sky full of stars. He took a picture of his left foot, laughed stupidly to himself, and sent both pictures to Leyla's number. He knew that it was dangerous, but he didn’t care, he just had to do it. He even wrote a ridiculous cheesy text adding hearts and stuff. Well, love made a fool out of him. Unfortunately, Tiziana seemed to be quite right about that. Barely a minute later, his phone beeped, Leyla sent him her pictures, including a picture of her right big toe, painted with a purple nail polish. The woman had humor, and you had to give her that. The second picture of her gave him a sting. She looked so beautiful and tender. The big brown Bambi eyes that he loved so much smiled at him. He went to bed with the phone pressed to his chest. He fell asleep immediately dreamless. Today for the first time he felt, something close to happy again only because he heard her voice. Oh damn, he wanted nothing more than being with her again.

  At 8:30, Antony was standing at the entrance in front of the circus, waiting for Gregory. He was in a bad mood trying to keep talking Gregory out of the duel, which was crazy nonsense. Gregory ignored all of his comments without answering. On the Vespa, Antony had no chance to convince him further. But, when they stopped at a gas station to get a coffee, he tried his luck again. The gas station attendant had a face cluttered with piercings and a huge lettering with the name 'Verena' was tattooed on his forearm. He watched the two of them interested. He observed Gregory, who seemed to be either deaf or dumb because he reacted in no way to the convincing talk of his companion. He watched them leave shaking his head. Two fruitcakes so early in the morning, what was next, his shift had only just begun.

  Intrigue, Heartache and other Disasters

  Leyla was torn, and could hardly believe that Ana was some backstabbing bitch, and she hoped she was wrong about her suspicion. The longer she thought about it, the more likely it seemed to her that Gregory might be right. Ana had been determined to get close to her in Judo training, and it doubtlessly worked for they had become friends. Leyla realized that it had more than come comfortable for her at the time because of being grounded. At least with Ana she had a reason to leave the house. Though she had to admit that trying to make friends in a foreign country on a Holiday was not really, what you could call a crime. Still she would have to find out what was behind all that. Then Ana had told her about this ridiculously mysterious half-brother. She sincerely hoped this guy didn’t have to do anything with the Vultures. Leyla sighed, she just couldn’t imagine that Ana was trying to hurt her knowingly, having herself such a difficult time with her illness and all that stuff. But, maybe someone else was behind it and was setting her up to spy on her connections to Gregory. Whatever it was, she was going to find out. Tomorrow she would accompany Ana to a dinner with her father and her half-brother. She would defiantly probe them and learn their dark secrets if they happened to have any.

  She decided to leave the issue to rest at least for today during the baseball game. After all, it had been a long time since she had been on the move with her friends and there was no need to bother them with her suspicious thoughts before she was sure that there was something in the bush with Ana. She'd rather have a great time once again trying to enjoy the evening. The food in the lodge was fantastic, and they were having a good time. Brooklyn and Aiden were glued together as usual. Mila and Shane were making a few stupid jokes about them. Apparently, they were not impressed and ignored the comments. Leyla was sure that Mila just wanted to divert the attention from her misery about her feelings for Shane. At some point, the situation was almost a bit embarrassing, when Mila stared somewhat obvious the whole time at Shane, without him seeming to notice. He was entirely focused on the game. Suddenly Brooklyn called out excited, "Guys, look over there in the box next to us, behind the glass panel. Isn't that Saul Marques?"

  Leyla grinned because Brooklyn was such a fangirl when it came to Saul. Then her gaze fell on Ana, who looked as if she was going to cry any Moment. Oops, her guess had been wrong. Apparently, she didn’t hold up that well when it came to her little interlude with good old Saul. When she looked at her sad face, it was hard to imagine that she was some sneaky, sly bitch trying to fool her. Ana's phone vibrated, and she heard Ed Sheeran’s gentle voice. She quickly took the call. There was an unexpected angry outbreak. Leyla looked up, startled, she had no idea what was going on. If it was Ana's mother on the phone, the two of them must have had a real nasty fight. But, Ana's next words caught Leyla's attention. It looked as if the person on the other end of the line was not Ana's Mom. "On a damn island, I don't know and now leave me alone, I have other stuff going through my head right now, than this stupid crap." Annoyed she stopped talking as her conversational partner was talking to her. She seemed increasingly pissed saying unfriendly, "It is none of your freaking business, where I am. All right, then you've seen me, it is not a crime to be at a baseball game. May I’ remind you that you are not my mother. What? Betting on what? Look, I don’t care. I’ll see you tomorrow and don't forget that I’ll bring a friend. Listen to me. It doesn’t matter. You will see soon who she us. Bye now," she stared grimly to the pitch. She would confront Gabe, who was the most arrogant guy she had ever met in her life with Leyla and wondered how he would react when she showed up with her. She just needed to know what was going on, in what mess he had implicated her. She liked Leyla and wanted to tell her that Gabe had set her up to spy on her, but she didn’t know how to say it without Leyla hating her for it.

  Leyla pretended not having listened to Ana's conversation. She was talking to Brooklyn, and they exchanged meaningful glances. There seemed to be something in the bush with Ana and Leyla doubted that Ana had noticed anything of that baseball game so far. So much for wanting to attend a baseball game once in a lifetime, and what exactly did she say about an island? That couldn’t be a coincidence, could
it? She observed Ana carefully acting naturally. Ana was staring at the court absentminded when all of a sudden Brooklyn dashed past the baffled Aiden like a rocket. She had seen Saul walking by their box. She lunged toward him approaching him. She asked him if he would take a picture with her which was only possible because he was without a shield in this private box. Otherwise, some fans would have probably surrounded him by now. He willingly followed Brooklyn. They made several pictures, and he even grimaced for a silly photo Brooklyn asked of him.

  Everything would have been fine. Ana, remained in her seat making herself as invisible as possible. She would have remained undetected, but Brooklyn couldn’t get enough and was trying to make the most of the moment. She wanted a photo with Saul and her boyfriend. Aiden didn’t move out of his chair, and Brooklyn dragged Saul with her into their box. Saul, the nice guy next door was doing her the favor walking with her into the box. After all, he knew that he owed his success to his fans. No airs and graces at all. Aiden got reluctantly up to shoot the picture. However, the picture would very unlikely win a prize. When Saul got ready with a broad smile on his face, his hand raised up in a victory sign, his eyes fell on Ana, who sat behind the two of them. His eyes widened in surprise, and Aiden stuck out his tongue and Brooklyn who had seen it coming was closing her eyes in horror.