The All-Powerful Ring

by John Bemelmans Marciano

  Primo rips the thing off and throws it into the river.

  “Hey, you big jerk!” Rosa says as it floats downstream. She jumps into the river and chases after it, grabbing the cloth as it gets caught on some reeds.

  Primo is already walking home.

  7

  A CHAPTER IN WHICH NOTHING GOES PRIMO'S WAY

  THE whole way back, Primo has to listen to Rosa making fun of him and singing her stupid rhyme. He walks as fast as he can and still it's so late by the time he gets to his house that he has to go right to work.

  “I don't even get to have breakfast?” Primo says.

  “If you wanted food, you should have eaten at your cousins'!” Momma says, believing he spent the night at the Twins'.

  At the stand, Primo is so tired he lies down under the table with the dried figs and honey on it and goes to sleep. A customer has to wake him up. Then Poppa comes and tells him he has to go all the way to Vipera to pick up three barrels of olive oil from the olive-presser there.

  “Why can't Isidora go?” Primo says.

  “She has to weave,” Poppa says.

  (Isidora has fingers like lightning, and her weaving makes the family twice as much money as what Poppa and Primo make at the stand.)

  They don't own a mule or a cart, so they have to rent one from the Carrozzos. Everyone hates the Carrozzos. They're the richest family in the Triggio, and they make sure everyone knows it. The youngest boy, Mozzo, is the worst, a brat and a total know-it-all.

  “You've got to hold a tight rein with this mule,” Mozzo tells Primo while the fathers do business.

  “Okay, okay,” Primo says, tired of hearing him explain every little thing. Like Primo doesn't know how to work a mule cart!

  “And the brake on this wagon can stick . . .”

  Primo exits the city through the Arch of Trajan and turns down toward the Ponticello, a tiny bridge that goes over a stream.

  He thinks about testing the power of the ring. Shouldn't it protect him from the Manalonga who lives under the Ponticello? It must be a small Manalonga, since the bridge is so little. What if Primo doesn't stick his fingers in his ears and make noise?

  As soon as the cart hits the bridge, however, Primo finds himself chanting LA-la-la-la-LA! at the top of his lungs.

  The whole long ride to Vipera, Primo can't stop thinking about two things: the ring, and how humiliating the whole trip to the Tree of the Janara was. He can't bear the thought of seeing any of his cousins today, which is one good thing about being sent out of town.

  It is well past noon by the time Primo gets to Vipera, and when he does, he finds out it would have been better had he not come at all.

  “We have no oil left!” the olive-presser says. “The Janara spilled out our last ten barrels.”

  The olive-presser's wife feels bad for Primo and gives him a nice bowl of fava-and-dandelion soup.

  Back on the road, his full belly makes Primo sleepy again. With the swaying of the cart and the rhythm of clopping hooves, he can barely keep his eyes open. Of course, the mule knows the way home, and it won't hurt if Primo shuts his eyes for just a minute.

  He wakes up to the sound of Rosa's voice.

  Primo the dreamer,

  Primo the schemer,

  Hit him with a walnut

  And Primo's a screamer!

  “Shut UP!” Primo yells. Then he opens his eyes and sees where he is.

  The mule made it nearly all the way back to town, but stopped at the Ponticello. Instead of going over the little bridge, however, the animal climbed down to the grassy banks of the stream for a snack.

  Primo the dreamer . . . The sound of Rosa's taunting—it's echoing out of the dark tunnel under the bridge. But it can't be Rosa.

  It's a Manalonga!

  Terrified, Primo hops off the seat of the wagon, jumps across the stream, and yanks on the mule's bridle as hard as he can to get the beast to go forward.

  Meanwhile, the Manalonga keeps chanting. Hit him with a walnut . . .

  The black hole under the bridge—it's too far for the Manalonga to reach him, right? Right?

  “Come on, you dummy! Come on!” Primo yells at the mule, pulling so hard it feels like his arms are coming out of their sockets. Finally, the animal rears its head up and Primo is able to get the mule to come charging up the hill.

  Thank you, thank you! Primo thinks. Maybe the ring is good luck. After all, he was lying asleep right next to a Manalonga, and he survived. Maybe he shouldn't have been scared at all. Maybe—

  The rear wheel of the cart hits a rock in the stream bank and snaps a wooden spoke.

  Oh, no!

  Returning the cart is even worse than Primo fears. “It's going to cost more than a scudo for the wheelwright to fix this!” Mozzo says, smiling. “How could you be so stupid?”

  Their fathers, meanwhile, barter and bicker over how much is owed on the repair. Hands and gestures fly. On the way out, Poppa smacks Primo—thwack!—on the back of the head.

  Primo skips dinner and goes right to bed. He doesn't want to hear Momma complain about how much money the wheel cost, and he really doesn't want to explain to Maria Beppina what happened at the Tree. Knowing Rosa, of course, she probably told everybody everything and even made up more humiliating stuff that isn't true.

  Which is why he has to grit his teeth when Rosa and Dino pull up in the delivery cart at the stand the next morning.

  “I don't know why you even bother coming,” Primo says. “You haven't had anything decent to sell since the mischiefs started.”

  “Well, we do now!” Rosa says, and pulls three crates of eggs off the cart. “There's lots more stuff, too.”

  “What happened?” Primo asks, surprised at how much she has to sell.

  “I stopped the mischiefs, that's what happened!” Rosa says.

  “You stopped them?” Primo says. “How?”

  “With drawings of spirit dogs and a very special spell that I made up myself,” Rosa says proudly. “It was even better than the rhyme I made up about you.”

  Primo doesn't believe for a moment that Rosa figured out how to beat the Janara. The annoying part is, she believes it.

  All day at the stand Primo broods. He takes out the ring every time he is alone to look at it. Is it possible it isn't magic? No, it has to be! This ring is the MOST AMAZING THING to ever happen. It was destiny to find the ring inside that fish—Primo's destiny! He's just got to prove it.

  That's when another great idea hits him. If Uncle Tommaso's books talk about auguring, then they must have stuff about magic rings. Some of his books have pictures of ancient buildings and statues and jewelry—maybe one of them matches the ring.

  This time, though, he isn't going to leave it to Maria Beppina to look through the books. No, her dad is the one who knows this stuff, so Primo is going to have his cousin show Uncle Tommaso the ring so he can look in the books and figure out what it is.

  Primo goes up the stairs to Maria Beppina's apartment and takes the ring off the string around his neck. Before knocking on the door, he pauses. He looks at the ring in his hand. Should he really risk letting someone else have it? Especially his dopey cousin who is always messing things up? But Primo has to find out.

  He knocks.

  8

  GOTTEN!

  PRIMO wakes up anxious to see Maria Beppina and find out what her father learned about the ring, but Poppa is waiting at breakfast with an early morning mission.

  “Six, fourteen, ninety-eight,” Poppa whispers to Primo so Momma can't hear, and palms him three quattrini. He then shoos Primo out the door.

  Primo runs to the Inn at the Fork. “Six, fourteen, ninety-eight,” he repeats to Bardo the tavern-keeper, handing him the coins.

  While Bardo fills out a lottery ticket, Primo watches one of the turnspit dogs run in the wheel that spins meat
over the fire. The other dog is sleeping, exhausted. Primo always feels bad for them, running but never getting anywhere, with that delicious-smelling food just out of reach.

  On his way to the stand, Primo runs into the Twins.

  “Father is so happy the mischiefs are over that he gave us the day off!” Rosa says.

  “Let's play storm-the-castle!” Emilio says. “We'll meet you on the wall by the watchtower at the midday bell. I'll tell Sergio and Maria Beppina!”

  Primo closes the stand early for lunch and is up on the wall by the first noon bell, but where are the others?

  BONG bong! BONG bong! The second noon bell tolls.

  BONG bong! BONG bong!

  They should all be here by now! What could be keeping them? That is when the terrible thought hits Primo: What if the others are late because Maria Beppina lost the ring and they are looking for it?

  Primo knew he should never have given her the ring! That dumb Maria Beppina probably dropped the ring somewhere and now it's gone forever! He'll never forgive her!

  Pacing, pacing the top of the walls, Primo gets more and more upset. Then he spots the Twins and Sergio, tearing through the city gate, running toward him and screaming. And no Maria Beppina!

  “It was the Clopper!” one of them yells.

  “We waited and waited for her, but she never came back!” another shouts.

  “It's horrible! Horrible!”

  “Wait!” Primo says. “What are you guys talking about??”

  “The Clopper!” Rosa calls up. “The Clopper got Maria Beppina!”

  Primo practically loses his balance and falls off the wall. He is sick with worry—not about his cousin, but about the ring!

  Primo takes the circular stairs of the watchtower in three-step leaps until he is down with the others.

  “What happened?” he asks.

  “We were heading across the Theater and I was in the lead,” Rosa says.

  “Yeah, but Maria Beppina was right behind me!” Sergio says. “I was running and I heard the Clopper—she was louder than ever—and I looked back at Maria Beppina and I saw this scared look in her eyes. It was like she was saying, Help me!”

  “And I was already on the other side and I looked back and Maria Beppina was gone!” Rosa says.

  “We searched all around the Theater,” Emilio says. “There was no sign of her. Anywhere!”

  “The Clopper got her!” Rosa says again.

  “But the Clopper's never gotten anyone!” Primo says.

  “That's probably what they said when your Uncle Beppe got snatched,” Rosa says. “Hey, wait—you know what is so weird? Beppe, Maria Beppina—it's like they have the same name!”

  “OH, NO, you're right!” Sergio says. “What are we going to do!?”

  “The question is what is the Clopper going to do?” Rosa says. “To Maria Beppina!”

  “Doesn't she eat kids?” Sergio says.

  “That's what Nonna Jovanna says,” Emilio says.

  “Poor Maria Beppina!” Sergio says.

  “I always liked her . . . ” Rosa says, taking off her head scarf.

  “Look, you don't know if she's dead. You don't even know if she got caught for sure!” Primo says. “It'd be just like Maria Beppina to chicken out and turn around for home.”

  “Home!” Rosa says. “We need to go check!”

  But back at Maria Beppina and Primo's house they just find Primo's older sister, Isidora, weaving in the street outside the front door.

  “I haven't seen her, but don't worry,” Isidora says. “The Clopper is just some crazy old lady who's never hurt anybody! I'm sure Maria Beppina is fine.”

  But none of the kids believe it. At least, not until they see Maria Beppina walking home with their own eyes.

  9

  THE TALE OF MARIA BEPPINA

  THE Twins and Sergio crowd and hug Maria Beppina. Primo is relieved to see her wearing the ring! Phew!

  “What happened? What happened?” they ask.

  “It was . . .” Maria Beppina says, and pauses. Her hair and clothes are disheveled. “It was the Clopper! She got me!”

  “No!”

  “Wow!”

  “Unreal!”

  “How?”

  Maria Beppina begins to stutter and sputter, like she is confused, unsure of what to say.

  “I stopped!” she finally blurts out.

  “You stopped?” Rosa says.

  “On purpose?” Emilio says.

  “That's the bravest thing I ever heard of!” Sergio says.

  “Why would you stop?” Primo asks.

  “To see what would happen,” Maria Beppina says. “And what happened was . . .” She looks at all their faces. “It was terrible!”

  The other kids stand there stunned, their mouths open.

  “The Clopper grabbed me and dragged me down to her underground lair,” Maria Beppina says. “And then she locked me in a rusty cage and started a fire under a giant pot. There were three hideous demons helping her and they were all starving hungry! They talked this crazy language that I couldn't understand, but I could tell they were going to boil me!”

  “I don't know if I can hear any more!” Sergio says, looking sick.

  “No, more!” Rosa says.

  “The Clopper kept laughing this horrible laugh and calling me dearie and sweetie and telling me how nice it was to have a child to eat after all these years.”

  “This is amazing!”

  “Amazing!”

  “It's not just amazing,” Rosa says. “It's the MOST AMAZING THING THAT EVER HAPPENED!”

  Primo's ears—his whole face—burn. This can't be! Maria Beppina getting caught can't be the most amazing thing to ever happen, because the ring is the most amazing thing to ever happen!

  Besides, he was supposed to be the hero! Not Maria Beppina! And not while wearing his ring!

  But wait—the ring! That must be what saved her.

  While the other kids pelt Maria Beppina with questions about how she escaped, Primo butts in with the answer.

  “It was the ring!” says Primo, “Don't you guys see? The ring protected her from the Clopper.”

  “Is it true?” the other kids say, turning back to Maria Beppina.

  Maria Beppina hesitates for a moment, as if she isn't sure what to say.

  “Yes,” Maria Beppina says at last. “Yes, it is true. The ring even started to glow.”

  “Whoa!”

  “And then what?”

  “The light from the ring blinded the Clopper and she had to blink and cover her eyes,” Maria Beppina says, putting a hand over her own eyes.

  “Curse you, you little brat! she said. It was going to be a feast day for me! It was like the ring was burning her, and the farther out I held it the more it hurt. Fine! Fine! I'll let you out! she screamed. Just take that ring away from me!”

  Maria Beppina shrugs. “I actually felt kind of bad for her as I left.”

  “Wow, it's true!” Sergio says. “The ring is powerful!”

  Even the Twins have to agree.

  “I didn't believe it,” Emilio says. “But you were right, Primo.”

  But being right isn't enough. Not for Primo. He has to do something. Something amazing.

  10

  TO DARE A MANALONGA

  IT all makes sense now to Primo. The ring did keep the Janara away from the Bridge of Ancient Ages, and it was the reason the Manalonga at the Ponticello didn't dare do anything but make fun of him. The ring has as much power as Primo imagined—and more! Now Primo is finally going to do something with it. After all, he can't let Maria Beppina have all the glory.

  “Where are you going, Primo?” Emilio asks.

  “What are we doing?” Sergio says.

  The other kids are following Primo on the path ou
t of the city gate.

  “What are you up to now, toad?” says Isidora, who can't help but come along, too.

  “You'll see,” Primo says.

  When they get to the bridge, the other kids are ready to stick their fingers in their ears and run across it, but Primo holds up his hand.

  “Wait.”

  They all look at him quizzically.

  “Give me the ring,” Primo says to Maria Beppina.

  She does.

  “I'm going to walk up the bridge and I'm going to stay on the bridge,” Primo says. “In fact, I am going to stand on the exact spot where Uncle Beppe got snatched. And I'm going to talk to a Manalonga.”

  “What are you?” Isidora says. “Crazy?”

  As the other kids plead with him to stop, Primo walks forward, climbing the ramp of the bridge. Alone.

  “Don't be stupid, little brother!” Isidora calls after him.

  “Yeah, come back, Primo!” Rosa says. “You don't have to prove yourself!”

  Near the peak of the bridge, Primo stops and stands in the middle of it, three steps from either edge. The safety zone.

  Primo feels his nerves, and then turns to the side wall of the bridge. His father always says:

  That's the stone—right there—where Beppe was standing.

  He looks at it.

  “Primo, no!” Isidora shouts.

  He takes one step forward. The rushing water from beneath grows louder. Slowly, it forms into a voice.

  Primo, the voice calls. How are you, Primo?

  It isn't like any other time he's heard the voice. He can't place it. Who is the Manalonga pretending to be?

  Primo, can you hear me?