Chapter Text
The laughter and music seeped in through the sitting room’s window, sending bolts of excitement through Sofia. She stood on the chair, leaning on the windowsill and looking out into the street as the dancers and masked people went past. She looked at the intricate masks and the fire breathing acrobats and smiled, her heart going faster. Venice was usually very boring compared to Constantinopoli, but this carnival thing seemed very fun.
Sofia had just moved back from the east, and the floating city, although her real birthplace, seemed like a foreign and strange place still. She missed the colorful tapestries, and smokey smell of incense and spices; she missed the gypsy dancers and the merchants yelling prices in as all the languages in the world. But now, seeing all the fireworks and hearing the laughter, all that uneasiness slipped into the back of the ten year old’s mind.
Now, she was only thinking about one thing: going out into the street.
“How much longer until my aunt is ready?” Sofia asked, still looking out the window, “I want to go!”
Filippa was sitting on the couch next to her, reading. “ Non lo so (I don’t know), Sofia,” she said calmly, “in a little while.”
Sofia groaned, turning around and slumping down into the chair. Filippa looked at her for a split second. “Don’t slouch,” she said.
The child sat straight, but she stuck her tongue out to her cousin. Of course Filippa had turned back to her book by then and hadn’t seen it, but Sofia knew what she had done, and that was good enough for her.
Sofia kept looking at the closed door, moving her feet in the air. The music kept cheering outside, filling her with uncontrollable excitement.
“Stop that,” Filippa groaned, “you’re driving me crazy.”
Sofia rolled her eyes and jumped out of her chair, instead pacing up and down the room in front of the big wooden shelf they had. She began running her fingers over the leather bound books in it, taking in the dusty scent of paper. She read the titles quietly, seeing which one caught her eye. Most of them she had already read.
Finally, she found one she hadn’t gotten into yet, and she pulled it out. It was a copy of a spanish book titled: “Los Cuentos del Conde Lucanor” . Filippa watched her go back to her chair and open the book, getting lost in it almost immediately.
Just then the door opened and a young man came in. He was near his twenties, with fiery red hair and deep green eyes, just like Sofia’s. He was wearing party clothes, but they hung loose over his slender frame and looked sort of awkward.
“Marcello,” Filippa greeted him, “is everyone ready to go?”
The young man shook his head. “We’re waiting for your father, but he should be ready in a minute,” he explained.
Filippa nodded, putting away her book.
Marcello looked at his baby sister, lost in the big old book. “It’s nice to see you too, sister,” he said, but she didn’t hear him. He walked over to her side and picked her up from the chair. Sofia didn’t protest, she didn’t even stop reading. She just let him set her down on his lap and she curled up against him, playing with a loose string in his vest. He read the book and frowned. “Since when do you know how to read in spanish?” he asked.
“I don’t,” Sofia replied, looking up at him.
“Then how do you know what it says?”
“It’s not so different from italian,” she explained, “I can understand some words… and the rest I just make up. So far, I really like this story.”
Marcello chuckled. “What is it about?” he asked.
“I’m not sure yet,” she replied, “I think it’s about a knight.”
“Why do you think that?”
“I don’t know, I just want it to be about a knight.”
“Va bene,” Marcello laughed, looking up at Filippa as she covered her mouth and chuckled.
The door opened and they looked up. Sofia’s father, a man of about fifty came to the door. His hair had once been a deep red, just like his children, but it had faded to a silvery white with time; his eyes, however, were as aware and green as always. He looked at all of them. “It’s time to go,” he said.
As soon as she heard that, Sofia jumped off her brother’s lap. A big smile appeared on her face as she bolted past her father and down the hallway. She almost reached the stairs when she remembered she still had the book. She ran back even faster, left the book on the couch and went back out before the others could even leave the room.
She went down the stairs three steps at a time, her little legs barely managing to keep up. Her mother and aunt were waiting downstairs, talking with their masks on. Her mother’s eyes widened when she saw her running towards them. “Sofia!” she exclaimed, catching her by the arm, “why are you running, my darling?!”
“They said we were ready to go!” she explained.
Her aunt shook her head slightly, looking at her mother; but she just gave Sofia a kind smile and knelt in front of her. “We are, amore ,” her mother said, “but you must walk. Good girls don’t run, do you understand?”
Sofia nodded. “ Mi dispiace , mother,” she said, “I won’t do it again.”
The woman smiled, fixing a strand of her that had fallen out of Sofia’s bun. “Now,” she said, standing up, “here’s something for you.” The woman turned around, picked up something from the table, and turned around for Sofia to see it: it was a carnival mask. Sofia gasped looking at the delicate white porcelain, and taking in the colorful strokes and intricate patterns. She smiled. “Grazie!” she said, hugging her mother.
Her mother helped her put it on just as the others caught up with them. Sofia stared at her in the mirror, smiling at the way she looked with the mask. The day just kept getting better and better.
The adults were going over to dinner at the house of one of her uncle’s friends but the kids were going out to look around the city, and maybe see some games. Sofia had begged her parents to allow her to go with her brother and not with them, and if it hadn’t been for Filippa interceding in her favor, she wouldn’t have been allowed to.
Before they left, Sofia’s mother turned to Marcello and Filippa. “Keep an eye on Sofia,” she told them, “and be careful.”
“Of course,” Filippa nodded, taking Sofia’s hand while she continued to look at her reflection.
Marcello kissed her mother’s forehead. “You have nothing to worry about, mother,” he reassured her.
He opened the door and stepped aside for Filippa and Sofia to get out first, coming right behind them and closing the door.
As soon as the house was out of sight, Sofia took off running again, laughing and urging them to follow. Filippa tried to stop her, turning to Marcello for help, but he had already taken off after his sister. Letting out a deep sigh, Filippa’s face relaxed and she chased after them with a big smile on her face.