Andrea Jeva The Adventures of Bottoms Up (Moon Light on the Water) Translated from the Italian by Gregory Conti © Copyright Andrea Jeva Quacquarelli, Via Pinturicchio 1 – 06122 Perugia Italy – e-mail: info@andrea-jeva.it © Translation copyright Gregory Conti, Via M. Fanti 2/B – 06122 Perugia Italy – e-mail: gconti52@gmail.com “A child is someone who can wash his hands without getting the soap wet” (Anonymous) The Fable Once upon a time, there were two wooden clogs shaped like rectangles. Day after day, they walked the famous beach at Cape Rizzuto in Calabria, on the toe of the boot of Italy. They knew every corner of that beach, even the most out of the way nooks and crannies, just like they knew the rocks, the beach chairs, all the little grains of sand and all the best places, during the night, to see the moonlight on the water. But, alas, that was all they knew. For a long time now, Jimmy, the right clog, had been nursing the desire to see some other part of the world. Smith, his brother on the left, was also curious about this prospect, even though he was the more timid of the two when it came to new things. But the hot southern sun made them feel so sluggish that they always found a thousand good reasons to stay there on the sand, slowly cooking themselves in a sort of lazy man’s delight. One day, two Belgian hiking boots showed up for a vacation on the beach. Such big and booty hiking boots had never been known to go on vacation in a place by the sea. In Jimmy’s eyes, in fact, they looked so strange and unusual that, after checking with Smith, he decided he wanted to make their acquaintance as soon as possible; the very next day! Jimmy woke up unusually early that morning. He went for a refreshing swim in the sea and, after washing off the salt and sand with a nice shower under a spigot, he set off on the search for those Belgian hiking boots. At the last minute, he was joined by Smith, still rubbing the sleep from his eyes and saying to him that “Sure, it was right to make new friends”, betraying the fact that he had been thinking about it all night long, “if for nothing else than to teach them the pleasures of this place”, he said to himself and he said it to Jimmy too, who, not paying much attention to him, kept on walking, nodding to Smith that he should pick up the pace. Intent on finding those hiking boots so they could talk with them and get to know them, the two brothers walked the length of that long beach time and again, back and forth and forth and back, but the hiking boots were not to be found. Smith, who was also the lazier of the two, started pulling out his usual excuses for giving up. But this time Jimmy didn’t fall for the trick. And it really felt like a trick, the way Smith carried on: always trying to weaken his own already scanty enthusiasm. While Jimmy was thinking about all this, the young lifeguard with his young handlebar moustache was walking right by them on his inspection of the beach. Jimmy leaped at the opportunity and asked the young Handlebar Mustache, if he had seen the new vacationers passing by. The young Handlebar Mustache curled up his ends to think and, after a few seconds, his eyes lit up with the memory. – Yes - he said - I saw them, just before dawn, climbing over the barbed-wire fence… - and, after a brief pause, he added - ...Hiking boots like to get up very early in the morning. Not like you two, who don’t get up until the sun is already high in the sky -. The tone of disapproval in the voice of the Handlebar Mustache was unmistakable. - But we got up really early this morning! - Smith flung back the disapproval in his usual complaining manner. - What, what, what? - Jimmy then burst out, surprised and incredulous. - They climbed over the fence? Over the fence! Jimmy couldn’t get over that revelation. In years and years of walking the beach, he and his brother on the left had never once gone beyond the barbed-wire fence, while those hiking boots, in one day, just one day, were already on the other side! Jimmy shot a glance at his brother on the left. He had already started playing with the grains of sand and the beach chairs at their favorite game of who knew the most fish names, deliberately paying no attention to Jimmy’s sense of wonder, which, to his way of thinking, was the harbinger of a lot of trouble on the horizon. Jimmy, afraid of being foiled yet again by his brother’s zest for dawdling, headed off, on clog tips, directly toward the barbed wire. - Dogfish! - cried Smith, full of defiance, to the group of players on the beach. Now it was Teeny’s turn; the smallest grain of sand on the whole beach. After a moment’s hesitation, dutifully timed by Smith, he said with pride in his habitually reedy voice, - Basseeny - by which he meant bass. - Already said! - Smith quickly echoed, more and more enthused. - You’re wrong! - interjected resolutely the last Beach Chair still in the game. - No I’m not! - Smith shot back, - A few minutes ago, didn’t I say Lubina? Yes or no? - Yeah, and so what? - nodded the Beach Chair. - You don’t know? - ...Lubina is Spanish for bass! They’re the same thing! - Smith concluded in triumph. Meanwhile, Teeny had taken advantage of the time lost in the dispute to think of another fish name, and then with an almost mocking tone he said, “Breameeny”, which really meant Bream, adding a thin, squeaky giggle, typical of the smallest grains of sand on the beach. When it was her turn, the Beach Chair, who was new to the place, having just arrived from the city in the entourage of a big fat guy, piped up - Pike! Teeny and Smith looked at one another and then said, almost in chorus - And what’s that? They don’t exist...eeny - added Teeny, in his thin, squeaky voice. - They do too exist! - the Beach Chair rushed to reply in the awkward manner of a stranger, unconsciously irritating her two antagonists. - I’ve never heard of it-eeny - said Teeny, brusque and ostentatiously puffy, proud of being a grain of sea sand that knows every kind of fish. - Right you are! - declared Smith, who couldn’t wait to argue with that Beach Chair from the city, who he just couldn’t stomach. - I don’t want any more arguments! - said the Beach Chair, determined but still a bit awkward, hoping to keep things from taking a bad turn, and added - let’s ask the opinion of the young Handlebar Moustache and that’ll be the end of it. - Ahem, ahem, why surely they exist - said the Handlebar Moustache, after his usual double cough - you, Teeny, have never heard of it because the Pike is a freshwater fish and you are a grain of sea sand, that’s why you don’t know it… You get that, Smith, you “sleepy head”? To the amazement of them all, even of the contestants on the sidelines, Smith looked away so as not to respond to the Provocation of the young Handlebar Moustache in calling him “sleepy head”, and as he turned he noticed that his brother on the right was no longer there. Driven more by jealousy to discover what Jimmy was up to than by worry over some possible mishap, Smith scurried away from his friends to go looking for his brother, but above all to escape from the embarrassing discussion with the creepy Beach Chair who, “darn it”, was right. So he stole away from his friends on the beach, who were still so amazed by the young Handlebar Mustache’s revelation that the Pike was a freshwater fish that they didn’t even notice Smith’s sly maneuver. Just between us, most of them didn’t even know there was such a thing as fresh water let alone a freshwater fish. * Night fell quickly over the sea that day, much quicker than usual. By now the moon, red as a setting sun, was rising on the horizon. Jimmy had been looking all this time for the Belgian boots. He had even gone beyond the big pointed rock and hiked up the little hill behind the barbed wire that was full of bushes that made it a very difficult hike. He had climbed up a number of different olive trees so he could see far away and - you gotta admit - for a clog, climbing an olive tree is not an easy thing to do. Then, disconsolate over his fruitless search - those two boots were truly unfindable! - he stopped to rest on a piece of dried clay. He thought about his dear brother Smith and he felt bad about leaving him behind on the beach. So, after a short rest, he started back on the way home. After just a few steps he was struck by the crinkly moonlight reflected on the sea. As it rose higher and higher in the sky, it had turned from red to white, and it regaled the sea with a glistening silvery beam of light. And the farther that beam moved away from the beach, the wider it got...exactly the opposite of what you would expect. It was so inviting it looked like a road that you could actually walk on. Jimmy, captivated by his fascination with this idea, no longer held back by thoughts of Smith, prepared to jump up onto the silvery road. Meanwhile Smith, worn out, him too, from his fruitless search for his brother on the right, resting sadly on another piece of dried clay and thinking that he had never been away from his brother for such a long time, noticed, he too, the glistening silvery road. Strangely enough, he also felt, as Jimmy had, the certainty that he could walk on it. It was an instant for both of them and without realizing it, the two brothers jumped up simultaneously onto the reflection of the moonlight. And something strange happened. Jimmy and Smith were side by side, Jimmy on the right and Smith on the left, just as they were when they were born… They embraced one another tenderly. - Where did you come from? - Jimmy asked in wonder - I was just thinking of you… - I was just thinking of you too. I was on the beach, in that place with all the dried clay, where we usually take a nap with Teeny - answered Smith. - But how is this possible? I was on the other side of the fence - said Jimmy, a bit taken aback. - Outside the fence? You went outside the fence? But weren’t you scared? - Smith asked, his anxiety all too clear. - So then, we jumped onto two different reflections! - Jimmy declared excitedly, paying no heed to Smith’s anxious question. - Yeah, but… so… How come we’re together on the same reflection now? - asked Smith, more and more upset by the whole situation. After thinking for a few minutes, Jimmy smiled and said, - But it’s so simple...True enough, we saw two different reflections, you on the beach and me outside the fence, but there’s only one moon and so it only has one reflection. See how many things you can discover when you’re not so afraid? - You’re right! - added Smith, finding his courage. The moonlight’s reflection is always the same. We just see it from two different points of view. Boy, and who knows how many things like this there are in the world, and we don’t know about them! Then Jimmy, with no more worries, almost dreaming, said, - You see? We’ve got to start right away on a long journey to discover the world… I’ve told you that a million times, come on! - and they started on their way, full of expectations, on the glistening silvery road, without realizing that on the beach, or maybe from the hillside with all those bushes, or from the dried clay… from who knows what part of who knows what place, the two hiking boots were watching them walk off toward the high seas; and, it was plain to see, they were delighted. * Walk, walk, walk, the two wooden clogs, the farther they went on the high seas the more they met a variety of marine animals never seen before. Some were small, some big, some were gigantic, many of them were ball-shaped, others stringy, still others were wildly colorful, and there were even some that were transparent. You could see right through them! In the middle of all that coming and going they had to stop every once in a while, to let that extraordinary multitude of living forms go by. The aroma of the sea also seemed different from what they smelled on the beach; it seemed more limpid and intense, almost colored, it was a wonderful marine fragrance. After a while, they came to a kind of highway, but it was different from all the other highways. You could travel on top of it, under it, and on both sides of it; a marvel of technology, thought Jimmy and Smith. They were enchanted by it. Seeing their surprise, an old sea wave, his hair silvery like the reflection of the moonlight, explained to Jimmy and Smith, with comforting simplicity, that the younger waves had invented that wave-way to eliminate the traffic problem. So our two wooden clogs continued their journey on the wave-way, delighted with the enormous variety of fish, with the intense fragrance of the sea, with the splendid invention of the wave-way, but, above all, impressed by the exceptional construction techniques of the young sea waves. Jimmy, perhaps because he was the right clog, thought of all the surprising things that could be found on the left side of the world. Smith, perhaps because he was the left clog, thought of how many new living forms he might run into on the right side of the world. Thinking in this way, and thanks to that fabulous wave-way, they arrived instantly at the end of the sea and jumped down immediately onto the new beach. Jimmy was on the left side of the world and Smith on the right side, and since they were heading south, Jimmy was in the East and Smith in the West, and they lost sight of each other again. // ------------------------ // Reality - What do you mean, “end of episode”? - little Filippo asks Tino. - “End of Episode” - repeats Tino, the kids entertainer at the Cape Rizzuto tourist village, adding a sniffle of irritation. “It’s over”. - But there are still a lot of things in the story that we don’t know! - complains Daniela, one of the little girls. - Like what, for example? - asks Tino, smoothing his mustache and coughing twice. - “Like what?” Like, what happened to Jimmy and Smith? - little Giulia pipes up, impatiently. - Yeah! - adds Pietro, the smallest of the kids - What happened to them? Aren’t you going to tell us? Tired and a little listless, Tino replies, - They vanished… The night ends and the reflection of the moonlight vanishes... They were walking on it and... - Okay, okay... They vanished with the moonlight, that much we got... -Federica rushes to interrupt him, realizing where Tino’s explanation was going. - But where? - she asks with extreme precision. - Where? - Well, where do you think they ended up? - Tino asks in turn, sticking his neatly folded newspaper into the back of his bathing suit. - Come on, tell us, Tino. Gees... - little Pietro adds, almost pleading. - No, no! - says Tino - A deal is a deal. Did you promise to help me or not? - and he sniffles again, followed by his usual double cough. - Did they go to the triangular houses? - Francesca asks, hazarding a guess. - What do you think, Pietro? Did they go to the triangular houses? - Tino asks little Pietro. - Yeah, to Potbelly’s! - Pietro says with enthusiasm, showing how much he liked that part of the story. - But no... That can’t be right... - observes Fabio, the most finicky of the group, thinking out loud. - If the night is over, then they can’t use the reflection of the moonlight to travel. It seems to me... - concludes Fabio, with an air of suspense. - Along with being finicky, Fabio also says his t’s with the utmost clarity, so when he talks he sounds like a real know-it-all. - That’s right! - Tino congratulates Fabio, looking at his watch - Now can we go to the mini-club? - What mini-club! - says Federica - You still have to tell us what happened to Jimmy and Smith! What Federica wants to know is always very clear. - No, no! - Tino says - You have to tell me - and he sniffles again, looking around to see if there’s another entertainer around who can take charge of the group. - But we don’t know what happened - says little Filippo, logical and attentive, his eyes thrust wide open like an owl’s. - I know! - little Pietro says, teasingly. - Come on, then, tell us... Let’s hear it! - Daniela demands, stamping her foot. - They went back to see Nasi the tree! - Pietro says, sure his answer is right. - No, no! - Tino contradicts him - Fabio’s right... - and then he adds - There’s no reflection of the moonlight during the day, so you know they can’t travel anywhere. That’s all there is to it! - Tino slips his sunglasses on and again says, - Now, let’s go to the mini-club, it’s time for you to play with moon dough. - Moon dough? Are you kidding? - Federica says - Give me a break. - But my shift is over! - Tino says firmly, this time with two irritated sniffles. - Who cares! - says Giulia, with her usual abrupt frankness -Now you have to finish the story for us! - But it’s already finished... - Tino insists, with three sniffles this time - It’s time to go to the mini-club, come on - and he sets off toward the mini-club cabin, clearing his throat. - No, no - says persnickety Daniela - there are still a lot of things we need to find out about the story… - and she holds up her arms to stop him in his tracks. - Like what, for example? - Tino asks, smoothing his mustache again, this time as a show of defiance. - A lot of things... -Daniela says sharply - The hiking boots, for example. Who are they, where do they come from, what are they doing there? - They’re on vacation! - says Tino, perhaps facetiously, playing a game of cat and mouse with them. - Yeah, boom! Who are you trying to kid! - Daniels shoots back, showing she’s never going to give up. - I’d like to know, for example, how the young sea waves built the wave-way... - asks the bashful and polite little Filippo. - Well, I’d to know why flying faster than the speed of light means you can travel through time - says Fabio, hitting each t like hammer in true know-it-all fashion. - I’d like to know what the ball fish are like... - says little Pietro. - Like balls! - says Tino - What else are ball fish supposed to be like? - nervously adjusting the newspaper in the back of his bathing suit. - Yeah, but how? ...What color are they? - little Pietro adds, not quite sure of himself. - I, on the other hand, would like to know how the journey through time went - Francesca says. - The journey through time? - Tino asks, exhausted, sniffling so loudly by now that his sunglasses slide off his nose - But it took them a thousand years! - and he picks up his sunglasses off the ground - How can you tell a story about a thousand years! - concludes Tino, readjusting his sunglasses and barking out two crisp coughs - It can’t be done! - We can always imagine - Francesca observes, logically. - So you guys imagine it then and we’ll talk about it again tomorrow. Now let’s go - Tino says once and for all, and sets off again toward the mini-club. - No, no! - Daniela says, and she holds up her arms again to stop him - We don’t want to go to the mini-club! - Tell us about the journey through time... Come on! - says Giulia, just about issuing an order. - The restaurant is closing. We can’t stay here anymore. Understand? - Tino tries to get around the problem. - No, we’re not going anywhere if you don’t finish the story for us! - Giulia decisively states her position. - But I already finished it... - Tino says, imploringly. - No you didn’t! - Giulia declares - At least tell us about the journey through time....Please! - That would take a thousand years! - Tino growls, on the verge of shouting - It can’t be done! - Can we imagine it or not? - Francesca chimes in again. - Come on now, let’s go. You guys imagine it and we’ll talk about it again tomorrow - Tino tries to resolve the problem. - No, we’re not going anywhere if you don’t finish the story! - Giulia folds her arms across her chest and spreads her feet wide in front of Tino, turning her body into an impassable wall. - It’s late! I’ve finished my shift! Can you get that into your heads or not? - Tino responds with his own wall, pulling the newspaper out from behind his back and pounding it against his left hand to impress them. - Who cares! - Giulia says defiantly, folding her arms even tighter across her chest and taking a full step forward closer to Tino, to block all possible escape routes. - Ok, let’s make a new agreement... - Tino attempts to re-open the negotiations - We can do this. Each of you imagines the part of the story you’re interested in and tomorrow...Tomorrow, we’ll talk about it again, ok? No answer. - We don’t know how to make up stories, we’re little - Filippo politely volunteers, bringing them all back from the point of no return. - What do you mean, you don’t know how?... What about before? Who was it that made up the story of Bottoms Up? - Tino responds, re-launching the challenge to the group and smoothing his mustache in the process. - You - they all say in chorus. - Oh no, that’s where you’re all wrong. All I did was ask you questions... - Tino says, followed by a sniffle, awkwardly folding up the newspaper again - You’re the ones who made up the story of Bottoms Up by responding to my questions - Tino says by way of somewhat of a sort of confession. Silence. - Yeah, boom! Who are you trying to kid? - is Daniela’s knee-jerk reaction, again showing that she has no intention of giving up but that she’s also visibly thrown off balance, just like all the others, by Tino’s response. - I’m not trying to kid anybody. That’s exactly the way it went - Tino says, smoothing his mustache, this time with pleasure. Nobody says a word. They just look at each other. - Like what, for example? - Francesca summons up the courage to say, mimicking Tino in a certain sort of way. - An example? - Tino says, buying some time with his usual double cough - Here’s one: who made up the name of the glass full of water when I asked you what it was called? - Tino has almost taken control of the situation. All the kids, even the ones who haven’t said a word, turn, almost in unison, but slowly, toward little Pietro, who has turned red from the emotion and raises his finger, mechanically, like a little robot who is taking the blame for something, and says with his finger raised high over his head - Bottoms Up... - he pauses briefly as the others keep on staring at him, and then he adds - is a name that I made up - amazed, amazing himself, amazed again. // ----------------- // Tino’s Trickery Just between us, the entertainer Tino was a notorious trickster. In fact, he was known by everyone throughout the whole vacation village, young and old alike, as “Tino the Trickster”. Even his mustache proclaimed his trickiness.... For example, wasn’t it exactly like the mustache of the young lifeguard with the handlebar mustache? Along with his wonderful little double coughs? Yes, exactly the same...He took his cues from everything that he happened to find nearby, copying reality, so to speak, in order to resolve the situations he had to face from time to time with the kids. Tired of the chaos that always reigned in the restaurant after lunch - kids running around as soon as they’d finished dessert, kids jumping up and down on their chairs, still others launching into games of war, throwing bread and fruit and cupcakes at each other, and sometimes even glasses of water and orange soda - that day Tino had thought up the gimmick of the story about the glass filled to the brim with water and the secret compartment of orange soda, which, thanks to little Pietro, had been given the illustrious name of Bottoms Up.... In order to calm the chaos, eliminate the vulgar waste of food, amuse the children of the mini-club, and, why not, maybe even have a little fun himself... “Tino the Trickster”, or even better “Tino the artful dodger”, so artful that he had simply guided the story, had invented practically nothing. That day, he had simply dreamt up the following, brilliant, strategy: tell the initial piece of a story and then ask the kids: Where do you think the story goes from here? Who knows which super powers Bottoms Up used to find Smith? Which of you can tell us how Smith vanished from the road through the desert? And so on. The kids, more and more captivated by the story that magically took on the contours that they themselves, following their own desires, established, responded enthusiastically, with each of them imagining his own solutions. Tino chose the solution that seemed most suitable to the situation and the story joyously went on telling itself, captivating everyone’s interest. That’s what the artful Tino had invented. // ------------------- // Reality and Fable Since the kids kept standing there saying nothing in the face of the disconcerting truth that they themselves had made up the story, Tino broke the silence, wallowing in his triumph - And who was it that made up the wave-way, huh? - Me - the well-mannered Filippo answers readily, breaking through the atmosphere of uncertainty. - I made up the triangular houses - chimes in immediately, the decidedly impatient Giulia, gathering in the energy from the amazement vibrating in the air. - I said they were made out of mirrors - says tart, sharp-tongued, high-strung Giulia. - See? See? See? - says Tino, radiant, sending the question - See? - echoing through the air over the beach at Cape Rizzuto. Proceeding in this manner, almost all of kids finally manage to recognize, overcoming their previous ignorance of their capacity to make up stories, their own contribution to those fantastic adventures of Bottoms Up when, all of a sudden, Andrea, who had absolutely not said a thing since the storytelling game had begun (in fact he almost never talks), says with extreme ingenuousness: - But Bottoms Up never used his super-smell, why not? Pandemonium breaks out again. - That’s right! That’s right! It’s true! - In no time, the idea spread through the crowd, in the kids’ multiple voices. Tino, interrupting the shouting (chaotic in its manner but precise in its meaning), says with satisfaction to Andrea - Good for you. You noticed! I never would have guessed it. Way to go! Tino comments and smooths his mustache, revving up his proverbial trickery, by now solemnly transformed into artfulness. Two quick coughs to buy time and then... -You know what else?! - Tino takes of his sunglasses to get a better look at the kids - I didn’t tell you before because I wanted you to figure it out for yourselves. - Just like Bottoms Up did with the clogs when he took them on the spin around the world in an instant! - little Pietro chimes in with the joy of discovery. - Right! - says Tino, sitting down again, forgetting about the end of his shift, the closing of the restaurant, the other entertainers waiting for the kids in the mini-club cabins, the moon dough and all the rest of it, setting into motion the magic rule that time flies when you’re having fun. The kids take their places too, even the ones who had never spoken but only listened, like chubby Greg, the American known to the kids as “Honey Bun” because he never goes anywhere without a glazed, cinnamon-coated bun in both hands; or the inimitable Vincenzo, dubbed by Tino “the coach” for his unique style of aiming his darts at the bull’s eye with his eyes closed; or Vittorio alias “I gotta go” because every time he walks into the mini-club the first words out of his mouth are, that’s right, “I gotta go”, just to show everyone how busy he is; or Moreno, known as the Moor of Venice, for his perennial desire to play with water, pouring it from the soda fountain into carafes, and then from the carafes into glasses that he then offers all around, making everyone drink even if they’re not thirsty; or miniscule Paolo who, perhaps because of his small size, calls everyone “fatty” especially, who knows why, kids with curly hair; and lots and lots of other kids, each with his or her own delightful characteristics. There they are, all the little ones, holding each other sweetly by the hand, while the bigger ones look all around attentively because everyone has understood, unequivocally, that the story is about to begin again! // ------------------ // One Last Confidence This next and last confidence is mainly addressed to the girls and boys who played the starring roles in the adventures recounted here and who have now become adults. Yes, it’ strange and brusque to announce this news like this, without so much as a preamble. How have they suddenly become adults? The only thing we can be sure of, as we will shortly discover, is that the super powers of the magnificent Bottoms Up don’t have anything to do with this last bit of magic. It’s just a question of respecting the rules, because when you play a game, as everybody knows, the rules must be respected. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Nevertheless, and once again in respect of the rules, even the girls and boys who have simply been reading these adventures and who... have not become adults, can, or rather must read what follows in order to participate in a certain sense in the wonderful game of growing up. Many of you, in fact, and this is another thing everybody knows, want to become adults right away, but how?...In the meantime, it may be helpful to prepare yourselves by reading this very chapter and for you there is the extra added advantage: when the reading gets hard, you can ask, you and only you, for help from the super powers of our friend Bottoms Up. So, from now on, you are all invited not to feel either like kids or like adults, but simply like “readers”. So let’s get on with the reading... It’s likely that many of the readers who have in turn had the curiosity to follow these events, have also had a lot of ideas about them, maybe even some personal suggestions, or some personal intuitions or some personal beginnings of new episodes, or even the solution to the incredibly difficult problem of how to ferret out Jimmy and Smith by using Bottoms Up’s power of super smell. And it would certainly be much appreciated if these curious readers were to send a fax to Tricky Tino, whatever their suggestion might be, even if, and here lies the final confidence, it must be admitted, there would be two little problems. The first is that the events recounted here took place in 1980, more than thirty years ago, and the second is that who knows what newfangled gizmo Tino might be using now in place of a fax, assuming he’s still interested in the whole business. But it can certainly also be said that whoever has come up with some ideas concerning the fantastic world of Bottoms Up, surely has the capacity to overcome both the problem of time and the problem of the means of communication, and they will find a way to inform Tino of their suggestions, maybe in the process reawakening his interest, regenerating the enthusiasm of the adorable “kids” of Cape Rizzuto, and reviving for all of us the fascinating atmosphere of Bottoms Up and friends, which, it is already plain to see, we miss. Naturally, it would be interesting to know the ways in which these two insignificant problems might be overcome, and what’s more, they could in turn become the starting point of new adventures or even whole new episodes because, of this we can all be certain, the sand, rocks, and dried clay of Cape Rizzuto are already swelling up with enthusiasm and becoming enchanted with the gleaming blue memories of the magical adventures of Bottoms Up. The truth be told, they often huddle up in a circle, all together, awaiting new adventures, especially on those nights when the moonlight is reflected on the sea, just like all of us would do, perhaps, if we imagined ourselves in their place. So long and Farewell What more to say? See you soon! The story must go on. 32