CHAPTER SIX
April 15, 1909
Florence, Italy
It’s been six months since he had said good-bye to Gabrielle and three months since he’s said good-bye to paris after realizing that since none of the gallerys were accepting his work that it was likely that he wouldn’t be becoming a famous artist there. He thought that maybe he’ll have a bigger reception in Italy.
He’s in a old bar listening to a middle aged woman talk about her long lost love while he sketched her picture. He’s just finishing the picture up when he hears a ruckus over on the other side of the room where a poker game was going on. Curious he gets up and strolls over.
"Can I join?" Jack asked after the men stop their arguing in Italian. It was a young man about Jack’s age that answers, a cigarette dangles from his mouth.
"Got dinero?"
Jack nods and pulls out the five dollars he made earlier that week from helping a woman carry her luggage to the door of a hotel.
"Sit," The young man nods to a seat.
Jack sits and watches the middle aged man deal.
The table was slit up in teams. Two middle-aged men, one American and Jack and the young Italian man. The young man sticks out his hand.
"Fabrizio."
"Jack. Jack Dawson," Jack grins, instantly taking a liking to the young italian man.
The game goes on for about a hour. Not really knowing the game of poker, Jack shows his cards to his partner. "Is this good."
"Dios Mios! Yes!" Fabrizio laughs.
The others look at the two men weird. Something was definitely going on.
"My friend here said to play this," Jack lays his cards on the table. The men get angry and swipe everything off the table. They begin to advance on Jack and Fabrizio.
Fabrizio grabs Jack’s arms and motions for him to hurry and follow him. Grabbing his original five dollars Jack and Fabrizio dart out the door and keeps running until they reach an apartment building.
"Dios Mio!" Fabrizio sighed with relief.
"Yeah. It looks like we lost them," Jack nods looking around the corner
"Close," Fabrizio breathed.
"Sure was," Jack nods and looks around. They were in a pretty poor nieghborhood and the apartment building looked pretty shabby.
"Come," Fabrizio motions for Jack to follow him. Shrugging Jack follows Fabrizio up to the top floor.
"Mama!" Fabrizio exclaims as he enters the apartment, Jack lagging behind him.
"Fabrizio!" A middle aged woman appears in the doorway leading to the kitchen. She speaks in italian.
"Jack, mama say you sleep on couch tonight. She made big supper," Fabrizio grins.
"Thank you," Jack smiles.
Fabrizio turns and says thank you in Italian, then leads Jack into what must be his room.
"You from America?"
"Yep. Chippewa Falls, Usa," Jack nods looking around the room. Everything was tidy and neat.
"It’s my destiny. Go to America and become millionaire!"
Jack laughs. "Well good
luck to you pal."
"Maybe…me and you. Travel together. You bound to reach
America again someday? Right?" Fabrizio asked.
"I guess. Ok. Fine. I have been a little lonely on the road. Having you around will be fun."
"Me go tell mama I leave with you tomorrow. She will be sad, but understanding," Fabrizio leaves the room.
Jack stares out into the hall, definitely amused. Fabrizio certainly was something. Just invited himself along, whether Jack liked it or not. But Jack doesn’t mind. Like he told Fabrizio, he was lonely and a traveling companion will be great. Jack walks to the window and looks out onto the bustling streets. He wonders where the road was going to take him next? Who he was going to meet? What kind of adventures was he to take? He had no clue, and if he did…he’d wouldn’t believe it.
So that morning, Jack Dawson and his new friend, Fabrizio DeRossi, headed off for the horizon, off to another adventure.