Chapter Two.

“Shame and disgrace on my gray head!”

“Mom, you're not gray.”

"You no longer have any say in this family!"

Victoria was furious. Once Chayson was gone, they sat Damian in the living room while they themselves tried to quickly finish assembling the remaining furniture. Now, when night was approaching, and the boy still did not commit and even refused to eat, he was brought to his knees by Victoria, who diligently tried to feed him with a fork.

From the very beginning, this idea did not shine with something good, and even now, although Damian did not run away anywhere and obediently sat on his parents' lap, the child constantly took the fork out of his mouth. Damn that horrible Chayson. He just asked him to cook the boy a meal, was it really possible to get him out of the house like that right away? The stomach had painful cramps, he wanted to eat, and his father's food was always very tasty and appetizing, even sitting next to her, the boy drooled from the aroma. However, Damian stubbornly stood his ground.

Victoria threw her fork down on her plate. The woman was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Louis, seeing the precarious state his family was in, swallowed and sat closer.

"Take his hands and open your mouth," the man said grimly.

Damian squirmed, but he didn't have time to get away. The mother quickly nodded and complied with her husband's request. As soon as the boy was completely immobilized, remaining in such a helpless state, the food fork almost touched his lips. Suddenly, Damian's shoulders began to shake and his eyes glistened with moisture.

A second later, there was a sniff and a soft moan. The two adults sighed. Victoria immediately loosened her grip, which hadn't been very tight before. After all, no matter how angry she was, she wouldn't hurt her own son. In all those ten years, she and Louis never hit him, they just allowed themselves to raise their voices and scream. Damian immediately rolled over in his mother's arms and wrapped his arms around her neck, starting to cry.

Victoria shuddered and hugged her son back, feeling her heart gradually shrink in her chest.

"Well, well... Hush, hush, what's up? Don't cry, dear” – the woman gently pressed the boy against her and stroked his head with her hand.

Louis pursed his lips and looked guiltily at his wife. It was he who came up with the last idea that brought his son to tears, so now the man found himself more to blame. Victoria, seeing that posture and gaze, immediately frowned.

“Damian, stop crying. You are an adult. Adults don't cry.

"I-I have ten!" the boy shouted.

"Ten, so what? And your old man who is in his fourth decade and has never cried in his life. Except when he was born. Adults don't cry, I never did.”

“Who are you kidding? Who cried uncontrollably when I proposed?”

“You undermine my authority, you disgusting husband.”

“When you're done comforting him, feed him yourself. No matter what I do, things just get worse.”

“Hey, what are you doing?” Victoria squirmed and reached forward, grabbing her husband by the edge of his shirt. “I was kidding. I just don't know how to calm him down. Think of something.”

“What can be done here? He's upset.”

“I know that even without you telling me, but show yourself like a father and think with me.”

Damian was still whimpering softly and shedding tears when Louis snapped his fingers and said solemnly:

“I have no idea, our son is just a small child who doesn't know how to behave like the adult he claims to be.”

Damian pulled away from Victoria's neck with trembling lips and turned to look his father in the eye. As soon as he did, his mouth opened to scream as the man immediately slid his food fork into his son's mouth.

“…”

There was nothing left to do but chew the meat. It was so delicious that just after the father removed the fork from the boy's mouth, Damian turned abruptly and took it back to him, starting to eat off both cheeks by himself. Victoria and Louis solemnly proclaimed themselves amazing parents. As soon as the boy's stomach was full, he felt very sleepy and tired, so, sitting right on his mother's lap, he began to nod off.

Victoria smiled relaxedly and patted her son on the cheek.

“Well, what a cutie he is. When he's so relaxed and calm, what I want most is to squeeze him to death.” The man chuckled. – “You are a true genius, that's why I married you.”

“You might think you weren't captivated by the beauty of my body.”

“Well, a little.”

Victoria lifted her head towards the voice and, without any warning, the other's lips fell to hers, smacking softly and leaving a quick kiss. The woman cracked a smile and laughed. Damian squirmed slightly in her arms and pressed himself closer to his mother.

"Let him sleep with us tonight. Anyway, you'll have to get ready for school tomorrow morning.”

"Did you tell him about this?"

“No, I meant in the afternoon, but I didn't expect him to throw a tantrum and not talk to us. So let's make a surprise.”

"Somehow I don't think he wants to go there," Louis answered doubtfully.

“We need to deliver the documents and meet with the leadership. I'm going with him, so there shouldn't be any problems. If he doesn't go there with his feet, I'll throw him over my shoulder and drag him by force.”

“From the outside, it'll look like you're kidnapping a child.”

Victoria laughed and got up from the table, carrying the boy and walking towards the stairs.

"I'm going to bathe him and put him to bed. And you pack up here and join us.”

"Do you really want to get him to sleep with us?"

“What's wrong with that?

"Well, I don't know, he's already used to sleeping alone, and if you drag him back to our bed, you'll have to wean him again," Louis replied. – “Remember how much we suffered, trying to show that our bed is our bed, and his bed is his bed.

"Do you really think one night is going to change anything?" Victoria laughed. “Come on, he's been sleeping alone for over five years. Nothing bad will happen.” She cleans the kitchen and go to the bedroom.

Louis nodded and started picking up dishes from the table. When he finished everything and climbed the stairs to the second floor, his wife and son were lying in bed with their eyes closed, pressed against each other. He smiled softly at such an image and quickly changed into his pajamas, turning off the light and crawling under the covers with them, snuggling in the same way, only on the other side. So Damian found himself in the middle right between his parents, who put their arms around him and held him in his sleep.

{...}

“You go to school, it won't be discussed.”

“I am not going to school!”

“I've repeated this ten times, do you think it's hard for me to repeat the eleventh?” – the woman was indignant, collecting things and looking for all the documents to transfer her son from one educational institution to another. “Mimi, when did you become such a difficult child?” Be a good boy and don't embarrass your parents.

“I WILL NOT GO TO SCHOOL!”

“IT IS? What are you going to do?”

Louis had been sitting on the couch all this time, silently watching the two fights in the early morning. In her hands was an open bag of chocolate flakes, which he periodically thrust his hand into to occupy his mouth with the candy.

“I will stay at home!”

“You're staying home today, what are you going to do tomorrow? And the day after tomorrow?”

"I'll stay home too!"

"No." Victoria shook her head. – “Started the preparatory disciplines, you are obliged to take them.”

“Not!” – Damian was indignant. – “We always had holidays in August! All schools are now on summer break! This is the only month of rest; you can't just take it away from me!”

"It was at your previous school," his father reminded him. – “The same vacation here was in July, and since it's over, the kids start classes from next week. You must visit them.”

“These are just extra lessons, don't say they're mandatory!”

"They are a must for you!" the woman growled. – “At first, I wanted them to accept you, we wrote them a statement that you will start studying only in the fall, so that you can rest, but thanks to your behavior, you dug your own grave, and your father and I We reconsider this decision. Now you will have no rest this summer! You go to school and go to classes like a cute child!”

"I'm not going to study there at all! I'm going to run away from home again and this time I'm going further than Chayson's house!”

"Wonderful, just a great solution." Victoria smirked. – “In that case, what are you going to do? You must understand that neither your father nor I are going to return to our old home. We will stay to live here, and no matter how sad or bad it is for you, you stay with us, because until you become an adult, we are responsible for you!”

Damian snarled angrily under his breath and, kicking the leg of the couch as hard as he could, jumped up and ran out of the house, slamming the front door slamming behind him. Victoria, like her son, growled in response.

"What a spoiled child! Is he entering puberty early?”

"I think if he makes friends at school, he might get used to change." Louis chewed another cookie. – “In the end, new people can affect him even better than he thinks. Besides, since he doesn't know anyone here, he has a great chance of finding a mate, and if he pays attention to someone potential, you and I have nothing else to worry about. Forget the house of yesteryear.”

“What are you saying? He is ten years old! What potential mate? No sweetheart will enter this house!”

"And you want our son to die alone?"

“He has us, and that's enough.

“Hmmm… yeah, you have overly affectionate mother syndrome, you know that?”

"And you have crumbs around your mouth and all over the couch!"

Louis, under the woman's watchful gaze, slowly stuck out his tongue and ran it in a circular motion over the entire surface of her lips, turning the sensitive pink skin into a bright red color.

{...}

Damian ran as fast as his legs would allow him. He moved them one by one, and with each new jump he moved farther and farther away from home. He had no idea where he was running, but hiding at Chayson's house right now wasn't the best option. This stupid man will probably report him again so he needs a safer shelter. Not having thought of anything better, the boy decided to just run away to a safe distance for the time being, and then decide what to do next. He didn't have any money with him, but he had a phone that his parents bought. If he leaves here for a busier area, there will certainly be a lot of stores. And where there are shops, there is also a pawnshop. He has no idea how much his phone costs, but it's worth something.

But no matter how much Damian ran forward, he could not escape this neighborhood of drab houses, and, constantly turning in different directions at the forks, he finally discovered that he had absolutely no idea where he came from and where he was supposed to go now.

Being lost is nothing new to him. His parents raised him as an independent child, often let him walk by himself, and when their son got lost, they taught him to go to the policeman or, if he wasn't around, to a more or less harmless place and ask for directions. Naturally, Damian didn't know that, at first, Victoria and Louis were sitting in the bushes and watching his movements. Over time, your child already knew where to move and go. He knew how to cross the road, which nooks and crannies to avoid, how to flee and attack in case of danger, who to approach and who not. His parents also teach him to buy little things in stores, how to get around on public transport and in general most things, which are usually taught to older children. Damian,

So now he just held his breath properly and looked around. Ahead, the border of identical houses ended and there was a large fence, completely braided with vines, after which the two-story buildings began again. Next to that fence was a playground, and right on top of it a guy was sitting on a swing. It wasn't visible from afar, so Damian couldn't immediately tell how old this person was and who he was. When the boy moved in the direction he needed and gradually closed the distance, he noticed that the stranger looked to be in his twenties, so he confidently moved towards the guy and stopped beside him.

Vittorio amused himself by sitting with a black pen and a notepad in his hand, trying his best to draw something very similar to the roof of a building. He was working on the tile pattern when he felt the presence of another person beside him. Immediately alert and raising his head, he saw a little boy with bright green eyes, but one of the eyes seemed to be a shade like cyan blue.

“Wow. Heterochromia.”

“Wow. Rude.”

“What?”

"I thought you were going to joke about stating the obvious."

Damian got angry and crossed his arms over his chest. His chest was still heaving and heaving as he had recently stopped running. Vittorio remarked to himself that he had never seen this child before, but he had lived in this area for just over a year, and by the time he was constantly circling around to design another work for his practical classes at the university, he had already met all the residents here... And this boy could not be remembered in the general list.

Seeing this disgruntled childish face, Vittorio guessed that, apparently, with his remark about the children's eyes, he somehow managed to upset the child.

“Okay, okay, I'm sorry.” The guy chuckled and held up his hands in a conciliatory gesture. – “I shouldn't have spoken so directly about your appearance. It seems to really bother you.”

Damian nodded and then accepted the apology, holding out his hand to introduce himself.

“My name is Damian, I am an adult and I am ten years old. I'm from Spain, but I come from New Jersey.”

“Oh,” the guy spoke slowly. “Vittorio and I…I come from Italy.

“You're Italian...” — pondered the boy, squeezing the outstretched hand. – “Dad told me that Italians have more difficulties learning Spanish.”

“Pf-f! Not! I'm pretty good at Spanish as well as I'm good at English, okay?”

Vittorio was lying. Indeed, it was true what Damian said. Now Vittorio was mentally very grateful that Damian told him who he was and where he came from and that he communicated with him in English, because otherwise he would look silly for not understanding the boy if he had spoken in Spanish.

The two boys looked at each other until Damian moved and walked closer, trying to look at the drawing in the notebook.

“Are you a draftsman?”

“Yes a little. I study at the faculty of painting at a local university.”

“Wow. So you're already an adult?”

“I don't think you can call me an adult.”

“Dad says that when he was at university, he was an adult.”

“And only you and your father live?”

“No, I live with my mother too, my parents are still married.” – the boy replied proudly. – “As much as they constantly say they are going to break up”

Vittorio laughed and whistled.

“Lucky boy. And what is it like to live with them? Are there constant fights in your family?”

“They don't hit each other very hard. They do it just for fun. And most of their fights are because of their countries, in World Cup years, they fight constantly, and they usually throw objects at each other, like chairs.”

“Aren't your parents Spanish?' I thought you were...” - Vittorio was surprised. “Are you adopted or something?”

“No, I'm really my parents' son, and I was born in Spain, in Barcelona. It's just that my father is Russian and my mother is Scottish, they met in Poland.”

“I've never heard so many nationalities and countries in one sentence. And where do you live? Somewhere close? Your parents shouldn't let you walk too much alone.”

“Do not worry about it. I ran away from home.”

“You ran away from home. It is clear. Wait… You ran away from home?! Like this?! Why did you run away from home?!”

Damian puffed out both cheeks and, in a bad mood, landed on the neighboring swing that was free, starting to sway a little.

“We moved. I didn't want to move. My parents took all my old friends away from me. That's why I want to go home.”

"Oh, that..." Vittorio spoke slowly, scratching the top of his head with a pen. – “Well, don't worry about it. In my childhood, my parents and I also moved constantly. I've moved more than five schools, and even now, if I didn't love living in this town so much, I'd be forced to move with them again.”

“Why?”

“Because my parents are archaeologists and they're constantly flying out to dig up all sorts of antiquities. I'm not sure you'll understand if I give you more advanced terminology. But are they something like... treasure hunters?”

“Treasure hunting is cool.”

"It's nice, but very sad," replied the Italian. – “They fly from one place to another, and for me traveling with them from one end of the Earth to the other is very boring. I prefer to sit here and calmly study and work in this mode.”

Damian fell silent as he began to think of such an interesting life. He never flew anywhere and his only trip abroad was when he was just four months old and his parents were taking him out of Spain and bringing him to the States. This was the only change he experienced and he didn't like it one bit, so he decided that he and Vittorio were alike. And that spurred him on even more to the idea of ​​returning.

"Well..." Vittorio spoke slowly, rising from his seat. – “Did you run away because you just lost your friends from school? It's pretty stupid, don't you think?”

“What? Why is it stupid?”

“Because your friends at school will never stay with you for life. It's the same school. After finishing it, all of you won't care about each other. The only place you'll get together will be a gathering of graduates and colleagues, but that's pretty cool. I remember how many friends I had in my school years, but from class to class they became less and less, and when I graduated, I stopped communicating with them.”

"You said yourself that you changed schools five times! Naturally, in this situation, you will not have many friends.”

“Well, you know what I mean, right?” – Vittorio smiled awkwardly and scratched his neck, hiding his pen and notebook in the small backpack that had been beside the metal structure of the swing all this time. – “No matter how good things are for you, school friends are, of course, friends, but don't expect too much from them. Has anyone ever written words to you about your comeback?”

Damian remained silent.

"Did someone write you saying they'd miss you?"

Damian again couldn't answer that.

“That's it”

"They just don't know yet! You will see, they will definitely write to me!”

“Well, when they write, then you will shed tears” – the Italian snorted, getting up with things and holding out his hand to the boy. "Come on, I'll take you home. Your parents are probably starting to worry.”

Damian reluctantly got up from the swing and even took his new acquaintance by the hand, but when he was pulled from the playground, he didn't budge. Vittorio looked at him in surprise, and at that moment, the boy's eyes looked at a figure that was rapidly approaching them, and this figure was clearly very angry, because even from such a distance he could feel his mother's aura.

Vittorio did not notice, so when Damian abruptly jumped on him and grabbed his neck to escape his mother's anger, he was very surprised and even more surprised when he turned around and saw such a terrible face distorted into a grimace of anger.

“DAMIAN! THIS IS OFFICIALLY YOUR LAST DAY ALIVE! I WILL TIE YOU TO THE CHAIR WHEN WE GET HOME! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!? Forgive me, for God's sake, I'm his mother, I'm so grateful you found him and took care of him before I came. QUICKLY RELEASE THAT GOOD YOUNG MAN'S NECK AND COME WITH ME!”

Victoria abruptly pulled her son to him, but Damian, knowing full well what they would do to him, grabbed Vittorio in a death grip, not wanting to go to certain death. The woman only got angrier.

“Why don't you listen to me?!”

"Because you're going to kill me! And so!” – the child screamed. – “Do I really look crazy to go with you voluntarily?! Vittorio, don't give her to me! This woman is dangerous!”

“Oh, you bitch! I wasted more than ten years of my life on you! I stayed by your bedside day and night changing your diapers and this is how you repay me for my kindness?!”

Victoria pulled Damian roughly towards her, but in the same way she moved Vittorio to the same side.

“Listen, listen, I'm sure you two need to calm down and talk, it can still be resolved peacefully, right?”

“Mother, listen to what he says to you!”

"I'm going to put duct tape over your mouth!"

"O-on me?" – Vittorio was scared.

“What?” – Victoria smiled relaxedly, as if she wasn't the one screaming now, as if Lucifer himself had come out of the abyss of the underworld. – “You have nothing to do with this. How much do I owe you for finding him and sitting with him?”

“I don’t need money! No, no! Take him away.”

“Mom, when you're nervous, you always start giving money to everyone” scolded the son.

"I'm warning you, I'm warning you, you son of a bitch…" growled the woman. “As soon as we get out of school, I'm going to buy a whip at the hardware store and whip it so hard you won't be able to sit still for a week!”

“AND WHO, AFTER SUCH WORDS, WANTS TO GO HOME WITH YOU?!” Damian was more scared than before, grabbing Vittorio's neck as his last source of salvation.

Vittorio was really in a tight spot. Caught, for no apparent reason, between mother and son, he wanted to save himself and help resolve the conflict, but here's the problem. Both adult woman and child were clearly not in the best of moods. The child, as it turned out, was offended by the mother, and the mother, more than ever, was offended by the child. Knowing exactly what happened, Vittorio compared this situation to his own when he was little. He could understand both sides, because now that he had grown up enough and gone through similar things, he looked at everything from a different angle and could help the child to reason sensibly. He felt sorry for Damian and believed more than ever that his parents meant him no harm. But when the Italian was shouted from different sides, it was unrealistic to resolve the conflict. But since Damian had to go to school now, Vittorio quickly realized: that he can at least try to somehow smooth out the corners. After all, the boy himself found salvation in him.

"Excuse me, ma'am?"

"Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. Victoria Romanov. You can call me Victoria.”

“G-good. I'm Vittorio, I study at the nearby university. Victoria, do you two need to go to school now?”

“Exactly.”

"Let me accompany you. I still have some free time, so it wouldn't be too inconvenient for me. Also, both of you will calm down and be able to talk to each other. What do you think?”

Victoria thought about it. They were late, they needed to leave as soon as possible. Then, before Damian could argue with his mother again, he quickly grabbed Vittorio's elbow and dragged him along.

"Great idea, Vittorio! Come fast!”

As the grown woman, the young Italian and the small child who was sitting in Vittorio's arms walked down the street, mother and son continued to snarl at each other.

Vittorio prudently took a cap for a walk, so after ten minutes of walking, the top of his head began to burn, and his hand immediately pulled the headdress towards him. Victoria, when she saw what the Italian had done, reached into her briefcase in the same way and slipped her son a red summer Panama hat, still snarling at him. This sound was not very annoying, the same as if a large bumblebee was buzzing its wings near you, flying from flower to flower and pollinating plants. However, this is an ordinary insect, but this is a healthy and tall woman, whom Vittorio met today. And this woman was snarling at her own child.

Vittorio forced his fist to clear his throat and muttered under his breath:

"Excuse me, but... what are you two doing?" - he asked. “Just now you were talking like people, and now you are behaving like two wolves jumping in the forest fighting for prey.”

Damian, not giving in to his mother, intensified his gut growl, but after a minute of such a tense state of the throat, he gave up and sighed, at the same time answering the question.

"Measuring force," said the boy. “Which one of us is the strongest.”

"Oh," Vittorio wondered, witnessing this for the first time. “And who won?”

“Mommy.” Damian muttered sullenly, holding out both hands to his mother.

Vittorio gave the child to the mother, but still fearing that physical abuse would happen, where he could not help, he assured:

"You, uh... You've already calmed down and you're not going to do anything to him, right?"

Victoria giggled and lightly threw Damian into her arms, after which she immediately gathered him against her.

"Of course, I'm not going to do anything to him." The woman smiled. “I didn't want to do anything to him.”

“But you were yelling a lot. It seemed to me...”

“Mom is always yelling.”

“Yes, and you, you brat, make other people think with your speeches that I am a tyrant who beats you day and night.”

“But I was really scared. What else should I have done?”

Victoria sighed and shook her head. She lowered the child onto the sidewalk to walk on her own. Once Damian was completely free in his movements, he chose a comfortable walking pace to keep up with the adults and settled between them in the middle.

“By the way, Mom, Vittorio is an artist and his parents are looking for treasure, isn't that cool?”

"Are you looking for treasure?"

“Oh, I told him they were looking for treasure, but it's actually a close concept. They're archaeologists, I didn't know how to sound any easier.”

“It's okay, feed him the tough words as you see fit.”

“This is normal? He is still small and may not understand much.”

Victoria scratched the back of her neck with her hand and reached into her pocket, taking out her phone. She had just gotten a text from work, which made the woman look a lot more serious. Her finger instantly ran across the small screen with a keyboard.

“Those are his problems, as he will understand. If he is interested in the subject, he will find the answer. Dive into the internet or read a book.”

“My parents didn't raise me like that,” Vittorio wondered, looking down and watching Damian calmly look around. His gaze was so attentive that the Italian couldn't resist: “Do you remember the way?”

"Yes” the boy replied. “If I run away again, I must at least remember how to get out of here. I found you by chance when I got lost. By the way, mother. How did you find me so fast?”

"I felt it," Victoria growled. “And once again you talk about running away, the girdle at home will indeed be your only friend.”

“I just want to go home.”

“Don't make me nervous.” The woman waved at him. “I have problems at work. I will have to go immediately after school not to say goodbye to you, but to the crime scene.”

“Crime scene? … Wait a minute. Are you saying you're going to take him to school once and then send him home on his own?”

“Yes?”

Vittorio was completely shocked by this strange family. However, Victoria looked completely calm in front of her eyes. They had already left the private sector and now stopped on the road in front of the carriageway. The red light was on, and Damian, without warning, pulled up with them, without leaving the sidewalk. The child beside them took two confident steps down the road when his mother pulled him back and began to wail that he should look around. Vittorio pursed his lip and, following his inner instincts, couldn't help but take Damian's hand as soon as it turned green. It was new for him to be so free with the movements of a small child. Damian was still small by her standards.

Victoria was still typing a message on her phone, and her son tugged on Vittorio's hand to draw his attention to him.

“I can do many things. So don't worry, I'm smarter than I look. By the way, where do you study? Can you see the building from here?”

“From here? Hmm…” the Italian looked around as they moved from one intersection to another and shook his head. “No, it won't work from here. To see the university, you need to go there and take the bus. See that stop over there?”

“Oh, I see.”

Damian saw a blue roof and a road sign with a picture of a bus right next to it.

“I usually take a bus there and go two stops, and then I get off. If you cross the street and pass a green colored house, a large white building will appear. It has only three floors and lots of windows. There's also a stadium out back with a big running field, so you can't walk past it. There I study. This year I'm going to the second course.”

"How long are you going to study there?"

“Four years.”

"It's not that long," Damian said in surprise. “Mom told me that I still have to study for seven years, no less. First you need to finish elementary school, then three years of high school. And only then can I do what I want.”

“I didn't say you can do whatever you want.”

“You - no, but dad said a lot.”

"Remind me to deprive you of your dinner today," Victoria huffed.

“Do you in the family stay behind the stove?”

Victoria looked up from her phone and raised an eyebrow.

“Oh, um… I'm sorry, that question was apparently inappropriate.”

“Well no. It's just... It's not like I always stayed behind the stove...” the woman spoke slowly. “Like… I cook savory dishes better, but my husband is good with sweets. He used to dream of becoming a confectioner. And he's the one who usually cooks at home, because if I'm not careful I'll set the house on fire.

“Wow. How unexpected.”

“Why?”

“I know few straight couples, and half say that the wife stays at home behind the stove and the husband goes to work, how do they say? Traditional family.” Vittorio replied. “In school days, I studied at a Catholic school, and there they always said that in the future I had to marry an exemplary woman who knew how to cook, clean and take care of children, or something like that. But I always found it very suffocating.”

“I grew up hearing this from my mother, I spent sixteen years of my life learning how to be a good wife, so when I got married, I was submissive to my husband, and then when I turned sixteen, she got off my back a bit. because she went looking for me a suitable husband for me, and I took advantage of the gap of her distraction after male, and ran away.”

“It must have been tense for you. But how did you run away when you were only sixteen?”

“My family had a lot of money, so I got an allowance from them as long as I obeyed, and I had the idea to run away when I was twelve when I found out that my mother wanted to put me in an arranged marriage, I saved allowance money from then until I got it I gathered a large amount and fled with the clothes on my back to Poland, the further the better, if I had stayed in the UK area, my parents would have found me easily. It was twenty hours of travel. I met Louis there, he was on vacation with his family, they welcomed me when I told them what had happened.”

“It's a beautiful and touching love story! I lived with few people in my life, so I had few examples of couples and marriages. Most couples I knew got divorced.”

"My parents have been together for almost twenty years!"

"That's plenty of time!" Vittorio smiled. “Take them as an example, that's how an exemplary family should be.”

“We are not a model family.”

“Damian, you must be able to take compliments,” his mother said.

"But I must be able to accept real compliments." The boy frowned. “You never told me we're a model family. And if you didn't say it, then we...”

“We are an exemplary family, calm.”

Damian was silent for a minute and then, apparently thinking carefully about his mother's words, he turned to Vittorio and nodded.

“We are an exemplary family. Thanks.”

Vittorio chuckled softly as he released the boy's hand and patted his shoulder.

“He listens and agrees with everything you say to him. It is so cute.”

“Him? This one is new. If he had listened to me and obeyed his parents, now he would not have irritated my nerves and, like a disciplined child, would not have gone to school under the escort of two adults. He also threw a tantrum in the morning, running away from home. Disgrace.”

“Because you're wrong. I won't do what I don't agree with.” Damian frowned, avoiding the slap along the way.

“Just wait, I come home at night and instead of photographs, you will receive a lot of instructive lectures that you must always obey your parents and in everything! You understood me?!”

“Yes mom!”

“Photographs?”

"From the crime scene!" Damian smiled as he jumped up and down. “My mother is a police officer!”

"To be more precise, I'm an investigator” Victoria replied, turning to Vittorio. “I was redirected here, as a new headquarters is being set up here and people with experience and a good track record were needed. And today, in one of the alleys, they found a dead body. This is not my specialty, but there aren't enough people and I've been asked to join. I'll need to go there right after school. Oh, and I thought I'd have a much-earned last day off before the work week.”

"Wait a minute... You... You said you were going to show him the crime scene photos? But he's... He's just a kid! Also, you said there's a dead body! What are you going to show him?! You're ruining his mind!”

Victoria and Damian exchanged glances, choosing not to answer that question. But the sight of the Italian who looked so close to passing out made the woman laugh and still soothed him.

"Vittorio, come on. You think I don't know what he can see and what he can't? The most my son saw were red puddles on the sidewalk. Everything else I discard.”

“Oh! I also saw a big blue package! Mom said that there was a real person in him, but he was already lifeless.”

"That's right," Victoria stroked her son's head.

They stopped near the school entrance and Damian waved at Vittorio. A large black carved gate stretched into the sky and was as tall as several people at once.

“Goodbye! Don't worry, I'm leaving here soon because I'm not going to study here.”

“Damian! Stop immediately!”

Damian was silent. As he and his mother passed through the school gates, the boy turned again, and seeing that Vittorio was still standing and escorting him, he raised his hand and waved at him. The Italian smiled and winked at the boy, thinking to himself that it would be a shame if this child still insisted on his own and walked away. He had never met such happy children before.

{...}

The school building was large and new. The facade is painted with the usual light beige paint. The school's fence and gate surrounded the entire surrounding area, which included: a large outdoor playground for students, small gazebos for eating in place of the school cafeteria, a large stadium with basketball and volleyball courts, and a large covered annexed, which was the school's swimming pool inside. Inside, Damian wouldn't notice anything he hadn't seen before. He remembered his previous school, he remembered the classrooms of music, work, mathematics, he remembered those rooms reserved for class activities and circles in which he and his colleagues used to stay up late. Now, as he passed the empty, open classrooms, the whole atmosphere filled him with a strange state of melancholy.

When they climbed the stairs to the third floor and went straight ahead, they stopped almost immediately beside a large wooden door on which a sign hung: “the office of the head of the educational unit”. The mother asked Damian to wait here and remove his hat until she called and asked his son to come in, and the boy readily agreed. As soon as Victoria entered the office and left Damian alone, the child sighed and ran to the window, trying to see what was going on outside.

From this place it was impossible to see the entrance and the porch with the gate, so the boy didn't know if Vittorio was waiting for them or if he had gone home after all. The Italian got nervous on the way, when he found out that Damian would be abandoned here and sent home alone, to be honest, the boy liked it. Usually, his parents treated him like an adult, because he asked for it himself, but still the obvious could not be denied. Damian is ten years old, and when they look after him and see to his safety, it cannot but cause mutual sympathy.

Coming to this terrible house and staying there alone is another bore. Damian wanted Vittorio to be waiting for him. After all, when there are two people, you can already talk. Damian didn't know if the Italian knew some of the games he and his friends played in the backyard, but he could teach him. And Vittorio could also be persuaded to show him where the pawnshop is, so he could quickly sell his phone and flee this town. Such a plan is unlikely, of course, to have a chance of success, but it's worth a try.

"Damian." Victoria poked her head out of the office, beckoning to the boy with her hand. “Come here.”

“It is necessary?” asked the boy.

“No frills, I beg you.”

“All right...”

In any case, to find a way out of the situation now and get out of it - the little one did not figure out how. He had to go with the flow and obey his mother. Someday, he will definitely be able to roar to her in order to defend the right to vote, and as long as Victoria defeats him, he will always be forced to obey him.

When Damian was inside the office, two blue eyes immediately stared at him and a woman who, by outward parameters, was the same age as his mother.

“Hi. My name is Silva, I oversee the transfer and admission of students to our school for training.” The woman nodded at him, adjusting her glasses on her nose. “Your mother already said this, but I want to ask you personally. When we put children in classes, it is important to know how they adapt to communicate with their peers and how much they can swear because of their nature. You are a boy who, according to the documents, you have a difficult personality, you will certainly want to defend your position in the class leadership. This can lead to quarrels and conflicts. We don't need unnecessary trouble with other parents. You think to yourself, would you be able to fight another student if you didn't share something?”

Victoria was silent, as ordered. Now the supervisor's questions would be answered by her son, who had not been warned of such a thing. When he entered his first school, they were all little ones. Distribution by class and further communication of children with each other did not cause concern. They were still very young; at this age it is much easier to get used to each other and get along without arguing. Now the situation was different. Furthermore, these face-to-face confrontations were almost always organized by strong-willed boys like Damian. Damian was very moody. There may be problems with it. It was also necessary to take into account medical certificates, which confirmed his bipolarity, and some more information. Damian inherited this gene and even multiplied it,

Silva smiled at the pensive expression on the boy's face, then added:

“If you don't understand the question, I can repeat it. Do not be afraid, if you do not understand something, it is better to ask again.”

Damian just snorted softly in response, mumbling under his breath.

“I understand human speech, I'm not stupid…” Victoria sincerely thanked everyone and everything for the fact that her son had thought to express those words in a whisper, and then Damian spoke louder: “I don't fight with others. My transfer documents should indicate this. Schools don't write letters of recommendation to all students, where do they talk about these things? I can lie easily and no one will know about it.”

Silva blinked in surprise.

"Yes, you're right…" she trailed off. “In that case, maybe you have a preference? Our primary school is divided into three classes. In some of them there is a predominant number of certain individuals. In the first grade there are many boys, in the second grade there are both boys and girls, the third grade is made up almost entirely of girls and the other two are mixed, and there are almost the same number of students.”

Damian bit his lip.

“Is there a class with a higher difficulty level?”

“We're talking about elementary school.”

"Isn't it so?"

Victoria mentally thought that this child should learn the rules of etiquette and dialogue with the elders. Therefore, in order not to lose her temper, the woman began to count to ten backwards.

Silva shook his head.

“The division of classes according to the level of complexity with the objective of deepening the disciplines will start in high school and will become even more difficult in the last year. I'm afraid you'll have to wait.”

Damian shrugged.

“Then I don't care about the class," the boy nodded. “I'll be fine everywhere.”

“Even if it's a class with only girls?

“And? Are girls worse than boys? In my opinion, it is even easier to talk with them and find a common language. They're not that insufferable and they're always smiling.”

Silva chuckled softly and nodded.

“I understand, we always consider students' wishes, so I needed to speak with you personally,” the woman said. “Tomorrow morning you will have to go upstairs to the big timetable booth, where one of the seniors will already be waiting for you. He will help you get to the office where you are going to study. You don't have to worry about being the only newbie. In fact, it just so happens that another boy is transferring to us this semester. He's his age, and you'll probably be able to get into a class. So, it will be much easier for both of you to find a common language with everyone and settle down in a new place.”

"Understood," Damian spoke slowly without any emotion.

"In that case, you can go, I'll say a few words to your mother and let you go. I can't stop you anymore.”

Damian nodded and ran away. What's all this for? It is not clear. This woman apparently had no trace of gray matter. All these things he told her about her character and behavior, she could learn from her mother and her old school. Adults never consider what children want. The boy wouldn't be surprised if tomorrow, instead of being in a class with everyone else, he was placed in an all-boys class. Damian was now hopping slowly on the tiles in the hall and he thought that all this officiality was just taking up more of his and his mother's time.

Victoria appeared in the hall and nodded to her son, starting to walk quickly towards the stairs and down the stairs.

"Damian," she began grimly. “Well, you… Remind me what you know about etiquette?”

“I didn't like her.”

“Yes, I didn't like her either” – the woman shrugged – “Not everyone in life will be to your liking. I asked what you know about education. Didn't your father and I tell you how to talk to your elders?”

"Can we go home?"

“You're going there now.”

“No, I meant to our house. In New York.”

“Damian...”

Victoria gave an exaggerated shake of her head and crouched down, stopping her son and pulling him to her.

“What will make you change your mind about this place? You haven't even tried anything yet, and you're already giving up on everything. How can you know this school and your new classmates will be terrible if you've never seen them before? I can't believe I'm telling you this, but... You told us yourself that you didn't like anyone at that school. Maybe tomorrow, when you get here, you'll like someone. What are you going to do then? Do you want to come home too?”

Damian pursed his lips.

“I didn't like anyone here.”

“Go and look at the children first, and then speak.”

Victoria grabbed her son's arm, drawing herself up to her full height, and they started to move towards the exit to the balcony, already seeing a guard post, a swinging bar and a door with steps in front of them.

“I liked Vittorio. Can I go for a walk with him instead of going to school tomorrow?”

“No way.”

"But you said..."

“Vittorio is too old for you, for the role of boyfriend, find someone who's tough enough to put up with you.”

Victoria laughed as she descended the steps and when she looked up and forward, she saw that Vittorio was still standing near the exit, leaning against the fence, looking up at the sky. As soon as the Italian heard the sound of footsteps, he turned around. Seeing Damian, a smile blossomed across his face, and he held up his palm, beckoning to the child. The boy jumped up and ran towards him, Panama hat swinging in his hands.

"Well, how was it?" asked the Italian.

“Boring,” said the boy. “My mom and I don't like her.”

Vittorio laughed.

He lifted his head and met Victoria's eyes, who had just called a taxi for him, and then he hung up and handed the phone to the blonde.

“I didn't think you'd be waiting for us, but if you stay here, Damian will want you to say goodbye to him. No one is home anyway, so you can do whatever you want there, within reason of course. Extra keys under the pot, which is on the left side of the door. Give me your number so that if anything is missing, I know who I can contact.”

"Anything missing?"

"Or someone." Victoria looked grimly in her son's direction. “Anyway, give me your number. And by the way, if it's time for you to leave and my son won't stop sticking to you, you can pretend you're playing hide and seek. As soon as he closes his eyes and starts counting, you run.”

“It's kind of cruel...” Vittorio spoke slowly, returning the phone with the new contact to Victoria.

The woman laughed. They didn't talk about it anymore. The yellow car was parked right outside the school gate, in a small driveway, so the woman quickly said goodbye to her son and Vittorio, then jumped into the back of the car and headed off to work. Vittorio took Damian's outstretched hand and watched the yellow cab disappear around the corner.

"Your mother... has a peculiar personality," said the Italian.

Damian didn't hear the odd hint in his voice, so he simply lifted his head and smiled slightly at the guy.

“Yes. I love my mommy. Come on, I'll show you where you can draw a good roof!”