Page 35 of Three Times You

Incredible. I didn’t expect this. As we tie up to the side of the yacht, heads appear looking down on us. It’s everyone.

“Here he is! About time!”

There’s Lucone, Bunny, Schello, and all the rest. Even Marcantonio and still other friends. I look at Guido, stunned.

“Excuse me, but just how big is this yacht?”

“One hundred thirty-eight feet.”

“And how did you get it?”

“Who cares? Just enjoy it!”

“They aren’t going to arrest us, are they?”

Guido laughs. “No, no, stop worrying. It’s a favor from an honest person. And we’re not going to fight. Because there’s thirteen of us, and I invited fifteen girls!” And sure enough, the party unfolds with girls and champagne and seafood and music and dancing.

Guido takes me up to the top deck of this three-decker behemoth: “Just look at that view…”

We’re in the bay off Argentario. I see the long beach of Feniglia, where I kissed Babi for the first time, and then the hill above, dotted with houses. Some of those villas have their own private steps down to the sea. I look at the villas, one after another, down to the farthest inlet. There it is, the perfect villa, the highest, perched atop the rocks with its own dizzying staircase. That’s where Babi had her first time. I cast my mind back.

“Are you happy?”

“So very happy.”

“So happy you could reach up and touch heaven with your finger?”

“Much, much happier than that. At least ten feet higher than heaven.”

“What are you thinking about?” Guido drops right into the middle of that memory.

“About how beautiful those villas are.”

“The way things are going, one day you’ll buy one of them. Maybe that one all the way down on the end!”

“Yes, maybe so.”

I turn to Guido and ask, “Okay, I won’t ask again. But just tell me one thing, Guido…What’s the catch?”

He laughs. “You think there has to be one?”

“Yes.”

“Well, that depends. Maybe it’ll be tomorrow!”

“Ha! Good one.” But I’m not laughing.

Chapter 26

There’s been an endless procession of fresh, delicious grilled seafood, and my friends and I have been digging in heroically. After dessert, washed down with what seems like gallons of champagne, we all stand up and head for the prow. A fantastic combo strikes up the music, and the girls start dancing. A few newly formed couples head for various cabins.

Marcantonio, Guido, Lucone, and Bunny have found a roulette wheel, or maybe they brought it with them. In any case, they’ve set up a mini-gambling den at the center of the dinette. Shouts of excitement greet each bet.

Out of nowhere, the ship’s siren sounds. We climb up onto the deck and crowd the railings, looking out over the water.

The night sky is clear, glittering with stars arrayed around the big full moon. And in the endless bowl of perfect dark blue, fireworks start to explode. Red, yellow, green, purple, one inside the other, incessantly. They sail straight up from the sea, up, up, up, and up, high overhead, one hundred, two hundred, even three hundred feet over our heads, spreading out like huge umbrellas, and before they have time to fade away, others explode beneath them, shattering and then crumbling down into the water below. The colors change constantly: red and orange are soon transformed into cascades of white and green. One after another in an explosion without end.

“Bravo!” “Beautiful!” “Stupendous!” Some whistle, others clap their hands, and I hear the popping corks on more bottles of champagne, as if this were New Year’s Eve.

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