chapter 9 Eddie’s (girl)friend

That day Easy decided to wear a green skirt. She always weared green

when she was going to do something important. And visiting Eddie was

surely something important: time to fix up the things! She thought.

The croissant of the day was one filled with chocolate. That was a good

sign, she thought. Because usually she always got jam or cream, but today

she got something different, indicating that the day was going to go well.

Easy was full of skepticisms and “indicating signs” that would have guided

her through the day: for example, she never wore her violet shirt during an

exam, because it has been proven that if she did she’d have got a bad mark.

Or she would never put mascara when she had to go the grocery, or she

would surely have lost some dollars on her way.

At the bookstore, Easy found Jerry looking up at some books for kids.

“Hey Easy, how did it go yesterday with the little ones?” he asked

interested.

“Oh, tell me about it! It’s been awful, no one was listening to me. And the

worst of it was when that woman who brought them here told me she’d

come back today!” Easy answered worried.

“Oh boy” Jerry said, laughing. “Can I do it today?”

What a relief! “Of course pal, if you think you can make it!” Easy said.

At that point, Barry jumped in, with the new apron Easy had given to him.

He had been so happy when she gave him the gift. “Easy, when you go to

see Eddie, tell him we need more new stuff here, I mean something else

than books. I don’t know, some notebooks, bookmarks, pens, whatever

may call new customers.”

“Hey, that’s really a good idea. Well done, Barry, I’ll surely tell him” Easy

said.

But when she got off at the streetcar stop right in front of number 38 of

Village Road later on, she wasn’t sure about anything anymore. She really

didn’t expect to see such a big and beautiful house. It had two floors and a

roomy loft, and sliding windows that were so clean Easy thought there was

no glass. The garden was relatively small for such a big house, but it was so

green and full of flowers, and the whole place was bound by a white, fine

gate.

The golden label at the front white, wooden door, read: WHALES, book

managing. Wow, Easy thought, Mr. Whales is really serious about his job.

With a slight knot in her stomach, Easy pressed the doorbell.

A thin old man, dressed in a black suit with a papillon and white gloves,

opened the door with a puzzled look. “Yes? How can I help you my lady?”

“Uhm, hi, I-I’m Eas �"I mean, Isabella. I’m a friend of Eddie. Edward, sorry.”

Easy was really embarrassed. She’d never talked to a butler before.

But the man’s face lightened up as soon as he heard the word “friend”. “Oh

dear, what a joy to have you here! Please, come in. I suppose you came

here for having lunch with us! Master Ed would surely have invited you!”

the man said, with a glad and happy voice.

“No, no absolutely. I’m sorry, I came here just to talk to him, is he here?”

Easy asked, now really scared: she has stepped inside, and if that house

looked wonderful by its external, its internal looked like a castle. The hall

was decorated with family portraits framed in silver, and the rug Easy was

now standing on was so clean and soft she wanted to take her shoes off not

to dirty it. There were modern chandeliers hanging from the ceilings and

Easy could have sworn they were so clean you could have eaten on them.

The walls were painted white or extremely light colors. Mr. Whales really

liked to have a clean house.

“Yes, of course he is here! He’s in his bedroom, please follow me” and the

polite butler made their way through the house, up to the white marble

stairs, until they got close to Eddie’s room.

“Here he is, Miss Isabella.” The butler motioned his hand to point at the

open door of Eddie’s room. Easy couldn’t help laugh when she saw what he

was doing: he was wearing a worn out tank top of the New York Knicks and

shorts, and was dancing at the sound of Jump Around playing on his iPhone.

Easy thanked the good butler and took her shoes off. Eddie’s room also had

a rug, and it was dark blue, matching the lighter one of the walls.

“So that’s what you’ve been doing the whole week, uh?” she asked aloud,

stepping inside.

Eddie stopped his improvised dance-with-the-hips-and-fits abruptly and

turned to face her, shocked: “Easy! What the?” and he hurried to stop the

House of Pain singing. “Oh gosh, Easy, what are you doing here?” he asked,

widening his green eyes.

Easy couldn’t help laugh a bit more seeing her friend in total panic. “Relax, I

just came here to see if you were still alive.”

“Oh yes, I am, fortunately. But would you mind waiting me in the living

room? I mean, until I get myself something decent to wear” his cheeks

were turning a bit red now. “Uhm, have you met Steven yet?”

“You mean that nice butler? Yes, I have. I’ll ask him the way.”

And Eddie yelled out “STEVEN?! CAN YOU COME HERE FOR A MOMENT?”

Steven winced in his spying corner, where he and Betty the maid have been

talking about the new comer.

“How precious she is, isn’t that?” Betty would have whispered to him.

“Oh yes, she has a nice perfume and such good manners! Look, she’s even

getting her shoes off not to dirty the carpet!” Steven replied.

“I really like that girl, Steven. She could really do for poor Eddie, you know

he’s been depressed so long for not having friends!”

“STEVEN!?” Eddie called out again, impatient of making Easy stop looking at

his hairy legs.

“Sorry Betty, I have to go! See you later!” Steven said, and he popped out

of their corner to reach Eddie’s room door.

“Yes, master?” he said, with a wide smile, showing his modest false teeth.

“Can you please lead Easy to the living room? I’ll come as soon as I put my

jeans on” Eddie said quickly.

The living room was comfortable and classic, with a low brown table at the

middle and four dark red sofas surrounding it. Easy sat on the one facing

the door.

Two minutes or so must have passed when a quick shadow moved past the

door. Then, a man, moved backward more slowly, popPing his head in the

room, curious.

“And you are?” the young man asked, smiling.

Easy looked up from her gallery on the phone, and for a moment she

thought the man talking to her was Eddie with his hair dyed gold.

Even if they shared the same basic features, this guy was way more

handsome than Eddie: he had an athletic smile and his hair were shorter

than Eddie’s, showing his square jaws.

Easy had to swallow before talking. “I’m Easy, a friend of Eddie”

The young man approached toward her with his hands in the pockets of his

dark blue suit’s trousers, and looked her with an incredulous face.

“Eddie? Ha! And then he goes around babbling he has no friend at all! Well,

my dear, I’m Jason, Eddie’s older brother. And I’m pleasantly surprise to

find out my brother has such a beautiful company” and with a grin he

offered her his hand. He had a gentle, warm catch.

When Eddie hurried down the stairs, he heard two voices laughing. And

when he reached the living room, he rolled up his eye. Here we go again,

he thought. Jason can’t stand to look at a pretty lady without starting a

conversation.

“Eddie! Dear Eddie, why didn’t you tell us we were having guests for

lunch?” Jason asked aloud. He was now sitting with Easy on the sofa,

probably telling her a joke.

At that moment, Betty and Steven jumped out suddenly (they must have

been overhearing again) and said smiling: “Did you call us Master? Should

we arrange the table?”

“No guys, no one has called you, and no Jason, I didn’t invite her for lunch!”

Eddie said. The last thing he wanted was his parents fantasizing about Easy

and any kind of relationship with her. They’ve been trying to find him a

fiancé for almost a year, without any success.

“Hey boy, what manners! Is it like this we treat such fine ladies?” Jason

blamed him. Eddie noticed Easy cheeks went suddenly red.

“So it’s settled! We’ll prepare an extra seat at the table!” Betty said joyfully.

It seemed like everybody was excited about having a friend of Eddie for

lunch.

Eddie couldn’t say anything before the housekeepers disappeared again,

and Jason stood up taking Easy’s hands in his. “It’s been such a pleasure to

meet you, but I’m afraid I shall leave now. My father must be looking for

me. I leave you to my brother.” And he turned to Eddie, winking at him.

God, please help me. Eddie thought. What was wrong with them all?

The two young friends moved to the garden, and sat on the big swing,

which was surrounded by wide bushes and colorful flowers of every kind.

“I’m sorry I’ve caused so much troubles” Easy begun.

“Nah, it’s fine don’t worry. It’s just that they haven’t seen a teenager since

ages, as all our guests are boring decrepit agents and nasty old ladies

coming here to chat with my parents.” Eddie said, making faces to make

fun of their ordinary guests.

Easy giggled. All her bad feelings she had developed during the week have

flown away. Eddie had that “friendly-halo” around him that made you

forgive him everything. But before Easy could tell him anything, Eddie said:

“Look Easy, I’m terribly sorry about this week. Believe me when I say today

was my very first day of freedom. And it was just because my Dad was busy

and couldn’t come to the bookstore.”

“Bookstore? You mean our bookstore?” Easy asked.

“No, not that. I mean a new, bigger one in Times Square. Dad asked me to

help him and Jason arranging everything to open it up as soon as possible.

It’s that kind of “lessons” he’s trying to teach me about real life

management.” And he motioned his second and third fingers to produce air

quotes.

“But what about us? What about…me? You completely forgot about us”

Easy replied.

“I know I’m sorry, but I promise I’ll come to see you soon, very soon!”

“I’m afraid we need you urgently…we have to buy some new books, and we

need your okay”

“New books? But if we’re not even able to sell the old ones!” Eddie asked

surprised.

But at that moment, Betty popped out, saying with a shiny smile “My dears,

the lunch’s ready! We’re waiting for you.”

When Eddie and Easy entered the dining room, they were both invested by

the curious eyes of the Whales family: Jason looked at them with his deep

blue eyes and hide his grin with his big, elegant hand. Mr. Whales put down

his tablet and looked at the young friends above his glasses, and his two

eyebrows lifted up to show his surprise. Mrs. Whales’ eyes were dancing

from Eddie to Easy, and backward, trying to decode some suspicious details

of the two. But what surprised Easy most, was to be welcomed by two

bright smiles: the first of Steven the butler, and the second of Betty the

maid. They were actually sat with their masters at the table, sharing with

them the very same dish, and no one was giving them orders. Easy thought

that this was very strange, for in all those soaps and movies she had

followed, the housekeeper always had meals in the kitchen, alone.

“Well, uhm, guys this is Easy, as you probably already know” Eddie said,

glancing conspicuously to Betty, who was known to be a wonderful chatter.

“Nice to meet you all. I’m so sorry if I caused any disturb, I’ve only came to-

“ Easy started, but she had to stop.

“My dear, please! You are most welcome! Such a fine young lady in our

house! Edward, you should have warned us before, tho. We’d have the

guest room prepared!” Mrs. Whales said with a high pitch voice. She looked

pleasant to Easy.

Eddie wouldn’t have the time to answer.

“He actually told me about her, Molly. But it was nearly a week ago, and I

surely didn’t expect her for lunch.” Mr. Whales had a deep, warm, 

welcoming voice, and even if Eddie described him strict and commanding,

Easy found him a good man anyway.

“What? You did know about her? Why didn’t you tell me!” his wife inquired

surprised.

“Oh dear, I was just too busy. But what are you two doing standing there?

Come, take seats!” Easy and Eddie have been standing still at the door for

the whole conversation, the first with red cheeks and the other with open

mouth. They both felt like they were two pets being looked by a crowd of

people behind the glass of a shop window.

When the two friends took seat, everyone put their napkin on their laps

automatically, and began fiddling with the cutlery, Steven and Betty

included.

Easy found on her big plate a chicken leg and some tomatoes and other

vegetables that were difficult to recognize, and in another plate some

potatoes with ketchup. Ketchup is popular in this family Easy thought.

“So Edward, is she the girl you were supposed to hang with during the

week? Your lover?” Mr. Whales managed to ask with a big bite of chicken in

his mouth.

At the sound of the world lover the curious eyes of Betty and Mrs. Whales

turned on brightly and they both faced Easy. Jason widened his eyes and,

smiling, moved his head miming a shock, and slowly turned to face Eddie,

who almost suffocated while eating a potato slice. I won’t tell you about

Easy cheeks which went so dangerously red she had to put her hands on

them.

“Dad! For God’s sake!” Eddie said. But before he could say anything more,

his dad burst out laughing.

“Alright, alright son, I was just joking. I’m afraid I like to put you under

pressure �"and turning to Easy, Mr. Whales said: please sweetheart, forgive

the foolishness of an old man. Tell us, where are you from?”

Easy was starting to have fun. “I’m from Boston. I actually come here every

summer to stay with my Aunt Joanne.”

“How lovely! Tell me, what do you do?” Mrs. Whales asked excited. It really

looked like they weren’t used to chat with teens.

“I study Medicine. I mean, I will next year hopefully. I’ve just graduated

from high school” Easy replied, leaning her head a bit forward to face Mrs.

Whales, for Eddie was sitting between them.

“Wow, finally something different!” Jason replied. “You may have noticed

that we’re all managers here!”

“A wise, honorable and fruitful job, my dear Easy, something that my

youngest son will never understand!” Mr. Whales said, and Eddie looked at

his friend rolling his eyes, making her giggle.

Then something that surprised Easy happened: the big 12” TV that was

present with them in the room would never been turned on. Usually, back

to Boston, Easy and her dad “enjoyed” having lunch or dinner watching the

news on the television, annoyingly commented by Easy’s dad who claimed

that every politician was a foul traitor.

But at the Whale’s Easy didn’t hear the news of the day. She wouldn’t hear

about what the Mayor did or how many shops have been robbed and how

many people won the lottery that day.

Instead, she’d happily listened to the day of each member of the family:

she’d listen first to Mr. Whales, who talked about the new bookstore at

Times Square, and about those two blueprints they have lost and that have

been luckily found by a worker, and about how he decided to split the shop

into four parts, one for kids, the other for teens, and the remaining two for

adults.

Then they listened to Mrs. Whales, who talked about how much she’d

spent for her shopping that day, and that although it cost a lot, the fuchsia

pantsuit she bought fitted her just fine. Then she talked about her friends 

at the clubhouse, who were all secretly jealous of her because her sons

were one more beautiful than the others.

Then it was the turn of Jason, who talked about those crazy bills that the

architecture gave him, and how he managed to pay less even if he knew the

poor man did a wonderful job at the bookstore. He also talked about his

friend Max, who had invited him to go to see the baseball game later on.

And so on, everyone on that table told his or her story, even Easy, and she

felt like every single person was involved: they weren’t just eating, they

were sharing part of their daily lives, and that simple thing made Easy think

how wonderful would have been to have a family to chat with every day.

When they were all done with the lunch, Eddie took her out the house, to

talk more quietly “without inspiring some soap operas about secret loves”,

as he’d said.

They decided to go directly to the Park Avenue bookstore, so that they

would go checking the list of suppliers for new books. But Easy still didn’t

tell a word about the absolute changes she and the guys made to the shop.

As they were walking around the quiet, tree-lined Village Road, Easy said:

“Sorry, but I just couldn’t notice that Betty and Steven were sitting with us

at lunch”.

“Oh, yeah, I suppose you were expecting them to leave and eat in some

dark corners of the house. That’s an ugly stereotype; my parents abolished

it long time ago, because our housekeepers live with us every day: they

help us, cheer us, and without them our house wouldn’t be complete.

They’re part of the family, and I guess they have the right to eat at the table

as well as we do.” Eddie replied, looking straight without facing his friend.

Easy thought that his profile was just like his father’s.

“I like that. It sounds so…respectful” she stated.

“Yeah? I’m glad to hear that” Eddie said. “Easy, uhm, look I’m so sorry and

embarrassed for what my family thought you were. I mean, we were. I

mean, what’s between �"ah, never mind. It’s just that they have been

pressing me to get engaged for so long that I’m just used to it. I don’t know

what to say, really.”

“Why, how old are you?” Easy asked surprised.

“Me? Well, I’m 24” Eddie said, making a little bow.

“What?! You’re 24 years old?” Easy was shocked. She had always thought

he was twenty, at maximum.

“24 years young, you mean” Eddie said smiling.

Easy gave a quick glance at what he was wearing: tight light jeans and a

wide T-shirt and a pair of worn white Adidas...He was surely a juvenile guy.

“But you told me you were in second year” she finally said.

“Yeah, and that’s true. I started college some time ago and let’s say I’m not

so fond of it…my dad would say that “I like to waste my life hanging around

doing nothing”. By the way, what about taking a look around after work?

You know, to begin our touristic journey in New York” he asked hopeful.

“Yeah, for what? For being dumped for the next week?” Easy asked,

wincing a little.

“What? No, no, this time I swear it will be alright! I’ll come to the bookstore

every day and after work we’ll see each other as I promised you!” Eddie

was now walking backwards like a shrimp, to face Easy.

“And what about the new bookstore you’re stuck in?” she asked squeezing

her eyes.

“Okay fine, maybe I’d have to work there for a couple of days, but we’re

almost done. C’mon Easy, believe me, this time I won’t miss it!” he said.

She looked at him puzzled, as if she was looking at the back of a book,

reading the short summary of the story, deciding whether to trust the

author and buy the book or go for another one. Then she said: “Okay.”

When they reached their little, familiar bookstore, Eddie stopped to look at

the window. And before he could realize what they’ve done, he heard a

rough voice from the inside, yelling out: “Aaaaargh!!!” and then what must

have been a group of frightened kids screaming out in panic.

“What the?” but as Eddie stepped inside, he had to rub his eyes with

disbelief: he was looking at a bright new bookstore, not the old and

pathetic one he’d left, but a clean modern place where some customers

were actually hanging around. And what was better, there was a moderate

crowd, of kids and adults, in circle surrounding a guy dressed up as a pirate,

telling them a fairy tale. It didn’t take long to realize that the guy was Jerry,

and he had successfully managed to catch the attention of both the kids

and their parents.

“Oh my gosh! What’s happened in here! W-Who did this?” Eddie said after

a couple of minutes, staring at Easy slack-jawed.

“We did...me and the guys” Easy answered. At first she thought he was

mad at them. Of course his mad, her “wise” voice commented in her mind,

he’s feeling like you took over the place and made your own business

without even trying to contact him!

But to clean up all her doubts, Eddie smiled wider than ever before

-showing that his last two front teeth were slightly overlapping, and

grabbed Easy by her arms, almost shouting: “Easy! That’s great! This place

is reborn!” and then he spent the following fifteen minutes going around

the shop, peering in every corner and say things like “Whoa!” or “Goofygosh!”

or “I’m about to cry”.

Later on, when the “crew” of excited kids left, Eddie and his three bestbuddies

sat in circle on the red rug, sharing cola cans.

“Guys, I have no words to thank you enough. What you did here

is…unbelievable! And you don’t need my agreement, whatever you do is

just fantastic. How could you do all this in such short time!” Eddie said in

amazement.

“Oh well, we were in three, and actually Easy’s directions have been quite

helpful. It’s she you have to thank for: she had all the ideas and we just did

what she said.” Barry said humbly.

“You bet! Here’s a true sea-dog! I mean…she-dog!” Jerry said, still wearing

his pirate hat and eye-patch. “Cheers!” and he waved his can toward the

middle, and everyone followed him, saying again “Cheers”.

“The truth is that you are the best fellows to work with, and it’s thanks to

you if this place changed face…oh no guys, look, we’ve split the cola on the

rug.” Easy was always careful not to dirty something. It was one of her

quirks.

But right that moment, a little body jumped out from nothing, throwing

himself on the rug with a shout.

“Whoa, boy! Who are you?” Jerry said, grabbing the little kid before he’d

fall face on the ground.

The little boy was clearly Asiatic and said something that surely had some

sense, but it was in a language that none of the three booksellers

understood.

But suddenly, another voice called out from the counter behind them.

“Ping! Ping, come here!”

Jerry imagined it must have been the boy’s mom, so he stood up and

turned, holding little Ping in his arms. But he had to stop bewildered,

because the girl calling out the kid’s name couldn’t possibly be his mother.

She had to be his big-sister.

“Ling!” was all what Jerry managed to say, and the girl stopped shocked.

You have to know that Ling and Jerry were school mates. And if Jerry was

outgoing, playful and merry all the time, Ling was always quiet, immersed

in some books or doodling her notebooks on her own in a hidden corner.

“Ling, hello! I guess this must be yours. I mean... your brother. Because he’s

your brother, right?” Jerry said smiling, showing his fake gold tooth, and

little Ping jumped out of his catch and went out of the shop, saying “You’re

never gonna catch me alive!”. But someone in the streets actually grabbed

him this time, and Jerry could definitely say it was his mother.

Many were the times in which Jerry tried to speak with Ling and make

acquaintance, but with no success. And if poor Ling wouldn’t answer him in

his “normal” appearance, she surely wouldn’t do it when he was dressed as

a pirate with a gold tooth and a black eye patch. Not to talk about the

plastic sword in his belt. The situation was getting a bit too awkward.

“Uhm, so he’s name’s Ping right? Nice! So it’s Ling and Ping! They make

rhymes!” Jerry said in a desperate attempt.

But that only made thing worse, for Ling must have taken it as an offense,

and widened her beautiful, deep, almond-shaped dark eyes and hurried

away to reach her family.

When she closed the door, Jerry let himself have a big face-palm, and

thought he was a complete idiot.

In the meanwhile, his friends came out to see what happened, and as soon

as Jerry was alone, Barry couldn’t help laugh hard.

“Man, you’re too funny!” he’d manage to say. “Ping and Ling make

rhymes!” and he laughed even harder.

“W-what’s so funny, I can’t understand” Easy said, looking from Jerry to

Barry, and from Barry to Eddie, who was pressing his lips a laugh too.

“Ling goes in his same school and he’s been having a crush on her since

ever.” Eddie said.

“And what’s worse is that Ling didn’t even say hi to him! Not once! It’s an

old story that will never change!” Barry continued, after he had recovered

from his laugh. “He’d tried them all, each time making a fool of himself

more and more, but that poor girl will never answer him”

“Hey, wait a minute, I don’t have any “crush” for anyone, it’s just that I

think she’s smart and polite, and it would be nice to make friend with her”

Jerry said. “And when she’ll finally answer me I’ll buy you all a drink!”

Easy always thought that Jerry’s company must have been loud and crazy

like him, and she was surely surprised to find out he liked quiet, peaceful,

withdrawn people, instead.

Later on that afternoon, Eddie insisted to take Easy for a tour around the

city, and Easy decided to visit Times Square, more specifically, the big new

“Whales & sons” bookstore in Times Square.

Eddie agreed reluctantly, because he didn’t like that place much. However,

it wasn’t in the very beginning of that amazing, crowded “square” so they

still had the chance to see something.

Easy had never been in Times Square before. She felt it like a jungle, of

skyscrapers, shops, taxis, people, colors, neon-lights and a lot of smog.

When they reached the middle of the square, she instinctively grabbed

Eddie’s arm in the fear of getting lost.

“Relax! It’s just the craziest place you could ever find yourself in this

planet!” he’d say her, laughing. “You know, my father always wanted to

rent an advertisement place here. But you can’t imagine how expensive

they’re. Once they asked him a million bucks per year! That’s just crazy. Just 

imagine what you could do with a million dollars every year!”. Eddie

commented.

But Easy wasn’t paying attention: she was too frightened and yet amazed in

filling her eyes with as much lights, picture and details of that place as she

could. She would have described her feelings to Aunt Jo later like “being

trapped in the flipper console of a disco’s theme, getting drunk with all the

colors and sounds”.

If Easy was literally going crazy in that place, Eddie felt like as at home. He

moved through the crowd like a shadow, leading Easy quickly and safely to

the “Whales & sons book mega-store”.

There were many workers doing their job, but they recognized Jerry and let

them in without troubles.

Easy felt like if someone has turned off all the noise and mess of the square

as she entered the enormous building, and the sound of drills seemed like

music to her if compared with the horns and shouts of the street.

“Behold! The new jewel of the Whales’ stores, our new, modern and

interactive mega-store!” Eddie said miming the voice of his father, getting

in the middle of what had to be the main hall and spreading his arms. In the

background, the workers were shaking their heads, probably thinking

“Teens, humpf.”

Easy was amazed. She’s never been in such a big bookstore before. “Wow.

This place is really enormous. I feel ashamed of our small shop in Park

Avenue.” Easy was crossing the main hall of the store: it was very big and

airy, and there were also two stairs leading to the second floor. She used to

think that they had made a really big work in their little bookstore and that

she had worked like a real manager, but now she’s changed her mind

completely: only highly experienced men could handle such a big place and

manage to bring it to success. And she thought Mr. Whales was one of

them.

“I guess you’re not very excited to work in here, aren’t you?” Easy asked

her friend, as they were going upstairs.

“Not really.” Eddie answered, sitting on a big wood box that contained new

books they’d shipped.

But as he sat, a little pocketbook fell from his jeans and Easy picked it

before him.

“Easy, no, please, don’t open it” for the first time, Eddie looked worried.

“Why? I’ve always wanted to know what it was. You’ve fallen on my face

because of this, do you remember?” Easy said, now really interested in that

small notebook that obviously Eddie took with him wherever he went.

“Okay, enough now. Give it back” he said, extending his arms to get his

precious notebook back, but Easy run away and opened it.

The most terrifying minutes passed before Easy looked up from the

pocketbook and said, widening her eyes “These words are beautiful. Where

did you get them from?”

“Uh? You mean…you like it?” Eddie asked, smiling.

“Yeah, of course I do! What’s the name of the poet?”

“Uhm… I guess it’s Edward Whales or something, but I’m not sure, tho” he

said, scratching the back of his head.

Easy couldn’t believe it. “Whaa?! You mean you actually wrote all of this

stuff?!”

“I’m afraid yes. Well, you’re officially the first person to like the trash I

write.”

“Trash? Man, this is art. These are beautiful lines! You should publish them

somewhere!” and they got back to seat on the wood box.

Eddie exhaled and looked at the workers down at the main hall. “Yeah, you

know. I’ve always preferred to write books, not to sell them.”

“And why don’t you write, then? What are you doing in Business college?

You should be attending English Literature or something.” Easy said, looking

at him straight in the eyes.

“One word. Dad” he answered. “He’d never allow me to go Poetry. He

thinks what we have here is a treasure; an Empire that must be passed

from father to son. And if I’d ever tell him that I don’t like this

fortune…well, I don’t know. He’d surely not allow me.”

“Have you ever actually told him?” Easy said. She was always straight to

business, without ceremonies.

“No, of course not. It would be pointless, because I know the answer. Plus I

don’t know if I’ll ever succeed in this. What if people don’t like what I

write?”

“You’ll never know if you don’t try! I’m sorry, but I have to tell you: you’re

acting cowardly.” Easy said, looking down to the workers too.

Eddie instead seemed very hurt by what she said, and turned shocked,

saying: “What?”

“Listen, if you’re so scared you could also sign up with a fake account in

those writers communities or blogs or whatever and see what people

think!” Easy said serious. “It’s true that you have a big fortune here, but it’s

also true that you have one even bigger here” and she reached his chest,

pointing the heart.

“Okay, here’s a deal, as you like them so much” she continued. “Write a

poem each day! This would make a total of three-hundreds-sixty-five

poems, enough to publish your first book! What do you say?” she asked,

stretching out her hand.

But Eddie just smiled, standing up and leaving her with her hand in the air.

“Hey! Where are you going!”

“Time to get out of here!” and he descended toward the door downstairs,

with his hands in his pockets. And Easy followed him running.

That night, like almost every night, Eddie was laid on the bed in his

pajamas, checking his Facebook’s feed on the phone. As he opened the

app, the little world icon on the top was carrying a “1” red sign. He tapped

on it to discover the notification:

“Jerry A. Long has invited you to like his page Whales&sons Bookstore”

Eddie smiled, his face lightened only by the phone’s LED. These guys rock,

he thought. They’ve even created a Facebook page.

He wondered what they were posting there, and tapped the bold writing of

the notification to get to the page.

They’ve put the classic Whale image as profile picture, and as cover, they

put a panoramic photo of the shop: it was so small that it entered all in one

single shot.

But Eddie thought it was far more beautiful that the Time Square’s one. It

was more familiar. The description read:

“Welcome to our official Facebook page! Here we’ll post sales, new arrivals

and every event that will occur in our bookstore. Any of your comments

and ratings is more than welcome! And don’t forget to come visit us! �"The

Admins.”

The Admins. Eddie wondered if the Admins were his three friends. And he

felt a tiny, little spot of frustration for not being one of the Admins, too.

He tapped back to the Home page of his feed, and after scrolling a bit, he

found other news:

“Jerry A. Long is now friend with Isabella Ferri” and with that went the two

pictures of his friends: Jerry, wearing those sunglasses with fake nose and

mustaches attached to them �"always a joker, Eddie thought, and Isabella,

wearing a fine dress and playing her violin.

Isabella. He thought a lot about her during the evening. She’s discovered

one of his deepest secrets, one that even Barry or Jerry didn’t know about.

His pocketbook. His writings. But after reading them, she wouldn’t laugh or

worse, she wouldn’t say things like “Oh nice” or “Cool” and give it back. No.

She spent her time reading thoroughly the lines he wrote, and actually

appreciated them. She believed he had talent and she encouraged him to

go on. No girl ever appreciated something he did with his own hands. Most

of them would remain stunned by his family name and the amount of

money he had. But Easy clearly wasn’t like the others.

Eddie found writing more pleasant now that he had a fan.

And he thought about her idea of publishing with a fake identity.

Fake identity. And looking at Isabella’s profile picture, he had the craziest

idea of his whole life.