Massimo's moment with Melina took him back to his past... Back in time, ages ago, when he wasn't a ruthless monster, but just an innocent, kind-hearted lad.
19 years ago
I was out on the streets abandoned by my father who went after another woman leaving me and my mum to die. My mum loved him too much that she sacrificed all her family ties and education just so she could be with that monster whom she calls her husband.
They did love each other, or so I thought but when my father learned that her family cut all ties from her and that she won't be inheriting any of the wealth her family had, he fell apart. And with him, so did my family. He started to drink aggressively, something he never did. He began to beat me and my mum for no reason, blaming us for being the bane of his life. My poor mother usually shielded me from my dad, getting beaten badly in the doing. Then little by little, he began spending less and less time with us, in our home.
I witnessed my mother crying herself to sleep, and it pained me that there was nothing I could do. She ate very little to nothing, but she made sure that I ate and remained healthy. When I said that I'm not hungry and that she should eat she just replied, 'If you're not hungry and a healthy little lad, not just my stomach but even my soul would be full ', with a smile.
Since her husband gave her no money, she began knitting wool sweaters and sold them in the nearby cloth shop, through which she got money to feed me.
One day, my father barged into the house holding the hand of another woman and threw me and my mother out. My mother cried her heart out. She begged him to at least let me stay with him and that she had nowhere to go. But my father just slammed the door in our face.
Having nowhere to go and no means to eat, we went to the church and stayed there for the night. The entire knight my mum cried and sang hymns which rocked me to sleep. The next day I woke up to find my mum sleeping. She was burning hot with fever. I rushed to the nearest shop and asked for pills, but they refused to show an act of kindness and asked for money, which I didn't have.
I begged in the streets but the money wasn't just enough. In the farthest corner of my eye, I noticed a man drenched in blood running with all his might. No, running away from someone with all his might. Being the naïve, kind-hearted little kid I was, I ran to help him.
I asked him what was wrong, and he just looked me in the eye with bloodshot eyes and said, 'Hide me'. How could I hide him? A grown man? A man this large? But the conscience in me which wanted to help him got the best of me.
I immediately shoved him to the side, facing him to the street wall and made him lie down on the road, and looked for something to cover him. Coincidentally I found a used torn rag at a walkable distance. I ran and grabbed it and then covered him with the rug, making him look like some covered goods on the road, and then to avoid suspicion, I climbed him and laid on him, to make it look as if a poor boy sleeping on some large packs of goods on the side of the road.
Though it was very hastily done, I knew it would work. I just laid there on top of him, hoping to save him from whatever he was running from. Pretending to be asleep, I watched quietly to see men holding guns and bloodied knives running, shouting, 'He's injured! He must be here somewhere near, find him, and kill him!'
Then I noticed one of the men glance at me. I immediately shut my eyes closed. He approached me slowly and my heart was beating fast. Then as he was about to wake me up I heard someone shouting that he saw some guy running in the other street. He then left me and hurried towards the guy who shouted.
After making sure that they were no longer there, I jumped down; removed the rag, and helped him stand up. He smiled and said, 'You are going places. If by any chance I find you or you find me in the future, I'll make sure to repay this a thousand times'.
He then removed the gigantic ring he wore and placed it in my hand. He then placed a couple of liras on my hand just as a car approached us. He smiled and then got into the car and disappeared. Happy that I got money to treat mum, I hurried to the drugstore and got pills. I ran as if my life depended on it and reached the church to find my mum sleeping. A wave of relief washed over me and I gently woke her.
It was only then I realized she was never going to wake up again.