8

THE MOST AMAZING THING YET!

 

“MARIA Beppina! Sergio!”

Maria Beppina hears voices calling from outside.

“Maria Beppina! Sergio!”

At the same moment Maria Beppina and Sergio open their shutters across the alley from each other. Below, the Twins are calling.

“We’re heading to meet Primo at the watchtower. We’re going to play Storm-the-Castle!” Rosa calls up. “Do you guys wanna come?”

Storm-the-Castle! That’s Maria Beppina’s favorite game. She always plays the guard. Everyone else hates to, but she loves it.

On her way out the door, Maria Beppina feels the ring on her finger. She still isn’t sure what to say to Primo. But that hardly matters at the moment—what matters is that they are almost to the Theater!

Before she even knows it, the rest of them are off and running. She has even less hope than usual of catching up, and is stuck again in the repeating nightmare.

Rosa is so far ahead, and now Emilio! Sergio turns back for a moment to look at her, but even he is starting to pull away. And her shoe! It’s about to fall off.

The sound of her heart thumping in her head is overwhelmed by the clopclopclopping behind her. This is it, this is the time she is going to get caught! What can she do? She takes a big breath in. And she stops.

She just stops!

Maria Beppina stands in the middle of the wide open Theater, alone. The sound of clopping gets louder for a few steps. Then the clopping stops.

There is now only the sound of her own heavy breathing. And someone else’s. Maria Beppina takes her deepest breath . . .

. . . and

turns

around.

Maria Beppina stands face to face with the Clopper.

The Clopper is much shorter than she expected—only her own height— and Maria Beppina finds herself staring straight into her eyes. These eyes are blinking, foggy, and don’t seem to see very well. Or maybe they just can’t believe what they do see.

A long time passes—as long as the time between lightning flashing and thunder clapping.

The Clopper rubs her chin, looking like she’s lost something. “I’m not sure,” she says, and begins to walk toward the walls of the Theater.

She stops and turns back.

“Well, aren’t you coming?” the Clopper says, holding out her hand to Maria Beppina.

Maria Beppina looks across the Theater to her friends, trying to catch their breath. She could run. Just run and join them, and never worry about the Clopper again. She looks back at the Clopper’s hand.

Maria Beppina decides to take it.