The men stopped talking, so I held my breath. I heard the sound of the blanket being taken off. If I were Superman, I'd be able to see through the door and see what was inside those silver tubes. They were like the cardboard tubes you could buy at the post office to hold something you needed to roll up. Mom kept old tubes to protect our school projects when we carried them to school. I had to breathe again. As quietly as I could, I breathed. Then I heard the sound of metal being placed on the floor. The men began whispering again. The last time I'd used one of those cardboard tubes was for a painting I did of a bunch of aliens from different galaxies having a party in my imaginary Star Wars movie.
A painting! Could that be it? My mind raced. Surely not. I was just thinking that because Santo had told us about that big art robbery. Then I heard the men return the blanket and leave the room. I had to get back upstairs quick. But I just wanted to see if there were paintings in those tubes. Real quiet, I opened the door, stepped out into the light and tiptoed over to where the tubes sat. I pulled off the blanket and grabbed a tube. It had a screw top. I unscrewed it and noticed my hands were sweaty. There didn't seem to be anything in it. I put my hand in to make sure. It was empty! Were they all empty?
In the distance, I heard Charlie call out, "Max!"
"Far out." I screwed the top back on, returned the tube and put back the blanket the same way I'd found it. Real casual, I walked out. Charlie was at the other end of the hallway. He waved impatiently for me to be quick. I hurried and followed him up the stairs to where Santo waited. The filming had begun again.
"Sorry," I said to Santo, "la toilette."
He replied, "Now we go, so we don't get in the way."
We followed him back to where Luca waited on the police boat. Now I'd never get to check the other tubes. I sat down and thought and thought. Should I tell Santo and Luca what I'd seen? Would Charlie laugh at me? Would they all think I was a joke? Yeah, definitely.
Charlie would remind me for the rest of my life what an idiot I was. Dad would tell all his golfing buddies as though that story was the funniest thing that happened on the whole trip ... well ... besides the trick Santo played on us when we arrived at the hotel. Yeah, I'd already been mega-dumb. Mom and Dad liked to say, You can't always trust your bad feelings, Max!
I should forget it; it was probably nothing. Just my imagination.
I tuned in to Luca, who sounded like a tourist guide, telling us about every palace on the Grand Canal. I wasn't interested in different kinds of arches, windows and decorations. In between telling us about the palaces, Luca waved to almost every boat driver and gondolier on the canal. He was just like Santo. Lucky for us, he quickly worked out Charlie and me weren't into architecture.
He pointed to another palace. "Look. That is where the famous robbery took place."
Then I remembered what Santo had told us. You have to notice the detail that doesn't make sense.
My whole body tingled. I could feel goose bumps pop up on my arms. That was it! The silver tubes. How did they make sense? I took a couple of deep breaths. Would I risk being teased for the rest of my life? I tugged at Santo's shirt and said to Santo, Luca and Charlie, "I've got a detail that doesn't make sense."
"Si?"
Santo moved closer to hear. Luca slowed the boat. They were going to listen. I felt stupid, so I said real fast, "At the film set there were two men who gave me a bad feeling. In the room on the ground floor they'd covered seven silver tubes with a blanket. A rolled-up painting could fit inside a tube." I wouldn't tell them that I'd checked one tube and it was empty. "And I saw one of those men on the first floor fiddling with the corner of a painting. He stopped as soon as he saw me."
Now that I'd told them, my story sounded real dumb. I waited for them to laugh at me.
They didn't. Santo and Luca stared at each other with their mouths half-open.