The Children of the Road

"Hey, dilo! Are you planning to waste all afternoon over there?" called Favianna during a lull between songs. Her brother was flirting with Mircea rather than doing anything even remotely useful, and she had serious doubts about how successful he might be to boot. Behind her and perched on a barrel Matej strummed his mandocello, a signal that if the girl wanted to pull the weight she expected of her twin brother than she needed to be ready to dance.

"You see that?" Aurelio asked the girl perched on a stone wall. His thumb jerked toward his sister. "Mamma teaches her to dance, and my sister acts like it's serious work. She doesn't enjoy something like that the way she should. Now me? I know how to enjoy life, and I could show you how to do the same." A smug grin drew across the boy's face.

Mircea glanced past him to Favianna as she twirled and clapped her tambourine. Finishing the flourish the dancer dropped her arms and stomped, turning a fiery smile to the folk passing by. She seemed to be greatly enjoying herself, especially when a stranger reached for a coin, and Mircea's dubious regard for Aurelio's claim was evident on her face.

"Aurelio, if you enjoy life more than that then you might just be too happy for me," Mircea mused, "I might be the kind of girl who wants a calm, tender sort of boy to pursue me."

"How will you know for sure unless you try being 'too happy?'" the boy asked, drawing his hand atop one of Mircea's.

After a quick glance at the pair Favianna turned so she could talk to Matej while still swaying with the instrument's bass stains.

"It looks like Aurelio's coming home alone again tonight," the dancer joked with her younger cousin, "At least we'll be coming home with a little extra coin, no?"

"I don't think he'll be as unsuccessful as you think, Favianna," came the strummer's reply, "We might come home with coins, sure, but he's coming home with a smile."

"Eh? What makes you think that?"

Matej merely pointed behind his cousin who looked in turn to see an unoccupied stone wall and no sign of her twin brother nor Mircea. Thinking quickly she transformed the glance into a rhythmic turn, shaking her tambourine. Yet she couldn't shake astonishment at how quickly the two had conspired behind her back, and so she wondered aloud.

"How does he always do that!?"

Art, story, & characters © 2011 Antique Submarine

Artist's note: Hey, what do you know? For once I took a shot at writing!