Toccata and Fugue

The phone has been ringing for a few seconds but I am not going to pick up the receiver until I hear the end of Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor, the unusual jazz interpretation by the Jacques Loussier Trio.

I know it is Jessica. She is the only one capable of calling at the most inopportune time but luckily I have nearly finished my breakfast.

“Hello, your Excellency, am I interrupting your siesta?”, she asks.

“Hello, nuisance, what are you after now?”

“You never mentioned that we are nobility, uncle. Principe di Alberobello and a knight to boot.”

“Oh, that. Don't get too excited. It was an honorific title given to your granddad because he was a rich landowner who looked after the community but it has no legal status and it's not hereditary. It is a tradition that goes back to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies during the Spanish domination of southern Italy in the 1860s.”

“Why did you have to spoil it, uncle? I was looking forward to be called Princess”

“Tough luck, my dear. Is that it?”

“Not quite, I have lots of questions that need answering but I'll wait until you have finished your zabaglione al caffè. I know about your sweet tooth”  

“Alright, you win. Fire away.”

“OK. Who is Ferenc and why has his existence never been mentioned?”

“He was a close friend of your father and he's no longer alive. The truth is that their friendship didn't last. They were all students at the time and both men were vying for Francesca's
affection. It looked as if your father was the favourite to win her heart.”

“I can feel a 'but'coming up.”

“Yes. The problem was that your father was a religious man and did not believe in sex before marriage but Ferenc wasn't as scrupulous. The inevitable happened and Justin found Ferenc and Francesca in bed together. The scoundrel abandoned her after the fling. That was the end of a beautiful friendship.”

“I thought you said that mum and dad met in Kabul and married afterwards.”

“That's correct. The three of them met again years later in Afghanistan where the two men were fighting, Ferenc with the Hungarian contingent of NATO forces, Justin in the British army and your mother was embedded with Special Forces as a war photographer.”

“I guess that Ferenc did not survive.”

“True. He was relaxing with other soldiers when an insurgent dressed as a policeman opened fire on the group killing them.”

“The reconciliation between my parents must have been very awkward.”

“It was a touch and go situation but in the end, with a lot of handwringing and remorse on her part and benevolent forgiveness on his, common sense prevailed and love that hadn't died out during those years of separation won the day. The following year they decided to tie the knot”

© Luigi Pagano 2020

New readers please note: if you wish to follow this story from the beginning the
first three episodes are unnumbered, then the sequence continues from number 4 onwards until the current episode which is No.21.

   https://www.abctales.com/story/luigipagano/incident-porttofino    https://www.abctales.com/story/luigipagano/top-secret,
  https://www.abctales.com/story/luigipagano/being-positive 4)https://www.abctales.com/story/luigipagano/chalet-bottom-garden