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5 10 15 20 25 30 35 39 “Waaah!” Rosaria cried more loudly. “Eh? What boy?” Vanessa asked. “I’m not with any boy.” “What?” Rosaria sobbed. “Aren’t you with that handsome African boy, the tall one with big black eyes…?” “But who, Fela? He’s my brother!” “Your brother?” Vanessa explained that when Fela was very little, he had lost his parents while they were leaving Nigeria trying to reach Italy. In the accident, one of his uncles had also died, and he and his grandmother were the only survivors. Luckily in Naples his grandmother had met people from their country and they had given their help. They had settled in the house opposite that of Vanessa and since Fela often stayed home alone because his grandmother worked, Vanessa’s mother had offered to look after him. From there Vanessa’s parents had succeeded in becoming the foster parents of the boy, and years later they adopted him. Now, every day Fela visits his grandmother after school for a greeting. Sometimes he stays there for lunch. On Sundays they all gather at Vanessa’s house. Fela’s granny was hers too in a sense. Rosaria was still crying. “Rosi,” Vanessa said, “don’t cry anymore, I’ll introduce you to my brother.” “I’m not crying for this. I’m crying because you’ve told us a beautiful story. Waaah!” Armelinda and Tina looked at each other with no hopes of recovering their cry-baby of a friend. “But I still don’t understand how you believed Fela was my boyfriend.” Rosaria blushed and, drying her tears, confessed with a certain reluctance that she had tailed her brother and had seen them while they were hugging in the hallway at their house. Witnessing the hug had given her the proof that they were together, and so she had believed that to be the truth. Vanessa frowned. She did not expect something like this from her. Following a person did not seem to her like the right thing to do. “Forgive me, forgive me.” Rosaria said. “I promise I’ll let you copy my maths exercises whenever you want.”