The Home - 40. Chapter 40

I couldn’t forget what I read. My sleep that night was a toss and turn affair. I got up and went to my old room. I didn’t want to bother Amalia. I finally fell asleep, and then I had my visitors, all four of my grandfathers and Nonna.

They looked at me and smiled. I knew they were proud of me. I had on a previous night told them about Tom and Brad helping Peter and John. They looked at me with their eyebrows scrounge together. They knew something was bothering me. I told them about reading Giovanni’s journal they smiled. Giovanni pretended to be drinking a glass of wine. Now I knew where I could find the trunks, or so I thought.

In the morning, before going to school, I surveyed the basement. There were no visible trunks. I’ll do a thorough search tonight.

All-day, my mind was on those trunks. What could they contain that they require them to be hidden? That night after dinner, I went to the basement. I tapped the walls expecting to hear an echo if there was a room behind the wall. There wasn’t an echo, so I concluded that there was no room. I was convinced that the trunks were removed a long time ago. The more I thought, the more frustrated I became. That night in bed, my grandfathers came again. This time they all had a glass of wine.

I realized that the wine must be connected with the trunks. I didn’t see how unless the barrels contained the trunks. But if that were so, I wouldn’t be able to fill the barrels with the amount of juice I had. If wine is the key, then tomorrow I’ll take another look. Maybe the room is behind the barrels. With this thought, I fell asleep only to be awakened when two, very cute little girls, jumped on me.

“Momma said to wake you/“

“Oh she did, did she.” Saying that I grabbed both girls and kissed them. They giggled as they ran from my room.

Dressed, I headed to the kitchen for a coffee and breakfast. I never made it when I entered the dining room on the way to the kitchen; my daughters took me by my hands and led me to my chair. As soon as I sat down, they were on my lap, each one sitting on one of my knees. “Are you going to feed me?”

Giggling, “No, papa.” Then I got a kiss on my cheeks. They didn’t feed, but they did eat off my plate. Each time they would take a piece of bacon, they would smile, or a bite of my toast, or a fork full of my scrambles egg, they would look at me and smile. Maria started to feed me, and then Angela joined in. I just sat there, loving every minute of it.

Finally, they had enough, and with a kiss on the cheek, they got off my lap and headed outside with Tom and Brad. I knew they were going to feed the chickens. This happened every weekend morning.

“Charlie, how are you feeling this morning?”

“I’m a little stiff, but I am alright.”

“Is your room warm enough for you? It’s starting to get chilly in the morning. We could put that old wood-burning stove in your room.” I looked at Amalia.

“Charlie, when was the last time you had seen a doctor?”

He laughed. “I think when I was in my twenties.”

“I have an appointment this coming Tuesday. You can come with me.”

Charlie looked at Amalia, I’m not sure what he saw, but he agreed.

“Vic, let’s go and check the grapevines. We should think about making wine soon.” I wanted to teach Vic how to make wine, sausage, and salami. In all probability, he will inherit the house.

Vic and I walked to the grapevines. I knew Pa would be proud of our grapes. We now had almost three times the number of vines he had when he and I would collect the grapes to make wine.

“Vic, taste this grape and tell me if you think it is ready to make wine.” I watched as he took a grape and ate it.

“It’s a little sweeter than the grapes Momma buys at the store. Will they get sweeter?”

“Yes, in two weeks, we will start to press these grapes and collect the juices to make wine. Remember that taste, and we will compare it to the taste in two weeks. You need two learn how to determine if the grapes are ready to make wine. You will be the 7th generation to make wine from our grapes.”

I placed my arm around Vic’s shoulder as we went to check the animals. This was a routine we had established when Vic first started to walk. It was our special time, well it was my special time, and I hope Vic thought the same.

We stopped and picked some fruit from our trees and headed back to the kitchen. The girls wanted to see the goats, so I walked to the goat paddock with several carrots. The girls had names for them, and when they called their names, they would come to the girls. I think they knew they would get carrots. Then we had to check out the rabbits, chickens, and turkeys. They were a little intimidated with the horses and Ole Betsy, our cow.

We stopped in Pa’s garden for a tomato and Nonna’s flower bed to pick a bouquet of flowers. I chose a rose and put it in their hair. Now we were ready to bring the flowers to Mamma.

As we were walking toward the kitchen door, Amo met up with us. The girls showed him their flowerers and got a kiss on their cheeks as he told them, “A beautiful flower for a beautiful girl.”

“Tony, any more thoughts on those trunks?”

“Yes, I think those wine casks have something to do with them. I want to check behind them to see if they are blocking a hidden room. The key to finding the trunks has something to do with the wine.” I didn’t tell Amo about my visitors; only Amalia knew.

Amo and I headed to the wine cellar. “Tony, there isn’t any space behind these barrels.”

“I think if there were a room there, they would put the barrels in such a way to prevent anyone from getting to the room. We may have to move a barrel. Let’s try the small barrel on the end, it’s empty.”

That barrel had a volume of 50 gallons. There was no way we could move it if it were full. Empty, it weighed about 100 pounds. “Amo, let’s get a rope, and we can string it over that beam and left the barrel.” That is what we did.

“Tony, look!”

Looking into the barrel’s cradle, there was a trunk. “No one would look under these barrels. That’s a clever way to hide a trunk.” With Amo’s help, I tried to lift the trunk out. It wasn’t going to happen.

Amo, let’s leave the trunk there and see if we can open it. Luckily, the trunk wasn’t locked. The leather strap on the lid prevented the lid from being fully open. Looking into the trunk from the small opening, we were able to observe the top layer. “I’m going to get a flashlight. Be right back.”

I ran upstairs and got the flashlight in the tool room. Going back down to the wine cellar, Amo had the lid open a little more.

“When I tried to open the lid a little more, one of the letter straps broke. I think if you and I push up on the lid, we can break the other strap.”

That is what we did, and the other strap broke as well. Removing the lid of the trunk, we saw neatly packed clothing. “This must have been Victor’s clothing. Since he never came back, they never removed them.”

I started to remove the clothes. Amo was laughing, surprising there were still in reasonable shape. The trunk was sealed enough to prevent any moths or other bugs from infesting the clothing. As we removed the clothing, we came upon another shelf. “Amo, this shelf needs to be removed. The height of this trunk would indicate there is another space below this shelf.”

To remove that shelf, I needed something to pry the shelf up. Back to the tool shed for a crowbar.

“Amo, we’ll use his to pry that shelf off.”:

It didn’t take long to snap that shelf in half. What we saw I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, this made what I had in the safe a pittance.

“Tony what is this?”

"Amo these are gold coins. I have sold a coin like this for $2000"

“Tony, there must be a fortune here.”

Amo was right, this was a fortune and unless I made an error in reading the journals of Giovanni, there are more of these suitcases. They must be under the large wine barrels.

“Ano, we mustn’t tell anyone abut this. Let this be our secret. Just know we are financially secure and money will never be a problem. Here, keep this as a gift from Giovanni and Victor to you. If you ever need financial help, you come to me.”=

I took ten coins, closed the chest and replaced the small barrel.

That evening when my grandfathers came to me I told them about the chest. They smiled and raised their wine glasses to me. Now I knew there were more chests and I knew where they were.

In the morning as we were getting ready to go to church, I told Amalia about the chest of gold.

“Tony, you must keep that a secret. If people find out our lives could be in danger, the children must never know until they're old enough to understand,”

Amalia was right, our lives could be in danger if people knew about the gold. Wealth brings worries and suspicions. Are they friends because I have money, do they want favors or do they want me to invest in one of their schemes. Amelia was right, best to keep everything quiet

The rest of the week every time Amo would see me he smiled as if he knew a secret, and he did, a big secret

Soon life returned to normal. Between my income and Amalia’s, we were comfortable. The farm provided a little income for the boys and Charlie, additionally, the boys had their teaching salaries. The farm was self sufficient. Money from selling the products provide an income to sustain the farm. I told the boys their share of selling the farm products, was not needed for the operation of the farm, my share was enough.