David F - 3. DF Chapter 3

“He followed me, and as much as I tried to get him to go back, be kept on staying with me. Unfortunately, he was killed by a border guard, trying to protect me from harm by the guards. He was a very loyal dog and kept me warm on those very cold nights, I still miss him, and think of him often,” David replied.

“I don’t blame him for following you, Dad treated him badly, and I am glad in a way that King had some happy times while with you,” Karl said as they continued to walk, and after nearly an hour of general chat, David said goodbye and wished Karl good luck for the future, before setting off once more on his journey south.

Stopping briefly at the City of Milan to have a look around, Davis continued his journey, with his next overnight stop to be Ferrara, having started to travel in a more Easterly direction, as his next visit was near the city of Perugia, where he wanted to see the de Lavana del Varchi family once more, and especially Maria, who he had grown attached to in his short stay there.

The property was just as grand as he remembered it, with its beautiful manicured gardens, and wide-open space, and when the front door opened by one of the younger members of staff, David asked to speak to Mr Giovanni de Lavana del Varchi.

“I am sorry, he is not here, most of the family has gone away on holidays for two weeks,” the young man said, and it was then that I realised that he was not a staff member but Carlos the oldest son. “Hello Carlos, you m ay not remember me?” David said to the young man.

“No, but you do look familiar in some way, how do we know you?” Calos replied, and David smiled. “About twelve years ago you gave me a bit of a thrashing, and a short while later, I rescued your sister from a burning shed that the twins had set alight,” David responded.

Carlos frowned, and eventually he remembered back to the days that a strange boy had arrived out of nowhere… David? Is that really you?” Carlos said eventually, “Yes, Carlos it is me, I have come for a visit, as I am on a sort of pilgrimage to do with that journey that I took those many years ago,” David replied.

“Come in, I would like to hear all about it, we never did find out much about you, especially when you disappeared suddenly in the middle of the night,” Carlos said as he stepped back to let David inside.

The place hadn’t changed in the whole twelve years since he was last in the house, and after speaking to the butler, David was led into the Library, where they sat and chatted about nothing until afternoon tea was served and the butler left.

“Where are you staying? Do you have much further to go with this journey? Where did you start from?’ Carlos asked me all at once and David laughed. “I guess I had better start from the beginning… When you first met me, I had just escaped a concentration camp in Bulgaria, where my parents had been detained, just two years after the end of the war.

This is the place where I was born and spent my first twelve years of my life until I escaped, with the help of two people within the camp, one of the men who had befriended me and watched over me, after my mother was given her freedom, and the other the most unexpected person, the Senior Security guard at the camp. My father was killed by the guards for not doing as they told him, and that is when Johannes took over looking after me for the next few years.