Fifty years of Love & Secrets

H7. Just setting tattoos.

Marcello Ferrante 39,

son of Roberto and Bianca.

Married to Camilla 34.

Father of Adam 9, Max 8, Charlotte 6, Liam 4, and Mila 2.

"So." I take the paper off his arm. "One more look in the mirror to see if this is really what you want." I roll away from the chair and Danilo gets up. Enrico follows him to the mirror.

"Isn't it too big?" he asks his fifteen-year-old son.

"no, this is good." Answer Danilo and he nods. "Your mother is going to kill me." Sighs Enrico. Danilo shrugs. "She doesn't need to see it anyway." He comes back and lies down on the chair with his arm in the intended holder. "You think your mother is nuts? She knows we're here." Answers Enrico.

A month ago Danilo wanted a tattoo, actually years ago, but his parents said no. Now he had finally convinced his father to get one. He is actually a few months too young, but he is almost sixteen and with the permission of his parents it is allowed. An uncle who puts tattoos, that's too easy, so I told him I would do it.

"Okay, here we go." I start with the first line and look at Danilo's face to make sure he's not in pain. It is not completely painless to get a tattoo and some people find it too painful and stop.

Max, my eight-year-old son is looking over my shoulder. After I took the children out of school, Max wanted to go with me to the shop. He always wants to go to the shop with me.

Cam thinks he's going to be like me. That he wants to get tattoos. He is always drawing, painting, or coloring something. He can also draw particularly well for his age. He already tells his friends and family that he wants all kinds of drawings later, just like his father. He calls it drawings, not tattoos. He is the only child angry about the drawing of him that I have put on my body.

I still had some empty spots left on my body and I put their first drawing of all five children, with the date on my body. Max doesn't like his drawing anymore and thinks it's ridiculous that I'm so proud of it. He wants me to put one of his new drawings over it, but that's never going to happen. Cam is the one that keeps everything about the kids in folders and boxes. I put the important things on my body.

"You can't show that Tattoo to grandpa and grandma." Enrico rolls a chair closer to the chair his son is lying on. "why not, who cares." Answer Danilo. Enrico and I exchange glances. His mother is not the most pleasant person to be in conversation with and she will certainly disapprove of this. The Lamberti boys didn't have many tattoos. Until we moved to Cliffs and as Leonora Lamberti says "we influenced them." And she doesn't mean that positively.

Anyone who knows the Lamberti boys knows that they are many things, except influenceable. They do, like Bellucci and Ferrante, whatever the hell they want. The only ones who discuss things with each other are Enrico, Vincenzo, and Riccardo. I think that's left over from the collaboration they had in New York, right before we moved. But in the end, everyone still does what they think is right.

Danilo rolls his eyes. "I don't care what grandpa and grandma Lamberti think. Bianca and Roberto probably think it's really cool." He grins and I laugh. "Bianca is not going to like this either," I tell him. "My mother hates that we are so covered in pictures."

I tell about the old days at home, what she always said, how she reacted, in the end, we didn't show her anymore when a picture was added. "She only likes my children's."

Enrico shakes his head. "I'm proud of my children and I love them dearly, but what you did, I would never have dared to do."

"But you also had your what, second or third tattoo done by me here in Cliffs?" I laugh and Danilo's eyes get big. "Didn't you know that kid?" I ask "no, I thought dad always had all those tattoos."

Enrico gets up to grab a drink and when the door of the shop opens, Riccardo enters. "Here!" he puts a big white plastic bag on the long table next door.

"What is that?" I ask when I look up. Max runs away from me and gives Riccardo such a crazy hand, boxing thing that Riccardo seems to fully understand. Enrico rolls his eyes and Danilo laughs about it. "Enrico told me that you had Danilo on the chair and that you wouldn't be ready by dinner time. So I got Chinese."

Max starts cheering and runs to the back through the door. Next to my office is a small kitchen unit, where I also store plastic plates and cutlery, for situations like this. It's not the first time I've had someone lying on the chair and missing dinner at home.

"Everyone good?" I ask, and Riccardo nods. "Viv is ready for a break, but ma will take the children all with her on Thursday when Maria is also here. So I'm going to plan some time alone with her that day."

"Don't you think she's ready for alone time with women instead of with your ugly face?" replies Enrico who unpacks the bag. Danilo chuckles at his father.

"Nah, Vivian likes to be alone with me." Answers Riccardo who wiggles his eyebrows.

"That's what she makes you believe," I answer and wipe Danilo's arm. "Come, we'll take a break, eat something, and then I'll finish the big picture." I throw the stuff aside and Max comes running to the table with everything in his arms. Riccardo says bye to us and we start the Chinese.

"Can I really eat this out of the box?" asks Max and I nod. Riccardo knows exactly what to get when I work here for a long time and has brought everyone their own container with noodles, chicken, and a different taste.

"Do you never do that Max?" asks Danilo and Max looks up at him and shakes his head. "No, mom wants us to put it on a plate and she always cuts it way too small." He grumbles. "I'm already eight, I don't need small sliced food anymore, but she's afraid that Liam or Mila will take the food and that they will suffocate." He rolls his eyes, knowing that his mother is too worried and that she is making that up because she is afraid that Max will also suffocate in his food.

I give him a fork, but he wants to eat with the chopsticks, just like we do. I shrug my shoulders and give him the sticks. When I see him struggling with the chopsticks and the food, I can't help but feel proud. Max is eight but looks exactly like his mother with the brown hair and blue eyes, but his character is exactly how I am.

Where with my brothers the oldest is exactly like my brothers, a mini version of them. Danilo is also a mini version of Enrico. It's different for us. Adam looks like me but is completely Camilla and Max so exactly the other way around. Looks like Cam, but is totally me.

We eat our food and I am surprised by how quickly Max can eat with the chopsticks. Max cleans everything up when Danilo lies down again and I continue with the lines on his arm/shoulder. It can't be done in one go tonight, so he'll have to come back. I ask Danilo about his girlfriend Estar and see how Enrico rolls his eyes but doesn't say anything about the subject. I laugh to myself, Enrico keeping his opinion to himself, that's new. Danilo says that he is also bringing her to my parents' party next Saturday because they have been officially a couple for a month now. Enrico goes through some more rules with him and I do my best not to laugh. We've all been young and I'm sure Danilo kissed her a long time ago.

"You're done." I put everything aside and Danilo looks in the mirror. "Great."

I give Enrico the instructions and we make a new appointment for the continuation of the tattoo, after which the two go home. "I still have to clean up Max and then we go home too." Max is sitting at the large table drawing himself. According to him, he makes designs that can be in my folder for the clients to choose from. What he doesn't know is that I have all the drawings he has ever made here or for 'my folder', in another folder. That folder is almost full and I have ordered a second folder for him to go into. On each I put a date on the back, Cam got tears in her eyes when she saw it, but this is our thing. The children will never understand or know why this, those folders and photos and the drawings, is so important to us. But it's what brings Cam and me even closer together. I still have the old folders. The Studio is also still at home, it has only now become a play and painting room for the children. And the children can access everything except one drawer and in it are my old documents. When the kids are in bed, we sometimes take those folders out of the closet to browse through together and reminisce about that time. Where was Cam when she got a call, who was calling me. That's how we found out that we could almost have met years earlier if I had let someone else go in a taxi after we were both in Germany for the same job.

I walk into the house with Max and stop at the bottom of the stairs. It's already late for him.

"Go take a shower, I'll get to you in a minute, or mommy okay?" I kiss Max on the head and he nods. "I'm certainly not allowed to tell mom what we ate?" he asks and I smile at him and shake my head. "When she asks, you say that you had a nice meal, that Uncle Enrico brought something with him." I wink. It's a school day and Cam wants the kids to eat healthily during the week. I get it, I also want my kids to eat healthily and I'm all for what we do. I also know when I tell her that she gives me a look, but she doesn't make a big deal out of it, because that's Cam, she's always relaxed. But it's nice to have this little secret with Max. Max nods, we give each other a high five and he goes to his bedroom. He shares a bathroom with Adam. Both can enter the bathroom from their bedroom.

I go looking for my beautiful wife.

"Why are you wearing a bikini?" I walk into our bathroom and look at my beautiful wife. So f*cking sexy, I prefer nudity, but the kids are there, so I can’t touch her like that anyway.