Giancarlo’s heart was flooded with a thousand emotions, but there was not a single second to consider any of them. He dashed to his brother’s side, brought a bottle of water to his lips, and cradled his head to help him drink a few gulps. He poured out the water across Giorgio’s bruised forehead and face to revive him a little, before gently setting his head back down again. Then Giancarlo jumped to his feet and began to help Carter, who was already furiously pulling away the rubble to get at the enormous beam that had trapped Giorgio’s legs.

As the two men worked in a frenzy to free him, Giorgio lifted his head once more and peered up at his rescuers.

“Carter?” he said in the same rasping voice. “Is that really you?”

“Corraggio, Giorgio!” Carter urged him. “We’ll get you out of here!”

Giorgio gave a deep, rattling cough that bespoke some terrible internal injury.

“But how on earth did you find me?” he wheezed. “No one knows about this place.”

“Almost no one,” said Giancarlo with a grunt as he and Carter put their backs into it and lifted the wooden beam that had kept his brother pinned. They set it aside, and at last, after three long days, Giorgio’s cracked and bloodied body was free.

If he had felt any relief from his sudden release, Giorgio did not show it. Instead, as his two rescuers set about tending to his wounds as best they could, he gazed in confusion at Giancarlo’s face, until the light of recognition showed across his own.Then he grinned despite the pain.

“Giancarlo?” he gasped, his eyes welling up. “Is it really you? Have you really come back?”

“It’s really me,” said Giancarlo, squeezing his hand.

“Dio mio, Giancarlo, I am so happy to see you again!” cried Giorgio. He nodded to the empty knapsack by his side. “I came up to get mushrooms.”

“I thought as much,” said Giancarlo. “You and your silly mushrooms.”

“I picked a nice bunch to cook for this one,” Giorgio went on, gesturing to Carter, on his other side. “And then I came in here to get out of the sun for a minute. Before I knew it, the ground started to shake, and everything came down on top of me.”

“You’re lucky to be alive,” Giancarlo told him as he wrapped a bandage around a nasty cut on his brother’s arm.

“Eh, I’m lucky I had my mushrooms to keep me going,” said Giorgio with a weak grin.“Though I must admit, as much as I love them, after three days of eating raw mushrooms, a man gets sick of them.”

Giorgio paused, and put a hand to his head, gaping at his brother in wonder. “But Giancarlo,” he said, “after all these years, I can’t believe you came back to find me.”