A sailor brought out some coffee and I had an espresso. While I was drinking it I looked up and saw Mom and Rachael and Janet all staring at me from the dock. They were whispering and looking thrilled and mad all at once. I didn’t know what to do, whether to wave or pretend they weren’t related to me.

Mr. Andriotti saw me looking over his shoulder and he turned to see what I was staring at. Then he turned back to me and said, “Ees that youa charming mosser?”

I said, “Yes.”

He stood up and bowed to Mom and said, “I ‘ope eet ees all right I have borrowed your charming boy to ‘ave luncha weeth us?”

“Oh that’s fine. Thank you,” said Mom.

Mr. Andriotti said, “Woulda you come join us for coffee?”

“I’m sure Calvin is doing well by himself.”

I saw Janet and Rachael both give Mom a look because no one had ever invited them onto a yacht before and I could see that they were dying to come on board. But Mom took them by the arm and smiled at us, then turned and kept walking to where the steps cut in the rock go up to the path to the lighthouse. They kept going up the steps till they disappeared. Janet looked over her shoulder once but they didn’t come back.

I was saying to myself, “Thank you, Mom,” the way sometimes I heard Mom say, “Thank you, Jesus.” Mr. Andriotti turned to me and said, “You ‘ave a charming mosser.” I said, “Thank you, so do you.” Later I thought about it and decided I had not said exactly the right thing just then but at the time it seemed O.K. and Mr. Andriotti and Gino didn’t mind.

Mr. Andriotti asked one of the sailors to show me around his yacht and the sailor did. I couldn’t believe it. How big it was inside and how in one bathroom there was a real marble tub with Roman statues in niches in the wall. And in the big bedroom the walls were paneled and the white carpet was the thickest I had ever felt. The sailor showed me the engine room and explained how it had twin diesel engines. And he showed me how the radar worked. He explained how the boat had a crew of twelve men on board and could cross the Atlantic Ocean in four and a half days from the Strait of Gibraltar to the island of Bermuda.

But when I asked him about Mr. Andriotti, who he was and what he did, I knew Mom would want to know, he didn’t say much. Then we went back and Mr. Andriotti shook my hand and hugged Gino. We left the yacht and he called “Arrivederci!” after us and we turned and waved as he went back into the lounge.