While we sat at the bus stop in the dark, Dad paced up and down the road. I prayed a car would come around the corner and kill him so we could finish our vacation.

Mom came out after the rest of us had been outside for about ten minutes. She had stayed behind to pay the bill. Dad said, “So that’s it, see what you’ve made me do! There’s no going back now!”

The first glimmer of the dawn began to appear around 4 A.M., but according to the schedule the first bus wasn’t until 5:38.

When the Banini arrived on his bicycle at about a quarter to five to start to rake the sand and put out the deck chairs on the beach, he looked at us very curiously but said nothing at all even to me. Italians understand families, and he could see something was going on so he just nodded to us all, and we looked up at the hills behind the bay and wished the bus would come so we wouldn’t have to explain anything to anyone.

“Elsa, come here.” Dad was almost to the corner of the road, so he had to shout. Mom walked slowly up the dark road to Dad. Janet said, “He’s going to kill her!” Rachael began to recite the Twenty-third Psalm. But when they got together, Dad only put his arm around Mom’s waist, and they disappeared around the corner. They were gone for a long time. What would we do if they were still gone and the bus came? We got sick worrying about that because if we did the wrong thing, it would put Dad in an even worse Mood, and he was already as bad as we had ever seen, so who knew what came next? If we let the bus go, he might scream at us that we were undermining his authority, because he had said we were supposed to take it to the station. But if we stopped it and he wasn’t there and he had to run to catch it, he might blame us for trying to give him a heart attack.

Before the bus arrived, Mom and Dad both came back around the corner just as the sun came up over the hill and lit up the tops of the cypress trees around the pensione. Mom was smiling, and Dad had his arm around her shoulders.

They walked right up to us, and Dad said, “Children, I have something I want to say. I want to apologize to you all. I’ve been very sinful and I ask your forgiveness.”

We all turned red and wished that he wouldn’t be so humble, which was as embarrassing as when he was really angry in front of people.

But we all said, “We forgive you, Dad.”

At least Rachael and Janet did, and I mumbled “Uh-huh.”

We all hugged, and Mom cried a little.