《LUCA-夏日友晴天》 动画 第十章 中文版↗
“Okay, ragazzi!” Giulia said as she set a big bowl of rigatoni in front of Alberto. “We have one week to train. Pronti, ai posti, via!”
Ready, set, go!
“I got this,” Alberto said. He was just about to dig in when Luca walked over from Giulia’s kitchen, setting down another bowl of pasta. It was spaghetti.
“Wait, what?” Alberto exclaimed.
Then came another plate of fusilli.
“Every year, they change the pasta,” Giulia said. “You have to be ready for anything! Could be cannelloni, penne, fusilli, trofie, even lasagne!”
Alberto shrugged and tried to play it off like it was all no big deal. He was about to shovel the pasta into his mouth when Giulia stopped him and handed him a fork.
“Aaaaand, you have to use a forchetta. It’s the rule.”
“Ugh!” Alberto groaned. “Rules are for. . . rule people!”
But the boy had no other choice than to eat with a fork. On that day, Alberto knew frustration.
Luca wondered exactly how big the hill was that he was on. It seemed that he had been pedaling the bicycle up it for hours. In reality, it was probably a minute. Maybe less.
He turned and saw an old man walk past him carrying a bag of groceries.
How was the man walking faster than he was pedaling?
Luca sighed as Alberto and Giulia walked behind him.
Eventually, impossibly, he reached the top of the hill. He took one look down and saw how steep it was. It was really, really steep.
“Holy carp,” Luca said. “No, I can’t!”
Then Ercole rode by on his bicycle. “I know, I know. Ha, ha, ha! And remember, Piccoletto—”
Ercole repeated the slicing motion across his neck.
“Forza!” Giulia shouted. “Luca, don’t let him get in your head. You can do this!”
“Okay,” Luca said, taking a deep breath. “Silenzio, Bruno! Here we go!”
Then he pushed off, his bicycle picking up speed. Everything was going great until Bruno decided to start talking in his head, and suddenly, Luca said, “Ahhh! Ahhhh! I can’t!”
Hitting the brakes, Luca watched as the front wheel locked up. He tumbled over the handlebars. The bicycle hit the ground, and so did Luca, and unlike the bicycle, he didn’t stop. Luca just kept rolling down the hill until he collided with a pushcart full of flowers.
In that moment, Luca knew he did not like rolling down hills and hitting flower carts.
A little later, the three friends headed down to the shore. It was time to help Giulia practice the swimming part of the race.
Luca and Alberto were in a rowboat, keeping pace with Giulia. Luca tried to ignore the pain in his arms as he rowed. Alberto slowly rowed with the other paddle as they watched Giulia swim toward a buoy.
“I guess that’s how humans swim,” Luca said.
“Ugh, that’s embarrassing,” Alberto replied.
In the distance, Ercole, Ciccio, and Guido approached in a small motorboat.
Giulia noticed them instantly, and her eyes went wide as she watched the boat come closer. “Ercole!”she shouted. “Go! Go!”
Alberto and Luca began to row faster. However, apparently Luca was rowing in one direction, and Alberto was rowing in the other, because their rowboat just went around in circles.
“Luca! Faster!” Alberto ordered.
“Why aren’t we moving?” Luca asked, exasperated. Ercole’s motorboat was even closer now, and drawing nearer every second.
Ercole grinned broadly—it really seemed like he was going to run the boys down!
At the last moment, Guido grabbed the wheel, turning the motorboat away to avoid a collision. The movement created a wave. The wave missed Luca, but it struck Alberto! He immediately turned into a sea monster, so he ducked down into the boat.
Ercole turned to Guido, furious. “Guido?” he said, his anger boiling over.
“I. . . I slipped”! Guido insisted.
“Ciccio! Slap Guido!” Ercole commanded. “Again! Like you mean it!”
Giulia swam over to Ercole, shouting, “Ma sei scemo, Ercole!”
Luca knew he had to hide his friend, and did his best to cover him with a tarp. But all he succeeded in doing was hitting Alberto in the face and knocking him into the water.
“Huh?” Ercole said, looking over at the boat with only Luca sitting in it. “Where did the other one go?”
Suddenly, something broke the surface of the water.
“Huh? Cosa”? Ercole said, distracted for a moment. But before he could do anything, an angry Giulia tipped Ercole’s boat over, toppling him.
“Ercole! Che cavolo stavi pensando, eh?” she screamed.
Ercole’s sweater fell into the water, and the young man fished around for it. “Sei matta! Giulia! It is wool! It cannot get wet! Ciccio, make it dry. Subito!”
With Ercole distracted by his urgent sweater situation, Luca was able to reach over the side of their boat and pull Alberto aboard.
Unfortunately, Giulia also chose that moment to come aboard. “Luca? Alberto?” she said.
Luca quickly threw the tarp over Alberto—and this time, he didn’t knock him into the water.
“Are you okay?” Giulia asked.
Alberto dried off as fast as he could. He transformed back into a land monster before Giulia noticed.
“We’re good!” Alberto said. “Good, good, good.”
“Well, I think that’s enough training for today,” Giulia replied.
As the kids began to row home, Ercole finally looked up from his wet sweater.
“Argh! Ciccio! The motor! They are slowly getting away!”
Ciccio fumbled with the motor, failing to start it.
“Guido! Slap Ciccio”! Ercole shouted. “Per mille sardine—with contempt!”
While Guido reluctantly slapped Ciccio, Ercole watched Giulia, Luca, and Alberto make their getaway.
Almost immediately upon their arrival at the piazza, Daniela thought she saw Luca. She ripped the hat off the boy only to find that it was, in fact, not Luca.
She moaned, disappointed, as she watched a group of kids play soccer. The ball soon rolled over to Daniela, and she looked at it.
“Hey! Over here! Kick it!” a kid said, and Daniela kicked the ball. It was a really good kick—so good that it hit a little girl and knocked her right into the fountain.
“I have an idea!” Daniela said.
Lorenzo called after her, but she ignored him. She walked over to a group of kids and asked, “Can I play, too?”
She started to play with them. She was super competitive. Almost immediately, she stole the ball from one of the kids and hip-checked them into the fountain.
“Oh. . . okay,” Lorenzo said, taking a step back. He watched as his wife dominated the game. The kids raced after Daniela, but they were no match for her skills. One by one, she played against them, and one by one, she knocked them all into the fountain!
It took Lorenzo a while to realize what she was doing. Daniela was narrowing the list of suspects by process of elimination! Each time a kid went into the fountain and didn’t transform into a sea monster, they knew it wasn’t Luca.
“Not our kid,” Lorenzo said as another one went in. “Not our kid. . .”
“Let’s see Bianca Branzino do that!” Daniela said, then did the dolphin call better than Bianca Branzino ever could. But they still hadn’t found Luca.
“Where could he be?” Daniela wondered, catching her breath.
“Well, at least you won!” Lorenzo said, finding the bright side. “I think.”
“We just gotta keep looking,” Daniela said, determined.
Luca and his friends had just reached the piazza. Luca could have sworn he saw his parents.
Noticing that her friend had stopped, Giulia grabbed him and guided him along with Alberto toward her yard. Luca shook his head, trying to make sense of what he had just seen.
“Good effort, team,” she said. “You’ve earned your pasta tonight.”
“Can I please eat with my hands?” Alberto begged.
