White Pages

[Dip]

​

"It said: 'The History of every major Galactic Civilization tends to pass through three distinct and recognizable phases, those of Survival, Inquiry and Sophistication, otherwise known as the How, Why and Where phases.'" He read happily, with a small smile playing on his face and a thick accent playing through his voice. "'For instance, the first phase is characterized by the question How can we eat? the second by the question Why do we eat? and the third by the question Where shall we have lunch?'"

His reading was interrupted when a small splash of water hit him in the face. He sat up abruptly, and glared at the cause of the splash. The male rested his elbow under himself, and looked up at the man towering over him. The man towering over him was his other brother, and the male who was towered was his old brother's younger brother.

The older brother's younger brother set down the book he was invested in (The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy), and glared at the older brother (who was, still, towering over his younger brother). The other male snickered whilst towering, and looked towards the horizon. "Felice, why must you read such English?" The Italian man asked his younger brother. "You are Italian-- Sei Italiano! Start acting such!" He said, with a large, throaty laugh. "Pride yourself in Italian literature. La Figlia Del Papa!"

Felice sat up, resting his back against the hull of the boat. Currently, the two were residing in Venice, Italy, along with his family. But as of then, he was only with one member of his family, and that was Agostino-- his brother.

"Calmati, calmati!" Felice said, tucking his book behind himself. "You should start reading this stuff-- it's great. Amazing, really!"
"Fa l' Americano!" Agostino retorted, with a cross of his arms.
"Lei è Americano!" Felice shouted back at him. "Really now, this book is--"
"Is weird. Your book? Very weird." The other interrupted once more. He continued down the river, pushing away with a long pole. He only paused when he noticed something... off. Not about the pole, or the river, but the boat, itself.

It wasn't long after he noticed something that Felice noticed something, too. He noticed that the boat was a little longer than usual, and it was an entirely different color. It's hard to tell, when half of it is in the water. They only realized the extent of their mistake when the owner of the boat came out, and started shouting in rapid-fire Italian.

But this isn't about the boat, or the angry Italian man, or the city of Italy or anyone in Italy in general. This is about the book that belonged to anyone in general that was left in the boat that belonged to the angry Italian man on the river in the city of Italy, and what that book is going to do to two people in a matter of time.

How the book got from point A to point B is amazingly simple and extremely complex at the same time. The distance the pages traveled is simply mind-boggling and absolutely beautiful. The book ended up somewhere in America, over five thousand miles away. The only way it was possible to know where the book came from was some writing in the front cover, both in English and in Italian.

"In caso di smarrimento si prega di tornare a Felice Vegliantino: 39-347-675-0998."
"If lost please return to Felix Vegliantino: 1-39-347-675-0998."