Chapter 1
I remember that day, the one Mitchel and I took a train from Stonebridge to St Capone.
One of those red ones with black trimmed windows you can imagine rolling through the suburbs on the way to NYC. Not a subway car but a classier vintage with proper rows of cushioned seats and a lever to pull if there is an emergency. There are sparse shrubberies on one side of the tracks and the ocean on the other. Young trees and bushes stroll by. A little wind is pushing off the ocean, massaging the car ever so gently back and forth as we move along. A gentle click-clack is on the tips of our ears.
We were traveling to meet with Sofia, Mitchel's girl, she was from Ragusa in Sicily. She was the epitome of class and sophistication, she had skin the colour of honey and a thick black mane of curls, which fell beautifully on her shoulders.
She always smelt of cinnamon and amber, warm scents which filled your lungs and made you feel as though you were in some oriental spice market in the height of summer.
She always wore rich satins and silks which Mitchel bought back for her on his travels, they'd been seeing each other for around a year now and there were rumours of wedding bells in the future.
I'd known Mitchel for my entire life, we were inseperable, did everything together, we were like brothers.
Well, I liked him in a different sense, he was beautiful, I mean really breathtaking. He was a genius, he'd received a scholarship to Oxford University to study mathematics last year. Every time I saw him, I went weak at the knees and every time I heard his name I got butterflies.
But he was so happy with Sofia, they were so sweet together, absolutely smitten with each other, the way he looked at her, that shimmer in his eyes...
