Night after night I can hear the ships passing the port. I can hear men talking, laughing, arguing, planning things. Their voices are always just far enough away that I cannot hear what they are saying, but I hear the inflections of their voices. It all seems so real and so close. Yet, in the morning there is no evidence of anyone coming around, not sign of ships that passed.

Night after night Fiorino hears strange sounds

one of the other boys that share the bedroom with me ever hear these things. No one else wakes up. Santi laughs at me. Rico says that I just dream too much.

Last night the sounds of the passing ships and men arguing woke me up with a start. I sat up in bed and realized that I was sweating and that my heart was pounding. Since this has happened a few times, I decided I would get up to investigate. Yet, as soon as I set my feet on the floor, I heard no voices and no sounds at all. I quickly dressed and crept out of the villa very, very carefully so as not to wake up the others.

Once outside I walked carefully down the hill, listening for any sound and looking through the night to detect any sight that might give me a clue to the origin of the sounds that I had been hearing every night. I made my way down the long road from the villa to the gate. Strange to say, it was unlocked. I carefully made my way to the wharf. All was quiet, but there was a ship docked there that had not been at the port at sunset.

A ship had docked during the night

The air had a strange chill about it for a summer's night, but then suddenly the wind changed. A soft, warm breeze blew gently on my shoulders and neck. It was like a consoling breeze. I became aware of the sound of footsteps coming toward me, but they were not frightening. They were like the footsteps of a friend. I looked up, but there was no one there.

The wind changed again: I could hear the voices of men laughing and arguing and a sudden chill came over me when I realized that I saw no ship in the dock. And then I jumped with a start and found myself on top of my bed in the dormitory.

Had I really heard those voices? Was it only a dream? Everything seemed so real, but here I was in my bed, with my companions sleeping soundly around me. At this point I could only sit on my bed and wonder what this strange dream could mean. Then I noticed something that startled me: the soles of my feet were black as if I had been walking barefoot on the docks. Strange!

Often the sounds of ships and men wake Fiorino during the night