Only Time Will Tell (A Luberto Story)

Chapter 30- If Anything Happens, I Love You

Ercole didn't wake up, which slightly annoyed the conductor.

"Hello?"

Ercole still didn't move an inch.

"Signore!" he said bit louder this time.

It took him a few seconds, but after that, Ercole finally woke up. He jumped up and his seat and crazily looked around the train, his eyes looking strained and tired.

"Buon Giorno, Signore. Did you sleep well?" the train conductor said politely.

Ercole looked horrible, his eyes looking like they were about to pop out of his eye socket. "Are we in Portorosso yet?"

The conductor laughed, "Yes, indeed. We had just-"

"Good!" Ercole interrupted. "I need to run, out of my way please, thank you Signore."

Ercole quickly made his way out of the train, stepping onto familiar ground once again. Ahh, it's good to be back.

Within seconds of stepping foot onto land, Ercole was nailed in the head with a ball. He clenched his cheek in pain and looked around to see who threw the ball, noticing a few kids running away, clearly panicking. A voice in the back of Ercole's mind told him to throw the ball back at their faces, but he sighed and shut that voice up.

"Hey! You forgot your ball!"

The two kids looked at each other in the eyes and both ran in the opposite direction. Ercole chased after them, not realizing that he was making himself look even scarier. That day, it was very windy, and huge gusts of wind often hit Ercole intensely, making it much harder to run anywhere.

"Please! I just want to give back your ball!"

The two kids started to slow down and looked at each other again. With extreme carefulness, one of the kids extended their arm and reached for the ball. They hurriedly grabbed it and ran away right after. Ercole laughed to himself and reached into his back pocket to make sure the tracker was still in there.

Yep, still got it.

Just then, a voice called out to him from he distance.

"Ercole! Am I happy to see you!"

Ercole turned around to see the female police officer, who was making her way towards him.

"I'm glad you arrived.. 3 hours late... but you still arrived regardless. I see you're still chasing innocent kids, huh?"

"What? No!" Ercole spat out. "I was only giving them their ball back!"

She laughed, "I'm just messing with you, Ercole. Look, I am glad you're here, and I'm not just saying that.."

Ercole nodded, "Yes yes- of course you are, who wouldn't be? Anyway- Signora.."

She stopped him from continuing. "I suppose you don't know my name yet, do you? Before we start I think that's be important. I am officer Benedetti. See- there! Now we can actually address each other. Now- let's go over how we're gonna do this, okay?"

Ercole nodded and payed attention to what Benedetti had to say, not interrupting or asking any questions in between.

"That tracker you have. You'll turn it on, and it will show you a gps map, including an approximate location of the Vespa. You're going to go wherever that point is, and then you are to report back to me. Understood?"

"Easy! I got this, don't you worry," Ercole said confidently.

Benedetti smiled and nodded. "Very good. You can head back to the stazione, now."