Chaos beyond the grid

In the short time that Kika had known Nonna – approximately 90 minutes – the young Portuguese woman had grown to love the old Italian woman. As she listened to Nonna talk about the ways she wanted to destroy Ethan, she felt a kinship with her, like she had met someone who truly understood her soul. Nonna had felt the same about Kika, and had the two not been certain they were not related, they would have sworn they must share DNA.

Kika: so Nonna, where in Italy did you grow up?

Nonna: Sicily, Nonno is originally Florence. His family did not approve of mine.

Kika: why not? other than North and south Italy not liking each other much.

Nonno: because her family was big in... construction.

Kika watched as Pierre and Charles both spat out the water they were drinking and looked at them with confusion. Eleanore sat silently, just eating her pizza. Kika looked over at Nonna who was unphased by the boy's reactions.

Kika: what am I missing?

Pierre leaned towards her, put his hand on her thigh, and softly tried to explain.

Pierre: construction, Sicily? Umm. Well

Nonna: your handsome boyfriend is trying to say my family was 'mafia'.

Kika felt her eyebrows shoot up in pure shock.

Kika: Nonna, I'm sorry, did you say mafia?

Nonna: my parents' family, were powerful people in construction, when I met Nonno in school, I was sheltered... shall we say. After a few years of friendship and dancing around each other, Nonno had been the one to tell me what no one in the family would... the truth about the power they had, and the dangers of being involved.

Nonno: When I finally had the sense knocked into me, and told Nonna how I felt, of course, neither of our parents wanted the match, so we ran away.

Nonno: and made our home here.

Kika: wait, so you fled a mafia family to be together and start a life here?

Nonna: like I told you, Nonno used to be more adventurous. Now he wants everything done the 'legal' way. Nothing illegal about my family's activities then.

Nonno: not illegal??? Ethically questionable for sure.

Nonna: they never killed anyone!

Nonno: that is a low bar and not one to brag about!

Kika, Pierre, and Charles all exchanged looks of humor with each other, while Eleanore just continued eating in silence. Kika could see that her friend was not mentally in the conversation at all. She was certain Eleanore had no idea what was going on, she looked as though she was on autopilot. Kika looked at Charles and pointed her chin towards Eleanore. He noticed immediately what was concerning Kika, and he placed a hand on his girlfriends, squeezing it softly. Kika watched as suddenly her friend was brought back to them, like Charles had thrown her a rope and pulled her to safety, Eleanore leaned her head on his shoulder, and he didn't hesitate to put his arm around her. Kika wanted to make things better for her friend, but she didn't know how, it hurt her to know that someone had done this to Eleanore and that she couldn't protect her or make the pain go away. Nonna had sensed the concern Kika was feeling for Eleanore and had taken Kika's hand in hers. When Kika looked at Nonna, they shared a look of complete understanding. Both women saw that while Eleanore had been cutting her food over and over, she had barely eaten anything, and were more concerned when she placed her cutlery on the plate and proclaimed she couldn't eat another bite. This hadn't gone unnoticed by Charles, who simply took her fork, placed a bit of pizza onto it, and held it up to his girlfriend's mouth with a loving look.