Luca, Under the Sea

A short story, told one picture at a time

Deep in the sea, off the coast of Italy, there lived a boy who was not quite a boy. His name was Luca, and he was a small sea monster. Every morning he herded his fish, and every morning his mother warned him: never go up to the surface.

And then he met Alberto, who went up all the time.

Alberto let him in on the secret: on dry land, once their skin dried, they turned into humans. Legs grew under them, and they stumbled and fell and laughed and tried again. Alberto showed him a torn picture of a Vespa and said it meant freedom, so the two of them built one out of scrap, and all summer long they went hurtling down the hill on it.

Luca and Alberto hurtling along on the scooter they built from scrap

And whenever Luca was afraid, a small anxious voice rose up inside him. Alberto called it Bruno, and taught Luca to tell it to be quiet.

The two boys leaping from a cliff overlooking the town of Portorosso

And across the water stood the town of Portorosso, pink and gold and bristling with harpoons. There the two boys met Giulia, who lost the town's race every year and did not mind, and her father Massimo, a one-armed fisherman with a kind and frightening heart. And the race had a prize of money… enough to buy a Vespa. So the two boys put their names down.

Giulia and Luca among the books in her room

Giulia gave Luca books, and a telescope, and a single word: Saturn. And Luca began to want something bigger than a scooter.

Alberto saw it, and understood that he would be left behind, and he was afraid, and so he turned cruel. He stood out in the rain and showed his scales to prove that he still mattered. And in one small bitter moment, Luca pretended not to know him.

So Alberto walked away, and did not come back.

Ercole chasing the two boys on his scooter in the rain

And on the day of the race Luca swam, and ate, and climbed the hill on his bicycle. And then the rain came down. And Ercole — the bully who had won five years running — knocked Alberto to the ground in front of everyone.

So Luca turned his bicycle around and went back.

He came back through the rain with his scales shining, in full view of the whole town. He carried his friend, and crossed the finish line.

The square fell silent. Then two old women stood up and said quietly that they were sea monsters too. Then Massimo stood in front of the two boys and said that nobody would lay a hand on them. And the town breathed out.

The people of Portorosso in the square, the boys' secret out

Alberto sold the Vespa, and bought Luca a train ticket to school.

And he said to him: “I got you out of the water. That was my whole job.”

The train carrying Luca away along the coast

So Luca went out into the world, waving from the window, and he did not hide any more. And whenever he faced something frightening, he faced it the same way:

Quiet, Bruno.

The End

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Under the water off a small Italian town, Luca was a boy of the sea people who dreamed of what lay above the surface. His friend Alberto let him in on the secret: on dry land, once their bodies dried, they became human.

They came out into a world that feared “sea monsters”, met Giulia, and entered the town's race hoping for a scooter that would carry them away. But the fear of being found out very nearly separated them — until Luca learned that the worst thing a person can do is deny what they are.

Luca, Under the Sea

In a Mexican town where his family had forbidden music for generations, Miguel hid his guitar and dreamed of becoming a player — until the night of the Day of the Dead led him into the world of the spirits.

There he searched for his great-great-grandfather to be given permission to play, and walked with Héctor among memories that had been forgotten. And when he learned the truth, he understood that a song does not live in fame, but in whoever keeps remembering it.