Turns out Rizzo's surprise is a visit to the circus; his family picks me up. I am glad to see he has started working on his project. My project has barely begun...yet another thing on my to-do list, and I need to get organized. The lights blare, the tents are magical, and the music is happy, welcoming, and friendly. Rizzo's camera doesn't stop clicking, even when the ring master accompanies us for the private tour, but when he sees the animals...especially the baby tigers that I recognize from the zoo...he stops.34Please respect copyright.PENANA0AkneEGAex
"Rizzo, what's wrong?" Gui asks.
Rizzo seems in a daze for a moment, then shakes his head. "Take me home."
"What?" the ringmaster repeats. "We have barely completed the tour. the acrobats are the best things you've ever seen. Certainly, our amateur photographer---"
"Actually, I am one of the best photographers in the world, but I don't want to work with you any longer. I have seen elephants in chains, baby tigers in cages, lions rubbing their bodies raw with boredom..." Rizzo's blue eyes are stern. "There is no beauty in that. My work here is done." He turns to gui."Portami a casa, Padre."
"Andiamo, Giuseppe," his grandmother urges, and we follow Rizzo out the door.
That's life with Rizzo...unpredictable, you learn to roll with it.
I don't hear from him for the whole next day, and I try not to let it bother me; but I am just a girl at the end of the day. Maybe that will be one of my things I wish people could know about me? I am expected to be strong, but on the inside, sometimes, I feel like I am falling apart...For part of the day, I think about my project...I definitely have first-hand experience with autism not only from Rizzo but also from the people in the new yogurt shop group. Hey, maybe I have started working on my project after all. 34Please respect copyright.PENANATL9oRgS11l
Fortunately, Emaye, Nandita, Bubu and I go to a movie, and I get a text from Saunders saying Rizzo is alright. Great, a text from another girl saying my boyfriend because my boyfriend is going through a meltdown?
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"So, how do you feel? You look nice."
Emaye spins me around in the light blue scrubs on the first day of my internship. "I have butterflies in my stomach."
"Well, you're going to be a doctor, so you'll be able to cure those soon."
I meet Emaye's sparkling, admiring gaze, and I cannot help but share her optimism.
"My daughter, I am so proud of you."
"That means so much to me, Emaye."
I turn back to the mirror and take a deep breath.
"You look like a doctor," Bobby commends as he races downstairs in his soccer gear.
His dad follows with a thumbs-up and rushes out the door for his son's first game. "Somebody's here for you, Maddie!"
"Hey, before you go, I have something for you." She pulls out a beautiful necklace with an emerald turaco bird, the national bird of ethiopia. "My mother gave it to me before i came to America. She told me to soar high and reach my dreams."
"Why have we never met her?"
My mother buckles the beautiful silver chain around my neck. "That was the last thing she said to me before I was shunned by my people." She smiles, turning me to her. "But enough about that. What have I always told you? If they say you can't do it?"
"Prove them wrong."
"If they laugh at you?"
"Let them laugh, and show them wrong."
"If they don't believe in you? Maybe for the color of your skin? Maybe because you're different?"
"Make them believe."
"Because there is only one Madhuri Gupta in the world, and I believe in her."
"Thank you, Emaye."
"No, thank you. It has been my honor to have you as a daughter. Now, go and chase your dreams, but never ever forget where you come from, Mou."
I smile into the mirror. "I wish Abhi were here with us."
"She is off chasing her dreams at the library studying." Emaye moves the curtains softly to peer out the window. "But looks like someone else is here to accompany you, eh?"
I recognize Rizzo's beat-up old Chevy. "Guess you won't have to take the bus tonight, Emaye."
She sighs. "If it means you become a doctor, I will take the bus every night...someday, I won't have to when i have a rich daughter to take care of me, eh?" She clicks her tongue and laughs at me. Clapping loudly, she begins singing, "OOO child things are gonna get easier...."
"SOMEDAY!!!" I chime, and she laughs and ushers me out the door.
Rizzo gets out, nods to Emaye, and opens the car door for me. The trip is quiet at first, besides me plugging in the address to the hospital in the gps.
"Your necklace is a Turaco. They mate for life...like you and me."
"Funny you say that when you barely talked to me..." I trail off. No reason to comment on that. That's not going to change. "I mean, it's not that, Rizzo, but you had to have Saunders text me to let me know you're okay. That's just really hurtful."
"Hmmm...I guess I didn't think about it much, Mou. I have been thinking about a lot lately, to be honest. Those poor animals at the circus, like I got loads of pictures of their suffering, and..."
"Rizzo, it's a circus. People just accept it is what it is. They are still going to go. There's nothing you can do about it. Accept it for the beauty that there is..."
He smiles. "Actually, I like the irony, and I have started my new series called beautiful suffering." He stares down at the steering wheel as we pull in front of the hospital. "Honestly, I disagree with you. I think I can change the world with my pictures. I think people will see the irony and the disgust behind the so called beautiful exploitation of such creatures, and I think it will change their views. I want to build a sanctuary for them, Madhuri. I want to give them a refuge, and then I will finish my series with the final lives of all the animals I photographed...starting with the baby tigers."34Please respect copyright.PENANA09Z7CAbJoF
"Wait, you what---"
"I want to open an animal sanctuary. I already found a plot of land."
"Gianrico, do you know how much it costs to run an animal sanctuary. We know nothing about any of those creatures."
"Well, I only want the baby tigers. We will find homes for everything else, but when I saw those tigers, I realized their lives had yet to begun. They deserve a better start to their journey, right?" He squeezes the steering wheel until his knuckles are white. "When my padre took me as his own, my whole life changed. I'm glad someone cared enough to invest in me when everyone else saw me as worthless."
"I see."
"So, are you with me?"
I stare out the window at the hospital in front of me, twirling the national bird of Ethiopia between my fingers. "What about the yogurt shop?"
"We won't have time for that."
"We?"
"Wherever I go, you go with me, right?"
I laugh. "Whatever crazy, spontaneous idea, yes, I am with you!"
He narrows his eyes at me, thinking hard for a moment. "I'm sorry I hurt you yesterday. That's why I came to pick you up for your first day of your internship. 8 o'clock sharp. I didn't forget."
"You're always there when I need you."
"Always will be. You can do this, Mou."
I smile at him. "So you're serious about the sanctuary?"
"Very serious."
"Alright then. I'm with you..."
"Do you think we can really make it happen."
I shrug. "There's only one Gianrico in this world, and I believe in him."34Please respect copyright.PENANA08OEqSjpw7
Suddenly, the idea comes to me: a project within a project...I will tell the world how Gianrico, my love, became the entrepreneur of a wildlife sanctuary and how the story of these animals was shared with us through the eyes of a young autistic man ! 34Please respect copyright.PENANAx5WFDjsaGW