hide his anger.

Rose placed her cup on the table and lifting her hands above her head in a gesture of truce pleaded with the men to allow her to go on.Let her finish, boomed the voice of Jose Umberto.

Suddenly, a quiet room confronted Rose, her emotions soared. Thank you, I just want to finish and then I'll go, please let me. Rose struggled to regain her usual posture. Two days ago Mews came upstairs and sat with me. He told me to keep this for all of you, Rose paused, taking two envelopes out of her pocket. One was pale yellow and old; made of thick paper. The other was white.

Fighting back tears, Rose continued, opening the yellow envelope she took out a musty document and unfolded it. No one stirred.

This yellow paper is the property title to the house next door and it belonged to Mews. In this other envelope is Mews' last will and testament and you may have probably guessed that he's left it to all of us jointly. Yes, including me; and I promised him that I'd look after all of you for as long as I live.

Mews gave me these and said that looking after the dove was the most important event of his childhood. Its disappearance made him realize that he couldn't keep it forever though that was his desire; it wasn't born to be caged. He said that after his dove disappeared the only thought that made any sense to him was that, in the preceding days, he had done his utmost best to look after it, Rose paused.

The room remained quiet as the men held onto their emotions.Rose took a deep breath and continued, His words still echo loudly with me, as he handed me this envelope, 'Rose, he said, this is a good thing but we are all winged doves, all caged lions. You are the only person I know who will know what to do with this, please look after them. When they're ready they'll leave.' he then got up and left,

Rose's voice tapered off to a faint whisper as silence filled the room. Rose added, Issi's gesture is a wonderful gift, it belonged to his family and he'd held on to it for a long time.

He told me that he didn't have the strength nor did he know what to do with it. He didn't want to squander it because some good could come of it. It's his gift to you.

Pulling out a chair, Mrs. Bellano sat at the table with the men. She cast a gaze at her boarders as if she was seeing them for the first time; tears began to gently run down her flushed cheeks. They all knew Issi would have approved.

Learn more about this author, Aldo Orlando.
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