the bed and help mum. She's waiting for you downstairs." she yelled knowing that it was going to be in vain.
Elio did not move a single inch. Instead, he turned up the volume of the music and kept staring at the ceiling, as if nothing was happening
Giulia, who was more exhausted from the argument with her son than from the fatigue, ended up unloading the groceries with her daughter, Gaia. As she was walking up the stairs of their five-story building, where the lift seemed to be out of order every other day (and ironically, it always seemed to be not working every time she had to take groceries upstairs), she kept thinking about Elio. The building was painted white and orange, just like every other council estate of Gialingua, the neighbourhood where they were living. Twenty families lived in that estate, distributed in twenty flats facing on the opposite sides of the building itself.
"This is the last time you are doing this!" she yelled at him from the kitchen. "We'll fix this as soon as your father gets home!"
Elio was not even listening to her as he was immersed in that monotonous music. Nothing and no one would shake the feelings of boredom and paranoia that were surrounding him. His dull world was like a shelter to him. That was his personality and the world had to get over it.
Gaia was totally different: she was fifteen years old, with bright eyes and short black hair. Twenty-four hours were not enough for her to keep up with all her interests.
Giulia was a dynamic woman too. But, as opposed to her daughter, she had blonde curly hair, was a bit overweight but was quick and determined. She was the classic forty-two-year-old mother: always on a tight schedule trying to maintain a balance between work and family.
It was dinner time. However, no noises could be heard from Elio's bedroom. In fact, he had not moved since he ran towards his bed and put his headphones on.
He heard the sound of a key in the front door lock. At the same moment, with the door still semi-closed, Giulia's angry voice was already raging on her husband:
"We cannot keep doing this!"
"Honey, let me get into the house first..."
Giulia kissed her husband and went back to complaining.
"It's about Elio, isn't it?" he sounded rather resigned when asking.
"Yes, it is him." replied Giulia.
In the meantime, Carlo took out of his bag a food container that he was going to leave in the kitchen. Then, he was going to put his briefcase into the wardrobe. Inside the briefcase, he would always keep a spare t-shirt because of the heatwave that was striking the region that May.
He was a kind, forty-two-year-old, tall and thin man. His hair had completely gone grey, but once it was like his daughter's. His tapered face was hollowed; on his aquiline nose he was always wearing his round metal glasses.
"Can we talk about it later?" he kindly asked his wife, hoping that she would distress.
"Yeah, you're right honey." she replied, but she kept on complaining until dinner was served.
Luckily, Gaia could not stop talking about her day, looking at her little disappointments in a positive light.
Giulia had just finished setting the table when she said:
"Call in Elio."
"It's pointless and you know it." she replied. "You know that he's not gonna move an inch unless dad calls him..."
Giulia, then turned to her husband:
"He's been in that room since I drove him back home from school. He's getting worse."
"Didn't we say that he was going to come back on his own from this moment on?"
"I was in that area...I was doing groceries..."
"You always make up excuses to protect him, but then you complain about his behaviour!"
Carlo was shaking his head as a sign of disapproval. Then, he got off the couch and went to the kid's room.
He entered the bedroom without knocking and found Elio exactly in the same spot where Giulia had left him. His was staring with dead eyes to the ceiling, was still wearing his white Wi-Fi headphones, and had not even taken his shoes off.
Carlo could not believe that he was the same boy he would always go for a bike ride with. Now he was sixteen years old, was as tall as him, and his green eyes were still beautiful, but they seemed as if they were dead. In the last couple of years, he had been suffering from depression. Carlo had not heard his laughter in such a long time that he had forgotten how it sounded like. He was feeling sorry that he could not spend as much time as before with him. However, he doubted that, as of now, his attention would be appreciated.
Unfortunately, many years prior to that, Carlo had lost his job following the financial crisis. Following an increase in earnings, the company was relocated abroad, like many others.
Carlo struggled to find a new job. At the end, he was offered a position in a different city. Every day he had to cover a great distance and change several means of transportation, which caused him to be away from his family for most of the day. He would come back home so tired that he would be absent-minded. After dinner, he would lie down on couch and inevitably fall asleep despite his attempts to keep his eyes open.
Carlo hinted that Elio should take his headphones off. Elio agreed with him just to avoid being scolded.
"It's dinner time. Come and eat." He ordered. "Your mother said you've been stuck in here since 4 pm!"
Elio got up from the bed, and with his eyes on the ground, walked past his father. Then he walked towards the kitchen, without even making an effort with his father.
Gaia was already sitting at the table that she had just prepared, and was texting her friends and making plans with them.
Elio sat in front of his sister. Yet, he did not speak a single word to her throughout the whole dinner.
The dinner turned out to be uneventful. Everybody was chatting about their daily occurrences, except for Elio, who only ate two bites of a sandwich and went back to his room as soon as possible. His mother was disappointed by this gesture, and so was his father, who looked very grim faced.
When only Giulia and Carlo were left in the room, whilst they were clearing the table, they started addressing the same old topic: their son's bad behaviour.
"What are we doing wrong? I just cannot understand! Gaia is so dynamic, happy and full of life!" said Giulia
"I neglect him way too much!" blamed himself Carlo, as always.
"You're not the only father in the world that has to spend many hours away from home. I, on the other hand, am at home every afternoon" she repeated again as she did not want her husband to feel the burden on his shoulder.
"It's not a matter of character, Giulia, because Elio was not like this before, and you know it!"
"I also wish it were not, Carlo, but kids change when they grow up. And then, they get worse and worse, don't they? At school it's a disaster. Hopefully he won't need to resist, otherwise we won't be able to send him to summer camp...we can't let him go to the summer
