#stravaganza

And wakes up in a park. It seemed like the safe choice to aim towards, since Luciano had no idea when he would end up. No-one's around, at least, so that's good. No need to worry about someone freaking out about seeing a man dressed in an old-fashioned way appear out of nowhere.

He wanders slowly through the streets that seem familiar yet aren't. He can still find his way to his old school, but things aren't the way they were in his memories. There's a new bike path. A shop where there wasn't one before. The trees are bigger. Cars are different. The children heading towards the school are younger too, or at least it feels like that. Luciano can't believe he was that small when he went there. He used to feel so big back then. And the school itself was much bigger in his memories as well.

Luciano keeps walking. He knows he should go back – the plan was for him to just confirm the date and that the gateway works both ways again and then go home. But he can't bring himself to leave now that he's finally here. The street ads on the bus stops tell him that it has indeed been 20 years, and curiosity about those missed years is stronger than caution.

No-one pays attention to him, even though his outfit should make him stick out. Everyone is too busy focusing on their own rush, on trying to survive the morning rush.

Luciano finds the old antiques shop. Goldsmith's name is still on the sign, but everything else about it looks different. The shelves are no longer filled to the brim with trinkets and books. It looks more curated now. The sign on the door says it's closed. Luciano is not sure what time it is exactly to know who runs the shop these days. Surely it's not Mr. Goldsmith himself – he would be very old by now, if he even is alive.

When he gets to the street corner, Luciano gets a strange feeling in the pit of his stomach. Something makes him turn around to look at the shop again. There's a man there now, opening the door with his keys. Heart beating in his chest, Luciano walks back to the window.

The other man is around Luciano's age. They both share dark curls, though the man in the shop has cut them much shorter than Luciano to keep up with the fashion of the 21st century. His face is familiar, and Luciano has seen that nose and cheekbones so many times that there is no mistaking in that this man is a di Chimici. And there is only one of them in England.

Luciano enters the shop. The bell chimes. Nick welcomes him, telling him to look around as he opens up the shop. He doesn't even glance at Luciano.

He's taller than what Luciano remembers. Older, too, though he shouldn't be surprised about that. Luciano takes his time looking around the shop as Nick sets up the cash register. Then, when Nick finally looks up at him, Luciano is at first greeted with a smile, which soon drops as all color flees the other man's face.

Once the shock wears off and Nick's brain has fully registered just who it is that is standing in front of him, the two pull each other in for a hug. It's the first thing that makes Luciano really feel that this really is the world he left behind.

Luciano explains everything. Turns out that the new stravagante's talisman is from this shop, because of course it is. Nick tells him that he's been running the place for a few years now. When Mr. Goldsmith got too old to keep the shop himself, Nick helped him out, and when the old shopkeeper died a few years ago, he left this all to Nick. And with Nick's athletic career long behind him, he welcomed this new chapter in his career with open arms. He had been drifting for years, trying to figure out what it was that he wanted to do. It wasn't like he had a childhood dream job to find inspiration from like a normal person.

Nick decides not to open the shop today, and instead he sits down with Luciano and they trade basic facts. It's been 20 years for both of them. There is a lot to catch up on.

Luciano and Arianna are still married. They have five children. Arianna is still the Duchessa, and a beloved one at that. The di Chimici are still ruling half of Talia. Fabrizio has kept up with his father's hopes of uniting all of Talia under di Chimici rule. Dethridge died years ago. Arianna has bought even more cats.

When it gets to Nick's turn, Luciano braces himself. He's suddenly not sure if he wants to know everything. But he doesn't have to worry. His parents are alive and well. They've renovated the house. Nick graduated from university and won silver in the Olympics in fencing. He married Georgia. They have a daughter together. Nick shows pictures. On his phone. Which has a better camera than the digital one Luciano remembers his parents having back in the day. Stella O'Grady has her father's dark curls, and there is no mistaking that she's another di Chimci. Sky is her godfather. He lives in the US now, but Nick keeps up with him regularly. The other stravaganti, not so much anymore. Time does that – it pulls people in different directions.

Nick takes Luciano out for a ride in his car. It's weird to see Nick drive, knowing that he grew up in a world where horses are the main form of transportation. Nick shows off all the features his 2017 Ford Focus has. Luciano is reminded of the fact that he never got the chance to learn how to drive.

They go to the Mulhollands' house. Vicky and David are in Portugal for a holiday. It's better that way, because no matter how much Luciano wants to see them, he knows he can't. He doesn't want to cause them any pain. It's not like he can be sure that he will be able to visit ever again.

They park around the corner and enter the house through the back. Apparently Vicky and David have a camera at the front these days and get alerts on their phones whenever someone moves in the front yard. Nick says they're always checking those alerts, even when the neighbour's cat escapes and makes its way to the Mulhollands' yard.

The house itself is the same as it always was. Except it isn't. It's been fully renovated, a wall has been knocked out and most of the furniture is completely different. There's still individual objects here and there that Luciano remembers from his childhood.

Nick orders pizza for lunch using something called an app. He asks what toppings Luciano wants. He wants them all. He hasn't had pizza in 20 years. He's fine with whatever Nick chooses.

While they wait for the pizza, Luciano looks around. His old room – which is now Nick's old room – has been turned into a guest room. There's a basket full of Luciano's old toys in the corner. He recognises his old train set. Apparently Stella likes to play with it. Nick says Vicky and David spoil her a lot. She loves coming over here to play.

Even though Luciano is glad to hear that his parents are happy and get to be grandparents to little Stella, there is a part of him that can't help but ruminate over how unfair this all is. Vicky and David have no idea they have five grandchildren in Talia. They don't know that two of them are adults by now. Sure, they were spoiled and loved as children, but not by Vicky and David.

Luciano's children all know where he comes from. He told them all when they got old enough. He's not sure if they all really understand. It's very difficult to explain life in 21st century England to someone who has never seen it. Most of the time the children don't aknowledge their father's past at all. A few of them have had a few questions over the years. They know about Vicky and David, but now, looking at the wooden train set little Stella likes to play with, Luciano feels sad. Davide, Vittoria, Cesare, Valeria and Guglielmo should have gotten the chance to play with it too.

The pizza arrives, and five minutes later Nick gets a text from David asking if he's at the house. He must have seen the delivery driver on the camera. Nick texts back that he's there to water the flowers. A few minutes later he gets back the thumbs-up emoji.

As they eat, Luciano looks at the wall full of photos near the dining table. There's many that he recognizes, both Vicky and David's childhood photos. A picture of their wedding. There's friends and relatives that Luciano remembers from his childhood. There's many new faces. And a lot of moments he's missed. Nick's graduation. Vicky and David on many holidays. Nick and Georgia's wedding. And a lot of pictures of a small dark-haired girl. Even more pictures of a young boy, whose pictures disappear when he reaches the age of 14. Lucien Mulholland is right there for anyone to see, still loved and remembered. The pictures are arranged in a mosaic of time, all mixed with each other, but to Luciano, the divide is obvious. There was a time with Lucien, and a time Nick. The two don't overlap.

One photo grabs his attention. It's taken in this same room, before all the renovations. There's a teenage Nick, nibbling on the edge of a pizza, just like he is right now. Next to him sits Luciano, devouring his own slice and wearing a distinctly 16th century shirt.

It must have been taken when he visited here, way back when he almost gave his own mother a heart-attack by showing up at the hospital. Luciano is not sure who took the picture – he doesn't remember anyone even taking out a camera. Yet there it is, a picture so impossible that it's almost dangerous to have it. Lucien and Nick should never have been in the same room. Yet there they are, in that picture, eating pizza together.

And here they are now, eating pizza again. Luciano points out that that must be the only picture with the two of them together. Nick says they should take another one. Before Luciano has time to reply, he's already pulled out his phone and turned it towards them. Luciano doesn't know how to pose for photos anymore, but he smiles. Another impossible picture. He wishes he could take it with him to Talia.