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In the darkness there was a figure quietly creeping along the outer walls of the convent. They were wrapped in a cloak and the face was hidden by a scarf even though it was almost summer and the air was almost stiflingly hot in the city streets. The figure was breathing hard and swearing under their breath, for they had run the last two kilometres to the walls of the convent where the theology students lived.
They knew that they were too late to slip in unnoticed and that their absence must have been noticed by now. Accordingly, most curses were directed at themselves.
“Quo vades?”, a voice suddenly asked from the shadows and the figure flinched. The owner of the voice stepped out into the light of a streetlamp and his fiery red scarf caught the light.
“It’s quo vadis, Peppone. Not vades”, the figure said and pressed themselves to the wall while they continued to creep forward carefully. “What are you even doing here? Shouldn’t you be home?”
“I should be asking you the same”, Peppone answered and stuck his thumbs into his pockets, strolling along with the figure without trying to hide himself in the least. “I thought you are not allowed outside the convent without permission?”
“I was out on urgent business”, the figure answered and pushed Peppone into the wall beside him “Now you better shut up and be quick when you run through this lit-up part or you’ll stop following me.”
“Me? Following you? No such thing, Camillo”, Peppone said loudly “I am just going for a walk in the city at night.”
Camillo pulled the scarf from his face and growled at him.
“For God’s sake, shut up or I will make you!”
“Tsk, tsk. And someone like you wants to preach peace.”
“Coming from the one who wants to kill rich people!”
For a moment, the two young men were silently staring each other down, then, Camillo collected his strength and sprinted across the brightly lit front of the convent, praying that the heels of his shoes were not too loud. Peppone stared after him as if he had lost his mind, but then followed him at a slower pace.
“Why are you hiding anyways? Scared of light or something?”, Peppone asked when he reached Camillo, who growled in annoyance and turned to his enemy once more.
“Look, I don’t know why you’re here and how you knew that you would find me here at this time, but I really need to get back inside before they find me, alright?”, he finally explained after a moment of consideration. To his greater annoyance, Peppone started laughing.
“It’s not hard finding you, you know”, he answered “I was out, watching a junior boxing tournament today and saw a familiar face. So I remembered that you still exist and I decided to stop by to say hello.”
Camillo paled. He didn’t know that Peppone was also at the tournament. But as long as Peppone didn’t know that he wasn’t allowed to go there, the communist couldn’t blackmail him with it. And so, Camillo turned and slipped around a corner into a small side street from where he could reach an even smaller alleyway. There, he would find a small and well-hidden backdoor that was very old and easy to lock-pick.
It was his bad luck that Peppone was determined to follow him. He looked around in interest when they reached the dark corner in which the backdoor was located.
“Where are we?”, he asked.
“At a backdoor”, Camillo answered and fished out his lockpick. Peppone raised an eyebrow when he saw it.
“We’re breaking in now?”
“Shut up.”
Peppone laughed, but this time, he did it quietly.
“I was hoping that this convent would teach you some fucking manners, but you’ll never change, huh?”
Suddenly, there was a sound to be heard from the other side of the door; steps coming closer and an agitated voice. Camillo swallowed thickly and pressed himself into the shadows of another doorway a few feet away.
“Hide!”, he whispered to Peppone “It won’t do you any good for them to find you here!”
“Why?”, Peppone whispered back, pressing himself next to Camillo into the doorway “It’s not like I’m the one doing something illegal h-”
Before he could end his sentence, a key was turned in a lock and the backdoor sprung open.
“How can it be so hard to find a single student?”, a voice asked.
“I don’t know. Are you sure he could be here though?”, another voice asked. It was then that two monks stepped out into the alleyway, looking around in the darkness, both with a lamp in their hands. The smaller one sighed and rubbed a hand over his face.
“Seriously, he is the worst student I ever had. I wouldn’t be surprised if he knew the entrance through the church catacombs.”
At this, Peppone couldn’t help but snort. It earned him a kick to the shin and a hand over his mouth, but it was too late. The two monks turned to them in an instant, holding their lamps higher to see who was there. Camillo made as if to move from his place that was still concealed by the shadows, but Peppone pushed him back. Instead, he stepped out from the shadows himself and nodded to the two monks.
“Evening”, he greeted as calmly as he could, walking a few steps away from Camillo’s hiding place.
“Who are you?”, the smaller monk asked.
“Nobody of importance, I guess”, Peppone answered, but the two monks did not seem satisfied, eying his red neckerchief a bit wearily.
“And what are you doing behind the convent?”
“I’m waiting for a friend, he lives in the house over there.”
It was a blatant lie, Peppone knew no one around these parts, but he made it seem like it was normal to wait for a friend so late at night. The monks seemed to accept the answer and relaxed a bit. Peppone noticed that now, the two of them were standing out in the street, leaving the backdoor wide open to all the world. He threw a meaningful glance into the shadows of Camillo’s hiding place and hoped that the student would understand him.
“Ah well”, he said loudly to the monks “looks like my friend overslept. Well, his loss. You know, there is supposed to be a boxing show tonight at the sport hall close by, but if he doesn’t wake up on time, there’s nothing I can do. I guess, I’ll just go there alone.”
Behind the two monks, he saw the figure of Camillo slipping into the convent unnoticed, stopping only for a split-second to raise a hand in greeting. Peppone smiled slightly and tipped his hat.
“Anyways, I did not mean to disturb you, good night”, he said and wanted to leave, but one of the monks stopped him.
“Wait. Have you perhaps seen a young man around here somewhere?”
Peppone blinked innocently at them.
“No, sir. No one.”
The monk sighed heavily, but nodded, thanked him and wished him a good night, before they turned back into the convent and closed the door behind them.
A story higher, Camillo stood by the window and watched Peppone leave.
“For all that he’s trouble”, he mumbled and threw a look at a painting of Jesus on the wall next to him “he helped me this time.”