Decameron: It’s Pronounced Check-o [IX/4]
COP
So you’d like to file a police report against…?
CECCO A
Cecco.
COP
And your name is?
CECCO A
Cecco.
COP
And what did Mr…
CECCO A
Cecco.
COP
Mr. Cecco. What did he do to lead you to file this report?
CECCO A
What did he do? You can’t start by asking a question like that about Cecco. It’s more like—what hasn’t he done? Guy’s been a lowlife and a jerk his whole life. Give him help and he just gets drunk and gambles everything away. Give him your time and he wastes it. He’s a black hole that sucks in all the kindness anyone can spare around him. We were only friends in the first place because we both hated our fathers.
COP
And your fathers’ names are…?
CECCO A
Both Cecco. No relation.
COP
(Taking notes.)
CECCO A
What you have to realize is that I only let him come with me on this trip because he begged me. I knew he was going to screw me over. I knew that if I let him come with me on my visit to the city, loaned him some cash, he’d only spend it and act entitled to more. I knew it, and I did it anyway, because he looked me in the eye and played the “Remember how we both hate Cecco, Cecco?” card.
COP
Meaning…?
CECCO A
Our fathers, Cecco. No relation. So that’s how he got me. Sure enough, I took him with me and by evening of the first day, every penny I gave him had been spent. But what I wasn’t ready for is what Cecco did next.
COP
And this is which--
CECCO A
I told him I wasn’t going to help him get his stuff back from the pawn shop and he followed me out into the street, making a whole scene about how I’d robbed him. Just completely making it up! After he’d been the one to rob me! And to make matters worse, a couple of farmers nearby overheard all the fuss he was making and came over to beat me up, taking all the rest of my money AND my clothes and giving them to Cecco! Forcing me to crawl to the next town over and go to Cecco for help, even though I hate that guy. I knew Cecco was a bastard, but I didn’t know he’d stoop that low. Just goes to show that the apple didn’t fall from the tree in that particular father-son Cecco-Cecco pair.
COP
To make sure I’ve got this down right: You, Cecco Angiulieri, son of Cecco Angiulieri Sr., were robbed by Cecco Fortarrigo, son of Cecco Fortarrigo Sr., after loaning him --Cecco Fortarrigo-- money, which you did only because of feelings of companionship born out of the fact that you both bear strong ill-will for Ceccos Angiulieri and Fortarrigo Sr. The manner in which he robbed you was to feign as though you had in fact robbed him, therein prompting nearby farmers to take your remaining funds and clothes and give them to him, forcing you to turn to your father, Cecco Angiulieri Sr., whom you despise, for new funds to replace them.
CECCO A
That’s correct.
COP
All right, Mr. Cecco. I’ll see what we can do.
CECCO A
Thanks.
He gets up to leave the station. As he makes his way out the door, and down the hallway leading out of the building, we begin to see flashbacks of the story described: A man begging for help, the same man spending lavishly in a casino, the same man chasing after another, feigning distress as farmers look on. We don’t see the faces in the flashbacks-- just the bodies, shot from behind or too low an angle to make out. Then, at last, the camera pans up to reveal: the one who was actually doing everything Cecco F was accused of… was Cecco A!
In the present, Cecco A gets into an elevator to leave the police station. The doors to his elevator close just as the elevator next to his opens, revealing a semi-naked Cecco F, all of whose clothes have been stolen. He hurries his way down the hall in the direction Cecco A came from, oblivious to the police report that has already been filed against him.
We cut back to Cecco A, who is now making it out onto the street. We zoom into his face. He’s smiling, cold and confident.
CECCO A
Cecc-mate.
Decameron is a newsletter recounting the 14th Century set of quarantine tales for 2020. Read the original story.
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