Page 26 of My Lemon Grove Summer
I feel pretty sure Giuseppe is talking about Luca’s father. His family. They’ve done this! And I suddenly feel a rush of anger. No matter how attractive Luca is, he’s like all the other men I’ve found attractive in my life. They always let you down. That’s why it’s so important for Lennie and me to work things out, for us to have time to fall in love with each other – because we’re meant to be together. We don’t let each other down. Luca might have been all charm at the restaurant and earlier today, but his family have put us out on the streets.
‘So what happens now?’ Sherise asks.
‘I’ll organise flights home for you.’ Giuseppe looks around at the fallen faces. ‘Or onward, wherever you want to go. I will personally pay for them. This is my mistake. I should have . . . I shouldn’t have trusted . . .’ He stumbles over the words and holds his forehead, raking his hands through his hair again.
We all look at each other in disbelief. Tabitha sends another message on her phone, then glances up.
‘Looks like we’re back where we started.’
‘That’s okay for those of you who have somewhere to go,’ says Sherise. ‘All I wanted was a home of our own again.’
‘And some livestock,’ Billy adds. ‘To be looking out for some animals again,ouranimals . . . a family again.’
‘But there must be a way!’ I say, frustrated.
‘The money has gone. Matteo is being “persuaded” not to work on the houses. He has been offered work on the new gymnasium. There is no money to pay for your relocation, or the building work. It’s over. The project is finished. I cannot make it work.’ Giuseppe is a beaten man.
‘So that’s that then.’ Barry stands up and pulls his jeans higher up his waist. ‘Looks like there’s nothing to be done.’ He puts his hand on Ralph’s shoulder, and Ralph drops his head.
We’re a mixed bunch; we’d never have met or come together if it hadn’t been for one thing: we were all looking for something, a second chance at life, to get it right, to get what we wanted. I feel the tears build in my eyes, hot and angry, as once again I feel the rug being swiftly and firmly pulled from under my feet . . . all of our feet.
Giuseppe stands. His chair scrapes along the terracotta floor.
‘I’ll organise flights, and then I’ll make sure you get to the airport safely. I’m sorry,’ he says again, and this time I step forward and hug him tightly, feeling his pain on our behalf and his own.
As I hug him, I hear the rumble again, only this time much louder. Giuseppe lifts his head and looks outside.
‘Thunder,’ Ralph tells us, as if briefing his troops.
‘That’s not thunder,’ says Giuseppe, moving to the double doors and holding onto the handles firmly.
‘What is it then?’ asks Sherise.
Giuseppe looks up and into the distance. He raises a hand to his eyes and scans the skyline.
‘That’s Etna!’
‘Etna? As in the volcanic mountain Etna?’ Lennie’s face drops and my blood runs cold. That wasn’t a dizzy turn I had earlier, I realise. That was Etna rumbling. That was a tremor! I grab his arm and he slips it around me, pulling me close to him for real this time.
‘She’s not happy, not happy at all,’ murmurs Giuseppe.
And as we watch, orange lava spews into the sky, black ash begins to flutter and fall, and the rumbling gets angrier and louder, determined to be heard.
Chapter Fifteen
‘No flights?!’ Tabitha looks up suddenly from tapping on her phone. ‘You’re joking me!’ She looks around at the group, gathered again at the kitchen table, but no one is joking. Her face falls further. Obviously she has made plans already and is mentally moving on. I look at her with a pang of envy. What it must be like to have options!
Giuseppe shakes his head as he peers out through the door. The wind has died but the sky is still really dark and the air is horrid, thick and hazy and full of black ash. No sunshine seems to be able to get through, despite it being very close and hot, like we’re sitting in a sauna and there’s no way out.
‘I thought we were leaving today,’ Tabitha says, glancing over at her huge silver case on wheels, packed and ready to go.
‘Looks like Etna had other ideas,’ Ralph says.
Thankfully, no one has been hurt. There have been reports of a few fires further up the mountain, but no villages have had to evacuate and none of the fires have taken hold. But Etna is a very real threat around these parts, and clearly everyone is feeling nervous.
‘So whenwillwe be leaving?’ Tabitha looks agitated and frustrated at the delay. She’s anxious to leave and clearly has somewhere to go.
I wish I felt the same, but I don’t. My fabulous new life in the sun is over before it’s even begun. I reach out and pick up a mandarin from the bowl that Giuseppe tells me he fills each morning from the trees in his garden. I peel it, the amazing citrus smell making me feel as though I’ve stepped out of a reviving shower. I’m trying to think what I’m . . . whatwe’regoing to do now.
