Page 47 of My Lemon Grove Summer
I was sixteen, about to leave school. There was a game of hide-and-seek. I reverted to type and hid in a cupboard, and this kid Richard that I didn’t get on with locked me in and left me there while they all went for tea. I was so frightened and angry when I got out, saw red and hit him. That was the day I ran away from the care home. I didn’t fit in there. They were going to ask me to leave, I knew it. I couldn’t cope with the rules and was forever getting into trouble and arguments. I’d been hanging out with the wrong crowd and this was the final straw. I knew it. Valerie saved me that day. And Lennie too. I’ve stayed away from small, dark spaces ever since. I thought I was going to die from suffocation, or go mad, one or the other. I will never let myself go back there again.
‘Besides,’ I joke, trying to shake off the memory, ‘I don’t know you. You could be taking me down there to slit my throat for all I know!’ I laugh, at quite a high pitch.
‘You’re right. You will have to get to know me better. Then you will trust me.’
My stomach flips over and my mouth goes dry again.
There are several chickens wandering around the lemon tree I’m standing under, pecking at the ground. Luca notices me looking at them.
‘Ah, they belong to my neighbour.’ He points to two scruffy-looking birds. ‘These two often seem to hide out here. I think they are, how do you say, bullied by the others.’
‘Henpecked,’ I tell him.
‘Really, that’s a word?’ and he laughs.
‘So, why is this the only lemon grove that actually seems to be looked after around here?’ I finally ask the question I’ve been dying to know the answer to since I arrived.
He sighs. ‘It’s . . . well, it’s why Giuseppe and my father will never see eye to eye. The town is dying, and whilst Giuseppe wants to bring people, so the town will thrive again, my father thinks the way to restore prosperity is to claim every EU subsidy going. That’s why all the lemon groves are neglected. My father . . .’ he swallows, clearly finding it hard to say, ‘he bought them all up, or should I say, acquired them. He has the access to the water, the reservoirs. He wanted the groves so he could claim the subsidies on them.’
‘What subsidies?’
‘To give other countries a chance to sell their lemons. Here we grew lots of lemons, good-quality lemons, but it meant other countries didn’t get a look-in. So they offered subsidies for us not to grow them. This was music to my father’s ears. Money for no work! He held the lemon grove owners to ransom, cut off their water supplies from the reservoir, and so they rented or sold the land to him, or in some cases just walked away from it. For me, he can’t stop my water . . . I have a supply of my own.’ He nods down at the hole in the ground. ‘When the rain comes, it fills the tunnels and collects in the chambers there, like water holes dug into the rock. So, then I make it last.’
‘What, all those villagers have surrendered their lemon groves to him so he can get the subsidies?’
Luca nods.
‘And so they have nothing and he has everything?’
He nods again.
‘Including our relocation fund?’
He nods a third time. ‘The banker needs him as a customer, or the bank here will close.’
‘Let me get this right,’ I say slowly, trying to control the anger that is building inside me at the tide of injustice. ‘Your father, the man who stole our relocation fund for himself, has also put all these other villagers out of business? Taking all the bloody pie for himself!’ My fury builds: something has to be done. ‘It’s not fair! He can’t bully people like this! Why has no one stopped him?’
Suddenly there is a loud squawking.
‘Hey!’ says Luca, and claps his hands at the chickens. He rolls his eyes. ‘The pecking order, I think is how you say it in England. Like I say, the others gang up on the weakest ones.’
‘Like Giuseppe?’ I say. ‘Trying to bring the town back to life on his own. While the likes of your father bully out those not in their gang!’
Luca gives a wry smile and nods. ‘It’s hard to hear, but yes.’
We both stand and look at the chickens again, lost in our own thoughts. I am determined we won’t be bullied out.
‘Giuseppe told me about your aunt,’ I say. ‘He’s let me have some boxes of her clothes. I’m going to start a business with them. Do you mind?’
‘Not at all. I am a tailor. I don’t need boxes of women’s clothes.’ Luca laughs. ‘Giuseppe is a good man. A very good man. He has spent his life trying to stop my father ruining this town.’
‘Can’t you stand up to your father, Luca? Surely someone has to?’
‘It’s hard. As I say, he has a heart condition. He becomes unwell under stress. You know, when I returned here from Milan, it felt like the sun filled my soul. I was happy to be back and helping the family out. But the lemon groves are all but gone now. All my father cares about is making money. I think Giuseppe may be losing his battle to bring the town back to life, to make it how it was.’
‘No,’ I suddenly say. ‘Not with all of us agreeing to stay. And the wedding! The town will prosper with a wedding, yes?’
‘I thought you didn’t believe in that superstition?’ He smiles, and my whole body lights up.
