Page 43 of A Place in the Sun
Suddenly the front door is pushed wide open. ‘Hey!Ciao!’ The figure cuts quite a dash in the doorway. It’s Stella, whose words have been messing with my head.
‘Hey! You’re back,’ says Giovanni, and the mood in the room changes.
‘Just a flying visit. I’ve met some friends on their way to Greece. Thinking of joining them.’
‘Why don’t you have something to eat? You can tell us about it.’ He turns to me and says quietly, ‘Remember, everyone is welcome here.’ He lays a hand on my arm. He’s right. But I’m not ready for this. I feel hot and my appetite has gone. I watch her.
He stands and goes to the kitchen for another plate. Stella follows him.
Caterina watches her go. ‘Stella bases herself here, but she’s from nowhere. She comes when she has nowhere else to go.’
I glance in the direction of the kitchen.
‘Giovanni looks out for her. Makes sure she gets fed when she’s here. But when Stella is around, trouble is usually following her.’ At that moment, Stella comes out of the kitchen, carrying a plate. She smiles at me – a smile that makes me uneasy … very uneasy.
19
Over the next few days Giovanni turns up every morning at Casa Luna, sometimes with Alessandro or Enrico, sometimes on his own. I go to La Tavola and offer coffee or pasta to anyone who needs it. I take in the deliveries when they arrive from the shop, cook and freeze vegetables ready for pasta sauces. I have coffee with Caterina, and the children enjoy days helping in the garden or cooking with me. It’s a little routine I’m starting to enjoy.
Today, though, Giovanni arrives at the house with someone else. As soon as I see her, despite the heat of the day, I turn cold.
‘This is Stella. You’ve met.’
She smiles at me.
I say nothing. Just stand and stare.
‘She’s come to help me today.’
‘Buongiorno,’ I try to say but my tongue is tied and I have no idea how the greeting sounds.
‘It would be good for her to learn a trade. Be able to work, like Alessandro and Enrico.’ Giovanni smiles but I can’t.
I turn to the tap to pour water into the cafetière. It’s stiff.
‘Oh, you have to go first one way, then the other,’ says Stella, turning the tap on for me, making me bristle. How would she know the workings of the tap in this place?
Giovanni tells her he’ll be plastering the ceiling, repairing broken woodwork, including the step, and painting the walls – oh, and fixing the leaking roof.
I make coffee and put it on a little table I’ve positioned outside the front door where Giovanni sits for his coffee breaks, watching the world go by and chatting to the locals he knows. My hands are shaking. Giovanni joins me. ‘Are you okay?’ he asks.
‘I’m not sure I am, actually,’ I say, remembering his words: it’s okay not to be okay. I glare at him. ‘What’s she doing here?’
‘I told you, it’s good to get her working, learning skills,’ he says, looking me straight in the eye.
‘Of all the places you could have taken her to, you brought her here. Is that really a good idea?’ I say crossly.
‘Stella?’ He looks back inside. ‘She can be a handful.She needs to be kept occupied. I’ll keep an eye on her, don’t worry.’
‘But—’ I stop myself. So many questions are running around in my head, but do I really want to know the answers? Right now, I don’t want to hear anything about how she knows Marco. I want it all to be a silly lie that got out of hand. A sick joke would be better than the truth, if there is any.
The mayor walks past and congratulates me on how I’m getting on, and for using local labour. ‘Ciao, Giovanni.’ Stella comes out to join us and I bristle. The mayor nods to her, then walks on. She finishes her coffee and goes inside.
I can feel Giovanni standing next to me. ‘If it wasn’t for La Tavola, people like Stella would have nowhere to go.’
‘I know. And I know you’re doing good work there, Giovanni. I’m just not sure that this is helping me right now.’
‘I needed La Tavola as much as some of the residents do. I needed to get back into the kitchen, to realize that’s home for me. Just not the bullying, shouting places that call themselves professional kitchens.’
