Page 20 of The Dolce Vita Divas
‘Bene allora, tell us about yourselves, it might keep my husband from dozing,’ Ceci said. She pointed at Susie. ‘You are Susie. I met you more recently, didn’t I? I think you are the one who travelled? I remember Ellen told me when you came here before. But I was only visiting too. I was living in Rome with my second husband. Never mind,è stato un errore– he was a mistake.’
Susie nodded. ‘Yes, I did visit, but not for many years. I was making the same sort oferroretoo.’
‘Chi non fa non falla– if you don’t make mistakes, you make nothing,’ Ceci said, ‘and now we can laugh about it, can’t we?’
She patted Freddy’s hand affectionately and he smiled back at her.
‘Nearly,’ Susie said doubtfully, ‘once I get the stink of Simon’s shaving oil off my driveway. I threw the bottle after him when he left.’
‘And you are Joanna. Ah, yes, I remember you,’ Ceci said. ‘I believe you were the one who caused the most trouble.’
‘No, I was the one who was caught,’ I replied, wondering how much she knew about me, ‘because I was the oldest, people assumed I was the ringleader.’
Ceci chuckled approvingly and then waved a commanding hand at the young people, and they obediently moved away and started flicking their hair and taking selfies. Then she motioned us to sit down.
‘Young people,’ she sighed, ‘look at them. They all think they are so different, but they are all the same really. They wear the same clothes; they pull the same foolish expressions when they take pictures of themselves. And why do they do that? Do they really believe that this magnificent view over the Bay of Naples is improved if they stand in front of it pouting? Last year one of my god daughters visited the Taj Mahal, but you can hardly see it. She and her girlfriends were standing in front of it, all with the same silly eyebrows and inflated lips. Giulietta is the prettiest girl, but she said she needed “starter surgery”. Have you ever heard anything so ridiculous?’
‘In which case I probably need finisher surgery,’ I said.
‘Giulietta has her father’s nose, that is the problem,’ Freddy said. ‘It would take a lot of work to sort that out.’
Ceci laughed. ‘You are mean, Freddy.’
‘Well, it looks all right on him. Perhaps she will grow into it?’ Freddy muttered.
Paulo returned with a little plate of tiramisu and a lace-edged napkin. Freddy’s eyes followed it sadly as it was placed on the table in front of her.
‘I need another drink,’ Ceci said, holding out her empty glass towards him. She looked around the table and then added, ‘Never mind that, bring us a bottle.’
‘I thought you insisted you were staying for only one drink and then leaving?’ he said, raising one eyebrow.
‘Freddy and I have found amusing company,’ Ceci said.
‘I’m delighted to hear it,’ he said. ‘That means I can leave you both to enjoy yourself. I have things to see to.’
She took a spoonful of tiramisu and closed her eyes with pleasure as she tasted it.
‘My doctor would be cross to see me eating this, but at my age, who cares? This is almost as good as the one my mother used to make. One night when I was about seven, she caught me going downstairs in the dark for more, and I told her it wasn’t my fault. I heard voices, and it was the tiramisu calling to me. She said it was strange how the tomatoes and the onions didn’t call to me too.’
‘It’s calling to me too,mia cara,’ Freddy said sadly. ‘Why do I have to listen to my doctor, but you don’t?’
We sat there in the dappled shade chatting and drinking some very fine wine, which was nothing like the rather acidic Prosecco I had been expecting.
Ceci was very chatty and, as time passed and the rosé went down, delightfully indiscreet.
‘I was first married at nineteen to a man who fell in love with my feet,’ she said, ‘and the rest of me wasassolutamente bellissima– beautiful at that age. I have the photographs to prove it. I must show you one day. He hardly noticed. I had a wonderful figure, a high proud bosom, a tiny little waist, but it was my feet he loved. He liked to paint my toenails purple, and then he could stare at them for hours, which didn’t leave much time for anything else. We divorced when Paulo was five. Luigi had found a dancer in Paris with higher arches than mine. He wouldn’t be so happy if he could see my feet now. They have spread out like a duck’s. I am sure if you threw me in a pond I would be able to paddle to the side in no time. My second husband was a gambler. I married him for passion. He married me for my money.’
I wondered how her current husband was taking all this, but he looked quite happy.
Paulo returned with an ice bucket and a new bottle of wine, which he opened with practised skill, and topped up our glasses.
‘Mamma, are you boring these ladies with your stories?’
‘Not at all,’ I said.
‘We are enjoying every moment,’ Susie said, shading her eyes and looking out at the matchless views of the Mediterranean.
Paulo looked down at me then, a polite smile on his face, and there was suddenly an unexpected silence. The noise from the people behind us seemed to fade, and it was as though just for a split second, everyone stopped moving. It was just as it had been all those years ago.
