Page 42 of The Dolce Vita Divas
‘Very unlikely,’ I said.
‘You’re sure?’ He yawned again.
‘Positive.’
‘Did you ever see any dinosaurs?’
‘No, I never saw one,’ I assured him, wondering how old he thought I was.
A few minutes later, I looked down to see Eric had fallen asleep, curled up on my lap with his arm around my waist. I could just see the dark sweep of his eyelashes against his cheek and his chest rising and falling.
How many years was it since my own children were this small and came to me for comfort and advice? It seemed a long time and yet no time at all. Violet and Maud were this size. I’d enjoyed cuddles with them when they were babies, but more recently I hardly saw them. They lived hours away from me and like all modern parents, Jess and Kat had plunged into the world of children’s activities. They were busy and happy and well cared for, but I was missing out. I needed to do something about that while they still fitted onto my lap.
What should I do? I looked around and saw to no great surprise that Leo still hadn’t returned and nor had Raleigh. It was just the two of us sitting out there in the dark. For heaven’s sake! What sort of parents were they? The minute they got the opportunity to connect with their child, they blooming scarpered. No wonder Eric was so confused.
I looked down at him and felt rather sorry for him. Actually, he really was a beautiful child with glossy dark hair and pale, almost translucent, skin. It had been many years since I’d had a child of my own asleep in my lap, but the feeling was the same. Comfort and a protective urge that would probably never fade, no matter how old my own children were.
So much ahead for this spoiled, amazingly privileged boy. And yet there were still reasons to feel sorry for him. Only five and his life was already mapped out. An incredibly expensive school with other spoiled kids who thought nothing of yachts in the Caribbean and ski lodges in Aspen. Clothes direct from designers, toys by the truckload, interior designers brought in to change his nursery into a proper boy’s room. Perhaps he would have a hand-built bed in the shape of a rocket or an SUV. An artist would be drafted in at huge expense to paint a mural of planets or a jungle. Then onto Harvard Law School, development of utter self-belief and superiority and eventually marriage to a brittle little wife like his mother.
Perhaps at some point, Eric would stop whining and annoying everyone all the time and learn to be tolerable occasionally? Maybe? Well, he couldn’t be five forever, could he?
Paulo returned and I felt his hand on my shoulder.
‘Is he asleep?’
‘Seems like it,’ I said.
‘You’re very good with him. You must have been a great mother. Ellen never really enjoyed it. She was quite honest about it. One child was enough for her, although I would have liked more.’
I sat as still as I could, taking in this information. Something I hadn’t known. But then when I had seen her with Leo, she had been curiously disinterested. Perhaps she had been the sort of mother to speak about her child and his achievements rather than be a part of them.
Eric gave a huge sigh. It was like having an unexploded bomb on my lap. I had the awful feeling Eric wasn’t the sort to wake up chirpy.
I was right.
A few seconds later he began to wriggle, and he opened his eyes. He locked his gaze with mine for a moment as though he didn’t recognise me and then he started grizzling.
I stroked his hair back from his forehead, feeling very sentimental.
‘It’s okay, Eric. You just had a little nap, that’s all. Do you remember the stars coming out?’
He let loose with a wordless babble of protest and then slithered off my lap onto the floor and began to howl. After a moment I realised things were worse than I had thought, and he had peed on me. The sweet, lovely, sleeping child was gone and Eric was back.
* * *
I went back to my room to change my damp clothes and as I opened the doors onto the terrace outside, Susie appeared.
‘I’ve got something for you. Why are you wet? Did you spill something?’
‘Don’t ask,’ I said. ‘I’ve got to get changed. So, what have you been doing?’
Susie looked dreamily into the distance for a moment.
‘I had a lovely lunch at a gorgeous little place overlooking the sea, then I came back and had a little snooze. These beds really are comfy, aren’t they? And then the Contessa rang me and invited me back to her room.’
I went into my bathroom, took off my clothes and put on my dressing gown.
‘I’d better have a shower,’ I said.
