Page 73 of The Dolce Vita Divas
Deep in thought, I got to the top of the shallow staircase and suddenly a small figure darted out from behind some bushes. There was a cry ofyee haw, and something hit me on the back of the legs.
The next thing I knew, I was falling, letting out a gargling scream, tumbling painfully to the bottom of the steps, landing on my side and banging my head on the ground. For a moment I lay still, dizzy, the wind knocked out of my lungs, a horrible pain in one shoulder.
Then I heard someone shout.
‘Mio Dio!Oh Eric! No!’
I looked up to see Eric standing over me, the end of a skipping rope in one hand, the other wrapped uncomfortably around my ankles. Andrea had grabbed on to his free arm.
‘I told you I was going to be a cowboy,’ he said, and his lower lip trembled.
And then I think I burst into tears. And so did he.
It was one thing to fall over when one was younger and still had the ability to bounce. At my age it felt very different.
18
I wasn’t really sure how I got there, but a few minutes later I found myself lying on my bed.
There was a strange man peering at me. He had an enormous, rather ruddy nose and a stethoscope hanging around his neck, so I assumed he was a doctor. He was standing by the side of my bed, his hand on my forehead. Something I wasn’t very happy about, as I had a thumping headache. I flinched away from him.
‘Ah,bene, good, you are back with us,’ he said.
I think garlic had featured heavily in his last meal, and I recoiled from the aroma.
‘Is she all right? Do we need to take her to hospital?’
That was Paulo.
I struggled to sit up, feeling bruised and embarrassed. People were always talking about ‘having a fall’ at my age, and I’d had several contemporaries who had sported surgical boots or arm supports after just such a thing. Had I broken anything? I moved my limbs cautiously. Only my shoulder seemed to have suffered any injury. And my face felt sore on one side.
‘What happened?’ I said, feeling distinctly fuzzy and confused.
The doctor shone a bright light in my eyes, and I held my breath to avoid his.
‘Not too much damage,’ he said, sounding slightly disappointed. ‘You don’t feelnauseabonda– um, nauseous or faint?’
‘No.’ I tried to push myself upright and a horrible pain shot through my shoulder.
There was a bit more discussion in Italian, all of which went completely over my head, and then Paulo and the garlic-loving doctor went into a huddle in one corner, while Susie came to sit on the edge of my bed, her eyes wide with concern.
‘What on earth happened?’ I said.
‘Eric tried to lasso you,’ she said, ‘with a skipping rope. And apparently you went down like a sack of spuds.’
‘Oh God,’ I groaned.
‘He’s been taken away for a proper telling off, probably the first one he’s ever had, which will probably do him a great deal of good, and Leo and Raleigh have been rowing ever since. Leo says this ‘no no’ business has to stop, that Eric is turning into a brat, and it’s no good blaming Andrea. At first Raleigh even tried to blame the sous chef’s daughter who let Eric borrow her skipping rope, which is just ridiculous.’
I put up a tentative hand to my cheek. ‘Have I done much damage to myself? My face hurts.’
‘Just a graze on your face. Maybe a bruised shoulder. But nothing serious as far as I could understand. Paulo is furious of course.’
‘I shouldn’t have encouraged Eric to get those jeans,’ I said.
Paulo broke off his discussions at that point and came over.
‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ he said firmly. ‘There’s no excuse for this. None at all.’
