Page 82 of Three Times You

Marcantonio takes a sip of tea. Then he looks at her more closely.

Ele makes a funny face. “Do you or don’t you want to take lots of pictures of your child?”

He stops drinking, sets his cup down on the living room table, and stares at her again. “Really?”

“Yes!”

And they kiss, joyously, happily, and incredulously.

Eleonora pulls back and holds up a hand to calm him down. “But there’s one thing you have to promise me, something very important.”

“What?”

“If it’s a girl, we’re naming her Ginevra.”

Chapter 62

It’s been many months since Gin passed away. She’s always in my thoughts. This time I’ll keep my promise.

The sea is nice and smooth today. The notary and the former owner have left. I walk through the house. I examine the small fixes that are going to need to be done, the furnishings left behind, some beautiful leather sofas, paintings of all shapes and sizes, generally thematically related to the sea outside or the boats sailing across it. Some of them are very nice, others are depressingly bad.

I wonder how many different things this house has seen, how many generations, how many nights of love, licit and illicit, just like ours. There’s a bowl full of rocks, all of them different, some round, others brightly colored, and there’s even pieces of glass from broken bottles that the sea has rubbed so smooth that they can pass as rocks and live undisturbed among their rocky neighbors. I wonder who put this collection together. Maybe it was a woman.

Not far away, there’s an old clock hanging on the wall. It hasn’t been wound, and the hands stand stock-still at 12:15 of who knows what date. There are light-colored armchairs covered with sky-blue sheets. At the center of the living room stands a large table. I sit down at it. Facing me is a large picture window overlooking the sea. On the right, I can see the entire length of Feniglia;at the center but farther away, I see Porto Ercole. Then the view opens out farther, onto the endless sea. Way out there, I can just glimpse the islands of Giglio and Giannutri and who knows how many others. I’d never have believed that I could afford a villa like this one, much less be able to buy this one in particular.

Then I hear a car horn honk, two quick taps, and immediately thereafter, the doorbell rings. I go into the kitchen. Right by the door, on the right, is a large plasma television screen with the picture split up into nine panels. In the first panel, on the bottom left, Babi stands. She’s here. I lift the receiver of the intercom and push a button. I did it instinctively, but it was the right button.

I see the gate swing open. I see her get into the car and then wait until the gate is fully open before driving through. I stand there, watching the car roll up the length of the driveway, following it as it’s handed off from one video camera to another, one panel on the TV screen after another, until it pulls up in the parking area in front of the house.

Then I walk through the living room and out the front door. “Ciao.”

Babi gets out and smiles at me.

“You won’t believe it, but just listen!” She leans in the car window and turns up the sound on the song they’re playing over the radio.

You again. But weren’t we supposed to stop seeing each other? And how are you doing, what a pointless question. You’re just the same as me…Then she lowers the volume. “Can you believe it? It’s a sign from above. This is really absurd.”

“Yes, I thought you were playing it by choice!”

“Not at all. I don’t even know what station the radio’s tuned to.” Then she looks around. “It’s gorgeous. I didn’t remember it being so beautiful.”

“Come with me.” I take her by the hand. Together we trace the same path we took so many years earlier, when we were younger, when we were unmarried, when we had no children but we were deeply in love all the same. We arrive at that little terrace overlooking the sea.

“No, but seriously, you really bought the place?”

“Yes. I wanted to break the window again, but then I would have had to fix the damage anyway, so I had a set of keys made.”

Babi starts laughing. Her face is relaxed, untroubled, and the glints of sunlight play in her hair. I didn’t want anyone other than her in my life. I’d have given up everything just as long as I never lost her. I’d tried desperately to forget her, to fall in love again with someone else, but enough’s enough, I have to set my pride aside. I’m forced to accept that this love is stronger than anything else, than my own willpower, stronger even than the destiny that had decided otherwise for the two of us.

“Babi, Babi, Babi.”

“Yes indeed, that is certainly me.” And she starts laughing.

“I repeat it three times because I want to make sure I’m not dreaming. Each one is a chance, so I have three chances with you.”

“Yes, and I love you three times more than when we were together for the very first time, here, in this house,” Babi says. “I thought you never wanted to see me again. I wrote you when Gin died, and you replied with nothing more than a curt ‘Thanks.’”

“I was feeling awful.”

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