sweating at the thought. If he came in here … What would he think? It was a girl’s room – full of sweet and cute, pretty and nice. Which was not the impression she wanted to give. No way, José.
She opened the first bag. In went all her old make-up – eyeshadows and lip glosses, ancient nail varnish and glitter dust – into the black hole. Magazines, all the clothes she no longer wore. She was feeling GOOD … Shebegan to work more quickly; faster and faster, sweeping through drawers of ancient socks and underwear, pulling dresses from hangers. Books from her childhood (
Lion in the Meadow, Winnie the Pooh)
and soft toys (though White Teddy and Bill the baby owl leapt into the wardrobe for safety). Ginny couldn’t stop now. A zoo of animal ornaments, anything that said CHILD not woman. Fluffy penguin slippers, a poster of a giraffe, a Miffy calendar. A pen that looked like a peacock, a money box that looked like a grizzly bear, a blanket patterned with zebras. (What was it with her and animals?) Out. Out. Out. The Ball shuddered and rolled.
She put The Fratellis back on. ‘Creepin up the Backstairs’. The music was inside her head and her arms were aching. This was it. Exorcism. She could feel it cleansing every pore. But …
Would the Ball ever disappear? Would this make the Ball disappear?
By the computer was a whole stack of college work. She’d promised her mother to do some serious revision this week. Ginny took a deep breath and chucked it in.
She didn’t want to go to uni
… She definitely DID NOT WANT TO GO … She wanted to go away, yes, but to travel, to see the world, to be free, to be new. She wanted to be older. She wanted not to be a virgin any more. She wanted … Shit.
She sat down on the bed.
Meandering meerkats
. She wasn’t sure what she wanted. But she wanted something, that was for sure.
CHAPTER 13
A betrayal of the worst kind
… Tess dipped a foot in the water. It was warm and inviting, the sea shimmering in the distance, the waves curling in fronds around her toes. A betrayal, a theft and an old family debt, Giovanni had told her. And three Sicilian families involved – the Farros (her mother’s family), the Sciarras (Santina and Giovanni’s clan) and the Amatos (Mosaic-man’s lot). So who had done what to whom? What had been stolen back in the 1940s? Why was it a betrayal, and what – if anything – could it have to do with her mother leaving Sicily?
Tess waded through the waves, and when the water reached her thighs, she dipped her head, and with one fluid movement slipped into the sea. The initial shock was followed by the moment she loved – when body and liquid merged as if into one. She let out a deep breath. Swimming, diving, just being in the sea felt so good. A way to think – and a way to forget. Closing her eyes against the glare of the late-afternoon sun, she swam with sure strokes into the open sea. Sometimes she wished she could just go on for ever.
She was only here for a week. In that week – realistically – she had to decide what to do with Villa Sirena and she had to find out what had made her mother leave Sicily – and nevercome back. Tess turned over, floating on her back for a few moments, letting the current take her. Wouldn’t it be good if life was like that? If you could just drift on the tide in and out of situations – much as David had drifted, both before and after they met. Or would it? Most people eventually put down roots. And perhaps David had by now; Tess had no idea, he’d never contacted her to say –
Hey, how’s my daughter?
or
Here’s some money to help out
. No, he’d never been into responsibilities. It didn’t suit his lifestyle. So really, she should have known.
She started a slow breaststroke towards the rock islands. Tess did very little drifting – when she wasn’t in the sea. She worked hard; she’d even applied for promotion to supervisor at the water company last week – Janice was retiring and it had been
She opened the first bag. In went all her old make-up – eyeshadows and lip glosses, ancient nail varnish and glitter dust – into the black hole. Magazines, all the clothes she no longer wore. She was feeling GOOD … Shebegan to work more quickly; faster and faster, sweeping through drawers of ancient socks and underwear, pulling dresses from hangers. Books from her childhood (
Lion in the Meadow, Winnie the Pooh)
and soft toys (though White Teddy and Bill the baby owl leapt into the wardrobe for safety). Ginny couldn’t stop now. A zoo of animal ornaments, anything that said CHILD not woman. Fluffy penguin slippers, a poster of a giraffe, a Miffy calendar. A pen that looked like a peacock, a money box that looked like a grizzly bear, a blanket patterned with zebras. (What was it with her and animals?) Out. Out. Out. The Ball shuddered and rolled.
She put The Fratellis back on. ‘Creepin up the Backstairs’. The music was inside her head and her arms were aching. This was it. Exorcism. She could feel it cleansing every pore. But …
Would the Ball ever disappear? Would this make the Ball disappear?
By the computer was a whole stack of college work. She’d promised her mother to do some serious revision this week. Ginny took a deep breath and chucked it in.
She didn’t want to go to uni
… She definitely DID NOT WANT TO GO … She wanted to go away, yes, but to travel, to see the world, to be free, to be new. She wanted to be older. She wanted not to be a virgin any more. She wanted … Shit.
She sat down on the bed.
Meandering meerkats
. She wasn’t sure what she wanted. But she wanted something, that was for sure.
CHAPTER 13
A betrayal of the worst kind
… Tess dipped a foot in the water. It was warm and inviting, the sea shimmering in the distance, the waves curling in fronds around her toes. A betrayal, a theft and an old family debt, Giovanni had told her. And three Sicilian families involved – the Farros (her mother’s family), the Sciarras (Santina and Giovanni’s clan) and the Amatos (Mosaic-man’s lot). So who had done what to whom? What had been stolen back in the 1940s? Why was it a betrayal, and what – if anything – could it have to do with her mother leaving Sicily?
Tess waded through the waves, and when the water reached her thighs, she dipped her head, and with one fluid movement slipped into the sea. The initial shock was followed by the moment she loved – when body and liquid merged as if into one. She let out a deep breath. Swimming, diving, just being in the sea felt so good. A way to think – and a way to forget. Closing her eyes against the glare of the late-afternoon sun, she swam with sure strokes into the open sea. Sometimes she wished she could just go on for ever.
She was only here for a week. In that week – realistically – she had to decide what to do with Villa Sirena and she had to find out what had made her mother leave Sicily – and nevercome back. Tess turned over, floating on her back for a few moments, letting the current take her. Wouldn’t it be good if life was like that? If you could just drift on the tide in and out of situations – much as David had drifted, both before and after they met. Or would it? Most people eventually put down roots. And perhaps David had by now; Tess had no idea, he’d never contacted her to say –
Hey, how’s my daughter?
or
Here’s some money to help out
. No, he’d never been into responsibilities. It didn’t suit his lifestyle. So really, she should have known.
She started a slow breaststroke towards the rock islands. Tess did very little drifting – when she wasn’t in the sea. She worked hard; she’d even applied for promotion to supervisor at the water company last week – Janice was retiring and it had been
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