Upstairs, Downstairs Read online

  “I can’t believe this!” thinks Anita. “Is he referring to my tits?!” She can’t believe that he’s really the one to bring that old story up… and so casually!

  “I mean the problem of… you know…” he mumbles, glancing again at her chest.

  “Yes! He’s talking about my tits!!” She’s ready to explode.

  “I’m sorry. Maybe this is rude of me to mention it…” Daniel notices the fury in Anita’s eyes.

  “Fuck… rude!? You told the whole school about it!”

  “What?!”

  “Yes! You bragged about me to your friends, giving them all the details…”

  “Anita! What are you talking about?”

  “Yes! And your friend… that asshole, hit on me. He was convinced that if I’d done it with you, of course I would…” She can’t control her deep resentment.

  “You’re crazy! I didn’t say anything to anybody! I would have never done anything like that…” Daniel sounds sincere. Anita begins to feel confused.

  “And by the way, who was this friend?” Daniel continues, with the calm of someone who has nothing to hide.

  Anita wonders if that old story might be all a misunderstanding, but she doesn’t give up. “That guy who used to drive to school in his ridiculous red car…”

  “Do you mean Stefano? Stefano Nigri?”

  Anita nods.

  “First of all, Stefano and I were never friends. Wasn’t he dating Alessandra then?”

  “No! They just went out a few times… Allie would have told me if he was her boyfriend!”

  “Listen, maybe they weren’t exactly engaged…” Daniel laughs. “But I remember very well that they spent a lot of time together!”

  “Alessandra… Allie and Stefano.” She whispers, overwhelmed by disbelief, rage, and disappointment. “She was the one…” Anita has always known about Alessandra’s jealousy, but she never thought her capable of such meanness. She kept thinking, “But she could have told me, it’s been so many years! She really is a bitch!”

  The sky is now clear, except for a patch of dark purple clouds on the horizon.

  Daniel gently takes her hand.

  Anita turns to look at him, smiling. “So, you really didn’t say anything?”

  Focused on driving, Daniel doesn’t answer.

  *

  “Here we are.” The car turns left, through a big iron gate, and stops in the driveway.

  “Here it is, the famous Bracci country house.” Anita thinks, looking at the deep red of the plaster walls. The house has two floors and a beautiful pergola on the right.

  Daniel blows the horn.

  A man in his sixties emerges and opens the car door for Anita. “Welcome, Miss Olga. It’s a pleasure to meet you…”

  Anita blushes.

  “This is Anita, an old friend. Olga had to leave…” Daniel is cursing himself for not having told Pietro about the change of plan! “Anita, this is Pietro, our caretaker and dear family friend. If he wasn’t here, this place would be in ruins!”

  “Sure!” thinks Anita, “Olga!… she was the guest! I’m here just by chance, a last minute substitution.” Thoughtfully, she remains standing on the lawn.

  “My god! Anitaaaa, it’s hailing! Hurry up!” Daniel runs towards the front door.

  A clap of thunder jolts her from her thoughts and Anita starts running too; she’s already drenched.

  Daniel closes the door and drops their bags on the floor. “What got into you, Anita? Did you want to get totally soaked out there? Anyway, the water heater here works far better than the one in my apartment in Garbatella, if you want to take a hot shower.”

  Anita would like to forget that the caretaker was expecting Olga instead of her, but she can’t. And now the shower… is Daniel just being kind, or is there something more behind this shower offer? One thing is certain: she’ll be alone in that bathroom!

  She locks the door and undresses. She’s not completely at ease but when the hot water starts to run over her body, she begins to relax.

  *

  Daniel hears Anita’s phone ringing. He grabs it and reads the caller name, Mizuki. “Fuck! No, not right now!” Instinctively he answers it. On the other end of the line, Mizuki hangs up. Daniel tries to delete the call, cursing to himself. Anita opens the bathroom door and Daniel quickly puts her phone down where it was.

  “Shall we go?” Anita is in a hurry to distract herself. She doesn’t want to be alone with Daniel right now.

  Daniel feels her tension. “Just a moment!” In two minutes he’s ready. “Ok, let’s go.”

  *

  The club is dark, except for a few bluish lights scattered around the space. On stage, the musicians are tuning their instruments, producing confused and awkward sounds. “It sounds like the perfect soundtrack for my life,” thinks Anita, sipping a gin and tonic. She doesn’t usually drink cocktails, but after that night at Gazometre, she’s on her way to becoming an alcoholic! Tonight she really needs something strong. Her sense of unease is growing, slowly becoming real anger. No doubt her decision to come to Umbria was a mistake, and the caretaker’s misunderstanding about Olga was the confirmation. Daniel had an argument with Olga and the planned music & sex weekend went up in smoke? No problem! There is a quick replacement: Anita!

  She takes another big swallow of her drink to try to chase away the thought. Yet she knows that this isn’t the only reason she’s upset.

  Now the musicians are ready. Daniel, embracing his double bass, tries to catch her eye, but Anita is too focused on her own thoughts. The first notes of The Shadow of your Smile sparks the audience’s enthusiasm. But for Anita, the music tonight is just the background for all the thoughts that plague her. Daniel said he didn’t tell his classmates anything about them… Is it true? He seemed sincere… so, this means that Alessandra did and destroyed her first love. Bitch! Anita drains her glass of gin and tonic, ready to order a second one.

  She wants to get out of there… to breathe some fresh air, when a roar of applause signals that the first piece has ended. Satisfied, the band immediately start the next song: The Girl from Ipanema. Daniel is deeply into his double bass. “He probably doesn’t even remember I’m here,” Anita thinks. She’s attacking her second drink. Alcohol seems to clear her mind. “This whole story is unreal. For years I carried resentment and pain, without ever realising that we’ve grown up…” The Brazilian song, instead of conveying light-heartedness to her, makes her sad. “What am I doing here?”

  More applause… someone screams “Bravooo!” Her phone’s ring tone reaches her from faraway. She hunts for it in her bag and checks the incoming calls. 10:30 p.m., missed call from Alessandra. 8:17 p.m., received call from Mizuki. “Mizuki? When? Today? I don’t remember. What was I doing at 8:17 p.m.?” The roar of the audience sounds like water… like a shower! Everything is clear now. She looks up and sees Daniel who smiles as he bows onstage. So vain. He’s all puffed up like a peacock. She stands and slowly raises her hand, holding her phone up. He sees it. Their eyes meet and his smile freezes into a grimace.

  18

  Applause

  The great Italian actor and comedian Toto` had a theory about laughter. He said that there were many different kinds of laugh: from giggling to laughing out loud. Daniel has his own theory about audience response. There is a round of applause out of politeness, but there is also the applause of sincere, uncontrollable enthusiasm. Like now. The crowd is going crazy. But this time he can’t enjoy it. He glances over at Anita while the saxophonist thanks the audience and announces that there will be a break.

  Daniel walks to the table where Anita still stands, phone in hand, without clapping.

  He pretends not to notice her furious eyes. “Wow! Challenging drink… gin and tonic!” He takes a sip from her glass, collapsing in the chair. “What did you think of the last piece? Tonight there’s really some good energy. The saxophonist is on great form…” But at some point he can’t keep ignoring the fact that Anita is standing. “Don�
��t you want to sit down?” He begins to realise he’s underestimated the consequences of his reckless move in answering Mizuki’s call.

  “Tonight – YOU – answered – a – call – on – MY – cell phone!” Anita emphasises every word.

  At this point Daniel is sure the weekend won’t go as he had planned. He’d already noticed Anita’s bad mood in the car, then the caretaker’s faux pas about Olga, and finally the call from the fucking Japanese guy delivered the coup de grâce.

  “I’m sorry if I forgot to tell you about that call. I didn’t think it was important. You were in the shower…”

  Daniel’s tone leaves Anita speechless. The arrival of the pianist, who sits at their table to talk enthusiastically about the concert, saves Daniel. For now, at least.

  Anita is still seething. “How can one be such an asshole? How dare he do that. And what must Mizuki be thinking?” She’s furious.

  The band returns onstage. Daniel takes the microphone. “We’ll start the second part of our concert with a piece by Stan Getz, Just Friends, that I want to dedicate to a person very important to me.

  “That can’t be true! Exactly like at the Gazometre… who does he think he’s fooling?”

  Just friends, lovers no more

  Just friends, but not like before

  To think of what we’ve been and not kiss again

  Seems like pretending it isn’t the ending.

  “It’s all my fault.” Anita closes her eyes. “But how did I let it happen? How could I have been so blind, so foolish?” The thought that she might have lost Mizuki forever is becoming real.

  Two friends drifting apart

  Two friends, but one broken heart

  We loved, we laughed, we cried, and suddenly love died.

  When she opens her eyes, she sees Daniel, with his odious air of good boy, his sixties preppy look. She sees an egocentric, shallow young man. But he has never hidden this aspect of himself. He moved on from Olga to her without a second thought. Why didn’t I see it? I don’t have any excuses. I fucked up big time! She stares at her phone, looking at the message displaying Mizuki’s 8:17 p.m. call for the umpteenth time, then she dials his number. She doesn’t know what she’ll say. She doesn’t know how Mizuki will react. She just knows she wants to hear his voice. But his phone is turned off.

  When she looks up again towards the stage, the piece has just ended. Daniel blows her a kiss. If a gesture is worth more than a thousand words, she’s tempted to give him the finger! Nothing seems to make any sense. It doesn’t make sense to stay there, waiting for the end of the concert or to spend the night with Daniel, who is now basking in even more applause.

  She has an idea. She takes the car keys from Daniel’s pocket and swiftly leaves that place and that situation – she doesn’t want to stay one second longer.

  Outside it’s dark: the deep blackness of the countryside. She has driven Diego’s Ford before. The return journey to Rome starts now.

  She misses Mizuki. She’s disappointed with herself and still furious, but not confused any more. Finally, she knows that the only man she wants is Mizuki Murakami.

  *

  “Damn!” Daniel yells on seeing the empty space where he’d parked his car. “Bitch!” Since he realised that Anita left with his car, he can’t stop cursing and insulting her. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!”

  His suspicions began onstage, when he couldn’t see her at the table any more. After the concert he’d looked for her everywhere. He tried to call, but of course she didn’t answer.

  “I could kill her right now!” He says to the pianist, who gives him a ride to the country house. “And she doesn’t even bother to answer… fuck her!”

  “Man, she sure did a number on you…” The pianist is sympathetic.

  “Right.”

  “However, the concert was a great success!”

  “Right.”

  “But shouldn’t you have come with a Russian girl?”

  “Too right!”

  19

  Sublime Coffee

  Anita opens her eyes and looks around anxiously. “Home… yes, I’m home…” and she leans back on the pillow. “Slowly, Anita. Go slowly.” Her head hurts terribly. She’s not sure which is worse: the after effects of the gin and tonics or the strain of the drive back from Umbria. Her back muscles are tense because of the driving with all those headlights coming from the opposite direction. Her eyes are tired and her head throbs. It took almost three hours!

  Anita gets up. It’s 9:50 a.m.. She drags herself down the hall. “Oh my God! My mother… what do I say to her now? She’ll ask question after question… I can’t face it. Not this morning.”

  Noise from the kitchen confirms that Giovanna must be already up.

  The light in the kitchen is very bright and Anita screws up her eyes. The coffee pot is on the burner and the open door of the refrigerator hides her mother, who’s looking for something inside.

  Anita falls into a chair, her back to Giovanna. She sits with her elbows on the table and her head held between her hands. She’s playing for time, so as not to have to look her mother in the eye right away. Then she bursts out, “Mum, please, don’t say anything! It was a crazy idea; I know… a very stupid idea!”

  She hears the refrigerator door close, then silence. She thinks her mother is speechless.

  “I know I ruined everything! And for what? Because of THAT idiot? Don’t ask me anything now… I’ll explain everything later…”

  The bubbling of the coffee mingles with Anita’s mumbling. While the aroma permeates the kitchen, coffee is poured into a cup.

  “Here I am! Just in…” It’s Giovanna, who appears in front of her with her mouth open in shock. Anita is looking down and slowly recognises first her slippers, then her legs, but she doesn’t remember the sexy nightgown her mother is wearing…

  “Mum?!?”

  Anita turns round to the refrigerator behind her to see the mother she had just been talking to…

  “Sublime coffee! With cream… it’s my speciality. Can I pour some for you both?” An unexpected and cheerful Matteo Spina, wrapped in an elegant bathrobe, smiles at her.

  *

  A Skype beep interrupts Mizuki’s stretching exercises.

  “Kyoko! Kyoko! I can’t hear you. Wait while I move to the other side.”

  “I can hear you very well, Mizuki!”

  “Me too, now! I can also see you… You look wonderful!”

  A very pretty face with long dark hair appears on his screen. Kyoko is wearing the travel yukata that she always puts on to relax when she’s alone.

  “What are you doing in your hotel room? Did I disturb you? I see messy hair, Mizuki… and you seem…”

  “Naked?” Mizuki casually moves his phone up, so that his body doesn’t show on the screen.

  “I was doing some stretching. I try to do it every day, in the morning when I can. Do you ever do stretching exercises?”

  “No… my muscles are doing perfectly fine, free to rest all day!” She laughs. “It’s beautiful here! Your concierge gave me the keys. I’m putting my things in the closet. Mizuki? Mizuki? You’ve disappeared…”

  “I’m here! I moved to the window. The connection isn’t great here.”

  “I was saying that I’ve finally arrived in Rome. It was a long trip… but when will you be back? I can’t wait!”

  “Soon, ahead of schedule. Make yourself at home, Kyoko. Kyoko? Are you there?”

  “Yes, I’m still here. You’re so kind, Mizuki… I’ll finish unpacking and then go for a walk around this magnificent city. I was here just a few years ago, but it feels like an eternity!”

  “Great! I’m glad to hear you’re happy. The last time we saw each other was here in London, I think. You came for business too. Do you remember?”

  “Of course I remember. We had a wonderful time. But how are you by the way?”

  “Fine… but Kyoko it’s late, and I’m cold. I need to dress. I’ll call you tomorrow!”

&nbs
p; “Hmm… mysterious as always. Ok, till tomorrow. Bye!”

  Mizuki’s expression darkens whilst he stares blankly at his phone. Anita called him the night before, but he only saw the call the following day. He’d love to talk to her to clarify things and eliminate the persistent shadow of that other man. Yet he doesn’t call her. He knows his limitations very well. He has never been able to express his feelings over the phone. He’s a disaster at that.

  He resumes his stretching and then notices, through the window, a group of girls on a terrace across the street jumping up and down, laughing, and dancing. They seem to be pointing at him.

  “Funny party,” he thinks. “It seems kind of cold for dancing on a terrace…”

  Mizuki doesn’t realise that he’s still naked.

  *

  Anita is completely speechless. She shifts her puzzled glance from Matteo Spina to her mother. Matteo Spina tries to remain serious, but his eyes are smiling, amused. Giovanna on the on the hand, seems very embarrassed and keeps hugging her nightgown.

  “Why didn’t you call to say you changed your plans?” she asks in a faint voice.

  “I would’ve, if I’d known that when the cat is away, the mice will play!”

  Matteo Spina tries to pull himself together – he coughs, then makes a serious face, and finally he bursts out laughing.

  Anita and Giovanna look at each other, perplexed. But Matteo’s laughter is contagious and they begin laughing too; at first quietly and then loudly until it hurts. But all of a sudden, Anita’s laughter turns into unrestrained sobbing.

  Giovanna stands up and runs to embrace her daughter. “Anita, please… you’re right. I wanted to tell you… but then I never found the courage. Please, forgive me…”

  Matteo Spina looks around and then he hands Anita a tissue.

  “Please, try to understand. It’s not the end of the world…” her mother keeps caressing her, and Anita thinks she has never seemed more wonderful to her.