Upstairs, Downstairs Read online

  “Let’s hope she’s not so intrusive all the time,” he thinks, opening his bag and looking for his bathrobe. He walks to the bathroom and turns on the tap. The water is hot… He breathes a sigh of relief.

  *

  After his shower, Daniel feels so much better: more relaxed and even sociable; but he’s only just opened the shutters when he hears someone calling him.

  “Please, come down! Don’t be shy.” They’re all still there, looking at him with upturned faces.

  “Ok, I’m coming…” – Giovanna is right – he thinks – there’s nothing to eat in here.

  He finds everybody still hanging around the vegetable garden: someone’s sitting on the bench whilst others are sitting on the stone wall. Daniel joins them and stands listening to the gardeners’ bizarre discussion about what to sow.

  “And now that you’ve settled in, tell us something about yourself.” Matteo Spina suddenly asks, putting out the stub of the cigar he had been smoking. “What do you do? Do you play as a hobby, or are you a real musician?”

  “Ah – I get it! So, this is a third-degree questioning! Where’s the police lamp for the interrogation?” Daniel finally flashes his first smile since arriving.

  “No, no… it’s not an interrogation! See, even if we are in Rome, Garbatella is like a small village. We like to know who lives in our building.”

  Daniel’s gaze follows the gesture of the old man as he points towards the ochre building, the big archway, and the stone dragons on the roof.

  “Ok, then… I was born and raised in Rome. I got my degree in double bass at the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia. I play wherever and whenever I’m wanted, here and abroad. In fact, I have been away from Rome for a while. Now I’m back because I have a contract for a few months with the Opera Theatre. Does that satisfy your curiosity?”

  “So, we have a classical musician!” Paolo is very excited.

  “Well, I don’t just play classical music, I also play jazz occasionally… and now, don’t I deserve that promised lasagna?!” He addresses Giovanna, who enchanted, is looking at him. “Daniel Bracci would be perfect for Anita,” she’s thinking. “Handsome, elegant, a musician, probably even from a good family. We need to know more about him.”

  *

  Focused on his instrument like a poker player staring at the green table, Daniel, wearing only a pair of jeans, is looking at the strings of the double bass vibrating under his fingers. He’s following the tempo, tapping with his foot. It’s a very slow rhythm that Daniel loves. He likes to be reserved in his movements, emphasising each vibration that resonates from the sound-box. He used to say to his friends, “This helps to clear my mind…” And they teased him with the nickname Slow-Hand.

  The result is a lazy, drawn out, deep melody that halts Anita at the entrance. “It comes from Diego’s apartment. The new tenant must have arrived…” She smiles, looking at the illuminated windows. “Diego didn’t tell me his tenant was a musician.” Anita remains still, she barely dares to breathe, as if any tiny sound or movement could make that moment vanish.

  *

  Daniel is a gifted double bassist, technically accomplished, with an unusual touch. He was able to impress the orchestra director of the Opera Theatre during his audition. Yet, Daniel is really in love with jazz. He likes to improvise and create his own style. He would love to play a different kind of music every evening.

  He loves originality and change; it’s also the reason he accepted the apartment in Garbatella. He knows that in the neighbourhood there are clubs where he can play live music; there are even more not far from there, in Testaccio. He’s already talked to the director of one very famous club and will meet him tomorrow.

  When he finishes the piece of music, he puts the double bass on its stand and looks out of the window. It’s only mid April, but pleasantly warm air embraces the night. The garden looks like a painting and over there in the darkness, the vegetable garden seems to be dozing.

  “This place is wonderful.” Daniel says aloud, whilst caressing the absent owner’s cat. Commodilla responds, purring.

  4

  Green Tea

  “Time for infusion… three minutes.” In the kitchen Anita is looking at a packet of Japanese green tea. She’s still half asleep. Every morning she needs at least half an hour to reconnect with the world.

  “Would you like some tea, Mum?” Giovanna – her hands wet, but her make-up impeccable – has just finished washing the dishes. She doesn’t look fifty-six years old: she’s still a beautiful woman and as slender as she was at twenty.

  “No, thank you. Actually, I’ll make another coffee for myself and keep you company.” She can’t help her dubious expression – she really can’t understand how anyone can breakfast on those tiny greenish leaves…

  “You know, this is a special tea. Green tea… an antioxidant. Perhaps this is why Japanese people are the longest lived on earth!”

  “Maybe…”

  “You need to keep it brewing for precisely three minutes, otherwise it changes taste, and the water mustn’t boil.” While talking, she seems to hear Mizuki’s instructions… must not boil. Anita switches off the burner and begins to pour the water from one pot to another, as she saw it done in Morocco. Finally, she can add the tea.

  Once, Mizuki suggested enrolling her in a course at the Institute of Japanese Culture to learn about the Tea Ceremony. At the time Anita thought it a bit too niche and elitist, and declined the offer. But now, looking at the tiny leaves slowly tinting the water in the teapot, she’s changing her mind. She’d like to do this and more for her Mizuki.

  Then suddenly she remembers the music from the night before. “Mum, last night I heard someone playing music. Do you know anything about it?”

  Giovanna can’t believe that Anita is the first to introduce the subject. “It’s what I tried to tell you yesterday… he’s the musician who rents Diego’s apartment. He seems really nice.” Then she adds – exaggerating a little: “he wanted to meet us all! I wouldn’t be surprised if one of these days we’ll see him working in our vegetable garden.”

  “Sure… I can just imagine the nice musician being keen to make such an offer.” Anita responds with irony. She knows very well the pushy techniques of her mother and Matteo Spina.

  “I don’t understand what’s wrong with being friendly. And Daniel’s not only nice, he’s also very handsome with incredible green eyes…”

  Anita is silent for a few seconds before asking, “And how old is this Adonis?”

  Sipping coffee, her mother hides an ambiguous smile, “About thirty, I think… well, now I really need to go to the grocery store. It’s getting late.”

  Giovanna daydreams while shopping. She sees herself sitting in the elegant gallery of the Opera Theatre with Anita. She went to the Opera Theatre once when she was a child. Her father had been given two tickets from his railway after-work club. She can imagine the scene: just minutes before the curtains come up, she’d point to Daniel in the orchestra pit and say proudly to the people sitting next to her, “That one is my daughter’s fiancé!”

  *

  Back from grocery shopping, Giovanna is unpacking her bags. “Anita, I’d almost forgotten! Matteo asked me to tell you that the new seedlings are popping up. He told me you gave him the seeds. What will we have? Something good?”

  “It’s a surprise, Mum!”

  Anita smiles. She’s secretly broken the rules that restrict planting only vegetables in the garden. She thinks of her tulip bulbs that, with the complicity of Matteo, were planted last December. Her eyes shine, envisioning a touch of colour: like brushstrokes of red, pink and yellow on a green canvas. She already sees herself sitting on the stone bench with a book, enjoying those colours in her free time. “Everybody will love them. I’m sure!”

  Anita loves flowers, but can’t bear it when they’re cut. She discovered the short life of cut flowers when she was seven. The vase her mother had put on the table was beautiful and colourful. Anita spent hou
rs looking at it, but after two days the flowers had begun to wilt. They seemed to suffer and a strange sense of anxiety had overtaken her… “Cut flowers don’t last long,” they explained to her. Since then she’s dreamed of a garden full of flowers. Living flowers.

  “I’m going to take a look!”

  “Hurry up! Lunch is almost ready.”

  Anita has a moment of hesitation. She doesn’t know if she should change or go like this, in her t-shirt and sweatpants. “At this time of the day who’s going to be around…” She darts out.

  Mizuki gave her those tulip bulbs. “They come from Toyooka, in the Prefecture of Hyogo,” and he’d shown her photographs of the Tulip Festival in Japan. Anita was fascinated. “One day we’ll go there together.” He promised her.

  Anita’s walking swiftly along the path towards the garden when she hears the door of the other building slamming. She thinks that it’s Matteo, but when she turns she sees a tall guy.

  “Good morning!” He addresses her from a distance.

  “Morning.” She accelerates in the opposite direction. “Shit!” She thinks, “I’m a mess…”

  Suddenly she turns and sees him walking under the archway and disappearing. On his shoulder he carries the unmistakable case of a double bass. “So, that must be the new tenant!” She suddenly feels uneasy and a chill runs through her body. “It’s not so warm after all. Better go back. The tulips can wait…”

  *

  Daniel tinkers with the big door lock. It’s not easy with his bulky burden.

  “Wait! I can help you,” Paolo, the architect from the attic, materialises in front of him.

  “Thank you. I can manage.”

  “Don’t worry. It’s a pleasure,” and he opens the heavy door. “Do you always carry this massive thing with you?”

  “Thanks for your help… I just went to check out Diego’s car. I put down the back seats and the massive instrument fits in it perfectly.

  “Good,” Paolo remains pondering for a moment, then asks. “Listen, my partner and I are organising a terrace party for next Sunday. Would you like to come?”

  “Hmm, thank you… but I wouldn’t want to intrude…”

  “Intrude?! Someone like you never intrudes! Don’t worry there will be many other people.”

  “Ok, let’s do it! If no business commitments come about at the last minute, I’ll be there.”

  “Great! We’ll be expecting you.”

  *

  “Of course, we couldn’t miss the gay couple in this eccentric building!” He smiles, opening the apartment door. The cat runs towards him, meowing. “Are you hungry, Commodilla?” Daniel opens a can and spoons the food into her bowl. Then looks for a phone number. For a while now he’s been meaning to call his mentor, the retired Professor Rosis, who now lives on the Amalfi Coast. Daniel misses their evening one-on-one sessions. Rosis has been much more than a teacher to him. At times he’s been almost like a father to Daniel, although Daniel has never told him this. A father very different to his own. Sometimes hard when necessary, but never cold and formal like his dad. Daniel still remembers many of Rosis’ words; they have made him a better musician, and maybe even a better person. He has him to thank that he’s found his way. “Well, my boy, you lack passion. Find it, and you’ll be a successful musician!” And Daniel thinks he’s found that passion.

  “Professor Rosis. Good morning!”

  A husky voice greets him with enthusiasm.

  “I’m finally settled in Rome at Garbatella, and I must say, my neighbours are a little strange, but very nice.”

  Rosis immediately asks him about his career and future musical engagements.

  “Don’t worry, it’s starting to happen! In fact, I’m meeting the director of a jazz club this very evening…”

  They chat for a while, until Commodilla asks to be let out onto the balcony.

  *

  Giovanna looks at herself in the mirror. She adjusts her skirt, “Not too bad.” She smiles. “Anita, I’m going.”

  “Are you sure you’re going to see a film? You seem too nicely dressed for that. What time will you be back?” Anita looks at her with playful eyes. For a while now she’s known that her mother isn’t telling her the whole story.

  “Of course I’m going to see a film! I’ll tell you all about it when I get home.”

  “And when will you get back?” Anita doesn’t give up, but her mother has already gone.

  “One of these days I’ll follow her. Every single Monday… something’s up!” But at least she’s alone now and can talk freely to Mizuki, and he seems very happy when he hears her voice on the phone.

  “What about meeting at the Pyramid?” She suggests. “We could go out for something to eat and then go and listen to some live music.”

  Mizuki makes an objection.

  “It’s true! I didn’t think about that. Almost all the clubs are closed on Mondays. You’ve become more Roman than me…! Ok, let’s go to the Auditorium. We’ll have dinner after your show of Kodo Drums… if we’re still hungry.” She laughs. “Seven thirty!”

  *

  She hangs up and begins to think about what to wear. Then she goes to the bathroom and does her make-up: a touch of red lipstick and plentiful mascara. She’s decided on slim black trousers and a white silk blouse – the last gift from Mizuki. She puts her phone and her keys in her handbag and, as she closes the window she hears the usual chatter coming from the yard.

  “Oh my God! They’re still arguing about the vegetable garden… I’m glad I didn’t get involved!”

  *

  “So, Pina, what shall we buy at the market tomorrow? Last year you complained that we didn’t get enough basil…” Matteo Spina has his usual extinguished cigar in the corner of his mouth. “It seems you want the vegetable garden only for your Genovese pesto!”

  “Not true! But in the summer basil is good with everything. Anyway, as well as peppers, aubergines and tomatoes, do we want to add green beans and melons? Ah, and onions…”

  “No! We can easily buy onions.” Matteo Spina replies – he hates onions. “But we always talk about planting, never about hoeing…”

  “Don’t worry. I can hoe!” Paolo intervenes. “But at this point let’s divide our duties equally. Mr Spina, the idea of a community vegetable garden is yours, so now you can tell us who should do what.”

  Matteo Spina rolls his eyes. He’s thinking, “Here comes the architect of the ideal city!” So, to cut things short he proposes: “I’ll take care of buying seeds and plants. Giovanna, who works at home, could do the watering. Rodolfo, who’s free on Monday mornings and Sundays could…”

  “We can’t stay chained to the garden!” exclaims Paolo.

  “Well, we know that there’s more work in some seasons, but then we get the harvest!”

  The sound of steps approaching interrupts them. Everybody turns and sees Daniel.

  “Come, Daniel! You’ve arrived at the right moment. We’re organising the work for the garden. Would you like to be part of it? Diego used to help.”

  Daniel looks at them, slightly embarrassed. “I’m sorry… I don’t think I’d be able to. I’m very busy with studying, rehearsals, and performances in the evening. Also, I have to be careful. I can’t afford to hurt myself. I use my hands for my job.” Then, noticing all those disappointed faces, he adds jokingly, “Even if I have to pass on your invitation to help, I’d love to taste your wonderful produce soon!”

  *

  Anita puts the leather jacket on and takes her helmet. She sees the whole crew of tenants and speeds up, trying to avoid them. In vain! Matteo Spina calls her over. “Come, Anita. I want to introduce you to Diego’s new tenant. He arrived yesterday.”

  So now they’re facing each other.

  “Daniel Bracci. Nice to meet you.”

  “Anita… Proietti.” Ready to shake his hand, she stops abruptly and freezes.

  “I’m sorry… I’m very late. I must go.” She stammers, leaving in a rush. She stops in
front of her scooter, frantically looking for the key. She can’t find it. She has an urge to empty her bag on the ground and start kicking it. She can’t breathe and her cheeks burn. “It’s not possible… why did he have to come here?! To live in Garbatella? In my complex? Next door?” Finally she finds the key in her pocket, starts the engine and hastily leaves.

  *

  Matteo Spina interrupts the embarrassed silence that has descended on the group. “Our Anita is always in a hurry! She was born here. I saw her growing up. She lives on the ground floor and is Giovanna’s daughter. She’s a tour guide, specialising in archaelogy and ancient Roman monuments… I have a passion for it too… quite a beautiful girl, isn’t she?”

  “Oh, yes…” Daniel replies with a distracted air. Curly red hair, tiny freckles, and long, slender legs. How could he forget?

  Only Pina noticed their strange reaction on being introduced. Daniel’s stunned face and Anita’s impulsive flight.

  But now someone else seems to be in a hurry. Matteo Spina checks his watch and then looks almost panic stricken. “I must go. See you later.”

  5

  Kodo Drums

  Anita’s eyes stare at the Auditorium’s stage where there are a broad range of percussion instruments. Muscular bodies are beating on traditional Japanese drums, leading the heartbeat towards an almost mesmerising feeling. Mizuki explained to her that the purpose of the drums had varied throughout history, ranging from military action to theatrical accompaniment and religious ceremony.

  She listens to the increase in tempo. The audience gazes at them with rapt attention: the drummers are like percussionist kamikazes. You’d expect them to drum until they drop. Yet amongst the crowd, there’s someone unable to appreciate all of this. Anita can’t erase the image of Daniel from her mind. She keeps repeating to herself, “How is it possible?”