Something New - PT. 3
Soon enough, the bells were informing us that another hour had passed.
“I find it so interesting that, even though everyone has either a watch, a clock, or a cellphone, they still use the bell tower to tell time every fifteen minutes! Does it ever annoy you?”
“No, not really. I know Lillian and Uncle Bill absolutely hate it, but I find it reassuring”
“Why reassuring?”
“I guess it gives me a sense of repetition, a sense of routine, a sense that nothing changes here”
“You don’t like change?”
“Not particularly, no”
“Why?”
We’d gone through half of the cake already, and seconds and thirds of tea.
“It’s complicated”
Ìspirah’s gaze fell to my chest, then to her plate covered in crumbs, posture shrinking.
“Is it… Is it connected to why you looked so overwhelmed at the park?”
Shooting an unintentional glare at her, she became flustered.
“I mean, you don’t have to talk about it, obviously. I was just wondering, I-”
“It is, but I’d rather not get into it”
She looked embarrassed, unsure of how to continue, so I added “I’m sorry, it’s just a lot to explain-”
I began cleaning up.
“-Come on, let’s head out”
“Sure…”
Once everything was settled and put away, we left, venturing through the courtyard, awkwardly silent.
“Michael-?”
Our eyes met, as I shut the gate behind us.
“-Please don’t feel sorry for not wanting to share. You barely know me, anyway”
“Honestly, Ìspirah, don’t worry” I tried smiling “Besides, you’re right. I do barely know you - which is exactly why I wanted us to hang out. I-” oh, if Jeff could hear me now “I do want to get to know you - a lot actually. And, sorry if that comes across as weird. I’m not used to being ‘proactive’ or whatever people do to get to know new people. So, I have no idea what I’m doing and-”
I was blathering again, I took a deep breath.
“What I’m trying to say is, I like your company and all of your questions - I really do. And, I would really like it, if you could tell me more about yourself. If you want to, that is”
The sampietrini roads felt uncomfortably uneven under my shoes.
Timidly throwing a glance at Ìspirah, I noted she wasn’t yet saying a word. My chest tightened - I had definitely screwed up.
“I guess-” she peeped, through half of a grin “-that makes two of us, then… I was raised in a very secluded environment, so I don’t really know the best way to do these things either. I think, that’s why I’m always asking loads of questions. To get to know, well, everything”
Her insecure stare fluttered to the ground, shoulders raising.
“So, maybe we could try figuring this out… together?”
“Ma certo” a weight lifted from within me “We can do that”
By then, we were deep in the town’s centro.
“Tell me about this ‘secluded environment’ you grew up in-” I tried “-If you want”
“Well, I’m not too sure where I could even begin, to be honest”
“Wherever you want” we were about to walk past Marilyn’s “Take your time”
Peeking at the coffee shop’s window, I saw Jeff sat at the same table from earlier, but not on his own - Bello, his lifelong best friend, had joined him. That didn’t surprise me, the two were inseparable.
My brother distractedly glimpsed in our general direction and, for a split second, locked eyes with me. That was all he’d needed for his jaw to drop and to shake the other teen to look over, as well. I withheld a groan - with that ornery expression on his face, I knew I was going to hear about this later.
I redirected my focus back to Ìspirah, who was still contemplating where to begin with her story.
“Let me put it this way” she started “My Father had, and still has, very high expectations of me. He wants me to be as close to perfect as possible. Because of that, He had me trained in all sorts of things. From academics, languages, mechanics and fine arts, and yes, that includes martial arts, and so on”
“Your father must be a big deal in Sweden”
She loudly guffawed, but the tone of her laughter felt empty.
“Not just in Sweden, I can assure you of that…” she shrugged “However, I was rebellious. I questioned Him, His values and His goals, all the time. He got fed up with me and decided to send me away, until I learned my lesson. So, here I am”
I found myself staring at her, not too sure what to say. We had made it to the cartoleria, but I couldn’t bring myself to go in and proceed as though she’d simply commented on the weather.
“That’s… a lot” I managed “You seem to be so cheery all the time, I wasn’t expecting this to be the reason you’d moved here”
“I don’t find much value in dwelling on it. I’d rather enjoy all of these new experiences, while I can. Once He thinks I’ve learned to respect Him, He’ll send to have me taken back”
“Surely, he can’t do that”
“Oh, but He can, and He will. But, it’s ok. I’m already experiencing far more than I thought I would ever get the chance to”
“And, you don’t know when that’ll happen”
“Exactly, no idea. Realistically, it’s probably gonna be a while. He actually thinks that giving me freedom is a form of punishment, hah!”
She furrowed her brows, smiling to herself.
“Unfortunately, for Him, He has no idea how much I like it here”
“I’m really sorry, Ìspirah. I would have never guessed-”
“Hey!” she interrupted me “Please, don’t be. As of now, I’m actually happy. Shall we go in?”
“I-, erm, sure”
Defeated, I followed her into the shop.
Punto e Virgola was the name of this particular cartoleria. It had been here well before I’d moved to Corbetta. The shopkeeper, Gloria, had never aged, forever looking forty. Black curly hair, late 90s make-up, and the exact same southern tan, all year around, every year.
The shop itself was tiny. Just one room, completely occupied by wooden shelves, covered in magazines, backpacks, and cob webs that stretched all the way up to the ceiling. The counters were glass cases, displaying stationery that had been for sale since the beginning of time, some of it fading to shades of either beige or brown.
Gloria appeared from the back room, golden necklaces chiming along with her big golden earrings. She laced her fingers together and placed them on one of the counters, showing off her shiny rings and fake red nails.
“Mikey! What can I do fer ya? Did ya finish yer last notebook already?”
I nodded and she quickly stomped into the backroom.
“Ya know, Mikey-!” her voice was muffled “You could just buy some in bulk one o’ these days. It’d be a lot cheapah fer ya, ya know?”
She came back with yet another medium sized black Arbos notebook.
“I mean, whatcha gon’ do if they stop makin’ these?”
Wallet in hand, I counted the coins I owed her.
“I’ll think about it when the time comes, Gloria”
“I order these jus’ fer you, ya know?”
She said that every time.
“I know, and for that, I’m grateful”
Her wide grin deepened the dimples in her cheeks.
“Good, ya betta be!” she laughed, moving her attention past me “Anything fer you, tesoro?”
Ìspirah, who had been squishing her face into the other glass case, shot up.
“I’ll think about it! There are so many really old things in here!” she proceeded to crouch back down “Like that puppy notebook” she pressed a finger into the glass “It’s gone, like, dark yellow. Is it supposed to look like that?”
Gloria’s hands flew to her hips, her jaw clenched, completely lost.
“Ma-! Come cazzo ti permetti?!”
All of Gloria’s jewellery jingled, as she threw appalled Italian gestures at us.
Well, at Ìspirah, really.
“Maleducata!” she continued to yell.
Ìspirah stood up, utterly confused.
“Why? What did I say?”
“Sorry Gloria, we’ll leave now-”
Stuffing my new notebook into my bag, I escorted Ìspirah and myself to the door.
I let the door shut behind us, before we could hear the rest.
Pushing Ìspirah away from the piazza the cartoleria faced, I walked us across the street.
“Wait, what? Michael, wait-!” I stopped and faced her “-What happened in there?”
“She thought you were being rude”
“How?”
“She thought you were being a smart aleck, insinuating she sold old junk”
“Oh…”
“Yeah, oh”
I brought a hand to my face, trying to hide my amusement.
“It’s ok - you’ll come to realise that people’s memory retainment is super short here. That’s how they’re able to repeat the same things every day, have the same conversations all the time…”
As an attempt to cheer her up, I added-
“-And, it’s how they don’t realise that their products are thirty years too old to be sold as brand new”
She snorted and we laughed together.
“Should I go say sorry?”
“If you want to, but she’ll forget by tomorrow, trust me”
Ìspirah’s laughter carried on, to then evolve into a soft giggle.
“Fine, I’ll trust you” and she gave me a smirk that made my heart skip a beat “So, Michael, what’s next on your to-do list today?”
“Oh, actually just this” I didn’t want to go our separate ways just yet, though “But, we could, uh, go for a walk, you know, to walk off the massive merenda we had”
“Sounds like a plan”
Her smile made my stomach twist - this was all very new to me. I hadn’t even realised that, as a reflex, I had clenched onto my sweater. She hadn’t seemed to notice, thankfully.
“Where to then? I still have loads to see”
“Well, it depends on what you’re in the mood for”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah, if you wanted to do something more towny, we could stick around here, or head towards Magenta, see if there are any events, or if there’s anything playing at the cineteatro. Or, we could even go for a bike ride in the fields, I mean, the days are getting longer. Or, we could head out to Bareggio, it’s a bit far from here, but I heard they do-”
I stopped myself - I didn’t know what had gotten into me.
“-Oh gosh, I’m getting way ahead of myself, I’m so sorry-”
But, her eyes were sparkling.
“I wanna do all of those things!”
Tension dissipated from my shoulders.
“Haha, we can start with one, for now”
“Fine - but, I do want to do all of those things you just mentioned, eventually”
It wasn’t going to be a very long ‘eventually’, though. Her time here in Corbetta was limited. Any day, she could disappear and she wouldn’t get to experience everything she wanted to.
That’s when it hit me.
I no longer wanted to spend time with her just because she was an interesting novelty for me to try to understand. I wanted spend time with her to help her do everything she wanted to do - while, she still could.
“We will, I promise”
“Good” she crossed her arms “For today…” she really seemed to think about it “I’m actually quite happy to stay around here. Maybe we could walk around the outskirts of the centro?”
“Sure”
We walked side by side, past the public parking lot, past the middle school and the Aldo Moro building. She asked infinite questions regarding the places we’d see, and whether I’d spent any time in them. I told her about my experience as a student at Aldo Moro, and what it had been like learning Italian from scratch, as an eight year old.
“It was a while ago now, but, back then, they were in no way prepared for foreign kids. Jeff was younger, so he remembers less of it, I think”
We continued along the bicycle path and I enquired about her own childhood.
“It’s hard to say” she sighed “My childhood wasn’t too different from my teen years, or from my most recent years, you know? Same people, same peers, same rules and schedules - almost for as long as I can remember”
“Huh, sounds like heaven to me”
She gave me an odd look, with a spark of alertness in her eyes.
“Sorry!” I fretted back “I know you didn’t enjoy it… I just wish my childhood had been more stable”
“That’s understandable”
We’d made it to the crossroads. To our left was the cemetery, in front of us was the continuation of the bike path, heading towards the fields, and to our right was the oratorio, along the same street that led back into the centro.
“Which way?” she asked.
“Up to you”
She eyed the several benches under the trees on the right.
“How about we take a break?”
“Alright”
We sat on the one in the middle.
The newly born leaves rustled above us and pioppi clouds sat at our feet. Children could be heard playing in the oratorio across the road. We didn’t say anything for a few minutes. And, weirdly, it wasn’t awkward. It felt nice, actually. It was nice to take in the moment with her like this.
Words came to mind.
I quickly opened my bag to pull out my new notebook, and was about to write them down, when Ìspirah asked “What are you up to?”
“Oh, I had an idea for a piece of poetry - I just wanted to jot down a few notes”
“You use your notebook everyday, right?”
“Yeah”
“Can I write something in it?”
“Absolutely” I handed her the notebook and my pen “Write whatever you want”
She started scribbling something on the top left of the first page. I waited, holding onto the potential new verses in my head like a mantra.
“Here”
She handed it back and I gave it a look.
A drawing of a square flower and a few phrases below it.
Incolumis et Salvus
To many more days just like this
Ìspirah
My stomach twisted, again - she really did want to spend more time with me.
“Thanks, Ìspirah” I hadn’t studied the dead language in ages, but it was similar enough to Italian for me to translate “Unscathed and Safe. Of course, you know Latin”
“Yep, you caught me” she jokingly raised her hands in surrender “But, in all seriousness, thanks for today. It feels nice to get to know you. Plus, you seem to know a whole bunch of things we could do around here, and I am going to hold you accountable for that! Just giving you a heads up”
She smirked directly at me.
“That’s perfectly fine” I laughed to ignore my accelerating heartbeat “We can do whatever you want”
I wasn’t sure if I would regret this later, but knowing she was going to be here for a limited amount of time, was enough to make me take that first step out of my comfort zone.