The Red Box

by Laura Sgarella

  “When you contacted us to get the job you didn’t display your CV, so we did not know if you were experienced or not. We have been bewitched by your rare beauty and this was enough to have you here. Let me know if you need me to explain part of the job which is not clear for you. But now focus yourself on the arrival of the first customer. You might be a lucky as somebody, (I don’t remember exactly who) said,” said the guy with an absent expression. “Rare, uncommon, unusual. How many words shall I say to spur you to work properly?” he carried on, this time letting some emotions be revealed.

  “That’s all right. Whenever I need it I’ll come back to you,” Samantha said, trying to be sincere.

  The first customer arrived early. A man in his forties was there to buy a present for his wife. He picked a dress with polka dot material and one trimmed with white lace. “It’s four hundred pounds? said Samantha embarrassed. The man paid on the dot and left a one-hundred-pound tip for Samantha.

  Very demanding customers came all day long. When lunch break finally arrived, Samantha was totally exhausted. She went to eat in a pub restaurant nearby. She sat near the door and realized a sinister guy was watching her. He didn’t hesitate to approach her and start chatting. “Hi, it’s the first time I’ve see you here. I am a habitué of this place,” he said.

  “I’m here because today it’s my first day of work at the Versace shop nearby. Actually, it’s my second day in London. I currently live at the Regent Palace Hotel but I am looking for better lodgings,” she said nervously.

  “It’s kismet that made us meet. I am a building constructor and I run an agency that sells and rents flats and any kind of property all over London. I can make a special price for you. I’m here only for three months, then I’ll go back to my family in the Czech Republic. They are anxiously waiting for me. But I’m sure you will find a flat which is most suitable for you,” he said.

  “We can meet each other tomorrow at this same place. Now my lunch break is finished, I have to go.”

  “Wait a minute: at what time shall we see each other tomorrow?”

  “Errr. I’m considering skipping my lunch, so we can gather somewhere else nearby at half past eight, when I leave the shop. Is that OK for you?”

  “It’s perfect. I’ll give you my telephone number in case we have difficulty in finding the right place of our meeting. Don’t worry about the bill. I’ll pay it for you.”

  “Very kind of you. I’m looking forward to seeing you again.”

  At the end of the working day Samantha was worn out. She went to her hotel room being careful of the time in case her new friend would call her. She nearly forgot her friend Lucy’s pledge that she would have contacted her later in the day. It was midnight and the phone was ringing. “Hi, Nelly, how are things going?”

  “Now I am Samantha, do not forget it. Things are OK for the moment. I met a man who can be helpful finding the right accommodation for me at a bargain price. I have leaflets of all kinds in my room. I’m looking for information about Sotheby’s auction where we will sell our jewels. What about you? When are you coming to London?”

  “Sooner than you imagine. I have just finished arguing with my former love and dealing with my toddler who was throwing a tantrum. As a sign of rebellion, I threw my engagement ring out of the window. Tomorrow I will be with you in London. Do not despair. Now it’s time to sleep. Good night.”

  “Good night Lucia.” Samantha was very agitated and she had difficulty in falling into a deep sleep. She was not sure whether take sleeping pills or not. She was turning over and over on her sides of the bed when somebody knocked at the door. A burst of heat took hold of her. “Hi Lucia! How come you are here so early?”

  “I just wanted to surprise you. Actually, I chose you at the airport and I saw you when you came here at the Regent’s Palace Hotel. Don’t tell me I’m crazy. By the way: did you check if the case is in perfect condition? I mean, I hope there is no jewel missing.”

  “Yes, why not? It’s the first thing I did when I came into my room.”

  “I put some condoms among the jewels when you were out at work. I guess you haven’t noticed it yet. I managed to get the key of the room at reception and here we are.”

  “What a funny idea. Do you think I am a perfect prey for a womanizer?”

  “Who knows! Here is your diary with several phone numbers and addresses. Who is Doctor Van der Baast? You can have a good G. P. here.”

  “Yes, I know. But Van der Baast is famous all over Europe. I can contact him just to have some advice.”

  “Sometimes I find it difficult to understand you. But now allow me to have a relaxing bath. I skipped my dinner and I am a bit tired.”

  When Lucia went to the shower Samantha dialed immediately the number. “Van der Baast?” Nobody answered from the end.

  Jill was all alone in her flat, busy with the ironing. Araon had left the flat very early in the morning to go to work and examine the situation carefully. Jill was just two weeks pregnant and she already felt the baby growing inside her belly. She was dreaming of him kicking and kicking again. She was a perfect size eight and she knew that with a perfect diet she would go back to her own shape after only four months from giving birth. But this was the last of her worries. She thought of Araon hampered by a heavy load. He was worried that he would not be good at holding the newborn baby on his arms. He even didn’t know how to teach him to walk and to talk on due time. She placed the ironing on the ironing board and carried on with her homecare. She was still able to smell the odour of coffee that Araon sipped that morning.

  The cat arrived from the sitting-room looking for cuddles. “It’s not the right moment my dear,” said Jill promptly while increasing her breath. Once in a blue moon she came up with a weird idea. She went rummaging through the flat to check if Araon had left cigarettes somewhere She scanned all the house and she found nothing. “Hopefully he is not destroying himself with that poison. He should be a more responsible man now that we are going to be three of us. To be sensible is not a prerogative of Araon but, hopefully, he is changing now,” thought Jill. She didn’t want to lose her good mood so she started thinking of the name they would give to the baby if she was a baby boy or a baby girl. Amstel and Rokin were her favourite ones. They reminded her of the desire of the gypsy she encountered in those streets when she was a young teen. But she was struggling with the suggestion of the priest who wanted the couple give their son a Christian name. Araon, in his turn, didn’t know if to back Jill or to impose the name of his father if it was a baby boy and the name of his mother if it was a baby girl. Jill was so confused. Araon was not that domineering husband but he had his own right to affect such an important choice. Jill was facing the wonders of the world like a teen. She had a look at her wristwatch and she realized it was already ten am. She had an appointment with the beautician at half past ten and she had to hurry up.

  When she arrived at the shop, she felt relieved the beautician had already prepared the creams to massage the muscles and knead it all to soothe such a gracious figure.

  “How are you Jill? I’m glad to see you.”

  “I’m fine, thanks. I hope I am not late.”

  “Do not worry, we will finish on time. You can lay on the bed and relax yourself during my beauty therapy. I see you have lovely skin. You don’t need to come here very often.”

  “I just want to pamper myself a bit. For Araon I will always be a beauty queen. He is mad about me.”

  “I see you are bubbling over with happiness and bursting with health. What is your secret?”

  “Actually, I am pregnant. I wanted to keep this news secret until the shape of my tummy will betray me but I don’t resist the temptation to announce it.”

  “Why do you want to keep it secret? It’s a fantastic news.”

  “I’m only two weeks pregnant but I look forward to giving birth. Araon will be at my side in the delivery room. He is more anxious than me and he is very scared of the birth pains.”

 
; “He reminds me of my husband the day I was laboring to give birth to our only child. He locked himself into the toilet for fear of accompanying me into the delivery room. Later on, he, hopefully, realized that the joy of parenthood annihilated any fear. We faced a minor crisis during our marriage, but, with the help of the Divine Providence we overcame it very thoroughly. I wish you to have the same joy as mine for the arrival of your child. Oh! I didn’t realize that time has passed. We were chatting divinely. It’s the end of your massage and treatment.”

  “How much is it?”

  “Don’t worry it’s for free. Consider it a present for the baby you feel growing in your womb.”

  “You are very kind. See you soon.”

  Before leaving the shop, Jill addressed her attention to a newspaper column: ‘Queen of sex pinched’. “What is this?” she exclaimed with surprise.

  “It’s yesterday’s daily newspaper. You can take it with you if you want. I do not need it any more.”

  “Thank you so much. I have to go now.” Jill started hastily to go through the lines of the newspaper and she learnt that a prostitute forced a customer of hers to give her all the jewels of his wife over the misdeed he had not paid for one year. She had been soon released on bail as the magistrates expressed their judgment in favour of her. Jill was frightened and disgusted at the same time. Anyway, there were other things she had to be worried about.

  Meanwhile, Araon was busy at his working site. He was proud of the work of the team members and he felt sorry that the work was soon to be finished leaving them unemployed for six months at least. Poor guys: they would be forced to live on unemployment benefits. The team leader approached him trembling with fear. He let him see all the work done and offered him a cup of coffee. “No thanks, I had already had my cup this morning. Another one will let me feel too nervous,” Araon replied gently. He probably didn’t need more adrenalin for the moment. “From what I see, you are finishing your work on due time. I’m proud of you,” he carried on. “I’ll come to meet you tomorrow morning at this same time. Bye for now to everybody.” And he finally left the place leaving the team members embarrassed by all that burst of enthusiasm.

  Once far from the yard, he was overwhelmed by his usual thoughts. Would he be able to find the skeleton of the missing corpse at the Van Gogh Museum? Was prostitution the way to lead the investigation? He walked until he came to an open space where young couples would hide themselves. Love sentences were the routine over there and this, by mistake, prompted Araon to consider the missed love affair theme the inspiring choice for his subtle investigation. Was it possible that the corpse had been brought abroad so cunningly? Was it possible that the damage of the whole thing was the artifice of a crime of passion? Araon was proudly asking himself about the matter and started thinking of Mark the homeless: he might be a possible witness to the story, being him a difficult to talk to person. And all those red letters in his necklace. Van der Baast, what a mistake. He was not acting properly on behalf of Araon. He was completely useless for this sort of analysis of the crime. Everything at the end would get to Jill ears. Another month had gone and the possibility to find the slightest clue to the truth was as real as a ghost. Araon used to dream a lot during his sleep. And he envisioned himself with the most horrible situation. To be more precise he was frightened that the crime had been committed nevertheless by somebody in the museum. How stupid: why had never thought of this before? Never mind, it was only a possibility which couldn’t easily turn into reality.

  The more he walked, the more he found himself foreign to the situation. Stop: from now on he was concerned with Jill only. He was considering bringing her to the puppet show in the evening.

  It was five pm when Jill woke up and Araon was not surprised by this.

  “Hi darling, what time is it?”

  “It’s five pm.”

  “Oh my God. I have just woken up. I imagine you skipped lunch, didn’t you?”

  “Do not worry. I have also just arrived. I had a strenuous day at work so I absolutely needed to wander around and confide myself the secret of all my team members’ happiness. I speak strangely, sorry Jill. The point is, the yard is soon to be closed and all my employees will live on unemployment benefits for six months. You cannot imagine the pain but I have no choice. I have never known what it is to be redundant in my life. Yes, there was a period in which I didn’t work but I sorted out everything quickly for the sake of your wellbeing. I’m sure that among my employees there are some who are deeply in love. Their goal is to uphold their family with dignity and humbleness. Now tell me, how was your day.”

  “I ironed for a while and then I went to the beautician. I wanted to be beautiful for you and you haven’t noticed any change in my skin.”

  “You are always beautiful Jill,” said Araon who, for the first time, realized to be in front of a mature woman with the appearance of a twenty something.” You have a lovely alabastrine skin which I adore and you know it,” said Araon whose wife took his breath away.

  “You are sincere, Araon. I know it very well. That’s why I’ll now prepare something to eat.”

  “No, thank you. I grabbed a sandwich with some diet coke. I have a surprise for you. I want to take you to the puppet show this evening. We can have dinner at the foyer of the restaurant of the theatre.”

  “It sounds terrific. Do you want to drive there?”

  “To drive? Don’t you remember the vow me made on behalf of Greenpeace? We have to renounce driving our car for a while. We will travel comfortably by train.”

  “Sorry darling. It must be my pregnancy. I am so confused! I’m starting to be overwhelmed by my pregnancy whims. Hopefully I do not wish to eat more than due. After all, I’m still shocked by a newspaper article I found at the beautician. It read; Queen of Sex pinched. Apparently, a prostitute forced a customer of hers to give her his wife’s jewels since the man had ignored the sum of money he owed to her for the service. She has been released on bail with the pledge to give the jewels back to their owner. Those women cause a lot of trouble. I mean in Italy, the law Merlin abolished prostitution in 1959 once and for all. Here we have to face the humiliation of seeing all those beauties exposed in the windows of the brothels as if they were ordinary goods.”

  “I believe that prostitution will damn our meekness for good. A simple law to abolish it will be not be efficient at all. Anyway, I believe that the newspaper article had the purpose of dressing up the ultimate reality of the brothels. Don’t think of it now. You must be serene. Go and get ready to go out now. I’ll take a shower,” said Araon.

  Under the shower, Araon flew with his mind into the past. He was remembering a lewd girl among his classmates who used to show her breasts to her companions during the break time. All companions but him finished in bed with her afterwards. He was the only one to miss those moments of pleasure because of an intimate shyness and deep sense of morality. He was also the only one who had never used pornographic material. His mates used to call him the saint. His only experience of sex was with Jill. He had never asked himself if for Jill it was the same thing. He preferred to be ignorant of the situation than bursting out in a jealous drama. This was what he called par condicio, to use a foreign word.

  “Darling, are you ready? It’s already six o’ clock. We will arrive late at the theatre.”

  “Sure sweetheart. I’ll be ready in a few minutes.”

  He was surprised to notice Jill was wearing old jeans, the usual white shirt and a leather handbag, which forced him to stay in harmony with her dressing style. Eventually they caught the train and they were going to arrive at the theatre soon. The vibe was electrifying.

  They were sitting next to a couple of gypsies. Amsterdam was a tolerant city in terms of immigration but the gypsies were an isolated issue. They were dirty, lazy and horribly dressed. Jill held Araon’s hand in search of protection. She couldn’t stand another moment like that. The journey by train was a sort of fatigue that dismissed all Jill’s fears. Once a
t the theatre she was more in tune with the ambiance of the place. Firstly, they went to the local restaurant where they had a quick dinner before going in the stalls and sitting on the front row. The presenter, a young woman in her thirties, announced the theme of the day. All the income of the show was destined to go to a benefit association with the duty to help children in peril of starvation in the poorest parts of the world. She thanked everybody for their generosity. Loud applause cheered the opening of the curtains.

  The first act was called Alice in Wonderland. “Alice,” exclaimed Araon. “I have the name of our child if it is a baby girl,” he said.

  “You are crazy Araon. Just concentrate on the show,” Jill said tasting some popcorn.

  The puppets had been able to animate the throng who gathered over there. At the end of the show, there was a fancy passing: of masks of all the eminent politicians paraded on the stage. There was not a satirical purpose in it but it was a way to thank the government for allowing that charity event to take place.

  At the switching on of the light, Araon and Jill noticed the presence of Mark, the riding school instructor. He was dressed in a smart tuxedo, accompanied by a lady who was about ten years his junior. He saw them and approached them with a genuine smile. “Hi Jill, hi Araon. This is my friend Al. How are you? It’s a long time since we have seen each other.”

  “Actually, we are currently very busy but we will find the time to join you at the riding school. Did you enjoy the show?”

  “Certainly, but I was more enthusiastic to admire all the paintings of the genius at the Van Gogh Museum. I simply adore the Sunflowers,” Mark said.

  Araon put incredible effort in trying to conceal his emotions. Did Mark know about the blood next to that famous painting? He was sure to be the only person present in the museum that day of a restoration work and he was sure that even the officers on duty hadn’t noticed the presence of the abundant blood the previous evening, being as the room was closed for work to be done. He was hag-ridden. He had clearly in mind the picture of the handkerchief covered with blood that he used to clean the floor promptly. “There is some terrific news I want to tell you,” Mark said, pretending not to notice his friend’s absent-mindedness.