Father Panic's Opera Macabre

by Thomas Tessier

  "What about your parents and grandparents?"

  "Oh, they don't climb the stairs anymore. The only one who might walk in on us here is my uncle. He would be upset and hurt."

  "And angry?"

  "Well, maybe a little."

  "What about the-the servants?"

  Marisa sighed-unhappily, it seemed to Neil. "They will stay away until I instruct them to clean your room and make up your bed. When we go downstairs."

  "Do they bother you?" He had spoken without thinking, so he quickly added, "Or am I just imagining that?"

  She hesitated before admitting, "It is difficult."

  Neil could tell that she didn't want to talk about it. They lay still for a few more moments, but then Marisa sat up in a sudden quick movement and smiled irrepressibly again. She was so beautiful, her black hair mussed, her magnificent breasts swaying slightly as she turned her body to face him, her eyes sparkling with life. She kissed his lips, his cheeks, his neck, his ears, a quick flurry of affectionate butterfly kisses. Neil felt a fresh wave of emotion surge through him, not merely lust or desire, but something more complicated and harder to define.

  Suddenly he remembered that the men there were going to patch his radiator today, and then he would drive away to find the nearest town and a repair shop. An inn for the night. At least, that was the plan. But now Neil felt no urgency about leaving. He wondered if Marisa would ask him to stay for another night. Instead of letting him take a room in town. He could hire a taxi to drive him back here and pick him up again when his car was ready-which might take two or three days, if they had to order out to get the correct replacement radiator.

  "Come on, now," she said, interrupting his thoughts. "We don't have that much time. I want to watch you shave."

  They ate breakfast on the patio. It was a mild sunny morning and the air was sweet. Neil had deliberately chosen to wait until mid-September for this trip, knowing that the hordes of the summer visitors would pretty much be gone by then. He and Marisa had fresh fruit, omelets and strong coffee. Neil felt awake again, though still a little tired.

  They saw Father Anton returning to the house. He had a long brisk stride for a man of his apparent years. When he noticed Marisa and Neil on the patio, he veered off the path and stopped to say hello and exchange a few pleasantries with them, nodding and smiling. But it seemed as if his thoughts were on other matters, and he soon left them to go inside.

  "It's much different today," Marisa said. "Better, easier, you know? Yesterday they didn't know you and they were kind of uncertain. But today, it's like you are part of the household."

  Neil laughed. "Good. I was afraid that I was causing you problems with them. Not to mention the inconvenience."

  "No," she scoffed. Neil loved the way emotion showed in even the smallest of her facial expressions. "It's good now, it's okay."

  "Well, I'm glad."

  "So, I was thinking. Since it's such a lovely morning, perhaps you would like to go for a walk. There are plenty of old paths and trails, and the countryside is quite nice around here."

  He smiled at her. "I'd love to go for a walk with you."

  "Ah. I was hoping you would say that." Marisa moistened her lips. "I want to touch you again, right now." Then she laughed happily at her own impatience. "Damn!"

  A few minutes later, equipped with a small picnic basket and a large

  beach towel, they set off. When they had walked a little more than a hundred yards, Neil stopped for a moment and glanced back. Now he could see the side of the house where his room was, though he wasn't sure exactly which window was his. So they had to be on the same ridge where he had seen the three men early that morning.

  "Is something wrong?" Marisa asked.

  "No, not at all. I just realized that the way we're going is in the view I have from the window in my room."

  "Yes."

  "I woke up early this morning. Just for a moment."

  "You did?"

  "I heard voices out here and I saw some men on this path."

  "I should have warned you," Marisa said. "Those people make noise day and night. The old ones stay up late, drinking. Then the younger ones get up early to go about their work. They have no consideration. I'm very sorry, I hope they didn't disturb you."

  "No, I fell right back to sleep."

  "I'm glad."

  "I thought I heard a gunshot."

  "Yes, they hunt early in the morning," Marisa explained. "Sometimes they bring back a deer, or ducks and geese from the lake. They need the food. It's such a shame, you know."

  "What is?"

  "The land looks so beautiful-and it truly is. But it is so difficult to live on, almost impossible. All of the work that has to be done, it never ends, and it never seems like enough."

  They walked for nearly an hour. It was easy going, as the path never rose or descended too sharply. They stopped a few times to enjoy the views and to kiss. Marisa told him how she and her brother had explored all of the countryside for miles around as children, and she got Neil to tell her a little bit about the book he was working on. It was another Italian chronicle from Stendhal, he admitted. Marisa thought that was wonderful, but Neil knew the critics would probably tear into him for repeating himself. Oh well. For one thing, he didn't have a better idea.

  The sun was almost directly overhead when Marisa led him off the faint path and through a brief stretch of high brush and small trees. A few minutes later they came out into a mossy clearing at the base of a rocky wall, an area not much larger than a good-sized living room. A clump of spindly birch trees provided some shade. A narrow stream of water flowed down the rocks and disappeared into the thick brush at the perimeter.

  "We're here," Marisa announced. She spread the beach towel on the grass beneath the birches.

  "Perfect," Neil said. He set the picnic basket down and went to the stream. He had worked up a light sweat, so he splashed his face with water. It was very cold and it felt great. A perfect place for a picnic.

  Marisa was kneeling on the towel, sitting back on her heels. She had already removed her canvas shoes and tossed them onto the grass. She was wearing a peasant-style blouse and a loose skirt that came to mid-calf, but which was now bunched up just over her knees. Neil sat beside her, resting his back against the trunk of one of the birches.

  "There's a bottle of wine in the basket," she said. "Some fresh bread, mortadella and cheese."

  "Mmm."

  She leaned forward on her hands, and she was like a big beautiful cat pressing against him. Still on her hands and knees, she positioned herself over his lap, and smiled up at him.

  "Or would you like to play with me first?"

  "Mmmm ..."

  Neil reached under, slipping his hand inside her blouse, caressing her breasts, teasing her nipples. His other hand moved beneath her skirt and up the back of her thigh-the sudden thrill of finding that she had no panties on, that her flesh was so hot and moist already. His finger moved into her easily and stroked and rubbed her. Marisa's eyes were closed, her mouth open, and she sighed and groaned with something more than pleasure, some longing and need so great that it seemed almost heartbreaking to Neil. Then she whipped her head back, hair flying, and her mouth tightened, her breath sharp and fast, grunting with ferocity. Neil stroked and caressed her until she sagged down on her forearms and rolled her face in his crotch. Feeling how hard he was, she lithely swung her body around so that her backside faced him. She pulled her skirt up over her hips.

  "Please, now..."

  Neil quickly pulled his pants down, knelt behind her, took hold of her and then thrust into her. Such dizzying pleasure, laced with a passing spasm of sharp pain. Marisa cried out urgently.

  "Harder, harder..."

  She swung her head back and forth in the air again. Neil grabbed her long hair in one hand, carefully pulling it taut. She tilted her head back, and then he could see the wild smile, the roaring look on her face-her eyes open and fiery, urging him, challenging him.

&nb
sp; "Harder harder... make me feel you ... more... MORE!"

  Her cries were so loud now. Sweat stung Neil's eyes as he slammed into her again and again, and Marisa went down, her face pressed against the towel, her arms splayed out, hands clutching the cotton, her eyes closed again now, and he forced her hips down to the ground too, his body pressed on hers as he came, his face buried in her hair.

  "My lover..."

  "My lover," Neil said, stroking her face.

  "Ah." Marisa put on an impish smile. "I think maybe you better not say anything more right now."

  "Will you come to Rome? At least to visit?"

  Her eyes widened in mock-surprise. "See what I mean?" She pressed her finger to his lips. "Sssh. Who knows?" She kissed him again.

  It was the middle of the afternoon by the time Neil and Marisa arrived back at the house. They found two men pondering Neil's radiator, which was on a large sheet of plastic on the ground. They were daubing it with a tar-like substance. Much of the front end of the car had been dismantled, with loose parts scattered all around. One of the men launched into a long and detailed explanation- to Marisa-that involved hand-waving and pointing to various tricky places on the radiator. Neil didn't understand a word they spoke but it was quite obvious that he wasn't going anywhere that day. He didn't mind, in fact he felt a distinct sense of relief.

  "It's difficult," Marisa explained. "There's so much corrosion, so many spots for them to patch up."

  Neil nodded. "I can see how bad it is."

  "Maybe by tomorrow?"

  "Okay."

  "Anyhow, if they can't get it working again, my brother will be home by the end of the week."

  "Even better."

  Marisa tried not to smile. "It's a good thing they don't speak English. You're very naughty!"

  Neil smiled at her. "I'm trying."

  The Last Night

  Neil was exhausted by the long walk and their intense lovemaking, so he was glad when Marisa suggested another late afternoon siesta. She led him back to his room, promising to return for him later. He was also grateful to hear that they were excused from dinner with the family that night. He had no desire to find out what might be on the menu this time. Though in all fairness to them, it was their house and he was the intruder, and Marisa's family probably felt just as uncomfortable as Neil had.

  But what a bizarre, sad household it was. What would he make of all this without Marisa? As Neil stretched out on the bed and nestled his head in the soft pillow, he realized that since he had arrived there yesterday he'd had almost no time to think about anything. The one instance when he had a few moments alone, Neil had heard the unusual metal scraping sound and he had discovered that peculiar alcove, which may or may not have had the body of a young man in it. Otherwise, Marisa was with him, occupying his thoughts and attention, or else he was too tired and sleepy to think.

  Marisa was wonderful. He loved the way she made him respond naturally, instinctively-without the need for thought or analysis. She had such a gift and an appetite for living, it seemed to him. It was a terrible thing that she was stuck here, so unfair and unnatural. Her own personal life was indefinitely on hold.

  Neil had to find the right way to speak to Marisa about it, to make her see that she had to do something-for her own sake. She could at least try to get away for a few days every month, to Rome, anywhere. Just to be among other people, to stroll about a city, eat in a restaurant, see a movie...

  He was about ten years older than Marisa was, but that didn't seem to matter to her and it certainly didn't to him. Maybe a real relationship would never work out, but Neil had a strong sense that he could not just drive away and let go without even trying.

  He had to leave ... but he had to see her again ...

  ... wanted her ...

  His eyes closed.

  "Do we have to wait for everybody to go to bed again tonight?" Neil asked, smiling at her.

  "You're so naughty, I love it," Marisa said, laughing. "No, we don't. I have a special place I want to show you."

  They were finishing a light meal in the billards room. Some vacuous Euro-techno music droned on the radio in the background. Marisa looked very pretty, very girlish in a dark blue-green plaid skirt that almost reached her knees and a white short-sleeved blouse that was somehow even sexier to Neil because it was buttoned all the way to the top. She wore several thin silver bracelets on her wrists. She had braided some of the hair on the sides of her head and tied it with beaded blue bands.

  "I had to tidy it up while you were sleeping," Marisa continued. "I had not been down there for years."

  "Down there?"

  "Yes." She pointed to the floor. "There's a huge cellar beneath this house. It's full of things my family brought with them after the war and have never used since. I don't know what we'll do with it."

  "But they were lucky they could take anything at all with them," Neil said. "By the end of the war tens, probably hundreds of thousands of people had nothing more than the clothes on their backs."

  "Yes, I suppose. Anyhow, when we were children, Hugo and I had our own little clubhouse down there. It's buried in the middle of everything. It was a good place to hang out on rainy days. Later, I used to like to go there alone, to read or just to think. You know?"

  "Sure." Neil nodded. "The childhood retreat, the adolescent haven. We all had private hideouts like that."

  Marisa laughed. "Hideouts-yes, that's the word."

  She took his hand. Neil thought that they were heading toward the front of the house, but as usual there were so many turns and passages that it was impossible for him to keep a sense of direction. They finally arrived at the door that led to the cellar. As soon as Marisa opened it, Neil heard the sound of an electric generator. She flicked a switch and some lights went on below. The narrow stone stairs descended along an interior wall that was made of rock and mortar, and were open on the other side.

  "Watch your step," she warned him.

  Neil nodded. The air was cool and damp, but he could tell from his first few breaths that it probably wouldn't bother him. The unbroken flight of stairs was steep and long-it was more like two normal floor levels down to the bottom, Neil estimated.

  They had not quite gone halfway when Marisa stopped and turned to him. She pointed out across the expanse of the cellar now visible on the one side. Single lightbulbs dangled from cables here and there, providing some illumination, though much of the place was cast in shadows.

  "Look at it," she said, sounding exasperated.

  "I see what you mean."

  The place was a vast warren of storage areas, shelves and platforms, all of them full of boxes, cartons and trunks. One area contained metal racks jammed with clothing on hangers-coats, dresses, suits, shirts. Another part was given over to larger items that were covered with tarp, unusual shapes, some kind of equipment or tools.

  "This is only half of it," Marisa told him. "It's the same on the other side of this wall."

  "Wow, it looks like they brought everything with them."

  "Oh, no, not at all. You'll never guess."

  "Guess what?"

  "What my families did, before they came here. Both of the families, my mother's and my father's. They worked together."

  "Weren't they farmers, like here?"

  Marisa laughed. "No!"

  "Then I have no idea."

  "Don't worry, I'll show you."

  At the bottom of the stairs she led him around the wall into the other half of the cellar. At first it looked like more of the same, a maze of aisles and clogged passages through a sea of accumulated possessions. It was hard to see much because the lightbulbs were widely scattered and dim, but Neil noticed a few unusual items-large rolls of canvas, for instance, a collection of grotesque puppets, some faded banners mounted on poles.

  "Yes?" Marisa prompted.

  "Still no idea," Neil said. "Unless they ran a circus."

  "Ah, you're getting warm."

  "Really?"

 
"Yes, they had a travelling show, not really a circus. In good weather they would go from town to town, the larger villages, throughout the entire region. They had a puppet show, they staged little plays, usually stories from the New Testament, things like that."

  "Are you part gypsy?" Neil asked jokingly.

  "No way," Marisa exclaimed. Neil found her sudden use of such an American expression endearing. "Those people, they call themselves Roma now, but they were trouble wherever they went. They made it very hard for families like mine. Nobody liked or trusted them. Gypsies, I mean."