He felt very comfortable in the charming small room with floor-to-ceiling white bookcases set in walls papered in crimson brocade. She brought the flowers and a tray with a crystal decanter and two small glasses. He admired her long, loose beige slacks topped by a midnight-blue draped blouse that came down over her waist, a very stylish outfit enhanced by deep blue eye shadow. “This room is warm and intimate, yet light and airy. Being here makes me realize I must purge my apartment. The energy is so heavy there. I have to get my housekeeper to throw a lot of stuff out now!”
Claudia eyed him thoughtfully because he seemed to be displaced and not aware of her, although he seemed to be very comfortable in her favorite room. She poured two glasses of port and said, “Have you emptied closets, personal things, things of hers you might give away?”
“Oh no, I haven’t done any of that, but I did get the housekeeper started on her clothes this morning. I came back after the wedding and realized I must make the apartment into my space.”
Claudia’s library
She examined him closely. “Of course you must. So, are her things in every room, are they all over the place?”
“She crammed the apartment from top to bottom. The library was my little island, but she crept around it during the day putting her little treasures all over my bookcases.” This made Claudia feel creepy. “Last night at exactly midnight when I was reading her journals in my study, a Fabergé egg fell off a shelf and shattered on the floor. I think she pushed it off, since there was no way it could have fallen on its own. So, I made a fire and burned the journals page by page. So there! You say I should keep reading them, but I don’t want to. I already read them once, enough!” He glared defiantly at her smart uptilted face with a shocked expression and ejaculated more loudly, “Eee-nough!”
Claudia was quite taken aback, suppressing laughter wanting to rise in her body. She placed her left hand with a large carnelian intaglio ring over her ruby-red mouth and rolled her eyes under dark fluttering eyelashes up to the ceiling. Then she exploded with laughter. Lorenzo looked horrified. But then he started sniggering and then whinnied like a horse. Claudia’s eyes were watering as she struggled for words. “Oh, I’m so sorry, but I couldn’t stop it. It isn’t funny, please accept my apologies.” But she was still giggling.
“Claudia, you are a blast of fresh air! How lucky was I to meet you at the wedding? Life is for the living, isn’t it? I don’t have to read that stuff again. I’ve turned it over in my mind for months. I don’t want that crap all over the place. It depressed me for thirty-five years, I can’t breathe in there. Are you good with junk and antiques? Some of the stuff is good. If I knew how to dispose of it, it would bring me some money to buy the things I’d like. Can you help me?”
“It is so funny that you ask that because I love to clean out places that people have lived in for years. I love processing the layers of time so much that I once thought about being an antique dealer. People’s things tell their story, which fascinates me. It’s the perfect time of year, the weather is warm and balmy; so it would be fun! Soon it will get oppressively hot. Yes, let’s do it. Let’s clean it out as soon as possible! Before we start, ask your children whether they want anything, especially your daughter.”
Later, when they were dining, the same natural intimacy returned. He’d reserved a quiet booth in his favorite enoteca tucked in under a wine cellar below the street. Her midnight-blue silk blouse had a slight sheen in the low light.
“You have lovely eyes, Claudia. They tell me your story without knowing anything about you. You’ve told me you’ve been very unhappy for a long time, yet tonight I see delighted anticipation in your eyes.”
“You will think I’m flirting, and I don’t care if I am. I’m excited because I’m here with you. Have you noticed that the world has been getting very weird these last few years? A few years ago, back in 2012, people thought the old world was ending. I think this is turning out to be true because things felt so strange during 2013. Now it’s 2014, and the fabric of society is unraveling; many people talk about the tenuousness and strangeness of our times.” He acknowledged what she said by nodding, so she continued. “Then you appeared at that whimsical wedding and made me feel happy; that’s what you see in my eyes.”
“Well, good,” he responded, leaning back when a large bowl of orzo and spaghetti with meat sauce appeared. “Let’s just be happy together, no matter what goes on in the world.”
The appointed day for the cleanout was a Saturday in early June. It was going to be hot so Lorenzo went to get Claudia early in a rented van. She’d made arrangements with antique dealers to sell the good things, and she’d listed the addresses of places where they could donate the rest. She greeted him in blue jeans and a sloppy red sweatshirt with her hair tied back in a bandanna. Lorenzo laughed at her so she replied, “I don’t have clothes for things like this because I haven’t done it for so long. Besides, you look pretty strange yourself!” Lorenzo was wearing khakis and a cotton T-shirt printed with a garish image of Mt. Vesuvius melting Pompeii. She turned him around to see the back, which read—The Volcanoes, 2012. “Aha! So, you were one of the ones who paid attention to the 2012 predictions!”
He held open the door into the foyer, and she looked around to get a sense of how to tackle the job. “May I walk through the rooms with you to get a feel for what’s here?” He nodded, so she went through to survey a dining room crammed with an oversized mahogany table and chairs and a droll china cabinet. She glanced at the china and the gloomy landscapes on the walls and said, “This will sell to younger people who like dark stuff these days; the antique dealers will take it.”
He replied, “Yes, younger people do have very dark taste these days, and remember, I never cared about what was here. My home was my office, so strip out whatever you like.”
The feeling of the apartment was very heavy and made Claudia feel sad. Is this a good idea? Oh well, he needs help. She was tempted to suggest maybe it wasn’t time but didn’t. “Do your children want things? Did you ask them?”
“I did. My son works in Germany, has a tiny apartment, and doesn’t want a thing except one of her rings as a keepsake. My daughter lives in Milan, and she took the few things she wanted in her car after the funeral. They were both thrilled to hear a ‘friend’ is helping me clean it out to make it the way I want it.” He winked at her. “I hate this dining room and don’t want anything in here. I’ll get new furniture and dishes. It depresses me, always did.”
Claudia looked around at the huge beams and worn brick floors, great fundamentals for a really interesting room. The three bedrooms would be easy because he wanted to keep the basic furniture and just change the coverings, so that’s where they started. With dozens of good boxes to fill, they piled up clothes for donation and sorted out pictures, lamps, and figurines to be sold. Lorenzo was slightly embarrassed about going through his wife’s old junk, so he lifted Claudia’s spirits by telling funny jokes and silly stories about the stuff. His intelligent sense of humor was wry and on the edge of sarcasm. She could tell he wasn’t attached to any of it, so she kept him from just throwing things in the boxes by reminding him somebody else might want it.
He bitched, “She just had to buy something every time we went anywhere, she shopped a lot in Rome, and people gave her gifts. What a load of crap, the way she amused herself.”
“Lorenzo,” Claudia said while inspecting a yellowed melamine Art Deco clock the color of a rotting banana peel, “do you remember getting these souvenirs when you traveled, like this model of the Acropolis? You went to Greece?”
“Yeah, sure, but who wants a plaster model of the Acropolis, a pot metal statue of Pegasus, or a wooden rendition of Dionysius dripping with green plastic grapes? Or how about this wood version of Horus and the brass pyramid? I have some genuine ancient objects in my office that I treasure; that’s different. She said this stuff kept her company, so you can see why it all has to go, off to heaven or hell.” He sniggered as she drew emph
atic black eyebrows into two long straight lines below her sharp-edged bangs.
After a few hours, Claudia sent Lorenzo off with a list of addresses for donating the clothes and junky objects and getting rid of the moldy paperback novels. She wrapped the china and valuables for the antique dealers. Claudia was surprised he kept up with her. Most people would be downing cold beers by now. Finally, the back part of the apartment was bare and stuff was piled up on the back porch. Would there be a chair left to sit on? When he came back with the empty truck, they cleared the porch, packing the truck for the dealers and off he went again. After a sandwich, he took her into the library crammed with interesting antique chairs, tables, lamps, and books.
“This was my sanctuary. I like everything in here except for the little crappy things all over my bookshelves. She got angry when I tried to remove them but now we can do it.”
Claudia was fascinated. His library was huge and obviously very well used, but she couldn’t read the book titles blotted out by angels, animals, Middle Earth gnomes, miniature houses, crystals, carvings, little boxes, clocks, and framed photos. She asked, “Was there some kind of meaning behind placing these things here? It all feels very intentional.”
“She was doing something with them. She constantly rearranged them during the day, and if I moved anything, she put it back. She got really upset when I asked her to get them out of here. She was using them to control me in some way. I read the journals hoping to figure out why she had to have these things in here, but she never mentioned them. It seemed to make her happy, so what the hell? It must’ve been some kind of magical process for her; once she told me it made her feel like she was part of my research. Who knows? As long as she wasn’t sticking pins in things and burying them in the garden, why worry? Tee hee.”
He looked up at Claudia’s face, thoughtful with lips pulled thin as if she was trying not to smirk. “If it’s okay with you, let’s pile them into boxes for the dealers by wrapping them without really looking at them; they give me the creeps. Use bubble wrap for the fragile things. If that Fabergé egg were genuine, it would’ve been worth a lot. Why waste?”
“Okay,” he said. “But, let’s keep the photos.”
In two hours there were twenty more boxes filled, only books and photos were left on the shelves. “Lorenzo, your library is too crammed with furniture. Since the apartment is stripped, let’s take some things out of here and move them into the other rooms.” While they were working, the housekeeper had cleaned the rooms in the back and washed the brick floor that now needed furnishing. “Your things are charming, let’s use them.”
“Fine with me. I like all these desks and tables. Let’s move some!”
Soon the whole apartment was set up with little groups of chairs, tables, and lamps. Looking around the dining room, Claudia said, “A new table and chairs probably won’t cost you anything if you use your trade-in money, and I bet you’ll like this room. Look for a hearty country table and matching chairs. I haven’t said anything about your apartment because this was a big job, but I like it. Was it built in the mid-eighteenth century? It’s comfortable, elegant. The library is outstanding with charming views, and I don’t feel like we’re in the city here.”
“This building is older than you think, especially the dining and kitchen area, probably medieval. I don’t really know, since the first mention of it in the city records is during the Renaissance. It was once a tapestry factory with the family living in the upper floors. I love this building. It will be great to decorate it the way I want after so much help from you. Thank you, and now you get dinner. I’m famished.”
4
Majorca Honeymoon
Simon and Sarah were up with the sunrise to steal a few moments alone before Teresa woke up. Their apartment near the Spanish Steps felt crowded once the baby arrived, but they loved it anyway. While living there alone, Simon had enjoyed an elegant dressing room with an abundance of drawers for shirts and socks, extra closets for suits and shoes. Now it was Teresa’s room and closet, with little dresses, jumpsuits, and tiny shoes competing for space with Simon and Sarah’s clothes. Teresa loved waking up every morning in a cozy space infused with her father’s cologne and her mother’s perfume.
They snuggled on the dark green velvet couch with their coffee. Lace curtains in the kitchen waved in the early morning breezes as the rising sun made mesmerizing light patterns on the wooden living room floor. “Simon, I’m so amazed by how you care for Teresa. You held her most of the time when she was an infant. If I hadn’t nursed her, I wouldn’t have held her enough. Now that she’s almost ten months old, she reaches first for you, not me.”
“Yeah, well, I go away more than you do, so when I’m home, I want to hold her.”
Sarah, who used his office on the days he wasn’t working, continued. “Yes, but your nurturance surprises me. I expected to carry much more of the burden like my own mother. You do so much that I’ve been able to continue my writing.” He barely heard her soft contented voice because the hypnotic light patterns on the floor were making his mind drift off to something that happened a few days ago . . .
Sarah had been gone all day. After Simon and Teresa took a short walk to the store, he sat on the couch watching her pull herself up to stand using the low coffee table for support. He couldn’t take his eyes off her for a second, since she could fall back and bang her head or smash her chin on the table’s edge. Gripping hard with little, fat fingers and grimacing, she stuck up one knee, pushed herself to standing, and wobbled on the other leg. Then she stood there rigidly and shook. Like an adult seeking approval for something well done, she challenged him with triumphant gray-green eyes. Holding his gaze, she smacked the table with a fat hand and waited. She expected an answer! “What is it little one? What do you want to know?”
With both hands pressed firmly on the table, she shook her tiny shoulders again. Then she squawked and laughed at Simon like a saucy mynah bird. She was in control, so he waited. After smiling triumphantly again, she made her way along the table’s edge by putting one hand over the other with her little feet stumbling behind, until she got to his knees. He lifted her into his arms, smelling her sweet aroma, like the skin of a ripe peach. Now he wouldn’t have to watch her every move as she slumped on his chest, cheek snuggling into his neck. Vibrating bliss enveloped his whole body—he slipped out of time. Shimmering blue white light morphed the walls, the table transformed into waves. He shifted slightly to glimpse her face. Her somber, wise eyes pulled him down a long corridor of crackled mirrors that reflected the earlier phases of his own DNA. Her sleepy face exuded contentment as she listened to his heartbeat. We were one.
Sarah’s sweet voice brought him back to the present. “Simon, you are so far away. Where do you go? Where are you now?”
He sought her searching green eyes, the beautiful eyes she’d given to Teresa. “Well, I’m not in the caves under the Vatican, if that’s what you’re wondering.” Before Teresa’s arrival, Simon and Sarah used psy-chic archaeology to uncover hidden realities. This happened spontaneously after he gave her an engagement ring set with an ancient ruby from his family that had opened her psychic abilities. But they stopped it when she got pregnant. “Do you miss exploring psychic realms with me and Claudia?”
“Oh yes, I do, but can’t with a child in the house. I do use the ruby crystal when I’m working in your office. Claudia, by the way, is suddenly very busy. I think she’s seeing somebody, but she won’t tell me who; she just smiles at me enigmatically. It must be Lorenzo Giannini, judging by the time they spent together at Jennifer and Armando’s wedding.”
Simon got up to fetch a sweet roll warming in the oven. As he walked away, she enjoyed the light flashing on his straight back and well-formed buttocks. Felt so great after having sex and eating that delicious pasta he made last night; I never thought I could be this happy. She heard a squawk coming from the dressing room, so she rushed to get Teresa who was standing in her crib peering into their bedroom and bangin
g the rail for attention. Sarah brought her into the living room to nurse.
Simon returned with the roll cut in pieces and a bowl of fruit. He set them down on the coffee table, fixing his gaze on Teresa sucking avidly, filling her belly with warm milk. Sarah was dreamy. “Does feeding her arouse you? Is it pleasurable?”
“Of course it is, silly. I don’t know why any woman would miss this experience. It slows me down, feels so good, but it is not exactly sexual. My whole body is aroused with pleasure, not just my genitals, if that’s what you want to know.” She paused to bite into the delicious sweet cherry roll and mumbled, “Will you be gone all day?”
He nodded, wondering what she was really thinking. “Today I’ll be refreshing myself on the Middle Eastern sects disappearing amid the conflicts in Syria and Iraq. The Times knows I’m well informed about them, you know the Mandaeans, Copts, Yazidis, etcetera, so they want me to update my background. This’ll be good for my career, and I’m curious myself. Pope Francis seems to be a very good pope, but good news is rarely what the media looks for; I could run out of work. I should branch into this area because I have the background. However, it could mean I will have to go to the Middle East, even though I want to be right here all the time.”
Teresa finished with a great big smack and Sarah handed her to Simon for burping. “Maybe you can work on it without traveling?” She dreaded the thought because of the danger. The rise of ISIS and their macabre behavior terrified her.
“Possible but not likely, the scene is changing fast and few have my background. They know we have a new baby, and they were considerate when I talked with them yesterday. I told them we’re going to visit our families in the U.S. in July, and that I couldn’t go on assignment until after that. They agreed, I think it’s the best I can get.” Teresa distracted him by pulling on his ear and patting his cheek hard. He smiled warmly to soften Sarah’s panicked expression. “Sarah,” he said as Teresa plunged her hand into his pocket for keys and squirmed. “We may be tested, you know. We have to trust. We always knew there might be separations.”
Revelations of the Aquarian Age Page 4
