Verona
to Venice
‘What light through yonder
window breaks?’
Richard noticed a beautiful
blonde haired girl looking out of the open window above the Gelato shop. This was one of the few Shakespeare quotes he
remembered from school. She was
watching the procession of tourists marveling at the exterior of the Coliseum
across the road. Probably eighteen to
twenty, her long straight hair cascaded over her shoulders. Wearing a low cut white t-shirt she seemed to
have a permanent smile on her face.
‘Buongiorno, bambino,’ he
shouted up to her, being almost the extent of his grasp of Italian. To his surprise she smiled even more and
waved to him.
‘Ciao, signor’, she
responded.
Taken by surprise Richard
nudged Ian.
‘She fancies me.’
‘Momento, momento, signor,’
she called down to Richard.
Leaving her window seat she
quickly disappeared from view. Richard
and Ian were on a month long tour of Europe after graduating from
University. Ten countries in thirty
days, looking to score as many times as possible. Still waiting to open their accounts after
the three weeks. Richard’s eyes bulged
as she appeared out of the Gelato shop.
A tight pair of very short denim shorts and her cleavage looking as
though it would escape from her t-shirt.
‘This is it, brother,’ he called.
‘I’m not so sure.’
‘Ciao, signori.’
‘Hi babe,’ Richard replied.
‘Ah you English, yes?’
‘That’s right; what’s your
name? I’m Richard, this is my brother Ian.’
‘Gabriela.’
‘Hi Gabriela,’ added Ian.
‘You boys like drink, yes?’
‘Well, yes great. Where can we go?’
‘Upstairs, I have
Grappa. You like Grappa?’
Richard looked at Ian with a
puzzled expression.
‘Not sure we’ve tried …
Grappa.’
‘You love Grappa, is good
Italian drink.’
Ian looked reluctant, he was
a year older than Richard and marginally more sensible.
‘Steady on Rich, it might be
rocket fuel.’
‘It’ll be fine bruv!’
Gabriela ushered them into
the Gelato shop, past numerous different coloured tubs of ice cream through to
a door at the back. This opened onto a
narrow staircase, white washed walls with paint peeling off; brown
cardboard boxes stacked at the top of the stairs. She led them into a bedroom, the one she’d
been looking out of at the front. Bright
yellow painted walls, a single bed with a faded pink quilt under the window, a
small pine dressing table at one side. Numerous pictures of the Madonna hanging
on the wall. She poured the translucent
brown spirit from a large bottle into two small grubby glasses.
‘Are you having a drink?’ queried
Ian.
‘I only drink water,’ she
replied picking up a small bottle of mineral water, taking a sip.
‘Do you live here?’ Richard
asked.
‘No, no, no. I work in Gelato shop.’
Approaching footsteps on the
stairs. A small tanned man with dark
curly hair looked round the partially open door.
‘Caio, Luigi. This is my brother Luigi.’
Luigi, said nothing but eyed
up the brothers.
‘These friends of mine,
Ricardo and Jan.’
Gabriela looked at her
brother and nodded to him.
Luigi nodded back and went
back downstairs. The boys finished their
drinks.
‘Wow, that’s powerful
stuff!’
‘It’s like firewater,’ added
Ian.
‘More Grappa?’
Richard readily accepted,
although his brother was unsure.
Gabriela quickly refilled their glasses.
She sat down on the bed and motioned for the boys to sit either side of
her. Ian sat at the bottom end of the
bed keeping his distance, but Richard shuffled close to her on the other
side. Immediately she put her hand on
his knee.
‘You on holiday, Ricardo?’
‘That’s right, only here
until tomorrow, then we’re going to Lucerne.’
‘I love Lucerne, when you go
back to England?’
‘After Lucerne we’re going
to Munich for the beer festival and then home.’
She started stroking his leg
and shuffled closer so they were sat side by side.
‘I would love to go London,
and see your Big Ben.’
‘Oh, yes. That’s nice.’
Blushing, Richard downed the
last of his Grappa and swallowed hard. He
could feel his temperature rising. His
eyes were fixed on Gabriela’s revealing t-shirt, beads of sweat were developing
on his forehead.
I think it’s time we were
going,’ Ian suggested.
‘No, no, no. I get you another drink. We having good time.’
‘Just one more,’ said
Richard.’
Leaving his leg alone
Gabriela sprang up and brought the bottle over to the bed. Richard held his glass out as she filled it
to the brim.
‘Not for me thanks,’ said
Ian covering his glass with his hand.
‘You no like grappa Jan?’
‘Very strong, I’ve had
enough.’
Gabriela sat down the other
side of Richard, leaving Ian isolated at the far end of the bed. She put her arm round Richard’s shoulders and
pulled him towards her. He rested his
head on her shoulder, staring down her cleavage as he sipped his drink.
‘I think you’ve had enough
to drink, Rich,’ Ian warned.
‘Nonsense, I’m absolutely
fine. Gabby is a good friend, aren’t
you?’
He felt the room starting to
spin, Gabriela’s cleavage came in and out of focus. One final gulp of grappa and he waved the
glass in front of Gabriela. She took it
off him just in time as he slumped against her, ending up across her lap.
‘Luigi, Luigi, veloce, veloce,’
she shouted.
‘Rich, Rich, what you doing
bruv?’
Ian jumped up and pulled
Richard off her lap, she stood up and he laid Richard onto the bed.
‘I knew he’d had too much to
drink!’
Luigi ran upstairs and
dashed into the room.
‘He’s passed out, we need to
get him back to the hotel,’ Ian shouted.
‘Si, si, I help you. We go in my car,’ offered Luigi.
Luigi helped Ian to maneuver
Richard into a sitting position. Taking
an arm each they managed to get him stood up, while Gabriela looked on.
‘Poor Ricardo, he not very
well.’
‘Rich, Rich, can you hear
me?’
He opened his eyes and
stared at his brother, slowly nodding his head.
‘We’re going back to the
hotel, Gabriela’s brother is going to take us.’
They made their way slowly
to the top of the stairs, and very slowly down them. Luigi’s car was parked round the back of the
Gelato shop, a small dark red Fiat 500, with a broad white stripe over the
bonnet and roof. It was only a short
drive to their hotel, Luigi helped Ian to get Richard to their room. They struggled to get him on the bed, but
once there he fell asleep straight away.
Ian thanked Luigi and prepared to spend a long night looking after his
brother.
Richard woke up early in the
morning, still in his clothes from the day before.
‘What happened? Oh God, my head hurts.’
‘You had too much of that
Grappa, bruv.’
‘Where’s Gabriela?’
‘I don’t know, we left her
at the Gelato shop, her brother Luigi helped to bring you back here.’
Rolling on to his side he
swung his legs round to sit on the edge of the bed. He stared at Ian trying to focus, then
checked his back pocket.
‘What happened to my
wallet? Where did you put it?’
‘Dunno, I never took it out
of your pocket. It must have fallen out,
is it on the bed?’
Richard looked behind on the
bed and rummaged around the crumpled blanket and sheets.
‘It’s not here. It’s gone!
That bloody Luigi has robbed me, he has. How did you let him?’
‘I don’t know, it was
difficult getting you down the stairs and into his car. Then getting you onto the bed wasn’t easy.’
‘That was my money; it’s all
gone! You should have looked after my
wallet.’
‘You shouldn’t have drunk so
much Grappa.’
‘It was that Gabriela, the
cow; no wonder she was so friendly!’
‘Right we’re going to sort
out that bitch and Luigi, come on bruv; we’ll show them not to mess with us.’
‘They won’t be there today,
it would be too easy for us to get them,’ Ian surmised.
‘But what about my money,
I’m skint now, what are we going to do?’
Ian sat on the edge of their
bed, lost for words. After a short
silence, he turned to Richard with a rueful expression.
‘If you prick us do we not
bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die? And if
you wrong us shall we not revenge?’
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