She might not have a job anymore, Lou decided, but these things made her happy and she would buy them for her beloved sister, for Emily, for Trinity and for Simone, Mim’s daughter.
When she got home, she’d find another job where they appreciated her. She might even investigate doing a part-time degree. Then she’d be able to take on any managerial job. Then Oszkar and Bettina would see how useful she’d been and how she’d have been able to make strategic plans to beat the band. Beaming, she began picking up necklaces, deciding who would get what.
They left the shop twenty minutes later, each wearing a few necklaces, all laughing and admiring each other’s jewellery.
‘These are so pretty,’ said Trinity, holding up the ankh she’d chosen, along with a cowrie shell bracelet decorated with tiny golden cowries. ‘Pete’s mother would not approve.’
‘Pete’s mother? Why not?’ said Toni.
‘She’s religious and she says these things are heathen.’
Toni gave a cynical laugh. ‘Cowrie shells were used by ancient Chinese cultures as money, by North American native tribes as protection, and by ancient Africans as symbols of the goddess of fertility. These and the ankh all pre-date Christianity. It’s absolute bigotry to despise these pre-Christian symbols and expect reverence for her own religious beliefs. Don’t get me started on the Christian symbols and religious holidays which were taken from the so-called pagan religions.’
Trinity laughed. ‘I’d love you to meet her and tell her that.’
Toni’s eyes gleamed with a look Lou recognised: the ‘watch out fundamentalists’ look.
‘I’d love it too,’ said Toni.
They found a market and bought a few things for lunch, including fresh prawns that Toni said looked too glorious to leave behind.
‘We don’t have a cold bag,’ said Lou, with a wild return of Lou the worrier.
‘It’ll be fine,’ said Toni, waving a hand.
On the way back to the apartment, they stopped by a huge fountain dedicated to the goddess Diana, with a mermaid riding a giant open-mouthed sea monster that would have been terrifying if it had come to life.
‘Diana would kill it,’ Trinity said, giving the giant monster a wide berth and gazing up at a very serene Diana who was overseeing all the chaos of monsters and naked ocean riders with an unmoved look on her stone face.
‘Let’s get a coffee over there,’ suggested Toni. ‘I feel the need for a pastry before lunch.’
‘The prawns—’ warned Lou.
‘They’ll be fine.’
Lou was about to say she’d rush home with the prawns and put them in the fridge and then thought again. She was not the whole world’s mother/fixer. Toni could make her own decisions.
For lunch, Toni cooked the prawns with garlic and olive oil, but Trinity and Lou ate avocados and salad instead.
‘Cowards,’ said Toni afterwards and the three of them sat on the second-floor balcony. The sisters sunbathed while Trinity sat under the canopy and read her book. Lou had moved the record player so that they could hear it as they sat outside with the lemonade Toni had concocted, and the afternoon passed while they listened to disco music and Trinity laughed at all the silly song names.
‘“Ring My Bell”?’ she said, laughing. ‘That’s soo funny.’
‘It made sense once,’ Lou said, grinning. ‘I used to tease Dad about a song called “Be-Bop-A-Lula”.’
She and Toni looked at each other, remembering their beloved father. No matter what, Lou thought with a stab of pain, he would always be her father. No matter how things worked out with Angelo, Bob Cooper had been her father and that was that.
That night, languorous from a day of sunbathing, they ate dinner at a street restaurant beside a huge mediaeval wall. Trinity and Toni had pizza while Lou ate seafood pasta and the two sisters drank smoky red Etna Rosso. Giant heaters warmed them against the chill of the evening air and street entertainers, including violinists and a woman with tiny brightly coloured canaries who sat on people’s shoulders, wandered among the diners.
Trinity beamed as a tiny pink one, called a cinnamon canary, sat on her shoulder and tweeted happily. Lou had a bright blue bird on her arm.
‘They are adorable,’ she said.
On the way home, Trinity leaned against Lou and said she was so tired, she might sleep on her feet.
‘Nearly there,’ said Lou, wrapping her cashmere throw around them both to keep them warm. The heat of the day had been replaced by a soft breeze and Lou was thinking that the weather was perfect when her phone began to ring shrilly.
‘It’s Lillian,’ she said in amazement when she retrieved her phone from her bag.
