Lucia’s hand instinctively shot back through the opening, returning the card.
‘Thank you for your visit, but publishers usually just email their textbook and resource catalogues. Our email is on the website. I’m sorry, but this isn’t a good time.’
She closed the door, flicked the latch, and stepped back into the window display.
The woman, unperturbed by the blunt shutdown, moved to her previous position in front of the glass. She gave the window a gentle rap with her knuckles, which Lucia attempted to wave away as she began unpacking the box of Carnevale decorations.
‘Lucia.’ The glass did a good job of muffling Benedetta’s voice, but couldn’t shut it out entirely. ‘I don’t think you quite understand . . .’
Lucia shook her head, busy untangling the legs of her Colombina and Dottore puppets. Further tapping on the glass eventually drew a frustrated groan. ‘Mi scusi, but I’m in no state to discuss business today.’ She gestured to her sling and her head with her right hand.
Benedetta’s hands found her hips. She leaned forward, as close to the window as her lips could reach without grazing the glass, and tapped again. ‘It’syouI want to talk about.’
An elderly couple walked past, arms linked, and were somewhat startled by the volume and force with which Benedetta had delivered that final comment.
Lucia straightened up and turned to face her again. ‘Doesn’t the world already know all there is to know about me?’
Benedetta’s face softened and she shook her head. ‘Perhaps. But they’ve never heard itfrom you.’
Lucia felt her shoulders sag. Despite her apprehension, she knew this was true. Benedetta clearly wasn’t going to let up, and Lucia didn’t want anyone else on thecallelistening in. So, she stepped from the window and unlatched the door again, welcoming Benedetta in with an open palm. ‘Please say what you came here to say. But also please know that I’m not interested,grazie.’
Setting her things down on the welcome desk, Benedetta said, ‘Everyone thinks they know your story, Lucia. But it’s onlyyoursto tell.’ Again she presented her business card to Lucia, who this time accepted it.
‘Unlike our grammar guides, scripts and travel companions,’ Lucia gestured to the expanse of bookshelves to Benedetta’s right, ‘Iam a closed book. And I would like to stay that way. Thank you for coming . . .’
Benedetta smiled slightly and waved her hand nonchalantly through the air. ‘Lucia, that might be good and well, but right now you have no control whatsoever about what is said and published about you.’
‘I don’t read it.’
‘But the trouble is, everyone else can. And theydo. Sadly, this latest episode has returned you to the spotlight. Now is the perfect opportunity to seize the moment and redirect your future.’ She let that final word linger in the air between them for a moment, before adding, ‘I would like to partner with you, Lucia. To tell your story, the only way itcanandshouldbe told.By. You.’ She withdrew slightly, folding her arms and allowing her thickly linked gold bracelet to tinkle as it rolled over her designer watch.
‘What do you mean by “partner with”?’ Lucia scanned the business card again.
‘An autobiographical account of your life. From the . . . tragedy, to now.’
Lucia instinctively closed her eyes, and behind her tight lids the mayhem returned.
Click. Click.
Flash.
The emergency sirens whirred and played their menacing tune on a loop in her mind. It was as if she could feel the rain – that rescue-hampering, water-rising, lagoon-thrashing rain – pierce her skin and soak through her eleven-year-old frame.
She opened her eyes, and the same viridescent hue that had been immortalised by the photographer’s lens twenty years ago stared back at Benedetta. ‘Thank you for your visit, but I am not interested.’
As if she’d expected this, Benedetta nodded. ‘Call me when you are ready.’
‘I won’t ever be.’
‘When you come to realise that this is the only way you can take back control, I think you will feel differently.’ Benedetta smiled sagely, then turned to leave.
Take back control . . .
The day thevaporettohit the embankment and split in two was the day all Lucia’s control was lost. Even before the bodies and the cameras. That moment had been her undoing. The disempowering. The future-shattering. Lucia’s world, as she knew and loved it, would never be the same again.
Noting Lucia’s pensive stillness, Benedetta added, ‘Please. Just consider it. We will offer a generous advance.Verygenerous.’
Lucia stopped. She hadn’t considered this. In spite of herself, she turned back to Benedetta with a speed that caught even her off guard.
