The Art of Becoming Homeless (23 page)

Dino gently pulls his arm from Michelle
’s grasp and steps towards his Baba. He draws a slip of paper from his back pocket. Themis focuses on the white paper.

‘
This is from the army. It is the number I call requesting to do my service. I have called them.’

Themis
’ mouth drops opens. Then he closes it to swallow. He looks suddenly old. Dino turns to Michelle.

‘
Michelle I will do the army—as you say it is the law—and then I will be free.’

Michelle tries to keep control. Her vision blurs, she swallows several times. He is going to do it for her, but she doesn
’t want him to go anywhere. She feels Juliet behind her, her hand on her shoulder. Dino’s eyes are on his father. He unclenches his fist and walks rigidly, straight past Themis to the gate. He holds it open and indicates Themis should leave.

Dino ignores the old man
’s hesitation, his wish for a last word.

They all watch as his hunched figure becomes smaller as he drags his way down the lane until he turns the corner and is lost from sight.

Dino is the first to move. He turns to Michelle.

‘
You know I have to go, don’t you?’

‘
Of course you must go; to do otherwise would be ridiculous.’ She smiles, he takes her hands. ‘I didn’t know you had rung them though.’

‘
I haven’t yet. I will do it now.’ He takes out his mobile and wanders into the garden, making his call while looking over the rows and rows of oranges trees that merge into a mass of green.

‘
Could anyone else use a drink?’ Juliet asks and marches indoors.

Saturday / Sunday

‘
You OK?’ Juliet asks Michelle in the cool of the kitchen, taking a plastic bottle of red wine from the fridge. One of the cats jumps up onto the draining board and Juliet hisses at it, chasing it off.

‘
Not really.’ Michelle leans against the table.

‘
Well, it’s been a dramatic entrance. You turn up with a man half your age who has clearly become more than a friend, and then his dad, who isn’t his dad, turns up for a showdown. Anything you want to tell me?’

‘
We just hooked up as friends, but after we fell down the cliff face, something changed.’

‘
Ah, you mean you got Stockholm Syndrome … I thought I heard a bit of that in your voice when you rang me from the hospital.’ Juliet pours two big glasses. ‘Will he want any?’ She taps a third empty glass with the bottle.

Michelle shrugs.
‘It’s not Stockholm Syndrome; that’s when you side with someone who captures you.’

‘
Exactly.’ Juliet laughs.

‘
Plonker.’ Michelle smiles and they touch glasses before they drink.

Juliet drinks heartily before putting her glass down.

‘So, what’s the deal? You in love?’

‘
She’d better be.’ Dino comes in from the garden. ‘I go into the army on Monday to make her proud.’

‘
Please—no! Don’t go for me, go for yourself.’ Michelle puts her own glass down, her smile gone.

Dino laughs but doesn
’t say anything.

‘
Dino?’

‘
Relax, the die was cast when I re-entered the country, wasn’t it? Having done homeless, I know for sure that I do not want to be homeless and on the run until I am too old to be eligible for the armed forces.’ He is grinning. ‘Go on, say you are pleased I stood up to him.’

‘
Homeless?’ Juliet asks, but her voice is unheard.

‘
I’m thinking I don’t know you.’ Michelle faces him. ‘First you drop the bombshell that he isn’t your father anyway, and now you drop the second bombshell that you have already made the decision to fulfil your army obligation. In all honesty, it sounds like you’ve already mapped out your path and I was just a distraction along the way.’ Michelle turns her head away from Juliet, who looks at her over the top of her glass before gliding noiselessly out of the back door.

It all suddenly seems too fragile, their knowledge of each other, the strength of their feelings, her feelings—no—his feelings. Has she really just been a distraction? The proposal of marriage; was it just a game, a jest? She is glad she never answered him.

‘Michelle.’ His arms slip around her waist. She knows what is coming, his eyes looking straight into hers, the closeness of him, a rushing in her ears. She closes her eyes and the world recedes, life coursing through her veins, her senses heightened, shivers down her spine. Her hips move in turn, she can feel him against her.

Drawing away, he gives her a lingering look.

‘OK, Dino, so you do something to me, but I am a big girl and I will get over it if you tell me I was just a distraction.’

The laughter in his eyes reaches his lips.
‘Yes, Michelle, you are just a distraction!’ Her stomach drops out of existence, leaving nothing but an empty hole. She tries to wriggle from his arms.

‘
Oi! Stop it! I am kidding.’ Dino holds her tighter.

Michelle stops still and looks at him.

‘I love you, Michelle. I want to marry you.’ He lets go of her and drops to one knee. ‘Marry me?’

“
Oh, am I interrupting something?’ Juliet smirks as she comes in, her glass empty.

Michelle can feel her cheeks grow warm.

Juliet doesn’t wait to fill her glass, she just grabs the bottle and leaves again.

‘
Get up, Dino.’ Michelle hisses.

‘
That’s no answer.’

‘
Get up and I will give you an answer.’

‘
I am up, so what is your answer?’ His arms are round her waist again.

‘
My answer is: go do the army, do it by yourself, take leave with the friends you make in your barracks, or wherever you stay, and if you ask me again when you are out the other side, I will take you seriously.’

‘
There’s no pleasing you, is there? If you think I am playing with you, you are offended; if you think I am serious, you treat me as if I don’t know my own mind.’

‘
That sounds like Michelle.’ Juliet is back, she takes a hat from a hook by the back door. ‘What?’ Juliet says to them both as they stare at her. ‘It’s hot. I need a hat.’ She leaves.

‘
She’s right about me, isn’t she?’ Michelle asks.

Dino nods. He runs his hand through his hair, brushing his fringe sideways. He is still smiling, so hard to offend. He makes her feel as if life is just an adventure, that it should be lived for fun. The idea sticks in her guts. The prospect fills her with fear, the invitation to let go of the grip she permanently has on her life. What will hold it together if she relaxes?

‘So, do I have to wait for my answer?’ He picks up the empty glass and looks around for the wine and then looks to the back door through which the sun is streaming.

‘
I still have a job in London.’

‘
Excuses, excuses. Think about it then, because I am serious.’ He takes her hand. ‘Come on, let’s go track that bottle of wine down before it has all gone.’

Dino is lying in the hammock sleeping in the shade in the afternoon’s heat.

Juliet tugs at Michelle
’s sleeve, and they stand and walk around into the back garden. The temperature has not dropped, even though evening is drawing in. They had all fallen asleep in the heat, but a cat jumping on Juliet’s stomach had woken her, and she kicked her legs out in response, making firm contact with Michelle’s knee. Michelle had been asleep on the sofa next to her, head lolling back, mouth open, arms across her chest, until her rude awakening.

Outside the garden looks abundant with growth.

‘So what’s this with Dino then? Was he on one knee, or was he on one knee?’ Juliet giggles.

‘
He was on one knee.’ Michelle sighs.

‘
You have smitten him. Was he being serious?’

‘
He said he was.’

‘
What fun! Did you answer him?’

Michelle shakes her head.

‘Oh, good for you, keep him dangling.’

Michelle stiffens.
‘I am not keeping him dangling.’

Juliet smiles kindly.

‘Do you know who this mystery dad is then?’ Michelle asks.

‘
I have heard the rumours, but I always thought it was just gossip.’

‘
So who was he?’

‘
Well, the rumours have him as a bit of a flirt, really good looking and charming, but by the time he was eighteen he had broken all the girls’ hearts, except one—Dino’s mother. Themis had feelings towards her too, they say, but she did not return them. Anyway, in the first version I heard, the brothers had a big argument, and in retaliation, the elder brother began to flirt with this girl.’

‘
Bit of a mean trick.’

‘
Maybe, but in the way I heard it, she never thought much of Themis anyway.’

‘
I can see him as a stalker.’

‘
Well, maybe not to that degree, but I know what you mean.’

‘
So they got together then?’

‘
Well, I understand that the elder brother, sorry I don’t know his name, played with this girl, led her on, did “the deed” and left her pregnant, and then dropped her.’

‘
Doesn’t sound like a good start. I wonder if Dino knows all this?’

Juliet shrugs.
‘He will know his mother’s version, I suppose.’

‘
So then what happened?’ Michelle asks.

‘
Ah well, this is where I’ve heard at least two versions. One has Dino’s real father being called up to do his military service; the other has Themis calling the authorities to say his brother intended to avoid the military service. Whichever it was, the army is meant to have come to escort him to the barracks. It sounds very unlikely to me. If they did that for every person who didn’t want to serve, the whole army would spend its time hunting people down. It makes the whole thing hard to believe.’

‘
That might be why Dino doesn’t want to do his service, though.’ Michelle voices her thoughts out loud.

‘
Doesn’t he? Well, like father like son then, because his real dad is meant to have run away, left the country out through Bulgaria and was last heard of in Romania where the revolution was going on at the time.’

‘
So he is dead then?’

‘
Who knows? But what I heard is that Themis pressured Dino’s mum to marry him for the sake of the child needing a father. That and the fact that she would be an outcast as a single mum, and so she married him.’

‘
But, to be honest, I always thought it was just village gossip. This all happened down on the island, so it’s not as if it is first-hand from anybody.’

‘
Rumours or not, it must have been very difficult for Dino growing up with all that around him.’

‘
To be honest, I think his mum dying would have been worse. The gossip there is that she killed herself. Did he say?’

‘
No!’

‘
Poisoned herself because she couldn’t stand Themis any longer, but I find that one hard to believe. What mother would leave behind a fourteen-year-old boy to fend for himself? No, I think that is just idle people with nothing better to think about.’

‘
Like you.’

Juliet turns to face her sharply, relieved to find Michelle is smiling.

‘I just thought you should know everything.’ Juliet defends herself.

‘
It’s good to see you,’ Michelle says.

‘
It’s good to see you too,’ Juliet answers.

‘
It doesn’t feel like it has only been a couple of months.’

‘
I know. You’ve been out here three times in less than six months. Has work taken the hint yet?’

Michelle is distracted by the flowers Juliet has planted around the pond.

‘Don’t talk to me about work.’

‘
Why? What now?’ Juliet bends and deadheads a flower, throwing it over the fence into the orchard.

‘
Actually, I wanted to talk to you about work. That was part of my reason for offering to attend this meeting.’

‘
Go on then.’

‘
But so much has changed since then. Not with work, more with … well, the way I think, I guess.’

There is a plop and Michelle
watches ripples growing from a point in the pond. ‘Was that a frog?’

‘
Yes. They’re really lovely. You know they really like being handled.’

Michelle pulls a face.

The bedroom is cool. Juliet
’s computer sits on a desk in front of a window that overlooks the whole of the back garden. She can see Juliet with her broad-brimmed hat, strolling from plant to tree, nipping here, snapping there, a cat following her.

The computer blinks into action. The list of her emails seems endless, several from S
loughlow and Grotchet, a few from the firm in Athens, but nothing urgent. She scrolls down. One from a roofing company with an estimate to replace some lead flashing where it is leaking into the guest bedroom; another estimate for re-pointing the wall on the north side, which really needs to be done before next winter. Not a single email from a friend, unless she counts the chatty one from Doreen to give her notice that the ladies’ toilets will be out of action for at least a week, and so they are assigning one of the men’s toilets over to the women.

It all seems a million light years away. The cold, grey metal sky a memory that seems impossible in the sun. She looks back out. Juliet is lying on her back on the lawn, holding a cat at arm
’s length above her, the cat batting the edge of her hat.

Juliet might not be surrounded by a big circle of friends, but if you are going to be single, why not do it in the warmth of Greece where at least the weather is clement enough to go out to meet people? Michelle scans a few more emails, deleting them as she goes.

She looks out to Juliet again but there is no sign of her.

The computer pings and a new message comes in from Sloughlow and Grotchet.

It’s the weekly ‘newsletter’ from Sloughlow himself. It’s the usual ‘work hard as a team’ and ‘we have done really well this week, but’ message, but there is something new too. Previously only circulated amongst the partners in private memos, it seems he is going official about the need for redundancies—‘as the economic climate remains harsh, we may need to release underproductive members of the team ….’ This is followed by a lot more padding until the bottom line, which states, almost without camouflage, that the least productive man or woman will be out. But Sloughlow is never one to give up easily, or one to not take full advantage of the situation. There is a further paragraph saying that the firm is open to people offering to take wage cuts or committing to overtime hours for free. Anyone interested will need to apply for this overtime, as they expect the full squadron of partners to offer their time.