II. Sinkin’ Soon
“Everybody hold your breath,
‘Cause we’re gonna be sinkin’ soon.”-Nora Jones
“Everybody hold your breath,
‘Cause we’re gonna be sinkin’ soon.”-Nora Jones
My father was waiting for me in New York at a private airfield in Essex, as promised. As soon as we were on the jet for Italy, I bombarded him with questions.
“What the hell is going on?” I whisper-yelled at him.
Charlie flinched at my language but did not comment. Instead he replied, “I have no idea Belle, they told me the same thing they told me the same thing they told you. I guess we’ll just have to see what they want when we get there,” he finished with a tired sigh. I realized that since it had been about 8 in the morning when the guards came to get me, it had been about 5 in the morning when they had woken Charlie from his peaceful slumber. The proof was in the dark circles forming under his brown eyes. Charlie never woke up before 10 a.m. on the weekends. I barely did either for that matter. I got my lounging habits from my father.
“Your pillow, Sir,” said a blond stewardess with a flirtatious smile, just for Charlie. He didn’t notice, he just thanked her and took the pillow he asked for as soon as we had sat down. He laid back and closed his eyes.
“Get some rest Bells, you may need it,” my dad mumbled unhelpfully before he drifted easily to sleep.
I moaned and sank in my chair. I didn’t feel like sitting down, I felt like moving around. But I did what Charlie told me, knowing that I probably would need all the energy I could get. I slipped my electric blue iPod from my pocket and drifted to unconscious with the help of “Les Jours Tristes” by Yann Tiersen.
*************
“I swear to you, she will insult me within one minute of seeing me,” I said what I had been thinking since I had stepped off the jet in Naples Airfield and into an inconspicuous Lincoln town car.
Charlie glanced at me, my arms folded over my rigid body and sighed, “She never insults you Bella, it’s just…her way if…showing…” he couldn’t even think of a positive thing to say.
But I pushed him anyway, “Showing what? Her love?” skepticism rang from every corner in my tone.
Charlie just shrugged. He always attempted to stand up for his sadistic mother, Jane, but he never had a good enough defense. How could he with a woman such as her? Nonna disliked everything about me, and I knew it. She always had a list of criticism waiting to roll off her heavy tongue before I even walked over the threshold of the Royal Palace of Caserta.
I shrank into my seat, reluctant to leave the comfort of the Lincoln into the palace that was now only a short while away. I could see it in the distance now, its inviting yet guarded façade glinting in the harsh Italian sunlight.
While the Lincoln closed the final distance between us and the palace, I couldn’t help but feel a surge of hopelessness and vulnerability. And, from another loud sigh from my father in the seat across from me, I was sure that he felt it too as we pulled to a stop in front of the main fascia of the palace.
I stole a swift glance at Charlie before I stepped out of the car, thanking the officer that had opened the door for me as he bowed his head.
I looked up at the massive, intimidating palace and was sickened by it. It wasn’t that I hated the Swan side of my lineage; it wasn’t them specifically that disgusted me. It was what I was because of them that I disliked, especially at the present moment.
There were two young lads waiting at the palace’s entrance: One, to take our bags, and the other, to show us to where my uncle and grandmother were supposedly waiting.
As we were walking, I turned to my father and said jokingly, “I bet you 20 dollars that she will insult me at least three times within three minutes.”
To my surprise, he chuckled, “You’re on.”
We found my grandmother in the grand drawing room, looking upon a portrait of my late grandfather, Victor. She was wearing a pretty red dress that accentuated her slight figure with her faded red hair that looked now more chestnut-auburn colored in her usual tight and orderly bun. She started when she saw us, smiling with a delight that was only for Charlie. She glided toward us, pushing me out of the way and hugging Charlie with so much force that he nearly fell over.
“Oh, my sweet Charles!” Jane exclaimed, kissing his cheeks and calling him by his birth given name, which he changed when he moved to America.
“Mom,” he responded with a nervous smile. He took her in his arms and partially turned her towards me. She got his hint.
“Isabel,” she acknowledged me with a stiff nod and a cold kiss on the cheek.
“Jane,” I copied her stiff head nod but did not kiss her.
Her dark eyes flashed at my calling her by her first name. She didn’t comment, she decided to attack instead.
“Hm, still as pale as ever, I see,” said Jane thoughtfully.
I put up one finger at my side and angled my body so that Charlie could see but Jane couldn’t. I was only two insults away from an easy 20 dollars and we were only one minute in. My father rolled his eyes with a smirk.
Jane was oblivious to our exchange and continued: “Have you been eating?” she asked rhetorically, surveying my lean limbs, “you look much too thin.”
I added another finger. One more to go.
“It’s too bad you have those Asian slits for eyes instead of the round Swan ones, you’d be prettier if you did…well, hopefully,” Jane added, observing my skin again.
I smirked at my father as I put up the last needed finger, but he wasn’t paying attention. He was staring unamused at his mother.
“Now, mother-” Charlie started testily, but he was cut off by a loud bang at the door.
“Charles! Isabel!” James exclaimed as he strode exuberantly towards us, looking every bit a king.
He hugged his brother tightly and then took me in his grip.
“Agh, the beautiful Bella,” he said, inspecting me, “you have grown into a fine young woman.”
“More of a girl than a woman,” my father commented. I rolled my eyes.
“No, no. She is definitely one beyond her years,” my uncle contradicted, “both in graceful beauty and intellect.”
I flushed, and changed the subject to something less embarrassing, asking the question that I wanted to know the answer to the most.
“So, why am I here?” I didn’t phrase the inquiry as politely as I meant to, but at this point, I didn’t care.
My uncle and grandmother exchanged a loaded look, but my uncle’s smile did not waver.
“Oh, we’ll discuss that over dinner later. Why don’t you two go ahead and get settled in. I’ll have someone show you two your rooms,” said James with a slightly guarded tone.
I exchanged a look with my father. “Settled in?” That would mean that they were planning for us to stay for a while, which was not an option.
“Why can’t you just tell us now?” I pleaded.
“Dinner,” my uncle replied sharply in a tone that finalized the matter.
I exhaled sharply, exasperated. “Fine,” I snapped before I walked out unexcused, looking for the one person I hoped would give me the information I wanted with enough time to flee if I needed to.
