You can make mistakes about people. Babi had seemed like a proud and intelligent young woman, maybe a little too full of herself, but never vicious enough to undertake this kind of retaliation.
Signora Giacci went into the kitchen to make something to eat. She opened the refrigerator. Near her salad was a can of Pepito’s dog food. She burst into tears. Now she really was alone. Now she really had lost, once and for all.
Chapter 28
That afternoon, Paolo had finished work early, so he was a happy man when he returned home. Suddenly he heard the sound of a dog barking. He went into the living room to find a little white Pomeranian wagging its tail on his Turkish carpet. And right in front of the dog was Pollo, with a wooden spoon in one hand.
“Ready? Go!” Pollo tossed the wooden spoon onto the sofa across the room. The Pomeranian didn’t even turn to look, utterly uninterested in where that piece of wood might be now. Instead it started to bark.
“Fuck, though, why won’t he fetch? This dog doesn’t work! We got a defective dog! All he knows how to do is bark.”
Sitting in an armchair in the same room, Step stopped reading the new issue of the Totem comic. “This dog doesn’t know how to fetch, you understand? He just hasn’t been trained for it. What do you expect?”
Then Step noticed his brother standing in the doorway with his hat still on his head. “Oh, Paolo, ciao. How are you? I didn’t see you at first. Why are you home at this hour?”
“I finished work early. But what is this dog doing in my house?”
“It’s a new dog. Pollo and I went halfsies on it. Do you like him?”
“Not at all. I don’t want to see it in here. Look.” He walked over to the sofa. “It’s already covered with white dog hair here.”
“Oh, come on, Pa, don’t be rude. I’ll make sure he stays in my half of the apartment.”
“What?”
The dog wagged its tail and started to bark.
“You see, he’s happy with the arrangement!”
“Right, already I lose sleep when you come in late at night, so I can just imagine with a dog barking all the time. It’s entirely out of the question.” Paolo left the room angrily.
Pollo made a funny face at Step. “Jesus, he’s pissed off.” Then he got an idea. Pollo shouted loud enough that he could be heard from the other room. “Paolo, for the three hundred thousand lire I owe you…I’ll take him away.”
Step started laughing and went back to reading his Totem comic.
Paolo appeared in the doorway. “You’ve got yourself a deal. After all, I was never going to see that money again, and this way, at least, I get this dog out of here. By the way, Step, do you have any idea what became of my butter biscuits? I bought them the other day for my breakfast, and they’ve already disappeared.”
Step acted vague. “I don’t know. Maria must have eaten them. I didn’t take them. You know I don’t even like them.”
“I don’t know why it is, but whatever happens around here, it’s always Maria’s fault. So, shall we just fire this darned Maria? She only seems to make things worse around here…”
Pollo broke in. “Are you kidding? Maria is fantastic. She bakes these apple pies you wouldn’t believe. There was one just the other day, for instance…”
“So you guys did eat it. I was positive!”
Step looked at his watch. “Damn, it’s really late. I have to go.”
Pollo stood up too. “So do I.”
Paolo stood, all alone now, in the living room. “What about the dog?”
Before leaving, Pollo just had time to reply, “I’ll swing by later.”
“Listen, either you take it away or you give me the three hundred thousand lire.”
The door shut behind them.
Paolo looked at the Pomeranian, in the middle of his living room, wagging its tail.
Chapter 29
Babi was riding behind Step. Her cheek rested on his jacket, and the wind was tearing at the tips of her hair.
“So are you sure this isn’t going to hurt me?”
“Positive! Everyone has tattoos. You see how big mine is. If it really hurt, I’d be dead now, right? You just get yourself a really little one. You won’t even notice.”
“I didn’t say I was going to do it. I just said I’d come in and take a look.”
“All right, whatever you decide. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to do a thing. Agreed?”
Babi didn’t answer. Step braked and parked the motorcycle. “Here we are.”
They walked down a narrow lane. There was sand on the ground. It had been blown there by the wind, stolen from the nearby beach. They were in Fregene, at the fishermen’s village.
For a moment, Babi started to wonder if she’d lost her mind. Who knows what she’d be able to say to her parents if they found out. She’d have to get it in some hidden spot. But where? A place that was reasonably well hidden, but not too much so. After all, the guy who’d be doing the work would have to be able to see it.
Omigod, I’m about to get a tattoo, she thought. She imagined her mother finding out. She’d start screaming her head off. Her mother always shouted at her.
Step smiled at her. “Are you thinking about where to get it?”
“I’m still thinking about whether to get it at all.”
“Come on, you really liked mine when you saw it. Plus, Pallina has one, too, doesn’t she?”
“Yes, I know that, but so what? She did that on her own, at home, with needles and india ink.”
“Well, this is much better than that. And with the tattoo machine, you can add color and everything. It’s supercool.”
“But are you sure that they sterilize it?”
“Of course. Come on, how could you doubt that?”
Babi thought to herself that she didn’t do drugs and she’d never had sex. It would really be the dictionary definition of bad luck to get HIV from having a tattoo done.
“Here, this is the place.”
Step stopped in front of a rustic cabin. The wind was moving the reeds that covered the little building’s corrugated tin roof. The window was glazed with panes of colorful glass, and the door was made of dark brown wood. It almost looked like chocolate.
Step opened it. “John, okay if I come in?”
“Oh, Step, sure. Come right in.”
Babi followed him. She fearfully shut the door behind her. A strong smell of alcohol washed over her. At least there was disinfectant in the place. Now she’d just have to make sure they used it.
John was sitting on a sort of stool and was touching the shoulder of a young blond woman sitting in front of him on a bench. The sound of a little electric motor reached Babi’s ears. It reminded her of the sound of a dentist’s drill. She just hoped that it wouldn’t hurt like one.
The young woman was gazing straight ahead. Maybe she was feeling pain, but if so, she wasn’t showing it.
A young man, leaning against the wall, stopped reading his Corriere dello Sport. “Does it hurt?”
The young woman with extremely pale skin and the strap of her tank top pulled down over her arm replied in a faint voice, “No.”