“Okay, Paolo, just lend me your car then, and we’ll go out for something to eat.”
Paolo set the fruit salad down on the table. “Well, actually…”
“Actually what? Don’t you dare, okay? You ate everything I made for our dinner, and now you’re arguing?” Step stepped closer. “Come on. Out with the keys.”
Paolo decided that, all things considered, Step had a point. He pulled the keys out of his pocket and entrusted them to his brother’s hands with a timid “Take it easy, though, okay?”
Step headed for the door. “By the way, I bought you your butter biscuits. If you want dessert, they’re in the kitchen cabinet.”
Paolo gave him a faint smile, but by now his thoughts were focused entirely on his silver VW Golf and what was likely to become of it.
Step and Babi went to a small crêperie over near the Pyramid of Cestius. Then, even though they were giddy with the bubbles of the beer they’d drunk, they dismissed the idea of going back to his house. Babi didn’t want to because his brother was there.
At that point, Step, cursing Paolo and his girlfriend, turned left and headed up Gianicolo Hill. Spread out before them, the city lay sleeping. They parked at the fork in the road where the gardens were, surrounded by other cars whose windshields were already fogged up with lovemaking.
Step changed the radio to 92.7, the romantic station. He reached out to Babi and started kissing her. Despite the pain in his dislocated shoulder, his aching sternum, and his ribs still sore from the pounding the Sicilian had given them, desire erased all his bruises. Impassioned kisses overcame any physical difficulties.
But then the hand brake got in the way and the knob to lower the seat back stuck. Step smelled her soft, sweet-smelling skin and made another attempt to lower the seat back. Nothing doing, it was still stuck. And so, while he used his right hand to turn the knob, he braced his foot against the dashboard and pushed with all his strength. There was a crack, and the seat back went straight down and Babi went with it. Step went with Babi, and they both laughed.
Each of them grabbed the other’s jeans, madly unbuttoning as if it were a race. Then Babi slowed down, inexpert and embarrassed, shutting her eyes, and in the end, holding him tight.
When she realized that Step wanted to go further, she stopped him. “No, what are you doing?”
“Nothing.” Step smiled. “Just seeing what I could get away with.”
Babi pushed him away, annoyed now. “No, seriously, here in the car?” She looked dreamily out the car window. “My first time has to be something beautiful, in a romantic place with the perfume of fresh flowers and the moon.”
“The moon is out.” Step opened the sunroof a little. “You see? It’s a little cloudy, but there’s a moon. And also just take a whiff of that…” He inhaled. “There are lots of flowers around here. What more could you ask for? This location is romantic. Come on, we’re even tuned to Tele Radio Stereo. It’s perfect!”
Babi started laughing. “I had something else in mind.” She looked at her watch. “It’s really late. If my folks get home and I’m not there, they’ll ground me again. Let’s go.”
She pulled up her jeans. Step got dressed again, too, and then together they tried to fix Babi’s seat. Nothing doing. They drove back, laughing, with the seat back sagging. Every time the car accelerated, Babi wound up flat on her back. They imagined all the possible excuses he could offer his brother.
Step shook his head thinking back over that evening’s events. With this finale, it had turned tragic.
He walked Babi to the door and said good night. Then he drove fast through the night.
Chapter 33
Babi was holding on tight to Step as she rode, head resting on his back and eyes half-shut. But even if they hadn’t been, she still wouldn’t have been able to see a thing. Step had blindfolded her. Suddenly it felt as if she were flying, a cool wind caressing her hair and the scent of broom plants redolent in the air.
She wondered where she was. How long had it been since they left? She tried to calculate in terms of the cassette tape she was listening to. The first part had just ended. Now she was on the B side. About a quarter of the way through. The best she could remember, it must be a C90 tape. So it had been a little over an hour since they’d left. Where were they heading?
She thought about when Step had come to pick her up. She’d been in Fregene, dining at Mastino with the rest of her class. They were celebrating the last hundred days of school. They’d only just finished eating and were taking a stroll on the beach. A few of her friends were playing capture the flag while she was sitting on a pedal boat chatting with Pallina.
Then she’d seen him. Step was walking toward her with that smile on his face, with those sunglasses and that jacket. Babi’s heart leaped to her throat.
Pallina noticed immediately. “Hey, don’t die on me, okay?”
Babi had given her a quick smile, and then she’d taken off at a dead run to meet Step. And she’d left with him without even asking him how he’d managed to track her down or where he was taking her now.
She’d waved goodbye to her classmates with a distracted “Ciao.” Some of them had stopped playing and had watched her go. Envious and dreamy, they wished they could take her place with their arms wrapped around Step, a solid A-Plus.
When she got to the motorcycle, Babi looked at it curiously. “Where are we going?”
“That’s a surprise.” Step walked around behind her, bracing her shoulders, and pulled out the green bandanna he’d brought in his pocket to cover her eyes. “No cheating now, eh…You’re not supposed to see.”
Laughing, she adjusted the blindfold. “Hey, I think I know this handkerchief…” Then she gave him an earphone from her Sony Walkman, and they listened to a song by Phil Collins while they rode.
Yes, an hour or so must have passed…“How much longer?”
“We’re almost there. You’re not peeking, are you?”
“No.” Babi smiled and laid her head on his shoulder again, holding on tight. Deeply in love.
Step felt that embrace and experienced a strange sense of tenderness and happiness. Then he gently downshifted and veered off to the right and then up the hill, wondering whether she’d guessed.
Step slowed down and then turned right. “Here we are, safe and sound.” He switched off the motorcycle and leaped off. “No, don’t take off the bandanna. Just wait for me here.”
He helped Babi off the motorcycle and left her standing next to it. Babi stayed there, obediently, with the bandanna over her eyes. She turned off her Sony Walkman and took out the headphones. She rolled up Step’s earphone, which was dangling loose, with hers. As she gathered up the cable, she tried to figure out where she was.
It was afternoon by now. The wind, softer now, caressed her face, and the strong scent of nature surrounded her. She could hear a faraway sound, muffled and repetitive, but she couldn’t figure out what it was. Suddenly, she heard a louder noise, as if something had just been broken. It reminded her of the sound of a tree branch snapping. She listened closely.
“Here I am.” It was Step, and he took her by the hand.