Page 69 of The Mad Don
“Mm.”
“Will they forgive me?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Nothing.” I watch the garden. “I’ll miss you most of all, Pakhan. I feel like you and I are soulmates who?—”
The line dies on me. He hung up, so strait-laced.
I laugh again, alone, at the window. Below, Lucia has taken Yana’s hand. She is holding it in both of hers and laughing at something. I go down to meet them, removing the dailies and putting them in my pocket. Lucia sees me first. She lifts her free hand and waves, delighted, the way she used to wave when shewas small, and I came home with something in my pockets for her.
She has color in her face. I notice it as I come closer, there in her cheeks and her lips. She has put on a little weight. She is sitting up in the chair without the slump she has carried for years.
How was I so blind? How did I let her fade for years? How did I miss the plot happening under my own roof in my own corridor in the room I visit every night?
I force the smile and bend and kiss her chin.
“There’s my girl.”
“Giovanni.” She is glowing. “You came out.”
I straighten and look at Yana.
She has stepped back. She has gone from kneeling beside my sister, her face open, to standing a pace away, her hands tense at her sides and her face shut. She is a guard again. I haven’t spoken to her properly in days. I have barely seen her; she wakes early, runs her laps, and spends her hours with Lucia. She has made my sister her whole project.
It is a good thing,I tell myself.
“We’re having a picnic,” Lucia says. “The cook is bringing food. Stay with us, please.”
I look at Yana, but she gives me nothing.
I tilt my head.
“Volkova.” Her last name, because I want to see if it moves her. “Is it all right if I join you, Gus?”
Lucia pinches my arm. “Don’t tease her!”
I keep my eyes on Yana, waiting.
“As you wish, Don,” she answers.
I look at her while she is not looking at me. The black activewear. The line of her arms which are stronger than any of the soft women at the Marchetti estate. The curve of her waist. Her mouth. I think about whether it would be so terrible to take one more bite of it before this is over. Because it will be over; Fabiano will move soon. I will have to let her go, too. Two women I am about to lose at once.
A maid comes across the lawn with a basket. Yana takes it from her. “Come on, you two,” Lucia says. She stretches out her hand.
Yana takes it. I wheel the chair to a flat green space under the big tree, and Yana spreads the cloth.
I move to lift Lucia down.
“No,” she says, smiling. “I can stand on my own. Let me show you.”
I step back and watch her plant her good foot down. She grips the arm of the chair. She pushes up, her face tightening with the effort, and she stands. She stays standing for a moment, swaying slightly, proud. Then she lowers herself onto the cloth, carefully, on her own.
Yana leans in and says, quietly, “Good job.”
Lucia blushes.
I blink quickly, and I sit.
