Sara Alexander - The Last Concerto

‘Good, you’re back. Your father has come home to talk to you before your brothers get home. Sit down.’

It was the first time Giovanna had looked excited about anything other than Marcellino’s wedding, or directed anything to her, for that matter.

Alba’s suspicion peaked.

‘Your father and I have been talking.’

Bruno patted her mother’s hand. They smiled at each other. Their loving moment should have filled Alba with relief. Had they decided to let her work for Signora Elias again? Had they mistaken her sullen quiet for obedience? Something stirred in her stomach.

‘I’ve been asked to give permission for you to marry,’ Bruno said, taking over the exposition of wonderful news.

Alba sat motionless.

‘Say something,’ Bruno murmured. ‘A smile would be a good start.’

‘By who?’ Alba blurted, her cheeks creasing, making the bruises from the fight still ache.

‘Who?’ Bruno asked, perplexed. ‘How many are you leading on at once?’

‘It’s perfectly normal to be nervous!’ Giovanna piped up. ‘I was a wreck when your father asked me. It’s what girls do. It’s a big step. You’re young, I know. This week has been difficult, yes. But having children young is better. And I will help of course with the children so you can keep up your job at the officina . All the modern girls do that now. You don’t have to stay at home like I did. You can have it all, Alba. Freedom! And such a good family. I’m going to cry.’

Alba watched as her mother lived her proposal on her behalf. All the tears she ought to be shedding, all the excitement for a life revolved around work at the officina and babies. A delightful seesaw of obligations to guarantee fulfilment.

‘I said yes, of course,’ Bruno added, trying to steer the conversation back.

Alba looked at her father. Whose betrayal was worse? Hers for sneaking out of their sight under the guise of aiding an old lady or theirs for coordinating the rest of her life? She couldn’t protest because she was too guilty. She couldn’t accept because the thought was absurd. Why had her friend done this to her? He was saving them both from the fate of small-town living, but had he not stopped to think that their fate was inscribed in the stone streets of the very place they needed to career away from? Was his love for Claudio so deep that he would do something as stupid as this? Love was not blind, thought Alba. It was sheer self-destruction.

Giovanna’s arms wound around her now, squeezing what little hope there was left. Celeste rose into Alba’s mind, her dancing eyes, her voice filled with spring and floral celebration. That room felt like a place she’d touched in a dream.

A knock at the door tore the trio’s attention away from the absurd plan. Alba opened the door, more to escape the enforced celebration than anything else. Signora Elias stood on the street. She looked smaller somehow. Without words Alba tried to describe what had happened. She watched her teacher look at her face, still marked with the fight, registering the cuts and bruises.

‘I couldn’t come,’ Alba said, feeling tears sting her eyes, watching her teacher read in between her breaths.

‘It’s quite all right, Alba,’ she soothed. ‘You’re not to worry. I had to come now though. I have a letter for you which you must read.’

‘Signora!’ Giovanna called out, stepping in behind her daughter. ‘Please, come in, you need coffee? An aperitivo , maybe?’

‘ Grazie , signora, but I can’t stay. I have a shopping order to pick up at the butcher. Actually, might Alba just help me carry it to my car? I won’t keep her more than five minutes. I know she’ll be helping you with lunch.’

‘Bruno is here, he can help. I’ll call him!’

As Giovanna turned to call for him, Signora Elias insisted. Alba suspected she was the only woman who might do that to her mother. ‘I won’t have you trouble him. I know how hard he works, Alba will do just as well.’

Alba tried not to look excited at the prospect and it appeared to serve as enough to convince her mother that running the errand would not upset her father. She gave a terse nod and Signora Elias didn’t waste any time.

Alba hadn’t realized how fast the old woman walked until they were striding downhill. Anyone who might have seen would have been as confused as her father as to why this nimble woman needed a young girl to run her morning goods up to her each morning. It made Alba love her even more than she already did. Nothing stood in the way of Signora Elias’s will; on top of her playing, this was a dark art in and of itself.

Signora Elias led them to a bench in the small Piazza Cantareddu, where next week the fires would be lit for St John’s celebrations. Alba and Raffaele would always leap over the embers together with the other teenagers. This year would be different. If she didn’t strangle him before then for not stopping this harebrained idea of marriage before it got out of hand.

They sat beneath the acers, sheltered in their mottled shade. Alba knew better than to ask about the butcher. There was no shopping to collect. Signora Elias had prised a little privacy for them, that was all.

‘I have something important to tell you, Alba.’

Alba’s heart lurched.

‘I have a letter here.’

Signora Elias was about to elucidate when Alba’s tears compelled her attention.

‘ Dio , whatever is the matter, child? What I have to say is the most amazing thing I’ve ever had to say to any of my pupils.’

Alba looked up.

‘Whatever’s the matter?’ Signora Elias asked again.

‘They want me to marry,’ Alba sobbed, hating herself for not being able to talk like a sensible person, to stretch her back, deepen her breath, hold some kind of centre. She was behaving like the very girls she never longed to emulate.

Signora Elias wiped her tears. Her thumbs were smooth and firm.

‘I didn’t know you were courting.’

‘I’m not. He’s my best friend. It’s not our idea. It’s all so stupid I can’t believe I’m even telling you. I’m so sorry, signora.’

‘Nonsense. I would be hurt if you didn’t. Here.’ She handed over a neat folded tissue from her pocket.

‘ Grazie .’

They sat in silence for a moment. Alba grew aware of the sauntering teenagers beginning to fill the piazetta, still parading after the end of school before returning home. It would be better if none of them saw her like this, even if Signora Elias had picked a bench a little way from the main drag.

‘Perhaps when they find out what I have to say everything might change?’ Signora Elias soothed. ‘You may want to cry again, and that is absolutely fine with me, do you hear?’

Alba nodded, but her words were a dying echo. Signora unfolded a letter. It was cream paper, embossed at the top, which Alba could make out from the sunlight hitting it from behind Signora Elias. Her teacher began reading.

When she finished she looked up.

Alba could hear nothing but the galloping thuds in her chest.

‘Do you understand what they’re offering you, Alba?’

‘I want to but I don’t think I believe it.’

‘A full scholarship, Alba. This is only offered for exceptional students at the accademia . Celeste has also offered that you might take a few classes at the conservatorio , the adjoined school, which prepares pupils from the basic level up to a standard where they might try out for the accademia . These extra classes would only be for the first few months, just to bring you up to speed on the theory side of things. I’ve covered most of what you need but she thinks it would help you. Only a handful of piano students are chosen each year.’