Friday, 28 August 2009

• Currently Faithless Street By Whiskeytown Matrimony see related

  Unnamed Novel and Bane of my Existence. Chapter Five.

  This is the piece I have been working on since January 2008.  I previously posted the Introduction; Prologue Pt. 1.; Prologue Pt. 2.; Prologue Pt. 3.; Prologue Pt. 4.; Prologue Pt. 5.; Prologue Pt. 6.; Prologue Pt. 7.; Prologue Pt. 8; Chapter One; Chapter Two; Chapter Three; Chapter Four; the Prologue provides some background, sets the stage for what's to come, fills in some of what happened between what you read previously and where our story actually starts -- sort of.  This is where our story actually starts.  If you have any thoughts when reading this drop me a comment.  Thanks.

  
  

  xx r.
  
  
  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  “Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.”

  - Anaïs Nin

   

   

  Two weeks later Olivia received a call from Sofia Taylor.  She was looking at apartments and was planning on having lunch not far from Olivia’s office, would she care to join her for lunch?     Greatly surprised, but nonetheless overjoyed, Olivia accepted Sofia Taylor’s invitation and met her at the café around the corner.

              Sofia Taylor was sitting at a sidewalk table in full afternoon sunlight.  This was Olivia’s favorite way to experience the sidewalk café and said so.

              “Mine, too, my dear.  If you are going to take a sidewalk table you simply must get one in full sunshine.  Otherwise you might as well be sitting inside next to the kitchen!”

              “Have you ever been here before?”

              “No, first time.  You?”

              “It’s my favorite in the summer.”

              “What do you recommend?”

              “The salmon, actually.”

              “What about this chicken in cream sauce?”

              “Avoid it.  At all costs, avoid the chicken in cream sauce.  Pretty much everything else is delightful, but that dish is inedible.”

              Sofia laughed.

              “You fell very strongly about things, don’t you?”

              “Not about everything, unfortunately.  But definitely about food!”

              “I see!  I see!  I think I am going to have the salmon!  What about you?”

              “I’m leaning toward the lamb souvlaki.”

              “You like Greek food?” Sofia sounded surprised.

              “I love it!”

              “I’m Greek!” she declared.

              “Yes, I know,” said Olivia forgetting Sofia Taylor didn’t know that her heritage was no secret to Olivia.

              “Oh, really?  What gave it away?”

              “Your maiden name: Christopoulos.  It’s Greek, no?  And you’re brother’s name: Anastasios, also very Greek,” Olivia backpedaled.

              “Oh, that’s right!  You know a thing or two about my brother, I forgot!”

              Olivia smiled appreciatively, awkwardly.

              “He’s coming out here next week, my brother.  I’m so thrilled.  He’s going to help me find an apartment.  I told you about Henry’s new job?”

              “Yes, you mentioned it.”

              “Well, it’s been left to me to find our new home and I simply cannot do it on my own.  My brother has offered to come out here and help for a few days.  He has some time off from the orchestra at the moment.  I haven’t seen him quite some time – not as long as you’ve been separated from your sister, thankfully, but a long time nonetheless.” 

  Sofia Taylor sighed and fondly watched a little boy teasing his sister at the next table.  A few seconds and she was back.

              “So what are you working on?  I want to hear all about it!”

              Olivia had the weirdest sensation when she was with Sofia Taylor.  It was as if Sofia Taylor was her older sister and not Mary Granger.  Where Mary had been distant and uninterested in either of her sisters most of her life, Sofia Taylor had interest and compassion in spades!  She was genuinely curious to know about Olivia’s life.  What her home was like, how work was going, Danube’s health, the Prescotts; she asked her about her parents, her mothers death, where Olivia went to college, what she studied, what books she liked to read – anything that Olivia found interesting, Sofia Taylor wanted to know what it was and why she liked it so much.  The same held true for anything Olivia didn’t like.

              “What’s the matter with Bridget Jones’ Diary?!”

              “Well, ok, I enjoyed it the first time I read it, but the second time?  The second time I noticed all the horribly annoying things about Bridget that makes her unattractive.  And they just continued to add up!  I could no longer root for her because she was just so damn annoying!  I don’t see what Mark Darcy saw in her.  I hear they break up in the second book.  After hating the first one so much I couldn’t bring myself to read it.”

              “You didn’t miss much,” Sofia Taylor admitted.  “What did you think of the movie?”

              “It was worse than the book!”

              “Oh, how you make me laugh,” cried Sofia Taylor, tears in her eyes.

              “I don’t generally like films with modern settings.  I don’t really know why.”

              “That’s very singular.”

              “I know.  Maybe they’re all just bad.”

              “You might be right.  What is your favorite movie?”

              “It’s a tie; Stage Beauty with Clare Danes and Billy Crudup and Fiddler on the Roof.”

              “With Topol?”

              “That’s the one.  But I haven’t watched that in years.”

              “You know, my brother was asked to guest star in ‘Fiddler’ on Broadway but he turned it down, but then you probably knew that!”

              “I remember reading about that,” she replied vaguely.

              “I don’t know why he would turn it down.  He wouldn’t tell me when I asked.  It’s not like he doesn’t know the music.  He plays it all the time!”

              “Does he?” Olivia looked up sharply.  “Why does he do that?”

              “I’m not sure.  Whenever he’s in a bad mood he plays that one piece from the part where the other daughter tells her father they’re getting married.  It never cheers him up though.  He just puts his instrument away and goes out for a walk.  Strange behavior of moody musicians, I suppose.”  Sofia Taylor smiled at her own joke and raised her eyebrows.

              Olivia tried desperately not to let her discomfort show.  She wished conversation would not turn to Anastasios Christopoulos.  She successfully avoided Sofia Taylor’s calls during the time her brother was supposed to be helping her look at apartments.  And happily returned her call after hearing the message saying her brother had returned to New York and how it was a shame she had not been able to introduce them.  The women made a lunch date for the weekend.

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