Room For Renovation

Melina loved her husband, but the prospect of four weeks with him in the house worried her!

THE café is closing for renovations tomorrow,” Tanino told his wife as soon as he entered the kitchen. Then he heaved a sigh and slumped into his chair.

Melina was so discombobulated that she put pepper in the bubbling tomato sauce instead of salt.

“For how long?” “Four weeks.”

Good heavens! What were Tanino and his friends going to do with themselves for all that time?

“Carmelo’s café doesn’t need any renovations; it’s perfect as it is!”

“How would you know? You never go.”

This was true. It was a dingy shop with rickety chairs and stained tables, mostly frequented by men like Tanino and his friends.

They spent every morning there, drinking coffee and playing cards.

“I’ve been once, when I was out with our granddaughter and she needed the toilet urgently.

“So, will you and your friends meet at the other café, at the end of the street?”

“No way! We’ll never give our custom to Carmelo’s competition. We just won’t meet up for four weeks.

“Anyway, Rocco is going to visit his daughter in Milan, Vincenzo is taking his wife on holiday and Luigi is going to help his son paint his flat.”

“And what are you going to do?” she asked.

“I’ll find something.” He sighed.

Melina shivered. When Tanino was newly retired, before he started

scopa

frequenting the café, he had rattled around their flat like a lone coin in a piggybank.

One day she’d returned home from the market and found all the pots on the balcony rearranged in order of size, regardless of the plants in them.

Another time she found the entire contents of her kitchen cupboards rearranged in alphabetical order, so that the pasta sat uncomfortably next to the crisps, the couscous rubbed shoulders with the chocolate and the lentils were improbably partnered with the liquorice.

It took Melina most of an hour to find the carton of milk which wasn’t under “L” for but under “U” for UHT.

She shuddered at the thought of what Tanino might get up to if he stayed at home for one entire month.

“Why don’t you help Carmelo keep an eye on the builders – watch over

patatine latte,

the works and make sure they do a proper job?” she suggested.

“That’s a great idea,” Tanino said.

****

The lift was broken. Melina had no choice but to climb the three flights of stairs to her flat.

Adjusting her shopping bags on the crook of her elbows to balance the weight, Melina set off, regretting buying a watermelon and two kilos of tomatoes.

By the time she completed the first flight of stairs, she had to stop to rest her leg, which was playing up.

The flowerpot on the window-sill of the landing caught her gaze.

It was decorated with the symbol of Sicily – a triskelion three-legged gorgon’s head.

“I could do with an extra leg,” she thought to herself.

In fact, it was only 11 o’clock and she had already taken the dog for a walk, queued at the post office, dropped her shoes at the cobbler’s, shopped at the market and stopped by the baker’s.

Her arms had been so full that the baker had left the counter and stuffed the bread into one of the bags so that she didn’t have to put them down.

By the time she reached her flat, sweat beaded her top lip but she had no free hands to wipe it off.

She was wondering whether she could fish the house keys from her bag with her teeth when the door opened wide and Tanino stood before her.

“I heard you come up the stairs.” He registered the shopping bags hanging off Melina’s arms.

“Why didn’t you call me? I would have come down and helped you.”

Melina didn’t answer. All her brain’s processing power was taken by the sight of her husband wearing a newspaper hat and wielding a trowel.

“What’s going on? What are you up to?”

“Come and see.” He smiled smugly.

A bucket of fresh mortar sat on the kitchen floor.

“The builders at the café had some left over so they let me take it home. Look, I’ve replaced the broken tile!”

Melina’s heart sank. The missing tile under the foot of the kitchen cupboard made it just short enough for her to reach the top shelf. Now it was back to being too high for her.

She forced out a polite smile and Tanino rubbed his hands.

“I knew you’d be pleased! I still have some mortar left. It’ll harden soon, so is

there anything else you’d like me to repair?” Melina slumped on a chair. She was hungry, tired and had only just enough energy to cook lunch in a tidy kitchen.

Instead, there were trowels scattered on the counters and buckets of fresh mortar to dodge.

She glanced out sullenly at the balcony and something about her flowerpots grabbed her attention.

“What . . . ?” Tanino grinned.

“You often complain that the wind blows your plants over so I’ve cemented the pots to the floor.”

She held her head between her hands.

“I was only away for a couple of hours . . .”

****

It was impossible to be cross with Tanino because he always acted with the best intentions.

Even when he made the shower curtain so short that it stuck to your body when you showered, changed the light bulbs to energy-efficient ones that gave out a horrid blue glare and moved the microwave so far from the kitchen counter that she was in danger of dropping heavy dishes on the floor.

Melina was exhausted. Three more weeks before the café reopened. She had no idea how to keep her husband at bay for all that time.

She had just lain down on the sofa to rest her leg after clearing up lunch when their little dog, Bello, tottered up to her and nuzzled her hand with his lead in his mouth. Melina sighed.

“Oh, sweetie, can you please let me rest a little longer?”

Bello dropped the lead into her hand and gave her a puppy-eyed look.

“Why don’t you ask Tanino? He’s got energy to spare,” Melina joked.

Much to her surprise, Bello picked up his lead and tottered out of the room.

He’s not going to have much luck, she thought.

Tanino was asleep.

But soon after, Tanino appeared at the threshold with Bello’s lead in his hand and the bleary eyes of a man woken up in the middle of a nap.

“Bello seems to want me to take him for a walk. Do you mind?” He sounded as flattered as he was surprised.

“If he’s chosen you . . . ” Melina shrugged, as if she was totally innocent.

When Tanino and Bello returned from their walk, Tanino was full of excitement.

“Guess what, Melina? I met an old classmate of mine at the public villa.

“He has a dog, too, and tomorrow we are meeting up at the same time – if you don’t mind me taking Bello for a walk again.”

“Not at all. Why don’t you take Bello for his morning walk, too?”

“Sure. I’ve got nothing else to do.”

“And as you’re out, could you pop over to the market and buy something for lunch? And buy bread from the baker’s?

“My shoes also need collecting from the cobbler, but it’s on your way.”

The next day Tanino returned home at 11 o’clock with a full grocery shop.

When he left the house again with Bello to meet his old school friend at the public villa, Melina stretched on the sofa with a book and put her leg up.

By supper time, her leg didn’t hurt at all and she felt as fresh as a bun just out of the baker’s oven.

By giving Tanino her errands, she had – as the Italian saying goes – caught two birds with one bean. Tanino was too busy to get up to any DIY mischief at home and her leg was healing fast.

She remembered the three-legged woman’s head, symbol of the Sicilian island. She had finally got the third leg she needed. It was Tanino!

****

“Sorry, Melina, but I can’t walk Bello today. The café is reopening.”

“But . . . I’ve got a hair appointment!”

And Melina had promised a phone call to her sister, and she wanted to finish a book . . .

“I’m sorry, but I can’t miss the café’s reopening party. I can do the grocery shop on the way home, though.”

Having Tanino be her extra leg had been wonderful, but now Melina had better get used to just having a hand from him instead.

When Tanino returned home for lunch, singing the praises of the renovated café, Melina’s curiosity flared up like a bonfire.

So the following morning she took Bello on a different walk which went right past the café.

New wrought-iron tables spilled on to the pavement, shaded by a cheerful yellow and white awning.

A multi-coloured palette of artisan ice-cream trays was displayed right by the entrance so that you didn’t have to go deep into the shop to buy one.

“Melina, hello! Come and join us,” Melina’s friends called from one of the tables.

They, too, had come to inspect the new café where their husbands spent every morning.

Hours went by as they chatted and Melina was taken by surprise when, around 12 o’clock, she saw Tanino and his friends filing out of the back of the shop.

“Good heavens, I should be home making lunch!” Melina exclaimed, jumping to her feet.

Tanino spotted her and the surprise on his face turned into a smile.

“Melina, do you like it? Come, see how nice it is!”

He didn’t seem even a little worried that his lunch was going to be late, so she followed him in.

The walls were now pastel yellow. Strategically placed mirrors made the place look airy and more luminous, and the new indoor tables and chairs were sparkling clean.

“Carmelo has done a sterling job,” she said.

The man himself waddled out from behind the till and came to meet her.

“You must be Melina. Nice to meet you! Have you come to admire your husband’s work?”

“My husband’s work?” “Don’t you know? He helped me choose the new tiles, the paints, the fittings.

“He said that we needed lighter, friendlier colours to attract women and children, too.” He lowered his voice conspiratorially.

“But I think that who he really wanted to attract was you. And hasn’t he done a good job?”

Melina whipped her head round to Tanino. “You did this? For me?” Tanino scratched the back of his neck, looking shy, while Carmelo confirmed it.

“He’s been wonderful, and not just for the renovation. He helps me choose suppliers, check invoices, deal with paperwork . . . ”

When she’d imagined him spending the mornings playing cards and drinking coffee with his friends, he was actually helping run the café!

No wonder he had been so helpful to her once he stopped going.

“I offered him to become my business partner,” Carmelo continued, “but he said no.

“Many times I asked him to stay for lunch on me, but he always said that he couldn’t let you eat alone. But now that you’re here, Melina, can I offer you both lunch?”

It sounded like the perfect solution!

“Yes, please!”

The following day the offer was repeated.

“If you have lunch on me every day of the week, I’m still in debt to Tanino so, please, let me treat you.”

They accepted, and from then on, Melina didn’t have to carry any more bags of shopping.

For their supper, they shopped on the way home, and Tanino always carried the bags. ■