End of Summer by Anders de la Motte

Author:Anders de la Motte [Motte, Anders de la]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Zaffre Publishing

Chapter 35

V

eronica stops outside the shop and angrily tears the cellophane off the packet of cigarettes, and is about to light a Prince when a big black BMW with tinted windows pulls up in front of her. The door opens and a curvy woman around the same age as her gets out.

‘I thought it was you, Vera!’

It’s Lidija, someone she went to school with and hasn’t seen for at least ten years. Longer, possibly, they don’t quite agree on how long. She doesn’t seem to have aged a day. She’s attractive, well dressed in high heels and a trouser suit. Her hair has been blow-dried, she’s got long nails, perfectly manicured. She and her expensive car both look out of place in the village, but that doesn’t seem to bother Lidija in the slightest. She talks loudly, and laughs even louder.

‘Look, have you had breakfast, Vera?’

‘Er, no . . .’

‘I was just on my way to see Dad. Tag along, he’d love to see you.’

Veronica begins to formulate an excuse, but Lidija interrupts before she has time to get going. Besides, she forgot to buy anything to eat in the shop, so she gets in her battered old car and follows Lidija’s huge BMW. She’s surprised at her own spontaneity. It isn’t like her. On the other hand, this morning is proving to be altogether rather out of the ordinary, to put it mildly. The strange feeling she had in the churchyard is still there, and she isn’t entirely sure how to handle it.

They park outside one of the pizzerias, the one with the sign saying FULLY LICENCED by the door. She remembers Lidija’s dad as a big, noisy man, one of the many who were bussed here from Yugoslavia in the sixties and seventies to keep Swedish industry going. These days he’s considerably smaller but no less noisy.

‘Gastric bypass,’ he laughs, patting his stomach. ‘I lost forty-five kilos. Forty-five, that’s half a Lidija.’

‘Stop it, Dad!’ Lidija rolls her eyes, then kisses her dad on both cheeks.

He gestures to them to sit down and, even though it’s so early in the day, serves up plenty of food.

‘There’s no point objecting,’ Lidija whispers. ‘Just have a little bit and he’ll be happy.’

Veronica helps herself to the food, to Branko’s evident delight. He says something she doesn’t understand to his assistant, then sits down at their table with them.

‘It’s good to see you, Vera,’ he says. ‘How’s your dad doing? He hasn’t been in here for ages.’

‘Fine, thanks,’ she says, surprised. Her dad eats pizza? He always says he prefers to cook for himself. And he’s good at it, too.

‘Has Lidija told you? She’s a real Rockefeller these days . . .’

‘Stop it, Dad!’ Lidija says. She tries to cover his mouth with her hand.

They play fight for a while until Veronica’s strained smile starts to ache. She tries to imagine her dad in here.

‘What he’s trying to say is that I’ve set up a few businesses that are doing pretty well. Hair care products, lotions, perfumes.

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