The Scent Of Rosa's Oil by Lina Simoni

Author:Lina Simoni [Simoni, Lina]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corp
Published: 2003-12-30T13:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 8

They made love in the shack behind the warehouse every night, with an intensity that scared them and at times made them cry. Afterward, on the way to the street, Renato kept asking Rosa questions. Rosa kept being evasive. “How can I love you so much,” he’d say, “and not know where to find you? I asked around, you know. No one has ever heard of a girl named Tramonto. Even Giacomo, who knows everybody in this part of town, has never heard of you or seen you anywhere. Where do you go at night when you leave me?”

“Why can’t you just take me for who I am?”

“Who are you?” Renato asked.

Rosa cocked her head. “The girl with black hair who loves you and waits for you at the port every night.”

In those days, when she was in Isabel’s booth, Rosa spoke less than usual. She sat in corners in long silences, fidgeting with the blue stone, tangled up in thoughts she couldn’t chase off her mind. “Are you going to tell me what’s going on?” Isabel asked, half curious, half concerned about Rosa’s long absences at night. One morning, Rosa told Isabel everything: the comment of Clarissa’s father, the reason for the disguise, and how much she was in love with Renato. “But he’s not in love with me,” she explained. “He’s in love with a Gypsy girl named Tramonto, who has black hair and a mother buried on a hill. What should I do?”

“Lies never solve anything,” Isabel said. “They make trouble.”

“That’s easy for you to say,” Rosa mumbled. “Every time I tell the truth, bad things happen.”

“I don’t believe you,” Isabel said.

“You should. I told the truth about my life in an essay at school, and I was labeled a prostitute. I told Madam C the truth about what happened with the mayor, and she threw me out of the Luna. I’m done with the truth. Forever.”

“I’ll give you my advice anyway,” Isabel said. “Tell him everything. If he truly loves you, he’ll understand why you used a disguise and he’ll love Rosa as much as he loves Tramonto now. And if he won’t understand, then you’ll know his love is not real.”

“I’m afraid of losing him if I speak,” Rosa sighed, squeezing tightly the blue stone in her hand. “I can’t even breathe without him.”

“He may find out on his own,” Isabel pointed out. “Then it’ll all be so much harder to explain.”

“Guess what,” Rosa said after a moment of silence. “He’s afraid of going on boats.”

“Really?” Isabel asked.

“From the first moment I saw him,” Rosa said, “I had this vision of me and him on a ship, crossing the ocean. Now I know it’ll never happen.” She smiled. “Of all men, why did I have to fall in love with one who’s afraid of the water?”

“You don’t pick whom you love.” Isabel smiled back. “And when you love, you adjust your dreams. But most important, when you love, you don’t lie.”

Rosa nodded. “I’ll try.”

At the oil stall that day Rosa was edgy and moody.

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