The Italian Teacher by Tom Rachman

Author:Tom Rachman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2018-03-20T04:00:00+00:00

43

Bear Bavinsky has soured on matrimony. His latest ended in a divorce, with Elodie contesting ownership of his entire art production—the paintings he labored on for decades and kept, those that survived his scathing judgment, and which have held out all this time, awaiting a call from the great museums. Eventually she settled for a hefty lump of cash. But the close call unnerved Bear. He moved all his works to a private storage location in Europe, away from “the rats,” as he refers to anyone who dares meddle with his hoard.

“I know you’re not enthused about weddings right now, Dad, but could you be persuaded to attend one if you weren’t the sucker in question? If it was me?”

“Charlie boy!” he responds, dropping the phone in enthusiasm, grabbing it again and apologizing. Was that the first time, Pinch thinks, that Dad has said sorry to me? “Happiest news I ever heard, kiddo! Congratulations, son! Who’s the lucky lady?”

Pinch purposely kept details of Julie from his father. Now he pours them out, with Bear’s enthusiasm serving to confirm his own, assuring Pinch that he loves her. After the call, he finds Julie doing the dishes and kisses her. “Let me finish. You call your sister.”

Julie leaps off to do so, spreading the happy news. After rinsing the last knife, Pinch turns off the faucet and catches a snippet of her conversation in the other room.

“Not weak at the knees, Queenie. It’s hard to explain . . .”

Pinch tries not to mind—he can hardly expect to stir a woman’s passions! He knows what Julie likes about him: He’s from a world more appealing than this dreary country, where her father is still fulminating about the strikebreaking scabs, her mum worries about the broken boiler, her brother spends his days at the new video slot machine in his local pub. Lately Julie talks about leaving England and setting up overseas; Australia maybe. He flips through the atlas in bed, and she tests him on capitals.

“Ouagadougou,” he answers.

“How do you know that, Charlie?” She flicks off the light, not for romance but to dream open-eyed beside her foreign bloke.

A month before the ceremony, Pinch checks that Dad has his travel booked. Bear is finishing an important painting before flying over, and it’s hard to know when he’ll be done. It’d be crazy to buy a flight when there’s a chance he’ll be tied up. Pinch nods—he never entirely expected his father. “Either way, you’ll be here in spirit. We’ll raise a glass to you.”

“A glass? Hell, a bottle at least! Here’s what, kiddo: I’m sending over a case of champagne.”

The event takes place at a register office with Julie’s friends and family, plus Mr. Khan from Imperial Foods and a huge bouquet from Birdie, who is about to give birth in North Carolina, so can’t make it. After the formalities, husband and wife step out into a drizzle, Pinch looking skyward, a droplet hitting his eye. He blinks, seeing Julie in a blur.

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