The Island Day 02

Just as the grill was almost ready for the barbecue, I heard two pairs of legs approaching the house, carrying one strong male and one gentle female voice. The tone of the voices sounded serious, but I was unable to make out the topic. Since the barbecue was in the "back" of the house, which was open to the path towards the Town, I saw them soon enough. When Ante realized that I could hear them as well as see them, he told Anita in a very sharp, but quietened tone of voice: "I've told ya it ain't good! Leave the man alone, please."

Ante carried two bags, and Anita was bringing a bottle of wine. She was looking at the floor when Ante was talking, but momentarily looked up and smiled when they came close enough. However, this was the first time I saw her smile not being completely spontaneous. Ante's smile was, on the contrary, entirely sincere. He was always joyful about our dinners. Mostly, he was happy to see me grew up from the hyperactive, 'bad' kid I used to be into the man I am now. He probably thought of himself as one of my tutors - well, the summertime kind, at least.

"Where are you, my favorite Islanders?" I asked standing next to the fireplace like and old professional, with the fire rake in one hand and the cigarette in the other.

"Look at ya, standin' there like sum backwater redneck!" Ante yelled approaching me. He came to me and gave me a friendly hug. "Here's the much, just put some of yours voodoo spices on it and toss it on tha grill."

I took the bags in my hand and dropped them on the plate lying next to the grill, just by the side of the plate on which I already prepared the vegetables and the foil-wrapped potatoes. I came to Anita: "Where are you girl, you feeling good?"

"Yeah. Hi." She hugged me, but it was the coldest and the most reserved hug ever since I came to the Island. But she leaned in and whispered in my ear: "I 'ad a fight with Pops, I'll tell ya later 'bout it..." OK, it was clear now, except in what part it had anything to do with me. She might have even gotten embarrassed about our yesterday's voyeur show.

I decided to break the tension: "C'mon people, take your seats" - I pointed to the table next to the grill, and then immediately stopped Anita: "Darling, could you please go to the kitchen and bring out three wine glasses, as well as some water? There's cold water in the fridge."

My last sentence made her smile again, at least. She probably remembered me standing behind the refrigerator door. Or maybe me after moving away from that spot, who knows. Meanwhile, Ante quietly sat down at the table. He never yelled or showed nervousness - if he was troubled by something, he would go fishing and thought about it. If he couldn't solve something, he stopped bothering about it. That's how his marriage ended. I never saw him beating himself up over it, he just couldn't find a solution, then let it fall apart and simply adjusted. Of course, their current fight was obviously not anywhere near that magnitude, so I just hoped that there will be no silent treatment between them this evening.

I checked the bag and got pleasantly surprised. Two large sea breams, at a pound each, and on top of that one beautiful grouper. Fish galore, enough for everyone to get stuffed. "My dear Ante, great catch. We'll eat like the kings."

"Eh, mate, that ain't sumthin' much. It's too hot, they don't bite. There wasn't enough even for Anita and me last three days, so I wasn't sure that I'll catch anything for dinner tonight. I got some luck, though..."

"Ante, haven't you heard about karma? It clearly states that what must happen, will happen. You said 'dinner' and karma made it sure that there will be dinner since she knew we haven't seen each other for a long time and that we want to sit down and eat something."

"Ah, ya're full of wisdom like it's a dog shit... Boy, no wonder I like ya. Ya've been livin' in the worst place in the World, doin' nasty job full of stress, and still ya get here full of optimism." Well, my dear friend, that optimism didn't come with me here, it was created here. I didn't tell him that, as I believed that it wouldn't be the wisest thing to go into details of that fact.

Just at that moment, Anita came out with glasses and the bottle opener. The Island didn't have its own wine. It was too small for serious winemaking, so Ante ordered wine from his friend, who had vineyards on the bigger and much more famous island. The wine was excellent the last few years, and I hoped it stayed that way. Anita opened the bottle expertly.

"There ya go, see what bartending in the summer does? Now my own daughter can open the bottle quicker and better than I can" - said Ante jokingly.

"Of course, it was the time that someone starts opening wine for you."

She poured three glasses and passed one to each of us. My hands were dirty from fish handling, so she put mine down next to me. I wiped my hands on the towel and grabbed the glass. "A toast"- I called. There's something about raising glasses that makes people forget they are fighting. "For this meeting after many years, and for every summer to be at least as good as this one, if not even better." We clinked the glasses and took a sip. Anita almost drained her glass.

"Deary, the summer jus' started, how come it's already so good?" Anita asked curiously. Her hazelnut eyes widened.

"Well, I'm here where I want to be, with people I like, and everything that's happening is even better than I was imagining."

"Umm... Ya've been her for just two days, what's it gonna be like by the end? Ya may decide to stay sum more, eh?" This time, I heard a mix of curiosity and wanting in her voice. This sentence didn't sound like a courtesy invitation.

"Who knows" - I said quizzically. "I'll go and toss the fish and the veggies on the grill, potatoes are already roasting."

Fish was grilling while we had some small talk. I was wondering how come Anita wasn't still in her university now, so Ante quickly bragged that she did her finals well before the deadline, and then came to relax a bit before starting her summer job in the City. She planned on working through July and August, and then to take a one-month trip with her friends to Argentina and Uruguay before coming back to her final year of studying. I congratulated her on the choice of destination. If I had the time, I would go with them in a heartbeat.

The food was excellent. My secret was to fill the fish with some pesto Genovese so it would get a unique flavor. Anita mixed up a summer salad which we all picked out of a big bowl. The atmosphere became completely relaxed, each bite of food and sip of wine making us laugh a bit louder, and their fight seemed to be a thing of the past. It was great to see father nad daughter acting and understanding each other as if they were friends. If it weren't for the age difference, their characters would make a person think they were siblings.

They asked me a lot about my life and my career. They were happy about my success but still found it incredible that I was ready to sacrifice so much of my life almost all year long. I explained to them that my next step was to organize everything in a way that my job would be less and less hands-on work, and much more pure supervision. It would enable to have much more free time in the next few years - of which I would spend a lot on the Island, at least in the summer.

We ate up, and Anita cleaned up the plates and everything else from the table. It was visible that she did it naturally, without any fuss, even though she didn't leave an impression of a person who found household maintenance as something to be desired in life. She came back and poured more wine into our glasses even before sitting down.

"I hope that's not all of the wine? I'm jus' getting' thirsty, guess I picked that up from Dads, heh heh." She said that looking at Ante, who was just gently smiling.

"Oh-eh, really kid? Ya wanna say I drink a lot, or tha' ya can handle some?"

"C'mon Dads, I know ya always put all yar buddies under the table before ya even started slurrin'. I got that trait from ya."

"Oh really? So, ya're getting' yar friends drunk, ya poor lassie? Good thing ya're not drivin' them to sober up in the ER." Ante tried to sound angry, but it was just an act. He couldn't blame her for being, well, like him.

"I know, old man. That's my destiny. So we better be careful not to put our dear host under tha table tonight." She laughed. "I wouldn' want him to go to bed too early, I's a long night." Now she looked at me significantly.

To her luck, I could also hold my liquor pretty well. It wasn't my first time drinking with Ante, and I could boast the fact that I was able to more or less follow his tempo. Truth to be told, he wasn't drinking to get drunk anymore, but rather to stay in a sort of a tipsy state. Still, I was in the open field now and had to be careful not to get wasted by their 'alliance'.

"There are couple more bottles that I brought with me - there by the fridge - if you feel like bringing them over." Anita immediately jumped up from the table and headed towards the kitchen.

"There ya go. She's at that age, always up for getting' drunk while having fun with people. I know I'm her dad, but wha' can I say - I ain't been different at twenty-two."

"Don't worry Ante, it's not as if you have problems with her. We'd drink it anyway, with or without her."

The wine was poured and drank, we talked and laughed even louder, our tongues were let loose and we hopped from subject to subject. Johnny Cash was playing on the speakers - Ante's favorite. We went through their last year or so, state of the country, the state of the Island, and then somehow the story slipped into our past.

"Oh my, I remember when we were all together here one year, I think ya were about seventeen" - Ante started the story in a style of the wise old man. He just needed a beard and a pipe to create the perfect picture. "Ya were still comin' here with yar folks - ya always stayed at Baba Branka's place in that luvly apartment. Your Pops" - he pointed the finger at me, then saddened a bit - "God bless 'is immortal soul, always complained tha' they had to practic'ly drag ya over here as ya were sayin' ya'll die of boredom on the Island, tha' they didn' understan' ya. And then ya mingled with tha' lil' German girl, Inge or sumthin..."

"Ingrid" - I corrected him. "And I was sixteen. Trust me, I remember that.

"Well, as long as she was 'ere you jumped 'round 'er like a peacock and suddenly the Island was tha pretties' place in the World for ya."

"Ante, of course I did, I lost my virginity with her." As I said that Anita giggled. Ingrid was older than me - she was eighteen - and was very determined to make a man out of me, and I wasn't complaining a bit. Not only did I lose my virginity then, but I had more sex that summer than many summers after that.

"Ah hah... Tha's why I had to pack home early that summer? I thought ya were mad at me..." Anita said with fake sadness in her voice.

"Oh come on, you were a kid following me everywhere. I couldn't have taken you with Ingrid and me to the beach..."

"And I thought ya hated me and didn' like me 'cause I was still a kid."

"How could I hate you? You were just in the way when a perky German was giving me some really ambitious sex lessons. It wasn't plausible with you in the vicinity. I think you get it today, right?"

"Today I do. Well, I hope she taught you well." She threw a deep stare at me, as if she was honestly expecting my reply. Ante looked at her, then at me, but I kept my cool.

"I believe she did. Never had any complaints later in life. Not even Darling, a creature of its own kind, had anything to object to in that area."

Anita frowned at the mention of the Darling. The story went on about our past days, me taking Anita to the beach with my friends, where we all scared her that horrible things will happen to her if she ever spoke about what she saw there (first cigarettes, beers, weed, experimenting between boys and girls...). Ante laughed, and I had a feeling he knew all about it.

"Do ya know why Anita stopped comin' to the Island?" Ante asked me. Anita suddenly blushed and slapped him on the hand.

"Dads, please don't..." She told him, but somehow the tone of her voice wasn't showing that she really, really wanted to keep that story as secret.

"Come on luv, i's been seven years, wha's that gotta do with anythin' now?"

"Noooo, what'll he think of me?"

"Whatever, he's grown up, he'll understan'. Anyhow" - he addressed me again - "ya just got together with Darlin' before tha' summer, right?" I nodded. Well, I've never connected these two moments before - at least not in a sense that seemed to be revealed now. I looked at Anita, who was shifting her eyes between Ante, me and the floor.

"So I called Anita - it was gonna be the firs' or maybe the secon' summer since her mother and I got divorced - to talk about her comin' over. I casually mentioned that ya'r comin' with yar new girl, and she starts to weep on tha phone. So I was all dumbfounded, askin' 'er wha's going on, luv and such... At firs' she didn' wanna tell me, and then she admits she's in luv with ya, tha' her world crumbled to pieces and tha' she can't bear to see ya anymore. So I told her not to come."

Even though I expected something like that, I was a bit taken back. Here is the father, telling me casually about his daughter, then fifteen years old and having a crush on me, while that same daughter sits with us at the table. I looked at Anita again. This time, it seemed as if she was OK with the story, and not as if Ante was giving out too much information. On the contrary, she intervened in the story.

"Oh my, Dads... When I remember that... I wanted to kill myself, to kill Darlin'. I never met 'er, and yet I hated her more than the devil 'imself."

"See, she always told me everythin'. I understood her crazy teenage head much more than her own mother. Then I told 'er not to come if she'd feel bad. I know wha' it's like, bein' in luv with someone who ignores ya, I've been there when I was young. And, honestly, I was 'oping that yar thin' with the Darlin' will be over soon. Truth to be told, I never liked 'er."

I didn't know how to react. Little Anita, that little girl that I always considered to be someone I baby-sitted, was in love with me, and my relationship with Darling was the reason she didn't go to the Island. It was actually a bit of a shock now. Moreover, what intrigued me now if that crush was just a thing of the past or if it still existed, but it just wasn't the moment to be asking that. Anyway, Anita continued with the story.

"Listen, deary, no worries... I found myself a boy in the City later. I's not as if I 'adn't came to the Island for seven years 'cause of ya and Darlin'." She said that while smiling, but I couldn't tell if the smile was honest or fake. "It was just a teenage crush. Ya were my role model and I thought we were gonna marry as soon as I turn eighteen."

"I think Ante would have a lot to object to such wedding." I said that trying to close the subject.

"Honestly, Ya'd be much better choice than all those other punks she introduced me to. At least I know ya, boy. Tha' doesn' mean ya'd get off easy, she's my only child and I want nothin' short of perfection for her."

Lovely. I was in a pre-marital interview now. It was all a bit funny now. But at least I somewhat better understood the last two encounters between Anita and me. I wasn't so sure that there were no more feelings on her side.

"C'mon now Dads, ya can be cal now. There's no boy now, I'm 'ere on the Island with ya now, and look who's with us 'ere. Jus' like good ol' times" - said Anita consoling her father.

"Ya said it. It's luvly to see us. Or better said, to see two of ya. I just go old, and ya're like a pretty picture - good lookin', smart, grown-up people."

"As for the looks, you can say that for Anita, but how did you get to pick me in the beauty contest?" I said jokingly.

"Whatcha talkin' 'bout?" Anita got upset. "Ya look better than the las' time I saw ya. Ya're like wine, the older, the better." She took my hand and smiled at me. We were all a bit tipsy now, but now I got convinced there was more to the previous story. Either that or I was drunker than I knew. Ante didn't comment much or react in any way to Anita's words and action.

"OK, thanks for the compliment" - I replied and squeezed her hand. I remembered that she had the opportunity to see everything about me there is to see and that she obviously liked it.

The conversation, however, steered in a different direction. We finished the second bottle, the darkness fell and Ante begun to yawn. "Kids, I'll 'ead home slowly and leave ya two to continue with catchin' up. I believe ya've got much more to talk about without me around." Then he looked at Anita: "Anita, please jus' remember wha' we talked 'bout before comin' over."

Anita's stare pierced through him. I guess that conversation they had before coming to dinner was quite interesting. Still, I wasn't going to interfere.

"Alright Dads, don't worry" - she practically hissed those words, but then immediately mellowed her tone: "I'll be 'ere for a bit more, then I'll jump in the sea..."

So, she planned to go for a swim. I didn't see the towel, nor bathing suit. She had a summer dress on her, but no other pieces of clothing were visible through that fabric. An instinctive feeling started to cross my mind, that something interesting was going to happen tonight. I just hoped that Ante didn't have the same feeling. Or, at least, that he didn't mind.

"OK, ya jus' enjoy yarselves. An' don' get too drunk!"

"We won't, Dads (Ante)!" Anita and I said that in unison, then started laughing. "There ya go, as if seven years never passed. We both know wha' to say to ya and when, Dads."

Ante got up slowly, kissed Anita on her forehead and headed towards the Town. Even though it was dark, he didn't use the flashlight. He lived on the Island his whole life, he knew every inch of every trail and could have walked it in the dark, blindfolded and on one leg.

Now it was just Anita and me. And the Thievery Corporation's 'Lebanese Blonde' in the background. The music was relaxing, the cards were laid out on the table, some by Ante, some that I've learned by deduction. Still, the only person that knew the full deck was Anita. There were some awkwardness and tension in the air, and just as I decided to break it, Anita spoke: "Let's go down to the beach. Just take the glass with ya."

I was still confused, but she was already on her feet and lightly heading towards the familiar spot. I followed her like an obedient boy. The curiosity was too strong, and the wine prevented me to over-analyze the deeper context of the moment.

We came up to the rocks, the same ones on which I was sunbathing and occasionally (yesterday, that is) fucking Lara. I immediately regressed in my mind, making my dick spurn inside my pants. I quickly sat down, not wanting to raise a tent in front of Anita. She sat next to me. We were staring into the distance for a while, observing the channel and the other islands in front of us, recognizable by the lights scattered around the horizon and dark lines on places where the landmass merged with the sea below or the sky above. After a couple of minutes, Anita spoke. Her tone of voice was, well, momentous.

"Ya know, I didn' want ya to learn 'bout sum things like that. Dads fucked it up prop'rly."

"Eh, don't worry. We're all humans. Anyway, bygones be bygones..."

"Look, it ain't that simple. It never is. I was definitely plannin' to talk with ya 'bout sum things while ya're 'ere. I told that to Dads, to let 'im know I'll confess. He was against it, afraid it'll create problems between us. That's why we got into a fight. Guess he believed if he told the story while we're all together, the story would jus' slip by. I luv 'im, but he can be a bit naïve. Somewhat old-fashioned in sum matters."