Ischia.it english

Sins of Ischia

Gianni and Elena are convinced that these days will be unforgettable. That is why they decided to start a subtle play. Nothing rude to tell, though. An occasion to compare with their own intellect and above all with heart. «Choose one - Gianni whispers -, read it and then we play to see if this our love is like “A Summer Place” by Sloan Wilson, or “Summer Crossing” by Truman Capote». Gianni had read them all in one breath.

When he was 18 or so, the ugly summer love, baked under the August sun, among the waves when the wind shifts from Noon to Mistral, is perhaps the first step of the hormonal growth, but also the first thought of love.
We are in Ischia, Neapolitan bank of bourgeois holiday, and is - with the slowness - the year 2000. At the beach, overlooking the “Spiaggia degli Inglesi”, nestled in the strand, the rocks that just appear and the few cabins in pastel colors, there are two places of and for tenderness. One is certainly the snack bar-solarium, where one can hide in the back of the building of tuff and volcanic rock of the island, there where the lifeguards watch umbrellas and chairs; the other place is in shadow of the sea behind the rock in the shape of mushroom that protects from prying eyes. Gianni, just behind the small cliff, embraces Elena and proposes what could be their hobby from now on when it will be. Gianni comes from Vomero, tall, good-looking, high school – he is really good and diligent - only child with only one gripe: they met later (both late twenties) and not having lived a long engagement. Daddy Carlo has, in fact, an unusual sensitivity to follow discreetly the falling in love of his Gianni, especially now with Elena.
A little less attention and a little more than distrust accompany instead, Mom Laura: a unique male is a crown resting on the head of a mother, attention to show it in its shine but without scratch it or pull it out. Elena? Well, she is rather the opposite of Gianni. Small, but well-proportioned, brunet with blue eyes has a temper that is contagious, but in the end has the same effect of the chili. You taste it; it puts you inside that burst of flavor and then leaves you with the bitter in the mouth. Her beauty is contagious and can transform into what can attract a person: a mix of charm, joy and happiness.
«Then do you take my game? The challenge is that one of two books: I’m a crazy stubborn in love with you and I want to understand what kind of love is ours».
«Yes, yes, yes, my nerd. You will have to give me a bit of time, because I do not feel at my ease reading. You are a college wizards, I, in my course of tour operator, could stay endlessly. I spend my adolescence elsewhere and certainly not bent over books. My sister, however, would end in seven days or less».
«Yeah Alice, how is she? ».
«So-so, summer is a hard season for her, transfigures her resistance. She is tired since she wakes up, if she wakes up. Sometimes I get the feeling that the medicines for methylmalonic acidemia seem to have no effect».
«You are a special person. Incredibly crazy, seemingly casual, well too, you get to have intervals of serenity and calm that I envy. I think even Alice. You are her best medicine».
«Now I want to do a little game to you: supposing that soon we break up and then we met in years. To meet again here, in Ischia. You would be a married person. I married but romantically forlorn. According to you, does the spark break out and, above all, would we leave everything to come back together? ».
«We never know about what we talk when we speak of love. However, we have one certainty: always we have to pay something. This is enough to answer: “yes, I would change my life”».
«What a bore! - Elena smiles, closes her lips to give him a little kiss - Even if you have to tell me yes or no do you show off your high-sounding dialectic, and to me incomprehensible».

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It would have been a very hot summer; Elena realized it. That night the air was very hot, there was nothing could give her cool, the fan was pointing to the bed, but there was nothing to do, the burning heat did not go away harassing her. She had returned to Ischia after twelve years. Now she was so motionless, between a cushion and the other, a cigarette between her fiery red lips, shorts, pink and black lace bra and a glass of gin in her right hand.
She stood there, motionless and thoughtful, looking sad and angry, as if she were meditating revenge against someone.
Sweating profusely, the heat was unbearable and the strolling of holidaymakers was so annoying.
In her mind darker images, one after the other, Elena did not drive them away from her eyes, even she fed repeatedly with a puff of cigarette and the haunting “Space Oddity” by David Bowie she listens whenever needed to surrender to her thoughts.
Thinking too much harmed the nervous system, she knew, yet she could not avoid it, she liked, she enjoyed, was her only outlet, she had nothing; her thoughts were the only company she possessed.
Often she wondered why it was reduced so badly, her failure as tour operator, but successful journalist, woman so beautiful, voluptuous, and glamorous and flattered by all. Solar and expressive, fun and entertaining, that way to “answer your own question” became the dark side of her soul, the only thing she knew was that, one by one, all had abandoned her without a reason or maybe there was a reason.
Elena realized it, but to admit it became an inner torment, did not resign herself, even before the evidence of facts. She thought her former husband, the memories of those youthful summers in Ischia, the loves of August ... Damn hot! The air fan gently moved the black hair off her forehead, approached the soft lips to the glass drinking liquor with the flavor of herbs and spices, to go down to inflame the stomach. Poor, alone, insane Elena, still did not know, could not know that soon would be brought back to reality, the reality that she sought in every way to turn away from her but at the same time approached in the past. Maybe those were happy days.
How could happen, she began to wonder, that a woman like her could sit on bed doing absolutely nothing besides thinking, drinking and destroy her beauty still intact despite lived without more female attention? What was missing? Love? On the other hand, a soft warm hand that hold her breast? Was it what she wanted? Did she want a life and fled from it, or the opposite?
These thoughts became a hail of tapping on the head: the hassle of reason, it is impossible to get rid of it and to think calmly. She walked to the window, barefoot, and leaned on the windowsill. She looked across the road, Corso Colonna in Ischia, and saw the building of Umberto I, just restored, a man who watched her with amusement.
Her blue eyes scanned the man resting his elbows on the sill, trying to figure out if that vision was real. Is he or not? Of course, the years have passed. Moreover, many. Is that man Gianni? An apparition? A vision disconcerting? He and I, again here, after all has happened to us.
She decided to find out; she put on her mini shirt, to leave nothing to the imagination, her tight jeans and took to the streets.
The man like Gianni was there, he looked her unperturbed almost defiant, according to Elena.

“I am thirty-two with a background swollen with bitterness. So I waited for the end of my third decade to give an account of my past and inventory load of disappointment: too full of disillusioned life, it was time to empty it and leave inside only good memories, ready to be replicated in the most suffered moments.
However, that wound remained there and, the topic of love, evoked fright in me.
Elena met me again but only for a long greeting. Now we had to spend the afternoon together to find a gift for Alice, her sister now cured of disease, full of life, certainly more than Elena, had organized a big party, and I didn’t go empty-handed...
I had no idea what to give her. Nor Elena worried about it. After six days of our re-attending, she had quietly ignored tastes and trends, no more or less how she did with me when we were together here in Ischia. She was not a “mental” person; she loved by the body ... and not just for sex, between her and me there was always searching and physical approach.
At first, she had unceremoniously decided for the first object seen in the first window: a thong. However, she changed idea, when Gianni pointed out that to give to Alice a pair of underwear was not the height of elegance. We opted for a beautiful bracelet apache with a bear, which for the American Indians, symbolized the Healer and had miraculous ability. It was made of a very fine mesh chain with beads. Gianni well knew that Alice loved the bracelets ... knew and remembered the tastes.
The party was in a villa near the sea, on the promontory of Zaro, between the bay of San Montano and the beach of San Francesco. The villa overlooking the cliffs looking towards Ventotene. The evening was beautiful, clear; it was possible to see the lights of Porto Romano and the silhouette of St. Stefano the islet that joins Ventotene. People on the terrace so much ... and nice people, well ... beautiful pool shiny, metal music ... dream house, good party and great beauty.
- I did not know that Alice had recovered so well from the disease!
- Healed, but the verve transmits her kind that is full of grain and she understood the true meaning of life, being in her element until she wants! - Elena pointed out.
- In your opinion, I invited you just for friendship or for a specific purpose ... perhaps to show you how cool are some of my friends?
- I do not complicate life. I’m here, there are a lot of girls, food, drinks ... after all who cares?
He lied, he had imagined a backdraught and instead she had lefts him in front of the buffet and ... au revoir.

Gianni was Gianni and, although a little depressed, held his role as womanizer going to peck single women. “Left alone, I began to wander around the villa.
However, the party was well organized: the man of Alice had a lot of money and put them on display. In the pool area, it had been set up a gazebo where a DJ and an animator gave birth to a show accompanied by fireworks ... for those that still were astonished. I moved into the back of the house where there was a bar with three big-breasted bargirls. I took a fresh “margarita talked endlessly to the less oxygenated of three: Deborah (without H) 27, Naples, passionate… maybe sweet.
I heard a woman's voice said, “for me a Negroni”, I turned around and it was Elena with Alice. I could not do without congratulate them for the party.
- You surprised everyone, truly an amazing night.
- Thanks, you are always so kind.
- My pleasure (intervened Elena), the latest festivals, when we were together, were certain colossal flop...

- But tell me, who has chosen the bracelet; would it seem to be your paw? Because my sister about my tastes does not understand anything.
She performs the wrist with the bracelet.
- Bel wrist, thin, diaphanous. Yes I chose it (I said turning gaze to the blue flashes eyes of Elena).
- Um, why do not you walk? Alice broke the spell
- Okay, and where you take me?
- Well ... she intends the house tour (Elena replied)
- Ok, so here the party goes on without us (she added with one of her smiles); with all those who are here and do not even know what we celebrate!
So we walked along the perimeter of the villa ... I was wondering, Elena invites me to the party, but so far without paying attention to me, now, she has withdrawn with me ... What should I think about?
- You are so silent, what are you thinking about?
- If some of your lover sees us, could think ill
- I have not lovers around. Why cannot I have a word with a friend? If you are referring to Franco, my ex-husband, is a guest as many. Then, at all everyone looks so jealous like you!
- I would be jealous.
- Only an impression. Tell me, how are you? You told me that you are married. You could come in Ischia with your wife.
- We broke up in the spring
- I am sorry I did not know... as we lost sight of each other...
- You know not always in life it is all how you think. Yes, we fought ... but she gave too much weight to our arguments ... Better not to talk about it, talk or not, the wounds remain! (I sighed).
- I know, it was the same with Franco...

She began to tell me about her despair after the break with Franco, and the vacuum that was always in the heart, that maybe it was not really due to the former husband but that love did not want to get...
The party was coming to the end, there was still a lot of people, most of them were now at the mercy of alcohol. Who was looking for a fresh dip in the pool, who abandoned himself exhausted on the deck, while the more energetic people dancing still unabated ...
The music was now very low.
The walk was finished with Elena; Gianni remained absorbed in many thoughts. There was a vain hope in some hidden recess of his soul: he had only to find and kick it, not to suffer again.
Again “abandoned”, he began looking for Elena, but with no success. Was she with someone?
He perhaps was deluded and had to revise that his inordinate interest. Better to pretend, to deviate from the true intentions. Two bites of pizza would be enough, so he went to the buffet and ate a slice of pizza. He heard a male voice ...
- I have seen before only with Elena, who do you plotted? - - I guess you are Gianni...
- I would say that you guess well, and you are Franco! Elena and I have been friends for a long time
- His friends are also mine! Let’s go to the bar, we expect a Meskal -
Thus began the round of drinks, many. As always, the first effect was my verboseness. Franco told me proud of his medals in the life and loves. The provident return to Elena with a beautiful girl prevented me knowing the outcome of his latest conquest.
- It is time to go; it is late. - She said, polite but dismissive.
- No, Gianni stay with us for a nightcap, we are amusing and I have so much Meskal in the body that could catch fire! - He invited Franco, who then turned to Elena:
- Hello little sister do you want a tequila? -

- I cannot refused, give me the bottle! – She answered.
Since we were too drunk to drive, Alice invited us to spend the night at the villa, we accepted.
A room per person. Mine was on the first floor, next to the room of Debora; the big-breasted... could happen something? Well, who knows, we will see.
In room, not just out of the shower, I heard a knock at the door. I made quickly to cover my demure share with a towel and opened the door. It was Elena, she came to take the necessary to sleep, she said good night, kissed me like a mother on the forehead (surprising) and went to the door, but suddenly turned:

- But I have to be honest, I expected a surprise, something original as you can do. Well, good night.

I stood there saying nothing. How can I interpret the words? In short, there was a lot to think! I went to bed, and in those mental brooding I went to sleep.
At six I was already awake; I slept little but hard, and sleep was very refreshing.
I got up right away to enjoy on deck, that moment when the house was still asleep. Therefore, I went to the pool. From the rooms of the servants, some noise interrupted the harmony of silence, flushing, and indistinguishable voices.
I lay down on a poolside lounger; the warmth induced me to relax. I would not have slept; there was unfinished business: decoding the message of Elena.
“I must be honest... I was expecting a surprise, something original as you can do”.
What was I to her? I was just the only sensitive man in the whole range of her life, or was it something more? Between us, anything could happen.
Maybe I was just going over her words, maybe she just wanted a nod or a smile and wishes for the rest... is it possible to rummage through the thoughts of a woman?”
I was immersed in these meditations when I heard soft footsteps, almost on tiptoe.
- Can I keep you company?-
Instantly I recognized that voice, was Deborah, the bargirl of the night before. An elegant blue sarong made her look deliciously essential.
- Sure, you are welcome... be seated... is a pleasure - Thanks ... Gianni, right? -
- If you still remember, it means that between us could be true love! - We both laughed.
- I noticed yesterday that you were a curious man. One to watch ... closely - she said in intriguing way. We laughed again.
- And that is, I am not a profiteer.
- I like the way you do, you’re... authentic. At parties like those of yesterday, few are there to have fun; the more are there to affirm their membership “environment” or groped of insert; for these other parties have contacts and work. They are not there to have a few good and true small talk with the bargirl!
Meanwhile she was sitting at the edge of the bed and spoke, she looked at me in a certain way, between the sensual and intriguing way. I pretended not to look at her breasts almost out of the sarong. The lack of makeup graced the face and showed, those big eyes and clear long blond hair, almost like a child. She talked and talked about her life, work and itinerant people that she met. She looked at me; we were looking for the movement of the eyelids, with overlapping lip. Certainly, she “read” my licentious thoughts. Her voice began to be more fragmented and slow, laid her hand on my thigh and began to stroke it gently.
 
Then approached her face to mine, we kissed, a long, deep thrust in her lips. We went to my room. I felt confused and excited. I lifted the sarong and with fingers grazed the body from the back to the buttocks. I put her on the bed, breathing deeply, with the slowness of those who are intoxicated by the senses. Her hands began to explore my body, brushing and making me feel her nails. Slowly our bodies got rid of what few clothes they wore and joined in ecstasy. I felt it; it was not just sex: I was perhaps embracing a piece of my destiny?

A ticking on the door woke us from the spell, leading to retaliation on the threshold of panic. It was Elena.
- Wait!
She entered and saw.
- But I heard “come here” ...- said uncertainly.
- But he said, “wait”! - Deborah replied.
The shock was common. I felt I was dying ...
Elena turned her eyes.
- Excuse me that is an important thing.
- I will wait in the hallway.
She exited. I got up, got dressed haphazardly, I gave Deborah a dejected look and joined Elena.
- Please Gianni, let's stop here. I cannot stand in front of our past and of what could happen after our meeting.
I smiled and walked towards the room, crossing Deborah who looked at me so ugly that I could not raise eyes until slipped the key into the lock of the door.
I picked up my things, I tried the path just to get out of the house, and Elena joined me. She wanted to talk to me, so I stopped.
- It was a difficult situation... you have been good to hear no reply.
- I am a little stunned...
- It is so... I know I exaggerate in everything, but in the end inside me there is always you, you are one of the person I love... of course that is no excuse, but... - he stopped, he did not find the words to finish the sentence, even though he wanted to look for them and a providential beep freed it from that task.
- Why have you made love with the bargirl?
- I know, it was not a great idea. - I remained silent for a moment and then continued: I wanted you.
She looked down and wept. Gianni looked at her, Elena was very experienced and now in the morning light that lit up even more her white skin, looked even paler.
- Do you tell me something?
Elena breathed loudly and jumped back on the wicker couch behind her: she had a book. “A Summer Place” by Sloan Wilson. Between thumb and forefinger, she held a folded page from the light breeze. She read a sentence: “That is true, then, that we never know what we mean when we speak of love? However, we have a certainty: we must always pay something”.