Sink: The Lost World (7 page)

The façade
of La Luna was beautiful, reminiscent of those old restaurants in small Italian country villages, the heart and center of the community. An archway trellis was covered with green vines. Heavy ripe zucchini hung overhead. A uniformed chef came out with a stepladder and chopped off a few, descended the squeaky stepladder, and returned to the kitchen.

Bryan shook hands with a few people he recognized as the family was shown to a private table. The waiter removed the ‘reserved’ sign and gestured for them to sit. They took their seats. Bryan helped push Zoe’s seat under her. Aaron was about to do the same for Cassie before she glowered at him. He sat down.

They picked up their menus.

“Well,” Bryan said, “what looks good?”

Bryan’s phone buzzed, the familiar ringtone coming from his pocket.

“Apologies,” he said.

He reached into his pocket and took it out. He looked at the caller ID out the corner of his eye, and Cassie could see he desperately wanted to answer it. She almost smiled to herself, leaning back in her chair as if waiting for the fireworks show to kick off. Zoe was frowning, just as Aaron had said she would. Mealtimes were family time.

“I forgot to turn it off,” he said.

“You can tell them you’ll call them back after dinner,” Zoe said.

“Okay,” Bryan said.

He answered the phone.

“Hello?” he said. “Yes, sorry. I’m eating dinner at the moment. I’ll call you back later. I don’t care how important it is. Call back in a couple of hours.”

He hung up and then turned his phone off. Zoe smiled at him and he smiled back.

The waiter reappeared.

“Would you like to order now?” he said.

“Yes,” Bryan said. “Zoe, what would you like?”

“I’ll have the vegetarian Bolognese, please,” Zoe said.

“Cassie?” Bryan said. “What would you like?”

Cassie’s eyes boggled. She had never ever seen him turn his phone off before.

Such was her shock that she had apparently forgotten the English language.

“Uh, uh, I’ll, uh…” Cassie said.

“Not decided yet?” Bryan said.

“No,” Cassie said. “I know what I want. It just all looks so good. I’ll have the special Stromboli and Sicilian-style pizza.”

“Very good,” the waiter said, turning to Aaron.

“And a large beef calzone and agnolotti pasta, please,” Cassie said.

“Woah,” Bryan said. “Are you ordering for all of us?”

“No,” Cassie said. “Just for me.”

“Are you sure you can eat it all?” Bryan said.

“I’m starving,” Cassie said.

“All right,” Bryan said, nodding to the waiter. “Aaron?”

“Hm,” Aaron said, peering at the menu.

“Why don’t you have the Bolognese?” Zoe said. “That’s your favorite.”

“We had it the other night,” Aaron said.

“How about the lasagna then?” Zoe said with a smile. “I hear it’s delicious here. It’s a signature dish.”

“Hm,” Aaron said, still pouring over the menu.

“Would you like more time to decide?” Bryan said. “I’m sure the waiter has other things to be doing.”

“It’s perfectly fine, sir,” the waiter said, eyes glancing toward the kitchen doors.

“While Aaron’s still looking,” Bryan said. “I’ll have the eight ounce
ribeye
steak, please.”

“Yes, sir,” the waiter said, making a note. “And the young gentleman?”

Aaron sucked air in through his teeth.

“Tricky,” he said. “Very, very tricky.”

Cassie glanced at her father out the corner of her eye. He had begun to drum his fingers on the table.

Aaron redoubled his effort, burying his nose in the menu.

“I think I’ll have…” he said. “No, wait. I’ll have the ice cream and brownie.”

“That’s for dessert,” Zoe said. “What about your main?”

“I thought I already said?” Aaron said.

“No,” Bryan said. “Not yet.”

“Oh,” Aaron said. “Wait a minute, I’ll try to find it again.”

Bryan’s jaw muscles clenched tight. Aaron ran his finger over the menu items again. Finally, he said: “I’ll have the lasagna, please.”

The waiter collected their menus and headed away, with a slight glare directed at Aaron.

“Can I say, what a pleasure it is to have you both here,” Zoe said. “To finally put a face to all the stories is truly an honor.”

“I swear they’re not true,” Cassie said.

“He’s only told me all the good stuff, don’t worry,” Zoe said.

Bryan raised his glass, and all the others joined him.

“To a long and happy life together,” he said. “Filled with adventure.”

Bryan reached for Zoe’s hand, and took it, gently, and held it. Zoe stroked his fingers with her thumb. Cassie noticed. Her eyes weren’t the only ones fastened to them. Aaron turned his head to the side like someone tasting something distasteful, and then turned away, eyes glancing up and catching hers. Cassie gave an almost imperceptible nod.

Showtime.

Cassie’s cell phone rang. She took it out and immediately answered it.

“Hello?” she said. “No, I’m not doing anything. What’s up?”

“Cassie,” Bryan said, an undertone of annoyance in his voice. “Hang up. Now. We’re having dinner.”

Into her phone, Cassie said: “Hold on a minute.” She turned to Bryan. “What?”

“I said, speak to your friend later,” Bryan said. “We’re eating.”

“But we’re not eating yet,” Cassie said.

“We’re about to,” Bryan said.

“So?” Cassie said.

“So, hang up now,” Bryan said.

“All right, all right,” Cassie said. Then, into her phone: “Hello? Yeah, really sorry but I’ve got to go. No, I’m out now with some… friends. Yeah. I’ll chat to you as soon as it’s over. See you. Bye.”

Cassie could see the annoyance on Zoe’s face, which had become hard and expressionless. She sipped at her glass of water in a tight grip. Mealtimes were family time.
Ha!

The waiter came with their meals and placed them each in front of the guests. Cassie’s meals sat around her in a wide arch.

“I don’t know where you’re going to put it all,” Zoe said. “You’re so thin.”

“I take after my mother,” Cassie said. “A fast metabolism.”

“What subjects do you like at school, Cassie?” Zoe said.

“I’m not really a very good student,” Cassie said.

“Your father told me you’re exceptional at art,” Zoe said.

Cassie shrugged.

“I can see if work will let me bring you one of these days, if you like,” Zoe said. “You’ll love our graphic design department.”

Cassie heaped more chicken onto her fork.

“What do you say, Cassie?” Bryan said.

“About what?” Cassie said.

“Zoe’s kind offer,” Bryan said.

“Oh,” Cassie said, blowing onto her meat. “Thanks.”

Zoe pushed a vegetarian meatball around on her plate.

“Can I ask you a question?” Cassie said. “Why did you order vegetarian Bolognese? You should either eat meat or not eat meat, not eat something that
looks
like meat.”

“Bolognese without the meatballs isn’t really Bolognese,” Zoe said. “Just because I don’t like the taste of meat doesn’t mean I should miss out on the experience.”

Cassie pursed her lips and drank some of her cherryade. She looked at Zoe over the edge of her glass.

“So, how did you two meet?” she said.

“Well,” Zoe said, flapping her napkin as if preparing to tell an exquisite story. “We met when your father asked for an appraisal on a piece of land he was thinking about acquisitioning. You see, there’s this process of digging for minerals called fracking. How you do it is to aim a high-power hose at the land and blast through it with high-pressure water…”

Cassie ate her meal, keeping her eyes on her food and never once looked up.

“Cass,” Bryan said. “You should pay attention to someone if you ask them a question and they’re polite enough to answer.”

“It’s all right,” Zoe said. “I’m sure fracking isn’t exactly what a teenager would like to talk about.”

“No, go on,” Cassie said. “I’m listening. I’ll give you my undivided attention.”

“Okay…” Zoe said. “Well, it’s been in all the newspapers lately that fracking is dangerous to the environment and that it can cause sinkholes and earthquakes and all kinds of things.”

Cassie kept her eyes on Zoe, nodding, and cut at her food, never letting her eyes drop to her plate. She stabbed at a slice of chicken with her fork, making a screeching sound. Then she raised it up in front of her face and aimed it at her mouth, but missed, and touched her cheek. She tried again, and missed, this time dabbing some of the gravy on her nose. Still, she kept her eyes firmly on Zoe, who by now had noticed what was happening.

“Uh, you have something on your face,” Zoe said.

“On my face?” Cassie said. “Where?”

“On your cheek,” Zoe said.

“On my cheek?” Cassie said, reaching over with the fork, and poking herself on the wrong cheek.

“Now you have it on both cheeks,” Zoe said.

“Really?” Cassie said. “It’s hard to see without being able to move my eyes.”

“Cassie,” Bryan said. “How old are you? Four?”

Cassie smiled and wiped the sauce off her face.

“I’m just playing,” she said.

“You’re too old to be playing with your food,” Bryan said. “Sorry, Zoe. Why don’t you carry on with what you were saying.”

“No, it’s okay,” Zoe said, pointedly not looking at Cassie.

Bryan glared at Cassie, who had a small smile.

“How about you, Aaron?” Bryan said. “Do you have any favorite subjects at school?”

“History and biology,” Aaron said.

“Ah, a history buff, ay?” Bryan said. “What are you studying at the moment?”

“The civil war,” Aaron said.

“One of our key moments in our history,” Bryan said.

“And our bloodiest,” Aaron said. “Did you know an estimated seven hundred fifty thousand people died during that war? Back then it was about twenty percent of our whole population.”

“Freedom and development has its costs,” Bryan said.

“I’m not sure if there was much development,” Aaron said.

“What do you mean?” Bryan said. “We had to force ourselves out from under the yoke of King George III, to a king that had never visited our shores and never would. Why should we be beholden to anyone but ourselves?”

It was clearly a passionate subject for Bryan. Aaron didn’t bat an eyelid. He was too busy trying to recall the crazy comments he’d memorized from the web.

“I admit the Constitution was a big leap forward, but look at us today,” he said. “Capitalism has hijacked our society.”

“Capitalism leads society,” Bryan said.

“There’s a bigger rich/poor divide in America than many developing countries,” Aaron said. “How do you explain that except for capitalism? The rich get richer, the poor get poorer.”

“You’re a child,” Bryan said. “When you grow up and start working, I’ll happily have this discussion with you.”

Zoe laid her hand on Bryan’s arm. He pulled away, scratching his eyebrow with his thumb. He didn’t touch his food again.

Cassie put down her fork.

“I’m stuffed!” she said.

“Stuffed?” Bryan said. “You’ve hardly eaten anything.”

“It’s very filling,” Cassie said. “Help yourself, if you want.”

Zoe looked at the plates of wasted food and wrinkled her nose. Cassie smiled. It was a strike. Zoe, like Bryan, detested waste, for her with food in place of time. She was a great humanitarian, who sent a good percentage of her pay check each week to far flung nations populated by hungry people.

Aaron tossed his fork down on his plate too.

“I think I ordered the wrong thing,” he said.

Bryan rolled his eyes.

“What wrong thing?” Zoe said. “You like lasagna.”

“Yeah, but I wanted the Bolognese,” Aaron said.

“You said you didn’t want it because you had it the other day,” Zoe said.

“You can have some of mine, if you like,” Bryan said. “I know it’s not Bolognese, but if you close your eyes when you chew on the meat you can pretend it’s a meatball.”

“I’d rather have real Bolognese,” Aaron said.

“What are we supposed to do with your lasagna?” Zoe said.

“You can have some of Cassie’s food,” Bryan said. “She’s got plenty to share.”

“None of it’s Bolognese though…” Aaron said.

Cassie reached for her drink, but her hand was greasy with gravy and it slipped out of her grip, smashed on the table cloth and spilled over Zoe’s dress.