The Ozone Cafe - Chapter, Only You 2

Only You, 2

Vincenzo decides he has two choices, to stay and keep on working alone in the Ozone Café or do something really sinful with Mandy. He opens up for the lunch time session, and on springing the blinds to the top latch of the doors, he catches sight of Winifred crossing Bream Street.
Outside the day is a blazing blue of sea and sky. He notices that Casey and Nicolas are trying to catch up.
‘I found Pomadina barking at the seagulls under the pines,’ says Winifred, passing the dog over to Vincenzo.
‘Your big brother told me to fetch her. Said you forgot her.’
‘Yeah,’ says Vincenzo, pushing the dog through the double doors. ‘Come in, have a milkshake. Where you been, huh?’
‘I can only stay for a bit,’ says Winifred, turning, watching Mandy take the last step on the stairs. ‘Who’s she?’
‘I’m Mandy, Vin’s friend.’
‘This is Winifred, I been telling you about. But I don’t see her much since she started High School. She’s too busy studying. Boys, eh?’ says Vincenzo, pinching her cheek.
‘Mr. Polamo can we play some snooker?’ Voices chip into the three-way conversation.
‘Yeah, yeah, buzz off for a minute. We’re talking here,’ says Vincenzo. ‘You too Casey. Here’s a cloth wipe down some tables and I give you a bag of lollies.’
‘What about me?’ says Winifred. ‘Don’t I get any? I can rake the yard on Sunday.’
‘Ok, ok. These kids they’re getting big and demanding.’
‘Oh, I forgot. Your brother wants you to get down to his place at one o’clock,’ says Winifred, raiding the lolley jar. ‘You’re going fishing, and guess what, Rennie says I can come too?’
‘What about us?’ calls Nicolas.
‘Na, no room for you two, and anyway Vin’s brother knows dad. They go fishing together. So shut up your whinging.’
‘Where you get this language from, Winifred? You been once good girl.’
‘They give me the pip,’ says Winifred, looking over the top of her milkshake at Mandy. ‘She coming?’
‘I wouldn’t miss it for the world,’ says Mandy, slipping her arm in between Vincenzo’s who has both hands in his pockets.
‘She is the cat’s mother. You be polite to Mandy. We are, as you say, hooked up.’
‘Oh. You gonna work here? You know, help Vincenzo wash dishes, cook, clean up, make up the menus, and run errands.’
‘No, I’m not, Winifred.’
‘We already make big plans. We want to go fishing, dancing, see movies together like other couples. Go to Sydney. So, I have made another big decision in my life.’
Winifred rests her chin between her hands on the counter top and grumbles to herself, ‘Pray tell, what is that?’
‘I am going to sell the Ozone Café.’
‘Whaaaat!’

* * *
Rennie’s boat leaves Wharf Road without words. Today, there is an unusual sense of time moving autumn quickly into winter. Eight people huddle in hooded coats and windcheaters close to the cabin. The three sisters sit braced next to one another in their furs. Lucy, Natasha and Riesca are mute with the glory of the day, their scarves pulled tight under their chins. The bow ploughs through newly formed waves, creating a foamy path to the Heads. There is only one sad cry from a lone seagull on the rocks, and everyone is taking in the silhouettes of foothills and rocky shores of Oyster Bay. Fishermen wave from moored boats and there’s a group of pelicans flying in, to what seems to be their time for breakfast.
Winifred has Pomadina on her lap, jogging her up and down, while Vincenzo has his arms linked with Mandy’s. He notices that Winifred won’t look him in the eye. He breaks the silence. ‘You show me how to drop those lobster pots, hey Winifred?’
He waits, but nothing comes. She is rugged up in a pink fluffy coat, and her short denim shirt is showing her dimpled knees. She has her mouth curled into a sneer, her face looking directly across at Vincenzo, yet her view is beyond him. Vincenzo thinks how cheap she looks today with painted nails and rose-pink lipstick. Her long golden plaits are now fully teased out into two ponytails. He is starting to see the changes in her. All grown up. He stretches out his hands to take Pomadina from her, but she swivels the dog away, her lips pulled tight.
Vincenzo knows that Winifred’s mood has something to do with him selling the café, and he knows that her silence is meant to punish him for not changing his mind. He also knows that when the boat moors on some distant shore, he will have to tumble out all the reasons for selling the Ozone.
* * *
Rennie cuts the engine and the boat glides in a few yards offshore at one of Tiger Island’s sandy beaches. They all comment on the way the island resembles a large reclining cat, its head pointing to the south-east while its haunches are hunkered down in a nor-westerly direction. The women point to its two ears, snout, its cave-like mouth. ‘It’s yawning,’ says Riesca. ‘I take photo of this island, beautiful!’
‘It’s good fishing round here,’ says Rennie, lighting up a smoke. ‘We’ll drop some pots, and maybe have a look over the island, what do you say, girls?’
‘Wonderful’, says Natasha, rubbing her gloved hands together.
They arrive on the island, when the sun is beginning to warm their bodies. They leave their coats in the dinghy and walk along a sandy path.
Winifred plonks down on one of the picnic blankets, and begins to dig a hole in the sand with a piece of cuttlefish. Pomadina runs back and forth along the path, hunting something invisible.
Vincenzo loves the mystery of the island, the stories Rennie has told him about the ghost-like creatures that howl late at night, and the aboriginal cave paintings.
‘We’ll take a look later, but for now, I think I might try my rod up around the bend,’ Rennie says, pointing towards an open expanse of rock, its layers of granite jutting out from the cliffs overhead.
‘We go look at the caves,’ says Vincenzo. ‘We meet back here at twelve for lunch. What you say ladies, let’s be daring?’
Winifred, who is listening with her head bent over her sandcastle, at the same time watching Pomadina dig a moat, looks up at Vincenzo with questioning eyes.
‘Come on, we go take a look-see, hey? Or you been here before?’
‘No, dad said this island is jinxed. I’m not going into some creepy cave. No, Sir-ee-barb.’
‘Okay,’ says Vincenzo, slapping his arms by his side. ‘You wait here, watch out for ghost-boy.’
‘She’ll be okay, Vin,’ says Mandy. ‘She’s just upset about your place, and she thinks you’re not caring about the mural.’
‘She can look at it any time,’ he says, kissing her on the cheek as they walk slowly up the path.
‘Hey you two love birds, hurry up,’ says Lucy. ‘We don’t wanna get lost, hey?’
Another fifteen minutes on the track and they discover a dramatic change in the scenery. The land drops away and there’s a gully below. The gully is made up of a series of striations that appear as if wind and weather have eroded the sides of the island leaving layer upon layer of exposed ochre and yellow rock formations. Some are hollow, some have ledges, some narrow pathways with wooden steps. The group is amazed, so they stand there for several minutes taking in this chiasmic colour.
‘Look down there,’ says Vincenzo. ‘There’s an inland pool and further over there, see Mandy, much further to the right is a waterfall.’
‘This is wonderful. I’ve never heard of this before, not in all the times I’ve been to Satara Bay. This is untouched, Vin. Something prehistoric.’
The three sisters clasp their hands, ‘Oh, so lovely, yes, Vin. Thank you for bringing us here.’
Vincenzo proffers his hand towards Mandy as he begins to descend down the jagged hillside. They move slowly, finding it difficult to place their shoes between the sharp pieces of granite. Eventually, they make their way down to the bottom, with Vincenzo hollering out to Riesca and Lucy who have stayed at the top. ‘Take a photo,’ yells Vincenzo, as he pulls the two women in by his side.
‘What was that?’ says Mandy. ‘I thought I heard something, over there.’
‘Flap, flap,’ says Natasha, ‘like a sailboat.’
‘Oh, look Vin, it’s a crane. Oh, look there’s several birds drinking. That must be fresh water,’ says Mandy, silently padding towards several rocks.
Vincenzo cannot help notice how Mandy bends low to the ground. Her tight jeans stretching across her bottom make him think how lucky he is at this very moment. To be in god’s garden with god’s creatures with a beautiful woman. Is he in paradise? Is he just going crazy all over again, falling in love, falling for this lady who does outrageous bed romps, who goes fishing, rock climbing, boating? And now here she is in the dunes of discovery, telling him to take her hand, to watch while two pelicans knife their large beaks into their feathers.
Vincenzo wraps his arms around Mandy, holding her, squeezing her. ‘Marry me,’ he says, muffling his voice into her blonde hair.
* * *
In the late afternoon, they file into the boat and head back towards the point. Vincenzo watches while Winifred empties some shells from her pockets. She spreads them out on a towel, and looks up at Vincenzo smiling, naming similar shells like the ones she collected along the Esplanade.
‘You have replaced all your shells, now,’ says Vincenzo, about to lift a small conch shell from the towel, when Winifred pulls it away.
‘And you’re not getting them this time,’ she says. ‘And I’m going to paint them and mould them myself!’
‘Okay, you win,’ say Vincenzo. ‘But I still sell my café and it’s not to please you. You go by there and play snooker, have a coke, play some Elvis. It’s still the same for you no matter if Vincenzo is there or not.’
‘But what about the seascape? You don’t care about us anymore. All you think about is getting married. It won’t be the same, cause….cause you’re not there!’
‘We never lose sight of each other, Winifred. And the mural will be there on the wall for all time. It won’t ever go away. People will come and see the names of Winifred, Casey and Nicolas. Three kids who gave up their shells for Vincenzo. I never forget it. I never forget the Ozone Café. I built it with my brother. I put my blood and my Calabrian soul into that place, but what for? I never once had any enthusiasm coming from my wife back in Italy. I never once saw her walk down the aisles, sit and have a meal, or a cup of coffee in my place. I always expected she would come to Australia to see the café, to meet all of my friends, but no. No. And I grow to be a very sad man. Uh? You want me to be unhappy? You still want me to slave away night after night, cooking, cleaning, all on my own? But now it’s different. Mandy and I, well, we have come to an agreement. Bugger going back to Paola. I don’t want to. I want to be with Mandy, and have fun, eh?’
‘Were you going to leave Australia?’
‘Yes, I have the plans after selling to bugger off back home. Ha, ha! Now my dear Winifred, you have to put up with me a little longer, my little Bella. I’m gonna buy a house in Sandy Bay Road, or Lurline Street, or somewhere along Ocean View Road. You wait and see. Me and your father, we’ll be fishing in the summer. And guess what, you can come.’
Winifred swipes a sleeve across her face. ‘Okay, okay,’ she says, moving Pomadina away from the pile. ‘Here,’ she says to Vincenzo, handing him one of the conch shells, ‘you’re just getting this one, and no more.’
* * *

Over the next few weeks Mandy helps Vincenzo pack his belongings, an assortment of kitchenware, some soft furnishings, his cooking utensils, then making the Café presentable for the sale. Vincenzo hires a window cleaner, a yardman for the alfresco area, and a painter to resurface some cracks that have appeared on the outside walls. He gives the mural another coat of paint, re-patching the shoreline with shells Winifred has collected from Sandy Beach.
After a month the café is primed with new signage, a new coat of cream paint and bright fluorescent lights on the inside.
Despite Vincenzo’s efforts to sell the café himself, the same two families who appeared from time to time have stalled over the price. The season quickly turns into a bud-filled spring and although the café is refurbished with Mandy making red and white curtains, the same group of people are haggling about cracks, damp rooms, café equipment, broken outdoor furniture and offering a lower price. Each time after their visit, Vincenzo tries to explain to Mandy that he will eventually sell, that he should hold out a bit longer and doesn’t really need a Real Estate Agent, or Ronny Williams.
* * *

At the same time, while the café is up for sale, Riesca, Natasha and Lucy are all packed after a long restful holiday. ‘We gonna miss you, Vin,’ says Lucy, giving him a hug.
‘Yeah, Vincenzo, you take care and don’t you worry about Maria. She know nothing about your life now, not from our lips,’ says Natasha.
When the carriages slow to a stop, Vincenzo helps the women lift their bags onto the carriage rack, shuffling some small carry-bags under the seats. The train spews out a belch of smoke and the women lean out of the windows, waving hankies. On the platform, Vincenzo and Mandy watch while the last of the carriages disappears into the tunnel like a monster snake crawling into its hole.
Vincenzo sits for a few moments in the car. The steps over the railway line have made his knees ache and he can feel the arthritis in his feet.
‘All of the time I been doing up the café, Mandy, I never look for a house for us. This real estate game has got me beat. You are right, I’m not selling the Ozone Café because these peoples don’t wanna pay my price.’
‘It’s not your job to sell Vincenzo. You’re a cook, a man who can run a business. You can’t do everything,’ she says, rubbing his cheeks. ‘Why don’t we call into the real estate place on the way home, and put your mind at ease. I’m sure Ronny Williams will be only too happy to see you.’
‘Good ol’Ron, he’s a man I can trust. How you say, we kill two birds with one hit.’

* * *

It’s been a long time since Vincenzo has placed his shoes on the floor of Bruce Kerr’s Real Estate office. They sit waiting in the reception area for Paul Massam to return from a property sale. Vincenzo is a little surprised that both Ronny and Marjorie have left the business.
The young lady at the reception desk offers them a cup of coffee.
‘That would be most kind,’ says Vincenzo. ‘Black one sugar, and white two sugars.’
The clock on the far wall clicks loudly, showing signs that a whole hour has passed. Vincenzo shuffles his feet, while Mandy files her nails with an emery board.
‘When did Ronny and Marjorie leave? I know them for three years now and I was hoping Ronny would sell my business,’ says Vincenzo projecting his voice towards the counter.
‘I don’t really know, I’ve just started last week, but Paul would know. Paul knows everything,’ she says, turning and answering the telephone.
‘Okay, another …okay, I’ll ask, hang on,’ she says.
‘Mr Polamo, Paul won’t be long. He wants to know if you’re going to wait.’
‘Yep,’ returns Vincenzo, waiting for the girl to hang up. ‘Hey young lady, you got any forwarding address of Ronny Williams? I want to buy him a beer, you know, for his retirement.’
‘Sorry,’ says the girl, scrunching her face.
‘We wait then.’
‘Stupido,’ says Vincenzo, standing in front of Mandy and blocking his voice..
‘He might have bought a franchise in Heytsbury, Vin. This Paul will probably know, so don’t lose all hope. Here, look at this house. This is nice.’
Both start flipping through the Realtor pages and discover that there are plenty of small cottages for sale in Satara Bay.
‘I just have to sell the café first, huh?’
‘Sorry to keep you folks waiting.’ A hand is extended underneath Vincenzo’s bent chin, and when he looks up he discovers the fresh face of Paul Massam. He is about thirty, blonde hair, crew cut, wearing a pin-striped blue suit, a blue shirt and tie. Compared to the way Ronny dressed, he is elegant in patent leather shoes.
‘Lovely to meet you,’ he says, shaking Vincenzo’s hand. ‘Come, let’s talk in my office. That’ll be three coffees, Amanda, thanks.’
Seated near a window overlooking the street, Paul opens a manila folder. ‘Says here you paid two grand for the property, back in…let’s see fifty seven. That right?’
‘I can’t remember, but around that price,’ says Vincenzo. ‘I want a lot more now, of course. What you think it’s worth?’
‘Going by today standards, being a large property, double storey, house and café, I would say we might try for ten thousand pounds.’
Vincenzo glances at Mandy, who shrugs her shoulders and looks questioningly back at him.
‘What about your commission, Paul. I need to know as I also want you to look for a house for me and Mandy. Somewhere close to the Esplanade, but doesn’t have to be close to where I work for long hours.’
‘No! No reminders, hey?’
‘I have a brother who lives at No. 46 Sandy Bay Road, so I wouldn’t mind being close to him. Here,’ says Vincenzo, showing him the page with property listings. ‘You still sell this one?’
‘Just come on the market. Not a bad price either.’
‘That would leave us with some cash and we would own it outright,’ says Vincenzo. ‘I tell you, you try and get me eleven thousand for the café and I buy this house from you. But first, we take a look-see.’
‘You certainly know what you want, fella, so I’ll get you to fill in these forms, if you don’t mind. I’ll come by, and inspect the café tomorrow, and then we can take a look at No. 54. How’s that?’
After signing the forms, they shake hands and just as Vincenzo is about to step outside, he pivots on the spot and calls back to Paul Massam. ‘One thing I wanna know is, what happened to Ronny Williams, we been good friends, but I know nothing of him leaving Satara Bay. You know where he is now?’
Paul runs a hand over his crewcut in a sweeping motion, and lifts a calendar from the countertop. ‘His address is in here, somewhere.’ He flips through the pages, wetting his fingers as he goes. ‘I think he went to Sydney first, then he was planning a big holiday. Sorry, it’s not here, fella.’
‘Okay, sorry to trouble you. I look him up in the phone book.’
‘Catcha tomorrow at two o’clock, fella,’ says Paul, clicking his fingers like a gun.