Unmasking Elena Montella (37 page)

‘
That’s better,’ she smiled to herself as she slipped the mask off and ruffled a hand through her hair. Opening the yoghurt, she sat back on the sofa and breathed a sigh of contentment. She’d never been a big yoghurt eater but the strawberry stung her tongue with freshness and made her feel all pink inside.

‘
Bimba
?’ Rosanna’s voice suddenly piped from the spare bedroom and Elena heard her footsteps approaching. ‘Are you there?’

Elena quickly dived behind the sofa, yoghurt pot in hand, just as Rosanna entered the living room. But there was a problem: she’d left the mask on the sofa.

She could feel her heart hammering inside her chest. Rosanna was only a few feet away. What if she saw the mask? She had only to look in the direction of the sofa and it would be sure to catch her eye: the bright golden face gleaming against the cream sofa.

Elena wondered if she could risk stretching a hand towards the mask and pulling it towards her. Rosanna was standing in the middle of the room now, examining her nails. Would she notice Elena’s hand whilst she was examining her own? Elena decided to take a chance and reached out.

‘
Ah!’ Rosanna’s voice suddenly called. ‘There you are!’

Elena snatched her hand back and froze. Had Rosanna seen her? Or was she talking to that silly cat-child? She waited.

‘
It’s no use hiding,’ Rosanna said and Elena grimaced. She’d been found out. She’d have to explain things now. This wasn’t what she’d planned at all. It was all going horribly wrong.

She would have to stand up and face her sister.

‘
I can’t give you your breakfast if you hide under that chair, can I?’ Rosanna said and Elena’s eyes widened. She wasn’t under a chair - she was behind a sofa. Rosanna
was
talking to cat-child after all. She breathed a sigh of relief until she realised that the chair cat-child was under was terribly close to the sofa which she was behind and that Rosanna might still spot her.

‘
Has Sandro forgotten to feed you again, eh?’ Rosanna said and Elena smiled. Rosanna’s voice was calm and friendly. She might pretend to hate the cat-child but Elena suspected that she was secretly fond of it, even though the animal made her sneeze.

Rosanna then did the thing Elena had been dreading: she knelt down to get to cat level. Elena moved round the sofa ever so slightly, trying to keep out of Rosanna’s eyesight until she could get hold of the mask. Her hand stretched, once again, over the sofa and, with a sigh of relief, she held the mask in her hand once more. It was so stupid of her to have taken it off in the first place and she supposed the shock of Rosanna coming into the room served her right.

Tying it on quickly, she watched in amazement as she slowly began to vanish. Standing up and rubbing her sore knees, she looked across the room to where Rosanna was making a fuss of the cat-child.

‘
You might just have saved me from eviction,’ Rosanna was saying. Elena wondered what she meant. Had Rosanna argued with Sandro? Had she been threatened with eviction since Sandro had found the front door open? Elena immediately felt guilty.

She was just about to walk, invisibly, back into the kitchen when she stubbed her toe on the corner of the sofa and the spoon she’d been carrying flew from her hand.

It was the strangest experience because, when she’d been holding it, it had been invisible. She’d been able to feel it, of course, but it had shared her shield of invisibility. Until it had left her hand. She’d seen in metamorphose into a solid object again, just in time to hit the bare floorboards with a clink.

Rosanna instantly forgot about cat-child and glanced around to see the spoon on the floor. Elena winced and backed away quietly. It was in the middle of nowhere and obviously hadn’t fallen off a table or anything. She watched Rosanna’s face fall into frown-mode as she walked forward and picked it up, looking around as she did so. Where had it come from? she seemed to ask. She looked bemused, angry and scared all at the same time.

‘
Sandro?’ she called quietly, just as she had the night before when Elena had woken her by cracking her head on the beam. There was no reply. Sandro was out. Anyway, Elena couldn’t imagine that it was in his nature to throw spoons about whether it was for a joke or not.

Elena watched as Rosanna examined the spoon - holding it up to the light as if that might help her work out what had happened. She then looked around the room again, up into the beams as if it had dropped down from above. It was as if Elena could read her mind.
Something weird is going on here
, she was thinking. Maybe Sandro was right.

‘
Come on,
Bimba
,’ she said at last, a visible shiver making her shoulders twitch. ‘Let’s get breakfast out of the way. I want to get out of here.’

Elena was still starving and had wanted to venture out to grab a bite to eat somewhere, and determined to follow Rosanna. At least she’d be able to close the front door properly if she followed her out of the apartment.

Getting washed and dressed as Rosanna ate breakfast, Elena was ready to leave at the same time as Rosanna. She had an inkling where she was going, of course: to see Reuben. This was the moment she’d been waiting for. This was the true test of the mask but would it show her what she wanted to see? Would it help her to make her decision?

She followed Rosanna down the stone steps on tiptoe, pausing in the hallway to give her a head start and to prevent her from hearing the door clanging shut when she left. Once outside, Elena ran to the end of the street and looked left then right. It was just as she thought: Rosanna had turned right along the calle which would lead to the Rialto. Despite the fact that it was still early in the morning, the bridge was packed with tourists, each one intent on standing perfectly still on the bridge in order to get one of the definitive Venetian shots of their partner. Elena pushed through as best as she could, wondering if Rosanna really was going to meet Reuben after all or if she was merely going to the fish market.

Following her as best as she could, Elena finally broke through the crowds and made it down the other side of the bridge where Rosanna turned right. Nobody had batted an eyelid at being knocked out of the way by an invisible girl; it was so crowded that they hadn’t even noticed.

Elena followed, trying to get a little bit closer to her sister in order not to lose her as the streets were becoming increasingly narrower.

The street they were walking down soon came out into a small campo and Rosanna made towards a café at the far side of it where Reuben was sitting in the early morning sunshine. Elena felt her heart quicken as she spotted him. She hadn’t seen him since the night they’d broken up and it was strange to see him again when she knew it wasn’t her he was waiting for but her sister.

You’ve made a big mistake in coming here
, a little voice told her.
You shouldn’t be meddling - it’s not right.
But something compelled her to walk towards the table they were sitting at.

Reuben had got up when Rosanna had arrived but they hadn’t embraced. Both of them looked solemn: their faces sallow and unsmiling. Elena inched herself carefully around a table and sat down on a seat adjacent to them. The café was quiet so she didn’t think anyone would disturb her.

‘
Did she call?’ she heard Reuben ask.

‘
No,’ Rosanna said. ‘She wasn’t at the apartment.’

‘
And you’re sure she’s in Venice?’

‘
That’s what Mama said.’

Elena grimaced. Their mama must have phoned Rosanna as soon as Elena had left Positano.

‘
Maybe she hasn’t arrived back yet?’ Reuben suggested.

Rosanna shook her head. ‘She’d have been back by last night at the latest. My guess is she’s in some nasty hotel somewhere.’

Elena sighed in relief. At least Rosanna didn’t have any idea that the supernatural being haunting Sandro’s apartment was, actually, her.

‘
I hate this!’ Rosanna suddenly said. ‘I just want it all to be okay but I can’t see how that’s going to happen - not as long as we’re together.’

‘
What are you saying?’ Reuben asked, leaning forward to try to catch Rosanna’s eyes which were lowered as she hung her head in misery.

‘
I’m saying that I don’t think this can ever work out between us. It’s not fair on anyone. It’s just all wrong.’

‘
No! It isn’t!’

‘
How can you say that?’

‘
Because I love you!’

Rosanna shook her head, her face crumpling in pain. ‘No! Don’t say that!’

‘
But it’s true.’ Reuben picked up her hands and held them tightly. ‘This is hurting me as much as it’s hurting you. I feel like a right bastard but I can’t lie about my feelings for you -
that’s
the only thing that would be wrong.’

Elena bit her lip. Even though she was invisible, she felt like an intruder and that she really shouldn’t be listening to their conversation although this was exactly what she’d planned to do in Positano.

‘
You do want to be with me, don’t you?’ Reuben asked.

Rosanna closed her eyes for a moment. She looked as if she was trying to stop herself from crying. ‘Of course I do,’ she said, ‘but I don’t think I can be - not if it means making enemies with my sister.’

Elena sat bolt upright in her seat. Had she heard her sister correctly? Did she really mean that?

‘
So, you’re going to break up with me if Elena isn’t comfortable with this?’

Rosanna nodded. ‘I can’t do anything else.’

They were quiet for a moment and Elena was literally on the edge of her seat not wanting to miss a single thing.

‘
All we really need to do,’ Reuben began, ‘is talk to Elena.’

Elena looked at Reuben. His eyes were big and sincere as if he was making one last plea with Rosanna. But Rosanna shook her head, seemingly resolute. Elena was confused. How could her sister be so selfless? Reuben might not be working his magic on Rosanna but it was working on her - for one minute, she felt as if she really should take the mask off and reveal herself and try to solve the mess there and then, but that would raise too many other questions so she decided it would be best to wait.

Rosanna rose from her chair, her hands still held tightly in Reuben’s.

‘
Don’t go,’ he said and Elena felt as if her heart was breaking. This man was really in love with his sister, wasn’t he?

‘
But she might be waiting for me.’

‘
You think she’ll be at the studio?’ Reuben asked.

‘
I don’t know,’ Rosanna said. ‘I hope so.’

Elena heard the words and was on her feet. She had to get back - before Rosanna. She had to be there, waiting for her sister - waiting to make things right between them all again.

‘
I hope so too,’ Reuben said, finally letting go of Rosanna’s hands. ‘You’ll let me know?’

Rosanna was quiet for a moment and it was obviously a moment too long for Reuben. ‘You will let me know? This isn’t goodbye, Rosanna.’

Rosanna heard the conviction in his voice and nodded. ‘I’ll let you know,’ she said and she left the café.

Elena followed Rosanna, waiting to see how she would get back to the apartment: by vaporetto, which was the long way round, or on foot. It soon became obvious that she was walking and, fuelled by her upset, she was going at quite a pace too once she was over the Rialto which meant Elena would have to run if she was to get back before her, so run she did - down calli and over bridges as if her feet had wings. She was still wearing the mask which meant that people didn’t get out of her way as quickly as they might have done had they been able to see her. All she knew was that she had to be there - waiting outside the apartment with her suitcase - when Rosanna got back.

Mon dio!
That meant, she’d have to get inside the apartment first, retrieve her case and get back outside again - without Sandro seeing or hearing anything suspicious if he was back.

Elena’s feet picked up as much speed as she was able to in the narrow streets which constantly turned corners over canals, each bridge loaded with tourists. But she was well ahead of Rosanna now.

At last, she reached the long calle that led to the apartment. There were fewer people here and she was able to bolt down it easily, arriving at the apartment quicker than even she could have hoped for, but could she get back in?