RED SOLES
There are more important things than food, and when those things come to fore, it will be easy to recognize them. Gabriella Santiago had finally found a way out of that large room for which she was locked up for months now. She had in some way found herself to the extent of peace and rest and perhaps had been given the gift of time by Don Vicente, enough time to think and rearrange her life in the best of ways possible. Right now, she had only one thing I mind, and that was to enquire about her brother Caputo. The captain of the Vicente house had gone missing for a while now, with no words from him to her or anybody else. She was furious to find that Don Vicente had done very little to find him and that to her spoke volumes of the kind of man he is.
She sat at the head chair looking to her distant right to see Ace Vicente. It was there that he sat for all his meetings and meals. No one would have known, no one could have ever told that Ace Vicente never sat at the head of any meeting. The reason was simple, the leader did not need a symbol to be a leader, he k new his place and was comfortable being or sitting anywhere. He rarely spoke at meetings and gave very few orders because it was easier to show than to speak. A true man of few words he was. The Irishmen had left the room due to her arrival, their business with him was done anyway and the Limerick born princes had gone to prepare for their journey home. It must have been a good twenty minutes that he waited silently, almost ignoring her as she stared him down while she ate. He was a strange man you know, he just sat there, speaking, staring into the blankness of the wall, scratching his long dark and shiny beard that might have been over oiled. His eyes had faintly good wrinkles at their edges, but she could only see that of the one eye that faced her. As she ate, ever so quietly, she looked scornfully at him, but he did not care he stayed still I his own world and then he broke into hum. He hummed nessun dorma. While he hummed, it fueled her rage that he dared be so lax about her presence, that he would not say anything about her arrival, not even a word to Titi who must have opened the door for her. He hummed. He seemed to be fond of repetitions, he was drawn to it like a poet, but of course, certain things he did were poetic, it was quite like he was writing himself a book on himself, he was romantic about things, even his pain and watching him grieve for so long must have taught her that.bat the end of his humming, he broke out to a loud resounding soprano almost like he had been in the opera, almost like he was Pavarotti himself, the shock of the him rising from his sit to produce such a wonderful sound made her drop her cutlery without control and as he controlled his tone to the end, his eyes shut, letting down a baseless tear from his eye, he had had a moment and she knew it, she understood it and that calmed her down. When he sat back down, he said, "Pavarotti" as he walked away to the door "do have yourself a good evening." Oh, what nerve he must have to do that, what inconsiderate bases he must feel to act like she was not there only to acknowledge her presence in the most edged way possible, she once again felt that he was a coward that could never handle things well.
She could hear his lonely footsteps as he climbed the staircase upstairs to his chambers, she could hear him drag his feet sluggishly over the stairs, one step at a time, one step at a time, then it stopped, abruptly. Then some whispers became, and silence returned. The only prevalent sound that arose this time was that of her cutlery, but she was careful about it, she wanted to hear, she felt a deep desire to know what had stopped him. "None shall sleep!" yelled Ace Vicente, then a rapid combination of footsteps rushed up the stairs and within a matter of seconds, the radio came on blaring out the nessun dorma again from his chambers and directly outwards through the speakers that had been left outside for his numerous parties. Gabriella could not believe her ears, this man was a mad man, he would really tear the sleep from everyone's eyes because he could not sleep.
She was done now, she let Maria (the maid) handle what was left of the dishes as she walked to his wing where the music blared from. It was dark and smelt like dry wood, it was dusty and misty at the same time and in the long hall where he had dragged himself through and upwards to the stairs, there was a darkness that swallowed everything around it. She was afraid to trespass. It must have been the first time for which she had seen anything like it, it was so dark that she could feel a force drawing her into the far darkness, she had a feeling that something or someone longed for her to negotiate her way through the long barren hall. "If only I could see" she muttered to herself. The darkness like a fog swept away every form of light in its way, so much so that that the light from the dining room made no difference at all to the darkness. She must have been eight to ten steps into the vast dark hall when she realized what was happening (that she was in fact inside the darkness) her eyes were wide open trying to comprehend her environment and now her ears could hear what must have sounded like everything, a deep breathe, the swooshing wind that came from nowhere and even her shaky breath that would not come stable no matter how much she tried. She was afraid, but could not go back now, she could barely see anything, not even the light from the door mouth that she had hoped on.
Before long, she attempts to reach the wall but could not find it to feel, her stretched out hand must have been too short to reach the wall, they shook fervently and she withdrew them for to brace herself, they were so numb with fear that she could not tell if she was truly holding on to her hands or not, there came rustles and distant footsteps to her hearing and a fading light from the distance. Finally, some hope "he-hello" she stuttered "any one there?" She said as she stood trying to stay still as her legs shook like that of a newborn calf. The silence rushed into her face as the echoes of her voice raced quickly to find someone who could help her out of the abyss. The light flickered again, this time, letting out a clicking release from a distance and then came a rush of various sounds as footsteps approached her slowly from the distance "hello?" she called "anybody out there? I need help, I think I am lost." The response came as rushing stumps of feet racing towards her at high speed. She immediately stretched her hands again towards the wall running this time to it, but that seemed in vain as there were now no walls, she stopped, gasping for air, then runs back to the other direction, hands stretched, eyes wide open in the blank darkness trying to reach the wall but there was no wall, no wall to lean on, no wall to help her get out of the way, just a vast darkness that was now breaking her spirit. She tried to stop herself from crying but it was too much for her, the footsteps rushed towards her even faster, and from all angles now, she spun around seeking, trying to figure out where the raging footsteps were coming from, the confusion climbed atop her head and her breathing stopped. Now, in the near distance, something like glass or ceramic crashed and letting her to focus for a second on where it might have been coming from but too soon after the echoes of the crash filled the space leaving her even more confused.
She collapsed to the ground crying, as the steps got louder and nearer, folding herself to cover her vulnerable parts just in case anything wild would come upon her. Nessun dorma had nearly reached its climax, yet her surrounding was untouched by the music, her fear had driven her to tears and louder cries, and as she cried, she pressed her mouth on her sleeves to force an end to her uncontrollable crying. Now at the climax, Pavarotti wailed vincero and a bright light fell on her "Oh my god, what are you doing here Gabriella?" said Maria, "did you not hear me calling for you?"