There is one thing that annoys her the most is that Americans wear shoes inside their houses. They invite the dust and dirt from the outside to their humble abode.
Why? What is the point of cleaning a house only to purposely dirty it? What is the point of walking down the shiny aisles with your muddy shoes? Ugh!
She cringed when they entered the Barzini mansion. She cringed when they entered her father's office. Once, just once they could have offered her house slippers. These people are so rich… so is it hard to buy indoor slippers?
She will not allow that in her own room. The rest of the Barzini mansion may belong to her father and elder brother, but this bedroom belongs to her. Albeit for only two years. She is going to use her own set of rules for this room.
The entire mansion is divided into two sections---the west and east wings. The office, a library cum archive, staff quarters, and gym belong to the west wing.
The residential quarters, the industrial kitchen, a large dining room, and a women's parlour for entertaining guests belong to the east wing. Each of these wings is separate, with one being predominantly the men's section and the other being the women's section.
The only connective zone between these two wings is the grand foyer at the large drawing room in the front. A simple, symmetric structure with immaculate precision.
Erika likes that. She also likes how the servants take time cleaning the mansion and decorating it. The manicured garden in front of the building is the height of the care they are giving to this mansion.
What she does not like is how come everyone is wearing shoes inside the house! That annoys her like hell!
As she has been assigned to a bedroom far within the east wing residential areas, she pulls out her indoor slippers from her luggage and wears them, leaving her black heels, and her tattered school shoes in front of the door.
The maid, who is assigned to take her to her bedroom gives her a bewildered look. She said nothing except, "Can you please put a shoe rack at the side? That would be more helpful."
"Sure, miss." The maid thinks about whether the new daughter of the Barzini family has OCD or not.
"Also, when anybody comes in to clean my room, please tell her or him that leaving the shoes out will be much appreciated. I will buy a spare set of slippers when I can."
Now the maid definitely knows Erika has OCD. But knowing the etiquette, she said nothing to point that out. She only bids her a good day after mentioning having lunch in the dining room.
Erika agrees readily. She could not eat anything before boarding the plane out of anxiety, and the food offered on the flight was costlier. She is famished.
She is missing her mother's onigiri (salty rice balls wrapped in seaweed and sesame seeds) already.
The bedroom is large and warm looking with a pastel lilac tone. Comfy four-poster bed, floor-to-floor carpets, a writing table attached with a small bookcase, a walk-in closet and an attached bathroom with a shower stall and vanity but no bathtub.
Huh!
She puts her mother's picture on her writing table and said, "Do not worry, Okha-san. One day I will buy us a place with a bathroom, where a bathtub will be installed. Once I become a doctor, Okha-san, you only have to wait for that."
Her mother's photo is situated at the top of the book rack, just at the centre. Erika will bring jasmine flowers someday to put in front of her mother. She used to love jasmine flowers.
Erika then arranges her meagre sets of clothing in the closet. She has brought her mother's clothes as well, but only as a memory. Someday she will wear those to give her respects to her mother's grave.
But there is one problem though. She has to grow up for that and be freed from this self-inflicted prison sentence.
Two years… she mentally chants, only for two years…
At the dining table, she gets to meet her other brother Constantine, who scowls at her the moment they cross paths.
Erika flinches visibly. She has never been a fan of men in general, being always around women most of the time. So, she has developed a fear of men. Not overly, but she prefers not to cross paths with any of them. So far, her father and brothers are not helping to reduce her fear.
Constantine looks just like the rest of the Barzinis, with a large, sculpted frame, rich coffee-coloured hair nicely trimmed, olive-toned skin, and identical Barzini dark eyes. Only, in the case of Constantine, the eyes seem darker than the rest of them, imitating a never-ending abyss of profound darkness.
Erika feels a sliver of fear because she has this thought that she was seeing a barely-leashed monster. Not a controlled one, like Alessio, but an uncontrollable one. She bows respectfully, "Nice to meet you, Constantine Nii-sama."
"Are you going to call me by that name?"
That is his first talk after the meeting. She prefers to stay silent and nod her head. Actually, she is petrified internally. Nobody in Japan denies respect from youngsters but rather demands it. It is the first time she is thwarted so badly. She takes pride in being respectful after all.
Constantine has never liked the idea of sharing quarters with a sister.
He is a man of habit. Yes, people call him just the opposite, but it is true. When he is calm, he follows a set of rules and daily habits to keep himself sane. When his sanity leaves him, he becomes another story. Now, at this age, having a step-sister within the same space as he lives in seems too harsh for his equilibrium.
He has berated his father for acting like a fool. Alessio was considerate, he was not.
Now looking at his sister up close, he disapproves of her all the more. She is too small, too frail, too stubborn looking. For some reason, he hates stubborn women. And Erika, despite her shy, soft appearance and submissive manner, is stubborn. He just knows it.
Just look at her nodding arrogantly at him and not bothering to talk! What sort of respect is that? "When an elder asks you a question, you are supposed to use words not just gestures. You are not mute, are you?"
"No, Nii-sama. I understood. Sorry."
"Do not call me like that! I am Costa to everyone in this family and you are going to call me that. This is not Japan anymore and if you are going to live in this country, you have to learn the manners."
"Costa!" Alessio warns his brother. He can see how pale his sister has become and how haunted she looks. For some strange reason, he does not like that. And while he agrees with his brother, he prefers Costa tone down a little.
Dominico, on the other hand, is agonized over the situation. He does not like at all how his daughter is getting bullied by his son, but he understands one thing situations like this will toughen her up for the future. She seems too sheltered to survive in a foreign country.
So, he concentrates on his food than scolding his son for bullying his daughter like that. His blood is boiling, but he sums it up as hunger. It is no use saying anything to Costa anyway, for everyone in this family knows that he is wired differently. He is not the mad dog of the Barzinis for nothing.
When Constantine is done ranting, Erika joins the lunch with a pale face and trembling body. As it happens, she is seated next to her father on his left side, as both of her brothers are seated on the right. She can see them watching over her like a murder of vultures. Her vision blurs momentarily, but she controls herself.
She will die the day she shows weakness in front of these men. What a tremendous mistake she has made writing a letter to her father, she is thinking now. Men frolic all the time, but does that mean, every bastard child should chase his or her father?
Then why did she make that decision? What came over her?
Relax, she says to herself, just relax. Do not regret it just yet. You are here to follow your dream and your mother's dream. Does it really matter what others think? After two years, you will leave this place for good. Who needs these men then?
"I am assuming you know how to use a knife and fork? Or, do we have to teach you?"
Thank God and her mother for teaching her European table manners! Erika shakes her head, "No, I am good. Thank you."
Her stomach is churning violently. This entire ordeal is too much for her already frayed nerves. Not to mention, she has been given spaghetti with meatballs. She cannot digest wheat products. Her mother used to joke that she was too Japanese not to like pasta and bread.
It is funny really because she is half-Japanese. And yet she consumes rice more than most of them.
Erika goes through the meal by taking smaller bites to digest. And here, her father is thinking that she eats like a bird. "How is the food?"
"Good. Thank you for the food." She nods. No way she is going to forget her etiquette in front of Constantine ever again! If he wants her to be respectful, then she will show him that her mother taught her more manners than he has learned.
And she will never bow to them. They do not deserve it.
~
(To be continued)
© Felicia Lockhart