Piazza Piuta (standard:romance, 4459 words)
Author: emdee	Added: Sep 26 2003	Views/Reads: 3292/2316	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
A story about the breakdown of mother daughter realationship. A story about connecting with you past.

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story

Whenever Jade returned from her travels Keisha would say, “Let's pretend
we're in Paris, tell me about Paris Jade.”  Keisha would close her eyes 
and eagerly wait for Jade's description. “Oh not that again Keisha, 
that's so boring, anyway I can't remember.”  Jade would sigh in 
exasperation at her friend who always asked these funny questions.  
Keisha would always be disappointed with Jade's uncooperative 
imagination and would tut and look away. 

Keisha looked around the park and then looked at her watch, she took the
crumpled note out of her pocket to check the time. 

Keisha, Meet me in the play area of Chestnuts park at 8.30am on
Wednesday 

From D 

It was now eight thirty and she was beginning to feel a little nervous,
she began to wonder why Daniel wanted to meet in the park so early.  
She could see someone entering the park, it was definitely him. He was 
walking that easy walk, not too fast and not too slow, it just knew 
itself.  He was wearing a jumper, jeans and white trainers. 

Daniel could see Keisha sitting on the bench and thought about the first
time he met her, in a bar with some friends.  He knew Piuta's friend 
Tony and joined them around the table.  Keisha was animated as she 
spoke about some amazing place, the rest were listening in disbelief.  
Daniel had travelled a lot and thought maybe he had been to the place 
she was describing. “Where is this place?” he asked. The others around 
the table laughed and one of them said, “It's nowhere it's just one of 
Keisha's fantastical places she's never been to.”  They laughed even 
harder.  Keisha was embarrassed and upset, but Daniel was not even 
aware of the laughter he just said, “Wow, what an imagination.” 

She was sitting patiently on the bench, and smiled at him when he got
closer.  When he sat down she breathed in deeply so she could take in 
his smell.  He did not speak for a few seconds because he loved the way 
her eyes darted about when she was intrigued by something. “Okay?” He 
asked. She nodded feeling a little shy as he stared at her. “Okay, 
let's go to the café.”  He motioned his head towards the café. “The 
café?”  Keisha was a little puzzled she was expecting something a 
little more adventurous. “Yeah, aren't you hungry?” She thought about 
it for a few seconds and decided that she was and got up from the 
bench. 

In the café the two sausages on Keisha's plate were shiny and spitting
at her.  Daniel was already eating, she watched him eat for a few 
seconds then looked out of window.  She remembered the white track 
lines that would appear on the r grass for sports day and unexpectedly 
winning the wheelbarrow race. 

Daniel was watching her as he always did when she was daydreaming.  She
was a little startled when her eyes met his, she began to smile and her 
eyes darted across the park again.  Keisha could feel the butterflies 
in her stomach the ones that would come just as she was about to have 
some fantastic imagining. “What?” Daniel asked. She looked backed at 
him and breathed in deeply trying to stop herself but she could not the 
words just rolled out. “Let's pretend we're in Florence in a café in a 
piazza” She waited for Daniel's puzzled or mocking look. “What's the 
name of the piazza?”  He asked as if it was the most normal question in 
the world. Keisha shocked by his reaction took a little while to 
answer.  “P – Piazza Piuta.”  Her mouth fumbled with the  P's. “What 
are you drinking?”  He asked. 

“Tea” He rolled his eyes and jokingly said, “You've got no imagination
Piuta.” “Oh, um I'm drinking ciccolata e panna.”  Keisha looked out of 
the window and could see the Italians and the tourists strolling past 
the window and Daniel could see the Duomo.  He never thought he would 
see it so clearly but he could with Keisha as they had warned him. 

Keisha bit into her sausage and said, “Umm this spaghetti cabonara is so
nice.” “Yeah mine too.” “We are really in Florence aren't we?” “Of 
course.”  Daniel said. She lifted up her cup and said, “Cin cin. 

Moonstone and Silver 

Keisha felt the tightening around her right wrist as she always did when
she fantasised.  She had become used to it now.  She had also got used 
to the pulsating moonstones in her silver bracelet and chain.  She 
wondered if Daniel had noticed them but he was still looking out of the 
window. 

“Keisha, Keisha” Her grandmother called her in that way that Keisha
always knew she was about receive something. “Go on quick your granny 
is calling you.”  Keisha's mum shooshed her out of the room.  Kiesha 
quickly ran out and then poked her head around her grandmother's 
bedroom door. “Yes gran.”  The dressing table was chockablock with 
strange shaped perfume bottles and crochet mats.  Sometimes when her 
grandmother's nose was blocked she would take a hard sniff of the small 
brown bottle of smelling salts that seemed to have lasted for hundreds 
of years in Keisha's young perception of time. “Come sit here child.”  
Keisha climbed onto the bed, which was always hard and always seemed 
permanently, made.  Keisha could never remember seeing her grandmother 
in the bed, she got up early and want to bed late.  Her grandmother had 
taken down the blue cardboard trunk down from the top of the wardrobe; 
at last Keisha was going to see what was inside.  She began to run her 
hands up and down the yellow chenille bedspread – she could already 
hear her mum in her head. “Child stop touching up the bedspread wid ya 
dirty han' “ Her mum was not in the room and her grandmother never 
minded, so she carried on doing it. “Keisha you have a box?”  Her 
grandmother asked. “A box?” Keisha screwed up her eyes and looked 
puzzled. “Okay don't worry ‘bout dat now – tek dis.”  She handed Keisha 
a cardboard box, which was covered in silver material and was beginning 
to disintegrate.  Piuta stared at it wondering what the faded gold 
writing once said. “Open it nuh.”  Her grandmother was standing over 
her, her grey pigtails were curling up at the end, Keisha looked down 
at her grandmothers feet.  They had tiny little creases in them and her 
toenails were pointed and sharp. 

Keisha fumbled with the box something was rattling inside, she put the
lid on the bed and looked at the entangled bracelet and chain.  Her 
grandmother dipped her hand into the box and untangled them, the chain 
was thin and delicate and the small moonstone pendant that was hanging 
from it was shimmering shades of blue at her.   Her grandmother held it 
up in front of her as it she was a hypnotist. “Ya like it?” Keisha bit 
her lip and nodded her head furiously. “Here tek it.”  Her grandmother 
left the room and closed the room quietly – as if deliberately leaving 
Keisha on her own. 

Keisha could hear her mother asking her grandmother what they were doing
in the bedroom, her grandmother did not answer as usual, as if to say 
“none of your business.” 

Keisha sat staring at the bracelet and pendant, she put the chain around
her neck, her skin was tingling and she felt hot all of a sudden.  It 
frightened her and she was about to stop putting it on, but she almost 
felt as if someone was behind her holding her hands urging her to open 
the clasp.  After she put the chain on she felt an urgency to put on 
the bracelet.  She looked in the mirror there was a deep silence within 
her she was just staring at herself. Everything around her seemed to 
magnify or become exaggerated.  The chenille bedspread looked thick, 
soft and luscious and the room seemed to have doubled in size.  The 
mirrors on the big wooden wardrobe were so expansive they were taking 
in the reflection of the whole room.  The moonstone began to look 
blurry to Keisha, she peered at it harder and in changed into 
shimmering blue liquid.  She could see a brownish figure moving as the 
liquid began to settle – it was and old man.  He was making something 
and was concentrating really hard on it his image drew closer and 
closer towards her until she felt as if she was standing right behind 
him.  He had deep brown sunworn skin and his fingers were long and 
narrow.  He rolled what looked like a small stone between his index 
finger and thumb.  She peered closer and noticed his feet were very 
similar to her grandmothers', as she looked into the stone in his hand, 
it was just beginning to turn into liquid, but the old man covered it 
gently with his hand.  He turned and looked at her, they were smiling 
at her, and he gently motioned her back with his hand.  He began to 
fade away, he faded completely and all she could hear was her mother's 
voice. 

The door pushed open suddenly and Keisha's mum stood there with her
hands on her hips.  As soon as she stepped into the room everything 
changed back to it's original size.  The chenille bedspread was back to 
it's slightly worn state and Keisha's deep silence was gone. 

“What cha doin' in here Keisha?”  Her mum frowned at her. “N – nothing.”
“What's that around your neck?” “Grandma gave it to me.”  Keisha was 
beginning to feel as if she had done something wrong. “She gave it to 
you, but what cha goin' to do with that?”  Her mother bear closer to 
her.  “ The bracelet is too big for ya han.'”  She took Keisha's wrist 
in her hand and began examining the bracelet she was secretly admiring. 
 She handled Keisha's wrist so roughly that Keisha began to wince in 
pain. 

Keisha had not realised that the bracelet was too big.  It was just
fantastic that her grandmother gave it to her. 

“Put it back in the box, before you lose it.” “But it's mine.”  Keisha
feebly protested. “Put it back in the box.”  She glared at Keisha. 
Keisha's eyes burned with tears and anger and her skin was hot with 
rage; but she knew she couldn't say anything or it would be a hard 
smack on the face. Her mother began to roughly take off the bracelet, 
she almost threw it into the box, and she started to tug at the chain.  
Keisha was afraid she was going to break it. “You're gonna break it – 
I'll do it.”  Her mother let go of the chain, and watched Keisha undo 
the clap.  She watched her hard to make sure she put it back in the 
box. “Now put it in the drawer.” Keisha's tears dripped onto her hands 
as she placed it carefully in the corner of the bottom drawer, 
underneath a soft blanket. 

Her mother left the room saying, “...and don't take it out either.”
Keisha looked at herself in the mirror  - defeated, she looked at the 
spillages of tears on the dressing table and once again, saw the 
reflection of the old man smiling. 

Daniel 

Daniel could see the reflection of the old man in the moonstone of
Keisha's bracelet.  He had spoken to the old man earlier asking him 
what he wanted him to do with Keisha.  How was he supposed to draw out 
her powers without her being afraid? Keisha's grandmother had died and 
she was feeling so lonely and her animosity towards her mother grew 
stronger everyday. 

Daniel was a talented artist he used to sit by the window in his
mother's bedroom and paint the dishevelled garden.  It was muddy  and 
untidy, it had  a carpet of tangled overgrown greenery, wooden planks 
were strewn across it and the brick was crumbling. “Why don't you paint 
something pretty for the kitchen?”  His mum would say he offered to put 
up one of his many paintings of the back garden, his mum was outraged. 
“That dump that would make me feel depressed, I hate having to look at 
it everyday – I don't want it on my wall.”  She could not understand 
why their home and area enchanted him.  The streets were dirty and the 
people were poor, but Daniel was enthralled.  He would draw his bedroom 
at it's messiest.  His mum would shout, “Aren't you gonna tidy that 
bedroom before you draw it?” At the end of the road was a small button 
factory it had a large brown iron gate that was always left open.  He 
would document in his paintings the array of furniture and rubbish that 
people dumped there every week.  He would happily paint the “crap” as 
his mother called it, curious about the people who put it there. She 
used to use that word often almost as if it was a euphemism for the 
people who lived in the area. 

Once he went to the park one summer and decided to paint something
pretty, he went to the small garden in the centre near the tennis 
courts.  The flowers were an array of colours in the dark brown soil, 
and the scent was thick.  Daniel began to paint the bright happy reds 
and blues, but his eye was wandering across to the old broken down 
tennis court every so often.  The net was sagging and the white 
markings were fading.  The green flexible fencing around the court was 
out of shape.  Two children who looked about ten years old were trying 
there best to hit a punctured tennis ball they found across the net 
with the plastic rackets they had.  They were having a good time and 
that was the finished painting Daniel brought home. “Why would you 
paint two bloody children playing tennis?”  His mum was totally 
puzzled.  Daniel shrugged and got a drink from the fridge. 

About a month later in August, it was his mother's birthday.  Daniel
asked her what she wanted, “It would be really nice if you could finish 
of that painting of the flowers in the park Dan.”  Her eyes pleaded 
with him. He rolled his eyes, sighed and agreed.  It was only one 
picture he thought, but the morning he got up to paint them he felt a 
tense and fiery feeling which he had never felt before.  He tried to 
ignore it but the headache and the aching clenched jaw would not let 
him.  His mother singing in the kitchen and making the breakfast 
irritated him even more – he was beginning to feel a little scared 
about it.   He left the house without uttering a word and slammed the 
door behind him, making his mother stop singing suddenly and sending a 
shudder through her body. 

Daniel's anger was bubbling; he kept his eyes locked on the pavement,
his head pounding with the rhythm of his steps.  He did not take his 
eyes of the ground when he reached the zebra crossing he just stepped 
onto the crossing clutching his sketchbook and paints, oblivious to the 
car speeding at him and then trying to screech to a halt as it got 
nearer to him. 

Daniel's mother sat on his bed looking around his room, her face hot
with tears and a numb body.  She looked at the bottom open drawer of 
his chest of drawers and could see the curled up ends of paintings he 
had put in it.  She got down on her knees and pulled the drawer out 
further she stared at the unfinished pictures of the rubbish at the end 
of the street, children playing in the street and the shabby looking 
shops along West Green road. She could smell the rubbish in the picture 
and she could hear the noise on West Green road.  As she sifted through 
them she found a couple paintings of the young boys who would hang 
outside their gate, talking about girls and parties.  The sounds of 
their voices became clearer and clearer the more she stared at the 
pictures, and the more she stared at the pictures the more she could 
see Daniel. She fell back against the bed and clutched the paintings to 
her chest very tightly, her eyes grew hotter and hotter with tears 
until she wailed uncontrollably. 

Grandmother's room 

“Shall we go now?” Keisha placed her hand on Daniel's. “Yeah, let's go.”
 They walked up the path towards noisy Black Boy Lane, Keisha held his 
hand they did not speak, she just enjoyed the warm clasp of his hand. 
Her mind began to wonder back to when she left the house that morning 
and her mother saying what she did.  She could feel her shoulders 
tensing and the feelings of calm being stripped away from her.  The 
noise of the traffic was back in her head again and she wanted to get 
back to her flat, she picked up her walking speed.  She had totally 
forgotten about Daniel. 

She put her key in the door, she had to give it a hard push as it was
stuck.  There was also a slight smell of paint, it was not until she 
was standing in the middle of the passage that she realised she was at 
her mothers house and not her flat.  The door had been painted recently 
and that's why it was a little stiff.  The house was quiet her mother 
was probably still at work. It was as if she walked there on automatic 
pilot, she decided not to leave, she went into her grandmother's room.  
She always felt safe in there, as she opened the door the musty smell 
shot up her nose, her mother obviously had not opened the room for a 
long time.  Her grandmother always aired the room and opened the 
windows, she hated closed windows. Keisha stomped over to the large 
window and pulled down the top part of it hard and noisily, she wanted 
her mother to walk in right at that moment to complain about the noise. 
 She would have told her that she was trying to erase any memory of her 
grandmother, she did not even have the respect to keep the room as she 
would have wanted it. 

She stood in the middle of the room looking around and then sat on the
edge of the bed and took off her shoes and wriggled her toes. She swung 
her legs on to the bed and lay back slowly on the pillow feeling the 
chenille bedspread with her fingers. She closed her eyes and just 
listened she did not know what she was listening for but she listened. 

When she opened her eyes she was focussing on the light above her she
felt slightly dizzy and a little hungry.  Her concentration on the 
light bulb grew stronger and stronger, there was a tightening around 
her wrist with the moonstone bracelet, and then a tightening around her 
neck.  She sat up quickly and was staring at herself in the mirror, the 
mirror was expanding it reflected everything in the room, the bracelet 
was so tight around her wrist.  She tried to take if off she tugged and 
tugged at the bracelet but it squeezed tighter and tighter she let out 
a wild scream that went on forever even when the tightening had stopped 
and the bracelet hung loosely from her wrist again.  She fell back on 
to the pillows her head pounding and her throat was sore, she turned on 
to her side and stared into one of the stones in her bracelet.  It 
seemed to soothe and calm her, she just stared into it motionless, it 
began to look blurry as if it was liquid.  She was beginning to see a 
brown figure in the stone it took a while for her to see it clearly, 
eventually she saw it was the old man she had seen all those years ago. 
 She jumped up quickly afraid that her mother would walk in like she 
did all those years ago and spoil everything, but when she looked she 
could not see the room.  She was surrounded by the blue colour of the 
moonstone, she turned to look back into her bracelet but found the old 
man standing directly in front of her smiling.  She had a feeling he 
had been waiting for her, she was ready to listen to him, she wanted to 
hear him.  His mouth slowly opened and he smiled some more.  It was 
enough for Keisha something deep inside her knew what he had said or 
even what he had not said – it was enough. 

She turned around to look for Daniel, the room was back to normal and
she could hear the cars on West Green Road.  She went into the sitting 
room and watched the school children dragging their feet home.  She 
looked at the clock and was a little startled at how late it was her 
mother would be returning soon and she did not want to be there.  She 
went quickly into her grandmother's room, Daniel was sitting on the bed 
smiling at her. “Are you okay? He asked. “Yeah” She said quietly.  She 
sat down at the dressing table and stared into the mirror looking at 
the room behind her.  She smiled to herself thinking that if anyone 
caught her speaking to Daniel their suspicions about her madness would 
be confirmed.  Her mother caught her once as she barged in as usual. 
“Who ya talking to?” “Noone just myself.” “Huh ya just like your 
grandmother – she is always talking to someone when nobody is in the 
room.” Thinking about the incident made her smile again. “You're just 
like your grandmother,” was echoing in her ears. She stared at herself 
and thought; “Thank God, thank God.” 


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