The Nocturne

Atmosphères

        The rest of the afternoon passed fairly uneventfully. It had been lightly raining all day, and it was just that fine type of drizzle that seems not to be able to make up its mind whether to rain properly or not. The ashen grey sky was cloaked in an odd, foggy looking murk. making it very dark and gloomy even though it was only early afternoon. The atmosphere was leaden with that heavy feeling of expectation. When the downpour finally came it would probably be in biblical proportions. As I did not own a raincoat, and was perpetually too broke to buy one,  I put on my red hooded top instead and made my way off towards the centre of town, hoping I would return before the great onslaught began. 

      First I went to the restaurant to apologise to my boss Mr Bernardi for missing my shift. But just as I was about to throw myself on his mercy, as luck would have it, it occurred to me that he may not have even noticed that I had not actually attended last night. He looked a little confused as to why I had come to the restaurant so early and then said. "Puoi unire questi tavoli" Speaking to me as he would to me on any normal worknight. 

  I did as I was told quickly pushing the two tables together, and began to lay the cutlery out on them for the dinner service that evening . Mr Bernardi was sitting at another table frowning and looking at some of the restaurants accounting books. "solo un gruppo stasera" He mumbled to himself. He looked quite stressed and kept rubbing his furrowed forehead looking worried and concerned. The lack of customers at La fetta di Verita was troubling everyone who worked there and I thought it best to just leave quickly, be on my way and complete the rest of my errands. I wanted just to leave Mr Bernardi to his concerns, since he clearly had not noticed my absence the night before anyway. I felt suddenly unsure whether to be upset by this revelation or not? 

     "Lavori stasera?" Mr Bernardi mumbled,  still not looking over at me. 

     "Si" I said 

     "A più tardi" He said quietly. 

   I nodded "Si" but Mr Bernardi still was not paying me much attention. I saw him pick up what looked like a bill. He sighed loudly, blowing out air from his cheeks like a balloon deflating noisily. Then  shaking his head sorrowfully  he went back to studying his books. 

       I hurriedly took me cue and left. As I stood outside, I stopped for a moment to breath a long, loud sigh. This release of tension was a sense of relief that I still had my job and had not been sacked.  I was not enthralled by this job, but I realised that I would be very sad, for Mr Bernardi especially, if the restaurant closed due to lack of customers. Mr Bernardi had always been kind to me. And he had been very kind in giving me this job, despite the fact that I looked like a scrawny scarecrow, who had clearly been through some heavy trauma or drama. I had never explicitly spoken it to him directly about the cause of this, and he had also deliberately made a point of not asking me about it. Of not questioning why I had dropped out of college, and what had happened to me since then. When many other employers would not have taken a chance on me, Mr Bernardi did.  I would also be sad for myself because without this job I would struggle to pay Madeline the rent I already owed her, so I knew I had to work hard to keep it, for at least the time the restaurant stayed open for business that was. I heard thunder roll dramatically somewhere off in the distance.

    Suddenly I spotted the new bicycle courier peddling around the corner towards the restaurant, in what seemed to be a frantic fury. He stopped close to the restaurant, and from where I was watching him he looked bedraggled-wet and mighty-cross. He jumped off the bike allowing it to clatter to the ground. He noticed me watching him and although I had only seen him once before, two nights ago when he was employed, nonetheless he made a determined beeline straight towards me. Standing in front of me wearing the yellow and black uniform Mr Bernardi made the delivery couriers wear, and waving his arms about so irately that he looked a bit like an angry bee, albeit an also damp, and tired one.  He threw his hands up at me in a gesture of mock horror, took off his crash helmet and threw it to the ground. " È il tuo lavoro. complimenti"  Is all he said with much bitter sarcasm and then stormed off in the other direction. This grand resignation made the third courier this week to quit, and that was a record even by La Fetta di Verità's standards. He was right though I realised and groaned internally. Tonight it would become my job to fill in and take over as bicycle delivery boy. As the heavens opened and it began to rain more heavily I began to  wonder if one, it was not a bad idea to start looking for another job after all, and two if it might be better to carter a small boat or canoe instead of a bicycle for tonight.