Free Looking for Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta Page A

surprise and then nodded, standing up and moving toward the door. Intending to walk past me without a word.
    “Oh, get real,” I said scornfully.
    “I beg your pardon?”
    “Say something to me.”
    He stopped and gave me that tilted head look again. “What would you like me to say to you, Josie?”
    “I don’t know,” I said, confused. “Just something. But I don’t expect you to walk past me as if I don’t exist.”
    “I’ve spoken to your mother about this situation . . .”
    “Stop being polite. You’re making me puke. Be angry or be rude to me, but don’t be polite,” I said angrily.
    “Okay then, what do you want from me?” he asked, adopting my attitude of confusion.
    I shook my head and we both looked ridiculously confused.
    “I never thought meeting you would be this boring. I thought we’d put our Italian emotion into gear and scream the place down. I never expected indifference.”
    “I hate to tell you, Josie, but I wasn’t aware of your existence until very recently, so I haven’t had time to think about this.”
    “Firstly, my name is Josephine. Only people close to me call me Josie, and secondly, I’ve known about you for a lifetime, so I have had plenty of time to think about this.”
    “And what do you think about it, Josephine?”
    “I think you got off too easy. Nobody gets to yell at you and call you names or kick you out of the house. My grandmother thinks you’re the second coming of Christ. But if Robert or my uncle knew about you, they’d smash your head in for what you did to my mother. Maybe I should tell them all who you really are so you won’t be Mr. Wonderful anymore.”
    “And you? Are you going to smash my head in?”
    “Don’t you mock me. Don’t you dare make fun of the way I feel about my mother.”
    “I have no intention of making fun of the way you feel, Josephine. But what happened between your mother and me was a very sad situation eighteen years ago, and I think considering the circumstances things turned out pretty well.”
    “You should be a politician. They’re all full of crap too.”
    “I think we should both go outside before we say something we regret.”
    “You’re a liar,” I whispered angrily. “You said you haven’t a thing to say, but I reckon you’ve planned out everything you’ve said so far. You’re full of bullshit clichés.”
    “And I think you’re going too far.”
    “Who cares?” I shrugged. “I can go as far as I like with you and there is nothing you can do. I mean, are you going to act all fatherly and discipline me?”
    He was angry now. I could see it in his eyes and the way his mouth tightened.
    “Listen, I have the right to think this out clearly before I let you into my life.”
    “How dare you think that I want to be in your life! I don’t want you anywhere near us, especially my mother. If she cries in the next couple of weeks and I find out it’s because you’ve hurt her, you’re in big trouble.”
    “Okay,” he snapped back. “A promise. You keep out of my life, I keep out of yours.”
    “Let’s shake on it.”
    He had a hard handshake, yet very shaky, and I could see that he was upset and again I felt sorry for him. At that moment we were both being unrealistic, because I honestly wanted to see him again. But then again I didn’t.
    “Have a good life, Mr. Andretti,” I said to him.
    He nodded and we tried avoiding each other’s eyes for a while, before he walked out.
    Mama asked me about him that night.
    We were sitting in front of the television pretending to watch the news. We were still in the same clothes from the barbecue and I noticed that her nose was sunburnt.
    I ignored her when she first asked me about him.
    “Come here,” she said, patting the carpet between her outspread legs.
    I sat between them and she wrapped her arms around me. We seemed all brown legs and brown arms.
    “If you want to know what I think of Michael Andretti, I think he’s a lovely man. Very talented by