Free The Soul Room by Corinna Edwards-Colledge

see
another ship approaching! Load the cannons!’
    We stay in the tree until our bums are numb from sitting on the branches
and our fingers are all rough from climbing. The pirates are a bloodthirsty
gang and by the time we're called in by Rosa for our dinner we have conquered
the whole of Terranima.
     
    ‘Maddie has changed a lot, hasn’t she Rosa.’
    ‘Yes Fabrizio, she is becoming a very pretty young woman.’ Rosa always
agrees with her husband. And she always smiles when she talks to him like he’s
so special that even just looking at him makes her happy. He’s gazing at me and
it makes my tummy feel funny. I know I should smile, say thank you, but I
can’t. Rosa’s mum is here, everyone calls her Nonna. She’s sitting next to me.
She looks a bit like a witch, with really long white hair and she always wears
black, but I think if she is a witch she must be a good one because she’s
always really nice to me and she smells of cake.
    ‘Do you like Saltimbocca Maddie?’ Nonna’s eyes sparkle when she talks
to you even though they’re really black.
    ‘Yes it’s yummy.’ I push my knife into the thin piece of pork in its ham
wrapping and a pool of cheese and herbs oozes onto my plate. It is yummy. I’m hoping we get my favourite pudding. It’s a bit like rice pudding,
but not like the horrible stuff I get at school, it’s really creamy and soft
and it tastes of strange spices like Old English Spangles.
    Nonna winks at me. ‘Good, you need to eat well if you are to climb more
trees Tomorrow.’ 
    ‘Ah Nonna , abbiamo giocato tutto il giorno ai
pirati. ’
    ‘In English Sergio.’ Fabrizio almost snaps.
    ‘ Pardone Papa, we played Pirates all day Nonna. Maddie was the
Pirate Princess of the Seven Seas and I was One-Eyed Jack!’
    Rosa smiles at me, but it doesn’t look like a real smile. ‘It is very
kind of Maddie to play with you, but I am sure she would rather spend time with
Collette who is nearer her own age?’
    Collette looks at me with a guilty expression on her face then turns
away. Up till now I would rather have played with Collette, but all of a sudden
I realise I had loads more fun with Sergio. All Collette wants to do these days
is paint her nails and talk about boys. I wouldn’t have got her up that Olive
tree, not for anything! She would have been too worried about ripping her
dress.
    ‘I don’t mind playing with Sergio, I play with my little brother Dan
loads so I’m used to it.’
    Fabrizio takes a
big gulp from his drink and looks at me over the top of his glass. It has all
these different shapes in it like a diamond, and the glow from the candles on
the table shines through it and lights up his face with funny patterns. ‘Such a
shame the rest of your family weren’t able to join you.’
    ‘Maybe next time Fabrizio?’ says Nonna and squeezes my hand under the
table.
     
    In the morning
Sergio knocks on my door early. He seems a bit shy about talking to me, but he
asks me if I want to go with him to see the estate’s animals – the chickens and
goats are his favourites. He’s got names for all of them and he says I can try
milking one of the goats – they make cheese from it, that sounds a bit weird to
me, I thought cheese was made from cow’s milk, but Sergio says it’s really nice
so I’m going to try some at lunchtime.
    It’s really hot in the yard and the goats twitch their heads and their
tails to shake off the flies. They let me stroke them. Their heads are really
bony and their fur is scratchy and they have these funny eyes that don’t have
round pupils, but weird oblong ones like an alien. They snuffle at my hands and
rub their faces against my legs and they smell of warm hay.
    Sergio goes to each one and says hello to it, ‘ Oh little Capra,’ he says like he’s singing, ‘keep your beard out of your dinner . Scontroso, no bite me, your dinner, it come too. Ah Tardivo, always the last
one… ’
    An old man comes out of the barn, his clothes are scruffy