The Villa

The Villa ANKE

The Villa wasn’t anything really grand. There was no acreage of grape vines or olive trees or anything exotic, just a comfortable welcoming place, roomy enough with pockets of space to be alone or together, with air to breathe where winds had flirted away the dust. Water pumped from a deep well fed a large pond swirling with colourful goldfish and a fountain spraying delicate mist over the water lilies. It was dreamy and yet real enough to stay there, rustic with familiar edges. It had a good reputation in the Trident Galaxy with almost earthly resources.

“Please take my baggage to my quarters, my husband will be joining me tomorrow.” Eve Durban flashed her identification and passage detail to the entrance robot and watched for a moment that her bags were handled carefully and taken away. She looked around, past the entrance pillars and took a measure of the people still in the lobby and those that flowed through to the dining area. Glass and mirrors were appropriate accompaniments to the Old-Style music sounding gently from the adjacent bar, a syncopated rhythm that was a guide for her swaying hips as she moved in that direction. Eve paused another moment, conveniently in a spotlight that reflected her image in several glass surfaces to her advantage before she claimed a seat that was to her liking, a shadowy cul-de-sac from which she could look in privacy at the reactions of other patrons.

“Good evening Mrs. Durban. It is good to see you once again. Are we waiting for your husband’s arrival to order?”

She responded with a brilliant smile, ruby lips and flashing white teeth. She closed her eyes slowly and opened them again as if their sparkle was a gift to him. “I’m alone tonight dear. I will have my usual drink. I just want to relax and listen to the music, thank you.”

Her waiter responded promptly and soon a sumptuous fruit drink spiked with native liquors hinting a certain effervescence was set in front of her. “Wonderful, thank you. Charles.”

“I should tell you that David and Tabitha arrived earlier today.”

“Oh, are they here tonight, Charles?”

“David is, yes, but I believe his wife is keeping to her room.”

“Mmm, thank you.”

Moments later, David was leaning over Eve, his hand clasping her head, their lips together with familiarity. “I’ve missed you,” he said as he released her.

Eve stroked his face, admiring his silver curls and goatee with a mustache that was long and curling up at the ends. “I’ve missed you as well.”

As they sat closely together on the round bench, the music played quiet background instrumental pieces and they talked of earlier times, remembrances of days when they were once lovers, laughing at the crazy things that lovers say and do.

When Charles silently slipped over to their table with David’s whisky, David was thoroughly engrossed in relating yet another “Remember when we…” and simply reached for his drink as if it had been there all along. Without a word Charles slipped away again, smiling at the couple he felt were meant for each other, glad to be able to serve them without interrupting their evening together. His move would come shortly to shift the music to something they could dance to, a sound that favoured a close embrace, or a rhythm that would connect the two, pairing them as he liked to see. Charles took pleasure in orchestrating the evening for his clients and sure enough they were up on the dance floor, Eve being swirled around and caught up close handily in David’s arms. The numbers were a variety to tease them, pulling them apart and tugging each other back again, quick steps to move their bodies, then slow dancing, a moving embrace.

Finally, they sat down again to rest their feet. David asked, “What’s Carson up to these days? Why isn’t he here with you?”

“Oh David, you should know by now that Carson is always involved with something, some business or other. He never tells me anything about it. He trips around this galaxy and is always making deals with someone. But that’s Carson. I told him I’d go ahead a day earlier just to acclimatize. He’s coming in from some dreary moon, minerals of one kind or another.”

“Minerals eh. I didn’t think mining was in his bag of tricks. Wasn’t he in pharmaceuticals when we last met?”

“Carson’s full of tricks and I truly can’t keep up with everything.”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to pry.”

“That’s all right.” Eve picked up her drink and finished it. “I should be heading up to my room. Carson will have left me a few messages by now. It’s never just a pleasure vacation with him. I’m his secretary on-call. That’s why I ‘leave’ my phone behind sometimes.” Eve gave David a knowing expressive wink. I’ll look at his list of ‘to do’s’ in the morning.

“I should get going as well. Hopefully Tabitha’s asleep. She’ll be up early to paint the sunrise no doubt. Thank you, Eve. I’m so glad we had tonight.”

Charles watched their tender leave-taking, watched as Eve walked through the lobby and took the elevator to the ‘Princess’ suite on the top floor with a view in all directions. David returned to his original seating in the shadowy privacy of the bar. He checked the time and addressed a few messages that had come in, sending his replies with a sense of urgency, a worried puckering of his lips of concern. Only then did he leave to return to his room and his wife.

The next morning Carson arrived disheveled from his long trip, still wearing dusty overalls that carried the typical odor and ochre of Orbol’s Moon. The desk attendant looked distastefully up at Carson.

“Welcome back Mr. Durban. Do you require some assistance with …”

Carson flashed his card, rudely cutting him short, saying, “That won’t be necessary.” He continued on through the lobby to the elevators. As he walked into the Princess Suite, Eve was about to enter the elevator herself but stopped at the sight and smell of her husband.

“Good morning!” her tone conveyed her surprise both at his sudden appearance and the odor that accompanied him.

“Well, if that’s what you call it.” Carson disengaged his baggage from his shoulder and headed to the washroom. “I’ve had enough of Orbol and its moon. The negotiations with their so-called natives are impossible. They keep changing their minds. Their orange dust is like gold but they don’t even understand its real worth. Frustrating as Hell! Need to keep pushing. But once I’ve got them it will be all mine. I will have full control. They’ll never know what hit them.”

“Take your time to clean up. I’m going downstairs for coffee. You might find me in the gardens.” She heard him mutter something back, and Eve continued as planned.

Eve got a coffee and took it with her into the gardens to find a quiet retreat. There was something in the venom of Carson’s speech that didn’t sit well with her. It seemed with each victory he accomplished, his energy was more filled with anger, as if he blamed those he conquered for their own demise. He was getting meaner the more power he held.

In her wandering search through The Villa’s property, Eve came upon Tabitha intensely studying the easel in front of her and the pastoral scene beyond. Eve came up beside her and looked at the scene along with her, soft grasses whispering in the tender breeze, tipped with gold picking up the warmth of the sun. The perspective was one overlooking a corner of the pond in the foreground, and further all of clear sky, not a cloud to interrupt the blue, and green fields endlessly extending from the pond’s edge seemingly to the sky. Tabitha turned to Eve, and said “Where do I begin?”

Eve chuckled. “I have no idea. I see blue and green and at the bottom edge that bit of water, and grasses trembling in the breeze.

Tabitha smiled. “My dear friend, you’re right. Simple colours with minimal detail is so restful. If only all decisions could be made so easily, to see the outcome clearly. David said he met with you last night at the bar, that you were alone. Is Carson having difficulties?”

“He’s always in one war or another I suppose, business is not easy, though he seems to be fairly successful at it.”

“Financial success should not be the single aim of one’s life’s work.” Tabitha painted wide strokes of sky blue across the canvas. “When one stands at ground level, the perspective should be clear of dreams, to be aware of what is truly rooted in reality.”

“Tabitha, you’re beginning to float in a vague philosophical cloud.”

“Yes, I see it now, it’s the water and the sun that is reflected in it and the detail of life that grows with those essential ingredients. My focus should be at the roots of the world. That’s where the greater share of the canvas should be. At least, being closest, it’s what we can most clearly define, or understand. David would see it that way, I’m sure. He’s always for searching for justice. It’s his job.”

“My goodness, all that from your view of the painting … You’re quite the mystery sometimes. Curious, I don’t even know what business David is in. When we knew each other back in our school days he was considering law. What does he do?”

“Oh, isn’t that funny, how you can know a person and miss the details. Well yes, it’s law of a sort, very private.” Tabitha turned back to her canvas to detail the gently swaying grasses at the water’s edge.

As she walked further leaving Tabitha to her painting, Eve thought about their conversation. Subtle questions or hints regarding Carson’s work ethics troubled Eve. And the lack of clarity regarding David’s work puzzled her. She resolved to ask Carson later.

That afternoon the news was broadcast over all the networks: Orbol’s moon and all its resources had a new corporate legislature and the people that lived there were revolting. Most were immigrants willing to take their chances to make a life in a new territory, confident of work and a continuing supply of resources essential to life. You couldn’t grow food in the gold dust but the mining mega-corporation promised shipments from Orbol. Now with a takeover of the company, and modern methods under a new regime, the workers were no longer employed. Their world was turned upside down. Everything was in jeopardy, their food supplies, their homes, even education for their families. The reporters worried for Orbol too. Would that mean a mass migration back home to Orbol of all the yellow workers forever stained by the rock they mined? The corporate change instantly put everything in jeopardy. The repercussions were massive.

The buzz about the moon and yellow dust was static on the internet. Most everyone had some connection to the smelly planet. The products made from the yellow mineral were in every home, used in the production of all manner of household goods and in the creation of chemical agents from soap to garbage trucks. The question on the lips of many was “Who owns it all now? And what will they do with it?

Eve returned to the hotel just as the news broke showing fierce demonstrations in the streets and in front of the legislature and the corporate offices, frantic crowds, angry placard waving mobs looking for blood.

“Ahh Mrs. Durban! Charles at the hotel desk was smiling with bright hopeful eyes. He said, “Your husband has left you alone once again Mrs. Durban. He asked me to tell you he has returned to Orbal’s Moon. Will you be wanting a table for lunch?”

Eve wanted only to return to the Princess suite to confirm for herself that Carson had really returned to the moon, that he had taken all his luggage with him. Though she was used to his comings and goings she had a bad feeling this time. The hotel maid service had dealt with the residual yellow dust stink that he had brought with him on his arrival and the lack of his smell now made the rooms feel emptier.

Then she saw the gift, tied with a yellow ribbon and a card with her name handwritten in beautiful calligraphy. Inside was a crystal ball that held a tiny sampling of gold dust at its center giving the globe an ochre sheen. The card read, “I own it all! I want to fly you to the moon!”

“Oh God! It was you! You stupid man! How could you? What have you done?” Eve was shocked to think he caused all the commotion, the fears and disruptions. It wasn’t important to her to be more rich or powerful. “All those poor people! We need to help them.” She tried to call him but all lines were busy. “How are we going to put this right again? Where do we begin?”