Going home Tornando a casa- part six - fiction

Vladimir waited until the girl had finished telling her story of how she had been lured away from home with false promises of a job and had found herself with no papers and a long way from home. At that moment Salvatore appeared to see what had happened to Vladimir. He cupped his hand and shook it up and down in a typical Italian gesture. The girl looked at him.'I am Esther, I want to go home.'

The two men looked at each other as she broke down into violent sobs.

'Both of you come to my cab,'Salvatore propelled them up into the front of his lorry and poured glasses of his home made marsala. Esther stopped crying and Salvatore handed her a rough towel. The three of them sat in an uneasy silence staring at the many corne and chillis dangling from the windscreen.'My Concettina puts them there to protect me,' Salvatore rubbed his eyes and yawned loudly. Vladimir drained his glass and turned to Esther.' Come to my lorry and we'll all get some sleep, we can decide what to do in the morning.' Esther nodded and gave back her glass to Salvatore.' Thank you , you are very kind.'

She followed Vladimir back to his lorry and he settled her down with a blanket. Just as he had got comfortable his phone rang.It was Inga.'What is going on Vladi? You never answer your phone! Tell me the truth- are you with someone? Tell me I need to know- I'm always stuck here on my own while you travel all over the place.' Vladimir was speechless. Inga had never spoken like this before. He was the jealous one . He glanced at Esther sleeping peacefully and still clutching her handbag. He felt guilty and didn't know what to say . Inga took his silence  to mean he was hiding something from her.'It 's just as well Vassili looks after me.' The line went dead.