It wasn’t what Primo had wanted to hear. He wanted to hear how much she liked the car, and how rapt she was that he’d gotten his licence and he wouldn’t be relying on her to drive them around. That’s what he’d wanted to hear, not this.
‘It’s just not working out, Prim,’ Maddie continued. ‘There are all sorts of reasons, but I guess it’s mainly that I’m feeling shut in. I need to really have some time to myself, to find out what I want, you know?’
No, I don’t know, Primo thought. He had no idea. Why didn’t she fill him in?
He was not going to make this easy for her, he decided, even though he’d seen it coming for weeks.
The confined interior of the tiny car forced them to sit close, their knees touching. Primo felt Maddie’s tension and shifted so that she pushed herself even further back in her seat and against the door.
‘Maybe if we have a little time out,’ Maddie said through tight lips. ‘Sometimes a bit of space makes all the difference in the world.’
‘So, you want to break up but leave the option open for us to get back together?’ Primo said. ‘A bit like an open contract, where either or both parties can suss out if there are any better options on offer, and then come back to the original arrangement. Is that it?’
Maddie shook her head and pressed the tips of her fingers to her forehead. ‘No, it’s not like that at all, and you know it. I don’t want to hurt you, Primo.’ Her voice trailed off. ‘Look,’ she said finally. ‘Primo, it’s like this.’
She was being dogmatic now, Primo decided, her tone changed from comforting to confrontational.
‘I’ve decided to go to Europe with Celine and Tania. Their dates coincide with when I want to go. They’ve committed to the trip, and I’ve decided I’m not going to wait for you to make up your mind, to talk to your parents, to do all those things you’ve been promising to do for months but somehow never actually got round to doing.’ The words came out in a gush. ‘You never should have promised me you’d come,’ she said. ‘You knew all along that you wouldn’t, didn’t you? I postponed this trip just so you could finish Year 12, and now it’s almost over but you haven’t even really discussed the trip with your folks.’
Maddie shook her head faintly and touched a water spot on the windscreen, then added, ‘In a few weeks school’s over for you but for the exams. When are you going to make some firm decisions? I can’t just wait and wait and hope you’ll come good on your promise.
‘I’m going without you, and you can live with it,’ Maddie went on. ‘I’m done waiting for you to break the news to your parents, for you to find the money, for you to give me a date so I can book tickets. I’m going with Celine and Tania, and you can like that or not, it’s your choice.’
Maddie reached for the door handle and stepped out of the Fiat. She slammed the door behind her and it slapped back open.
Primo didn’t move. He sat and watched her through the windscreen, his fists knotted on the steering wheel, his mouth pulled into a tight slash across his face.
‘It’s just hard right now, you know,’ he called finally, in an effort to appease her, at least for the time being, until he could work out a better strategy. ‘With my brother back in the house for who knows how long, and my old man the way he is. Shifts at the freight yard have been hard to get too, you know.’
Maddie sat on the end of the bonnet and folded her arms around herself.
Primo’s lips smacked the air noisily. He stared past Maddie, out towards the Melbourne city skyline, focusing on the tallest building, the Eureka Tower. Its golden summit tossed the sunlight back at him sharply.
Maddie was right and wrong, he thought with biting indignation.
‘It’s my dad,’ he offered half-heartedly. ‘With him in the nursing home, it’s tough now. I can’t just leave Mum on her own.’
When Maddie looked back at him, Primo felt a pang of desire crunch him in the stomach.
They had known each other since he’d partnered Maddie’s sister, Shannon, for the Year 11 formal at the end of the previous year. Things hadn’t worked out between him and Shannon, but he and Maddie, a full two years older, had hit it off right from the start. They even followed the same footy team, Carlton, and she was doing the same Arts degree he hoped to do once he passed Year 12.
It was all good, Primo told himself. Maddie was pretty and smart, and knew what she wanted to do with her life – become a primary school teacher and work with gifted kids. And now he was spoiling it all. The thought bit hard.
‘I want to come, Maddie,’ Primo said. ‘I really do, but things are tough at home right now. Probably will be for a while yet, especially now with ...’
‘You’ve wimped out on me,’ Maddie cut him off. ‘I even put off buying tickets to give you time to save. And don’t use your dad as an excuse. It makes you sound pathetic.’
The words, like a grenade, exploded around Primo in the confines of the little car.
‘I’m not wimping out,’ Primo shot back. ‘I haven’t been able to save as much as I thought I would have, you know. I’ve been getting less shifts at the factory than I’d hoped. And I’ve got school to think about.’
Maddie stepped away from the car. She walked off and Primo was forced to get out of the car if they were to continue their conversation.
‘I’m not using the old man as an excuse,’ he said into the space between them. ‘What? You reckon I don’t want to go to Europe with you? You reckon I don’t want to see all those sights you’ve been raving about for like, forever?’
Maddie turned on him, her face blazing with anger. ‘That’s exactly right, Primo! The places I’ve been raving about! The places I’ve been going on and on about! Not you! Not once have you been as truly excited about the trip as I am.’
Primo stepped toward her, but Maddie held up her hand, bringing him to a stop.
‘You were never really going to go with me, Primo,’ she said. ‘You just liked the idea that I’d wait around until I got sick of the whole thing and brush it aside.’ She lowered her voice. ‘We’ve made the bookings, Primo, me and the girls, and we’re going.’
Before Primo could respond, she added, ‘What happened to you convincing your mum to sell the workshop? Your dad doesn’t work anymore and the place is just sitting there empty collecting dust. There’s a few dollars in the equipment and stuff, even if your mum doesn’t sell the actual building, you said, remember?’
Primo rubbed his palms together. ‘Mum won’t sell any of it,’ he said.
‘Fine, but I’m going, Primo,’ Maddie snarled, her eyes narrowed, her chin poked out defiantly. ‘And whatever happens after that.’ Maddie shrugged, stepping back and pouting. ‘You’re so full of shit sometimes, Primo! You just keep promising but you mean nothing! I don’t know what I ever saw in you!’
Primo lunged as though he would grab Maddie, but she side-stepped and pointed a finger at him accusingly. ‘You’re never going to grow up are you, Primo? It’s always going to be “poor Primo”, isn’t it? Well, I don’t need that crap!’
Maddie stomped away a short distance.
‘Hey,’ he tried in a whisper, willing her to turn away from the view and look at him.
But Maddie didn’t turn around. Primo stood there, dumbfounded.
‘I took Bambino out for you,’ Primo hedged, trying a different tack. He brushed a hand over the bonnet. ‘I’m not supposed to, but for you.’
Maddie turned and stormed toward him.
‘For me? You’ve got to be kidding! What do I care about your precious retro car. Are you serious?’
Primo felt anger ignite deep inside him. Retro car!
‘Get in the car,’ he said flatly.
Maddie gave him the finger.
‘I’m not joking, Maddie. Get in the car and I’ll take you home,’ Primo pressed. He was standing by the passenger side door now, his hand on the handle. ‘Stop being a drama queen and get in the car.’
‘I’d sooner walk.’
Primo opened the car door slowly, stepping back and waving to usher Maddie inside the confined canopy. ‘Get in,’ he repeated.
Maddie snorted.
‘Last chance,’ Primo said, his chest tensing, his fingers tight on the handle.
Maddie didn’t move and reluctantly Primo slapped the door shut, walked round and opened the driver’s side door. He stood for a moment, resting his elbow on the door’s rim.
‘I don’t want this, Primo,’ Maddie said. ‘I don’t want to fight like this, but you’ve let me down.’
Primo’s certainty collapsed. He climbed in and turned the ignition. The engine started with a spurt, and the tiny car hopped forward. Primo engaged reverse and gunned the accelerator. Too hard. The engine stalled.
‘Get in, Maddie!’ he yelled and turned the ignition again. He punched the dashboard with his left hand, willing the car to fire.
Primo looked up and saw Maddie take several steps back to the edge of the road, her face betraying her surprise at hearing the growl of the car’s engine so close.
He felt the car rev and engaged first gear. The screech of gravel under the tyres cut the sound of the baying engine in half, and the car leapt forward. In a moment the tail swung around to the left, the car’s rear hiccupping round and sweeping so close to Maddie that Primo heard her draw a panicked breath.
‘You’re a prick, Primo!’ she yelped.
Primo gritted his teeth. Drama queen, he thought. He was nowhere close enough to hurt her. He swung the car to the right, bringing the driver’s door within arm’s reach of where Maddie stood, seemingly mesmerised.
When he laughed, the sound filled the car, echoing and pounding at his ears above the noise of the engine, groaning in protest as Primo pushed it fractionally further than he ought to without changing gear.
‘Get in the car!’ he shouted, reaching across to push the passenger side door open. It swung back and kicked against the rear panel.
Maddie slammed the door shut and thumped the canvas roof with a closed fist.
Fury flashed in Primo’s eyes at the sound of Maddie’s fist pounding on the roof. He gave her a piercing stare and accelerated wildly, spinning the steering wheel to full lock to the left and dropping the clutch. The tiny red car kicked and bucked out its rear end, narrowly missing Maddie, who jumped back in sudden fright.
‘You’re crazy!’ Maddie yelled.
Primo didn’t hear her; he was focused on getting the car back under control. The rear tyres were slipping on the gravel, the passenger side door waved back and forth and finally bent back against its hinges, creaking under the strain as it hyperextended.
Too tense to regain a straight line, Primo’s instinct was to overcorrect. He lost what little control he still had over the car, sending it sliding sideways over a low gutter, the passenger door slamming shut just as the car sideswiped a concrete bollard. Bouncing off the post, Primo’s hands jerked off the steering wheel, leaving him with no other option than to apply the brakes and handbrake simultaneously.
It took a few moments, but the car came to a halt. Primo sat forward in the driver’s seat as though he were about to leap through the windscreen head first.
And then there was silence, deep and angry and torn at the edges by the searing echo in Primo’s head of the car careering sideways into the concrete bollard.
‘Primo!’
Maddie’s voice pierced his ears as he sat clutching the steering wheel, staring wide-eyed directly ahead.
‘Primo!’
Primo looked at Maddie but didn’t see her. Bewildered, he opened his mouth in mute dismay.
‘You are crazy!’ Maddie snapped. ‘You could have run me over. You could have killed me even.’
The sound of his own voice saying ‘I didn’t mean to’ was a heavy thing that wrapped itself slowly around Primo and forced him from the car to stand beside Maddie, but he was unable to embrace her.
Instead, he went around to the passenger side. The bollard had smacked the door inward, and the paint work had peeled off like a huge knife gash had torn flesh from bone.
There was a noise, like an animal struggling against a snare, raw and guttural.
‘Primo?’ Maddie’s voice was brittle, and for some reason it set Primo off.
‘I’m dead!’ he sobbed, his hands patting the damaged flank of the car. ‘I’m dead!’ Primo turned in a tight circle, hands over both ears as if to erase what had just happened.
‘I could have been that concrete post!’ Maddie said forcefully. ‘It could have been me you ran into.’ She approached him, her arms out, palms up. ‘Look at me, I’m shaking.’
Primo turned and gave her a brutal shove that almost toppled her.
‘It’s your fault!’ he yelled. ‘I took the car out for you! To celebrate getting my licence.’
As though it might undo the damage, Primo started rubbing the dented metal, stroking and patting and cajoling.
‘Are you serious?’ Maddie screamed. ‘Are you right in the head?’ She picked up a small rock at her feet and tossed it at Primo. He didn’t flinch when it rebounded off his back. ‘I don’t believe this!’
Primo closed his eyes and batted his fists against his forehead.
‘This is an original Bambino,’ he whispered. ‘This car is a 1962 Fiat 500D. It’s been sitting in our garage since before I was born.’ Primo looked at Maddie as though that might explain everything about the significance of the little car in his family’s life.
‘It’s a car. Your dad’s car, sure, but a car,’ she said, making no effort to hide her disgust. ‘You could have run me over with that thing.’
‘Thing?’ he cried indignantly. ‘Didn’t you hear what I just told you? It’s a classic. My dad probably saved months, years, to get it.’ He shook his head and stepped back to better look at the damage. ‘I’m dead.’
‘It’s just a dent, Primo. Dents can be taken out. Even I know that.’ Her smile not quite right, Maddie looked down the length of the car. ‘You can barely see it from here. I bet if you tried you could pop the dent out.’ Maddie reached down as though she might try herself, but Primo grabbed her roughly by the wrist and turned her aside.
‘It’s not just a dent,’ he said. ‘This car has never even had a scratch. Ever. Not even a dry piece of bird shit on the windscreen.’
Maddie wrenched her hand free.
‘It’s a car, Primo. A car,’ she said with a shrug. ‘It’s not like it’s alive or anything. Get a grip, please.’ She walked off, shaking her head dismissively.
‘You’ve got no idea,’ Primo shouted at her back.
‘What?’ she countered, looking back at him defiantly.
‘You have no idea about what this car means to my old man, especially now that he’s ... Especially now.’
‘And what? You do?’ Maddie shot back. ‘And that’s why you took it out behind his back?’ She smirked knowingly. ‘You’ve never been allowed to touch the car and the first day you have your licence you show up with it. I’m supposed to believe what you said about your mum giving you permission? Bullshit!’
Primo swallowed hard once, twice, then shook his head and turned back to the tiny red car.
‘Get in. I’ll drive you home,’ he hissed.
‘I’ll walk,’ Maddie replied.
‘Last offer,’ he said shortly.
‘Said I’ll walk.’ Maddie folded her arms across her chest.
‘Fine. Suit yourself.’ Primo climbed back into the driver’s seat, started the engine and, without a backward glance, drove off.
Stupid girl, he thought. Stupid, stupid girl.
But wildly intoxicating too, he couldn’t help thinking. Maddie was like a cold dip on a hot, hot day. She could take his breath away.
Moments later he’d put Maddie out of his mind, more concerned with the damage to his father’s car.
With few choices, Primo called Tone. Minutes later, he was parked beside the hearse in the laneway behind the pizzeria.
Tone whistled when he saw the damage and shook both hands as though trying to rid himself of something that clung unpleasantly to them.
‘That’s a whole lot of first-rate stuff-up right there, Prim,’ he said. ‘Tell me again, how the hell did you manage it?’
Primo sighed heavily and didn’t meet Tone’s gaze.
‘And you just drove off and left Maddie?’ Tone prompted. ‘Yeah, that’s a good, positive option to take, I guess.’ He smirked. ‘You take a hit to the head to come up with that gem, Prim?’
‘Hey, it’s not like I left her stranded in the outback, Tone, okay?’ Primo snapped. ‘You reckon Alfie can fix Bambino?’
Tone frowned and rubbed his chin meditatively. ‘Won’t be cheap,’ he said. ‘Even if he does work out of his backyard, this isn’t just your average Holden or Ford, Prims. This is like a collectible.’
‘But you can talk to him for me, right?’ Primo pressed. ‘I can’t leave it like this. Not for long, anyway.’ He leaned against the little car and sighed. ‘It’s not even insured anymore. Mum stopped payments when Dad got too sick to drive it. Not that Dad knows.’
Tone motioned Primo aside and, using his mobile’s camera, took some shots of the damaged door and panel.
‘Be better to get the car to him so he can have a proper look,’ Tone said when Primo climbed back into the driver’s seat and turned the ignition. He waited for Primo to wind down the window and leaned on the sill. ‘I keep telling you, Prims, this car is shit hot. Two cyclinder, vertical in-line, air-cooled. Top speed about ninety-five k’s, right?’
Primo engaged reverse gear clumsily. ‘Something like that,’ he said flatly. ‘I need to get it fixed ASAP, mate. I can’t risk my mum seeing it like this. Or worse, my old man suddenly deciding he wants to have a look at it.’
‘I’m on it, Prims, chill,’ Tone replied. He stood to his full height and whistled appreciatively. ‘You know I can get you a good price for it, Prims. It just sits in your garage after all, mate.’
‘Just see what your cousin says about the damage.’ Primo released the clutch and carefully started easing the car back onto the main road.
Tone walked alongside for a moment then leaned into the driver’s side, forcing Primo to brake to a shuddering halt.
‘You can’t go leaving Maddie like that,’ he said slowly. ‘You were the one dicking around, you said so yourself, mate. And you took the car out, not Maddie. Give her a call, see that she’s okay, yeah?’
Primo didn’t answer. He didn’t look directly at his friend. Instead he wound up the window and reversed.
If she didn’t hate him before, even with all the crap about the trip, Maddie would surely hate him now, he thought darkly. And he couldn’t say he would blame her.
When he got home, Primo carefully replaced the dust tarp over the Fiat, only now he tied it down at each corner, fastening the stays securely with double knots. Anyone who wanted to look at Bambino would have to make an effort, and that might buy him some time.
What he needed, Primo told himself, was to let Maddie simmer, to let her see reason. She hadn’t been injured, after all. Frightened a little, sure, but not injured, like Bambino had been. Surely Maddie could see that much.