We still need man-things!

Chapter Twenty Two

 Linda's arrival took longer than Mother Miranda had said. When Vasile's cherry-red pickup truck finally stopped at the castle's gate, it was already late afternoon or early evening. Lady Dimitrescu went outside to meet her and have a few words with Luiza, who wanted to buy some grape plants for her garden. Maids Julia and Camilla guided the newcomer to the entry hall and helped carry her two heavy suitcases with stuff she thought she would need in the castle.

Linda was a small and short girl with dark hair, a dark blue skirt, and jet-black boots. Despite being nineteen years old, her face was so young and smooth that she could easily pass for twelve or thirteen.

Mike was spending his time in the library at the same time. As Bela and Daniela had to go into the cellar to deal with wine like Cassandra had been doing since early morning, he felt a little bored and wanted to find something to read. He found a good book about model rockets and how to make them without blowing up your limbs. There were a lot of illustrations about ancient Chinese models and modern cardboard tubes where one end is sealed with a clay nozzle.

He found it interesting to read and learned that rocket fuel can even be made not only from finely ground gunpowder but also from sugar when mixed with tomato fertilizer.

I should try one day, Mike thought about it.

He didn't turn his attention to the noise that started coming from the main hall and kept reading until Lady Dimitrescu arrived in the room with her maid following.

"Mike, this is Linda." She presented the girl to him. "And Linda, this is Mike, my poor handyman who is trapped in my castle thanks to this stupid plague."

Mike put the book away and stood up from the couch to shake hands with the newcomer.

"Nice to meet you, Linda."

"Nice to meet you too, Mike." She responded with a smile.

Lady Dimitrescu started speaking about the library to her, and Mike sat down on the couch again. But he couldn't read the book like before anymore. Linda seemed like a truly weird girl to him, not only because of her childish appearance but also because of her shaggy hair that covered half of her face, so that she probably watched the surroundings with only one eye.

That girl is a little scary. He thought about her while secretly watching her from behind. But honestly, I don't know why.

Soon, no more than ten minutes after they had headed out through another door leading to the upper floor of the opera hall, Bela appeared from the fly swarm.

"Put down your book and come to eat some pizza." She was overly joyful.

"Pizza? Wow, that's something I didn't even dream of."

"Come on, we have enough of it."

In the dining room, the air was filled with a good smell, like a true Italian pizza restaurant. On the table, there were three very large pizzas that had just been taken out of the oven. Each one of them had a lot of different toppings. Shredded meat, ham, chicken, and shrimp with olives, mushrooms, tomatoes, and an enormous amount of different cheese. In addition to pizzas, there were also different salads, breads, and cakes.

Daniela and Cassandra were standing next to the table and trying to fill their wine glasses with red wine directly from the forty-liter wooden keg they had just brought from the cellar. The keg was dirty, and during filling, a lot of dust and spider webs fell off it onto the white tablecloth, nearly missing one of the pizzas.

"Daniela, I told you to clean it before." Cassandra laughed. "Mike would think we are Baker's family."

"Baker's family?" Daniela giggled. "Ha-ha, you mean that stupid tale from Heisenberg? A story about an American soldier codenamed Boulder Punching Ass who found a collapsing house with a shipwreck in the yard and had to fight with a woman who was pregnant with spiders."