Between Master and Slave (Manxman, Mature)

In a Farm

The sun beats strongly today, I tell myself, as I try to eradicate the tree stomp from my land. Sweat pours freely. My naked torso with its patch of darkish hairs glistens and as disgusting as it may sound my jeans are wet where they sit low on my waist. I stare at myself, the chest hair and armpits trimming I did earlier helps, but the sun and heat is just too much. I look toward the house where the workers are busy completing the outside. They have to re-plaster the wall then they will paint it white. The stone that was left bare on the walls around the doors and windows looks amazing. Yes, a couple of more months and it should look very decent, I tell myself as I take a swing of water from the bottle I carry always with me. I stretch. Not too bad for a forty years old, all this exercise is doing me some good I think as I notice strong defined biceps and chest. Frank would have loved to see me now. A tear falls as I think of my ex lover. How could it happen? Why?

"Enough, snap out of it!" I actually add on a whisper. I grab the axe and am about to axe the stump again when a car enters the main gate. Funny, I was not expecting any visits and that is not the car of one of the contractors. It stops by the house and a middle aged men comes out. He has the body of someone that must have been fit when he was younger but age and probably a desk job have changed the body.

He approaches me with a polite smile, but I notice he is all business.

"Buongiorno!"

"Buongiorno, posso aiutarla?" My english accent really comes up as I ask how may I help him.

"Are you Mr. Romano?" He switches to a very broken English.

"Yes, that is me. Who am I talking to?"

"I am inspector De Laurentis, from Polizia di Finanza." He shows me his badge.

That is like the Revenue Service investigation. What could he possibly want with me?

"Yes? What may I do for you Inspector?" I state carefully, while I have done everything right, you just never know with these people. He must sense my worry, for he adds quickly.

"No, you are not in trouble, I just need to ask for your help."

"Go ahead?" I add still cautiously.

"Maybe we sit?" He asks, "we would be more ... comfortable yes."

Maybe I should just switch to Italian, his English is pretty bad.

"Sure," I add apologetically, "where are my manners. Please come in inside, may I offer you a cup of coffee?"

"No thanks, but a glass of water, if possible."

"Sure it is." I add as we get inside. I offer him a seat and get two cool glasses of water.

"Mr Romano," he starts as he sips his water, "you are from the United States, yes?"

"From New York."

"You have been here less then a year?"

"Actually less then six months," I rebuke jokingly. But it is wasted on him as he just stares back. Seeing that I don't elaborate further he continues.

"You bought this masseria for quite a bit of money."

"Depends on who you talk to, the previous owner thought that it was very cheap," once again the humor is just lost on him, but I guess 600 000euros would be a lot of money by anyone's standard, so I just add, "but I guess you could say that it was quite a bit of money."

"You are renovating it, that must have costed a bit as well, I guess about 800 or 900 000 euros in total?"

"I am not sure right now," I reply, even if I know exactly how much I have I spent and what still has to be done, it will be around 900 000 if not more, however to him I just say, "if you are doing an investigation I could look at the bills and give you a run down of the money spent."