However, he wasn’t prepared for the sheer exuberance of Danny’s and Joe’s welcome; two big burly men picking Merlina up, swinging her around, hugging and kissing with real affection, clapping him on the back, shaking his hand with both of theirs, shooting happy comments at them.
‘Hey, Merlina! Got yourself a man at last!’
‘Good man, Jake! Thought we’d never get Miss Independence hitched up with anyone.’
‘Mamma’s in seventh heaven what with a birth and a wedding to celebrate.’
‘Going to have us a great party tonight!’
The warmth of their uninhibited joy swirled around Jake, tapping into hollow places in his soul and making him feel strangely uneasy. He wasn’t used to such genuine bonhomie. It wasn’t practised charm. It came from the heart. His own smile felt oddly false in comparison to their delighted grins.
An animated conversation was carried on as the two brothers escorted them out of the airport terminal and to a four-wheel-drive Land Rover in the car-park. Once they were settled in the vehicle and on their way to the Rossi vineyard, more personal attention was focussed on Jake.
‘So you were Merlina’s boss,’ Danny started. ‘Tell us about your business, Jake.’
He explained what Signature Sounds entailed. Aware that some European ringtone companies had earned a bad reputation for hooking in kids and signing them up for contracts that exploited them, Jake took care to let Merlina’s family know that his sales were straightforward, no trickery involved. Customers got only what they wanted and were prepared to pay for and anyone under eighteen had to have a parent countersign a contract.
Both Danny and Joe owned cell-phones and were computer literate—technology that no business could do without in today’s world—but they expressed amazement at what Jake sold.
‘You mean people actually pay to replace the usual beeping with some tra-la-la as a call signal on their cell-phone?’
‘It personalises communication,’ Jake pointed out.
‘What’s wrong with giving your name?’
‘Nothing. This is a novelty. It amuses people.’
‘Probably drives them mad, too.’
‘In that event it gets a very quick response.’
‘Yeah, right! Shut the damned thing off.’
‘Noise pollution.’
‘Not necessarily,’ Jake corrected, feeling uncharacteristically defensive. ‘We market a broad range of sounds, some very pleasant to the ear. More so than beeping.’
‘And you’ve built a business out of this?’
The sense that they thought it was stupid trivia was very strong. Jake had never questioned the value of what he did. He’d thought the idea was marketable and he’d been proven right. Financially it had been a huge success, which he naturally enjoyed. But what he sold had no intrinsic worth. It was ephemeral stuff. Somehow that realisation knocked the shine off his pride in his achievement.
‘The most popular sounds Jake has marketed have made millions of sales worldwide,’ Merlina quietly supplied.
‘You’re kidding!’
‘No. Lots of people get a buzz out of using them,’ she stated matter-of-factly. ‘It gives them a sense of individuality, expressing something about themselves. Don’t knock it just because you’ve never thought of doing it.’
She was defending him.
Or attacking her brothers for being narrow-minded.
Was that why she had left here and come to the city, seeking a broader life?
‘Didn’t mean to knock it, Jake,’ Danny said apologetically. ‘If it works for you, that’s fine.’
‘Guess we find it a strange world out there,’ Joe remarked ruefully.
‘A very diverse world,’ Jake put in, feeling better about his business and giving Merlina’s hand an appreciative squeeze for her support.
They’d headed away from the town of Griffith, straight into the countryside from the airport, and the brothers now started to point out the vineyards belonging to the family, informing Jake of the different types of grapes they cultivated and what wines they made.
Their pride in the property they owned and in what they produced set off another wave of discomfort in Jake. Merlina was right. He’d stepped into a different world with these people—a more solid, tangible, tactile world—and he was suddenly envious of the belonging they obviously felt to this place.
They’d been born here, raised here, worked here and would probably die here. A narrow existence, Jake told himself, but they exuded a contentment he hadn’t experienced himself. He’d never become attached to a place. His mother had liked changing houses. The longest he’d stayed anywhere was at boarding school, which had been tolerable enough, though not a home from home. His grandfather’s mansion at Vaucluse had been the one constant in his life, but visiting was not the same as belonging. Even the penthouse apartment he now owned had no emotional tug on him.
‘Here we are!’ Joe announced as the Land Rover was turned towards a gate, which was inhabited by a tribe of children hanging off its cross-bars. Two dogs—a Labrador and a boxer—were prancing around behind them, barking their heads off. Joe leaned out the window to yell, ‘Open up, you kids.’
A boy jumped down to push the gate open while the rest stayed on for the ride, waving and shouting excitedly.
‘Hey, Merlina, we’ve got a new baby brother.’
‘Merlina, we want to see your boyfriend.’
‘He’s her fiancé, not her boyfriend.’
‘I want to meet him first.’
‘No, me, me, me.’
‘Merlina, how about walking down to the house with us?’
A loud chorus of ‘Yeahs,’ had Joe stopping the Land Rover and turning his head towards the back seat to ask, ‘Do you want to walk from here?’
Merlina looked to Jake.
‘Wouldn’t want to disappoint them. Let’s go,’ he said, opening his door, ready to alight.
By the time he rounded the vehicle, Merlina was already out and the mob of children was surging forward to greet and meet, the dogs racing up to sniff and be patted.
Jake had never owned a dog—no pet of any kind—and he wondered what it might have been like to be greeted every day with tail-wagging affection. It would surely have taken away some of the loneliness of his boyhood. These children were lucky, having a big, close-knit family, mixing together with natural ease, having a sense of permanence in their environment which allowed for pets to live with them.