Finding Juliet
Page 20
FRIAR LAURENCE
Come, come with me, and we will make short work;
For, by your leaves, you shall not stay alone
Till holy church incorporate two in one.
As the old man made his exit, Nick and Lia stayed on the balcony for one more kiss. When they finally left their lofty stage, hands tightly clasped, a roaring ovation followed them into the wings.
As Nick reached the first floor, still savoring their moment of triumph, Serafina held out a helmet and a key to him.
“What’s this?” he asked.
“I think you two could use a little time alone together,” the psychologist said. “Lia will understand.”
“Thank you, thank you!” Lia cried as she rounded the stair just in time to witness the handoff. “I promise he will bring your baby back in one piece.”
Soon, Nick and his Juliet were cruising Verona’s back streets side by side on the scooters, stealing glances at each other and letting the melodic exhaust notes fill the easy silence between them.
When they reached the outskirts of the city, Lia sped up, only to stop when Nick, with all the reticence of a novice rider, began falling behind.
“You have two choices, signore,” Lia said. “You can keep up with me, or you can eat my dust.”
“You forgot the third choice,” Nick said, hitting the throttle before Lia realized what he was doing. She watched in shocked admiration as he disappeared over the top of a small hill.
For a moment, she worried she might lose him, but then she crested the rise and saw Serafina’s scooter tipped on its side. A sheepish Nick was making his way out of the small vineyard he’d been thrown into when he’d misjudged the turn at the bottom of the hill. Thankfully, neither he nor the Lambretta had suffered so much as a scratch.
As Nick picked grape leaves from his hair, Lia stopped chuckling long enough to say, “You really must learn to listen to me.”
Luckily, he was a quick study.
Chapter Seventy-three
The next morning, Nick and Lia set out for Nice. He had to return the rental car, and they decided it would be a nice excuse for a honeymoon trip. The wedding, an intimate affair near a certain bench on the banks of the Adige, would come a few months later.
Nick returned to America only twice: once at the end of that year to settle his affairs, and again a few years later, for his mother’s funeral. Lia accompanied him then, and it seemed to cheer his father up to meet her. But after that, Nick lost track of his dad entirely, an unfortunately familiar state of familial affairs.
He stayed in e-mail contact with his friend Ben, however. Ben always promised to visit them in Verona, but never quite made it over. Every few years, they would receive a copy of his latest book in the mail. They were always inscribed “To Romeo & Juliet.”
Nick’s literature professor, Grant Ricks, did visit once early on. He was quick to claim all credit, in his good-natured way, for his old pupil’s happy life in Italy, and he continued to send one student-written letter to Club di Giulietta every year until he retired to the Oregon coast. But despite the fact that Dr. Ricks never tired of sharing Nick’s story with his Shakespeare classes, none of his other students ever showed up in Verona searching for their Juliet.
By the time Nick and Lia were married three years, they had their first child, Lucia, and a small house of their own near enough to Salvatore to allow for frequent dinners together.
The old man proved a fine babysitter for their daughter while Nick studied Italian and Lia learned enough about the restaurant business so they could open a small place of their own.
Salvatore died when his second grandchild, who bore his name, was still an infant. But at least he went in his sleep, after yet another successful festival week. Nick and Lia made sure to bring both children to the stone bench along the Adige every now and then so that they might commune with the spirits of both grandparents.
Forty years later, watching from a corner table as his wonderful son helped out at their espresso bar, Nick wrote in long, fluid strokes with the pen left to him by his father-in-law.
In less than a decade, Nick too would die, suffering a stroke while buying flowers in the market square. His last love letter to Lia would be a simple French proverb written out the day before his passing and slipped beneath her pillow:
Gratitude is the heart’s memory.
Heartbroken, Lia would confront the inevitable tragedy that even the happiest couples must face. After months of quiet mourning, she would use the insurance money to go on a world cruise and scatter some of her beloved’s ashes at every port of call. Both children, now grown and with loving families of their own, would be by her side.
But for now, they lived a life of contentment and easy romance. His son felt a bit embarrassed that his dad was now the only male member of Club di Giulietta, but Nick enjoyed corresponding in English, even if he mostly dreamed in Italian now. And it kept him connected to Salvatore, who had helped make this amazing life possible.
Nick smiled at his wife, who had aged into her beauty like the full-bodied Barolo they’d enjoyed during their first opera date so many years ago. She brushed the same errant curl away from her eye that she’d been holding at bay for decades, even as its color had faded from jet black to peppery grey.
He returned his attention to the paper resting on the table in front of him. He was drafting a response to a young man in California who wanted to know if he should track down the summer-camp love he could never quite forget.
As he worked out some suitably Shakespearean phrasing for Juliet’s advice, Nick glanced up in time to catch Lia favoring him with her sly, seductive smile.
Heart soaring, he couldn’t help dropping the Juliet mask just this once and writing, simply,
Go for it.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter Twenty-four
Chapter Twenty-five
Chapter Twenty-six
Chapter Twenty-seven
Chapter Twenty-eight
Chapter Twenty-nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-one
Chapter Thirty-two
Chapter Thirty-three
Chapter Thirty-four
Chapter Thirty-five
Chapter Thirty-six
Chapter Thirty-seven
Chapter Thirty-eight
Chapter Thirty-nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-one
Chapter Forty-two
Chapter Forty-three
Chapter Forty-four
Chapter Forty-five
Chapter Forty-six
Chapter Forty-seven
Chapter Forty-eight
Chapter Forty-nine
Chapter Fifty
Chapter Fifty-one
Chapter Fifty-two
Chapter Fifty-three
Chapter Fifty-four
Chapter Fifty-five
Chapter Fifty-six
Chapter Fifty-seven
Chapter Fifty-eight
Chapter Fifty-nine
Chapter Sixty
Chapter Sixty-one
Chapter Sixty-two
Chapter Sixty-three
Chapter Sixty-four
Chapter Sixty-five
Chapter Sixty-six
Chapter Sixty
-seven
Chapter Sixty-eight
Chapter Sixty-nine
Chapter Seventy
Chapter Seventy-one
Chapter Seventy-two
Chapter Seventy-three