HI COMMUNITY OF WRITERS: I will soon be taking down this story because I will post it on my website and also it is being published as a novel.
COME TO THE SITE IF YOU WANT ... Because the story has ghosts, my website is doing a month-long Haunted-fest in October with videos, ghost stories, blogs etc if you want to join us.
Anyway the website is the usual three Ws dot WhatHappensInVenice dot com if you like it, find it there. Maybe be here a few more weeks (names will be changed to characters). Aloha, DeeCat
Chapter One THE WARNING
The warning, far from scaring her off, only fueled her imagination to find the perfect excuse to return to Venice. Danger was nothing new to her and she didn't fear it. Certain that her latest live-in boyfriend would propose marriage soon-something that did frightened her, ever since her parent's divorce-Bella often fantasized about her dreamy world in the foggy canals of Venice. She'd skirted Christmas and New Year's without being gifted a ring, but Valentine Day was looming.
The warning letter seemed to drop into her hands that morning when she tugged on the edges of letters sticking halfway out of the mail slot. As a single letter fell from the pile, she caught it before it hit the concrete, just as her cat jumped up and off the stoop.
Forwarded from another address where she had lived years earlier, postmarked from Venice and sealed with red wax, the letter read:
FROM A SECRET CORNER OF PIAZZA SAN MARCO, VENICE
Dear wide-eyed tourist,
Don't go to Venice!
If you do, don't fall in . . . in a canal, in love or into Venice itself. Oh, as if you have a choice. Hear us cackling?
Listen. We came to tell you what you need to know about The Most Serene Republic of Venice, or La Serenissima, as it has been referred to since well-before the middle ages. You might want to regard the therein as a warning. One you will not heed. In fact, after reading it, you will most certainly come looking for us. How do we know? Because it happens every time a Venetian ghost story is passed on.
There is much to learn. Don't be overwhelmed, frightened or alarmed. We understand. We like having you. We've lived here for many-many-many-well-you-get-the-picture years. Most of the town hasn't changed much during our long residency. The principal reason we love this city, and you love it as well, is that it got stuck in time.
Venice, unique in too many ways to list, remains the only metropolis of notable size that functions to this day entirely without motorcars or trucks. We don't like motorcars or trucks. Hundreds of tiny islands seamlessly linked by hundreds of foot bridges leaves no need for noisy, fume-spewing four-wheeled vehicles, thankfully.
We prefer floating.
As you might know, our classic transportation is the gondola. Mostly reserved for you tourists now, gondolas are, & always have been, helmed by the most prestigious oarsmen in the world, the highly trained gondolier, who stand while they row through the labyrinths of canals. Our dear gondoliers don't mind when we ride with or without you & frequently serenade us with opera, some Frank Sinatra songs & other lovely Italian favorites.
Float with us. We want to further your journey to a better life, for we have noticed that those of you who haven't been here imagine that the person who has visited us somehow leads a better life, just by virtue of being blessed with a trip to the Most Serene One, our La Serenissima. Strange. Strange how you gauge success.
We understand this all too well. Yes, Venice is special. Some say it changes your soul forever. We want you to know that you can easily visit us. Just ignore this cautionary tale.
In closing, we want to help you. You will be confused and lost in Venice. You will feel as if you are in a dream and may find the shadowy mazes scary. Have fun with it. We are watching over you.
As always, we remain here to serve you,
The Venetian Ghosts
Warn others . . . If you dare!
It had become impossible for Bella to go back to Venice since she began law school and met another in her long line of men she couldn't commit to marry. However, when she received the Venetian ghost warning, she immediately researched Venice study abroad programs and by the week's end she was registered in one for the next semester. She wasn't sure what the "cautionary tale" was that the letter spoke of, but she was about to come "looking for" it as the letter had predicted. Perhaps it was plan of the letter writer? For her to go?
She knew who the writer might be and she wanted to know for sure. If she dared.