Chapter XI

It was the very beginning of the hot month of July, rays of the sun seemed to now exaggerate their love for the Earth, making all citizens of Pienza to both love and detest the warmth of the Italian summer. The town was busy as people were occupied with their work, desperately trying not to think of the war and avoid seeing more and more boys and men appearing in khaki uniforms on their streets of every day. The Italian spirit remained palpable however, with soft voices of singing and music and laughter coming from the open windows and doors and the oh so wonderful smell of cooking and baking that was always there to offer company for anyone walking alone down the high street. It was a peaceful morning indeed.

"Oh mio Dio! Oh my God!" Joy's merry screams filled the streets and made quite a few faces turn towards her in worry. She ran through the streets, her hands holding onto the little piece of paper, Walter's telegram, as if for dear life. For that swift moment in time, Joy felt like she was flying and that she could even fly to Canada and squeeze her brother in felicitations herself.

"My God indeed, Joyce!" Gia exclaimed as she ran out to meet her friend in worry that something awful occurred. "What in the world is going on?" She put her arms on Joy's arms, trying to read her flushed face.

"Walter is on his way to England now." Joy managed to breathe out.

Gia frowned "Is that the reason why you're… smiling?" She asked cautiously.

Joy laughed and kissed Gia's cheeks "No!" She continued on chuckling "Walter married Una, a day before he was going overseas!"

Gia's eyes opened wide and she also started to scream in unison with Joy as they both twirled around together and embraced each other. It was that rare moment when the world was swallowed up by war, death count, and horror that both Gia and Joy clung to the precious and fleeting feeling of happiness and hope that this news glimmered off of.

"So he found his love at last!" Gia clasped her hands together, looking up at the sky in gratitude.

"He did, he even ended his telegram with: 'Una is love'." Joyce glanced at the words again, her now green eyes twinkling "Good Lord, this must have put a smile on his face even though he is on his way to…" she stopped the words and thoughts that she didn't want to speak or think.

Gia harrumphed and took Joy's hand in hers, walking her back into their house "Let's open up our good bottle of champagne to celebrate the new Mr and Mrs Blythe!" She said happily whilst closing the door behind them both.

Joy's joy started to vanish from her gaze and her eyes started to turn more grey. She knew the moment couldn't last forever. "Let's!" Her forceful smile appeared on her freckled face as she was on the war with herself, desperately trying to put away the dark thoughts, just for one day.

Walter's telegram from two days before was in Joy's pocket and her hand was over it, softly touching its corners with a smile on her face. She won the war with herself and thought nothing but wonders for the past day. All she did for those last two days was to write letters to her family and friends, sending the two lengthiest to Walter and Una, of course. After her long conversation with Gia over that bottle of champagne, and a much deeper and longer conversation she had with herself that very evening, she managed to persuade herself into thinking that the world indeed can still send good waves of optimism towards its citizens.

It was a late afternoon. The loveliest of afternoons Joyce ever spent were in Italy. Despite her living there herself for almost three years, she still marvelled at their splendour and the serene peace they always brought into her heart. She had just finished running and dancing around with Bacio across the golden fields and Cappella Madonna di Vitaleta overlooking them both from the distance seemed to nod an approval towards their moment of merry madness which Joy still had within herself and always would, despite its presentation and variation changing in several different circumstances.

She had another letter in her pocket, filled with pages of organised mess that was Ken's handwriting. He brought other news that made her smile with content as his regiment was suddenly held up in Kingsport and he could go to the good old PEI to visit home before heading towards "the unknown dangers and adventures" as he himself announced in the letter. She wished there was a machine that could transport him from the Island to Italy in moments, so she could spend as little as an hour with him before letting him go into the trenches. She realised upon this letter that she did not fear him dying as much as she feared him losing what made him Ken, what made him him and no one else, as no other version of him was acceptable in her mind. In that sense she acknowledged why Walter went to fight "for the beauty of life", adamant that the war cannot change the good in the world. She didn't want Ken to change, he was perfect, he truly was. She knew in that moment that she had always loved him. It wasn't so much a realisation as it was a simple statement of life. She knew the problem lied within her, she was torn between the past and the future whilst being unbelievably stuck in the present. Ken was home, he was childhood, a happy childhood, he was security at home, he was Ingleside, Four Winds, Glen St. Mary, he was dancing and singing and chasing and laughing and loving, she knew him better than she knew herself. Luca, on the other hand, was also home but in a different cloak of warmth and quiet, he was all blonde and polite, sweet as the ripest orange, gentle, he was Pienza, he was Italy, he was still to be fully discovered by her, he still held a hint of mystery and secret within him. She didn't know what she wanted, she didn't know what she needed either and that didn't make her choice any easier. Are choices certain and irreversible? Who, who was she supposed to choose? If only Ken could be there, in Pienza with her now, maybe she wouldn't have to choose at all…

Bacio started barking and Joyce looked up. Her heart skipped a beat, her breathing intensified right after it slowed down completely. Her green eyes once again turned grey and she stood up without a word or thought. It all went very still and entirely quiet.

He looked even taller in his khaki uniform. He looked so handsome, so solemn, so sure. His blonde curls were sticking out from beneath his cap, made him look all the more familiar to Joy, rather than a stranger she at first thought him to be. They walked towards each other calmly, Bacio remaining at a distance on the blanket, guarding the basket with their usual afternoon tea. Joy felt her heart regaining its regular rhythm but was still petrified at the silence of her thoughts and the cold blood running through her veins.

Finally, they stood in front of one another. The sun shone less brightly over them, the sky was slowly transforming into the fury of clouds, the blue started to turn rose-red, pink at most. The summer breeze made Joy's red locks swirl from one side to the other underneath her straw-hat.

"I love you." Luca said wholeheartedly, cutting the silence with the sharpest of knives. His blue eyes were wide, certain and true.

Joy's grey eyes started to fill up with tears as she kept on opening and closing her mouth, mumbling only letters and not words. At last, Luca caught her hands in his, putting a stop to her mumble as he lowered his head so their eyes were at the same level "I know nothing makes sense in your heart right now." He whispered gently "It is quite the opposite experience I'm having as it all does make sense in mine. My Bella-Joyce, make me the one thing in your life that does make sense."

"Wha…What are you asking me, Luca?" She managed to breathe out, she started to feel her eyes and palms sweating.

He smiled kindly at her "Will you marry me before I go?"

And once again the turmoil stopped and silence followed. When she needed this war of thoughts and feelings she didn't get any and it worried her for a second. She didn't have the time to think this through, she didn't expect a proposal of all things! She didn't even know if she truly loved him in that way! How mad, what was the world turning into? What is she to do, what is she to say, what…

"I will." She whispered or something out of her did.

She couldn't believe it herself. What in the world had she just done?

"You've made me the happiest and the most grateful man alive!" Luca exclaimed with such pure happiness that made Joy laugh with him as he took her in his arms and twirled her around one full circle before putting her back onto the shaky ground. "Can I?" He asked as he lowered his head low enough for Joyce to understand his question without another word.

"Yes." Something quiet once again escaped her lips.

Luca kissed her and it was truly the sweetest kiss she had ever had even though she actually did not experience that many in her 24 years of life. It wasn't electric, it wasn't even that spontaneous, it was simply true and gentle, just the way Luca was. Joyce was so much in shock that she didn't know what to do with her lips, her hands, feet or any part of her body, let alone her mind and her thoughts.

"I have a ring for you." Luca said carefully, as he took out a little red box from the pocket of his uniform. He opened it up and inside was a splendid, perfect little diamond on a silver ring. "It belonged to my mother and I asked her to send it to me a month ago when I made up my decision to enlist."

Joyce stared at the ring with blind eyes. She was processing, digesting and for a second or two forgot to breathe. Luca put the ring onto Joy's fourth finger of her left hand and she watched the process in amazement. Finally, as if a bolt of lightning struck her, she blinked at the ring and then looked at Luca again with wide eyes. "Luca… When are you to leave?" She asked, her voice croaky.

"Tomorrow." He replied with a decided tone "And so I arranged for the priest to marry us this afternoon so we can spend the time together until tomorrow morning in the Luna Hotel. What do you think of this plan?" He asked with eyes of a smitten kitten.

"You've really thought this through!" She chuckled nervously as her cheeks reddened to match the colour of her hair. "Yes, yes, sounds perfect." She said at last and then she remembered that she was getting married. Married! This afternoon! Oh God, what will her Mama say? And the rest of her family? And oh Lord, what will Ken say about all of this? Is this truly the right choice? Why did she say 'yes' so quickly? What made her say it? No, she's not sure, she's not certain at all. Should she be? Isn't everyone always a bit undecided? No? God, what is she to do?

Before she knew it, she was running to Gia and Alma to tell them to help her prepare for the wedding and to be her witnesses as well as her bridesmaids. They were both shocked, their eyes wide and hearts beating that much quicker but also delighted, thinking that if Joy didn't say anything of uncertainty or not much at all but told them straight instructions on what to do, then she was perfectly fine with the decision and thus, certain of it. What they didn't know is that Joy's mind was somewhere completely far away. Her mind was on the beach near the Lighthouse in Four Winds, where she and Ken spent their last afternoon together before she went on her very first journey overseas to explore Europe and to find her Heaven on Earth. When they laughed till they cried, chased one another, splashed water on each other, ran barefoot on the salty beach, kissed each other's cheeks and hands just because kissing each other's lips was too ridiculous of an idea all those years earlier. If only they did kiss on the lips that afternoon, Joy wondered how different her life might have looked like now.

Then in front of her mind stood Luca, his cheeks pink from excitement and gratitude that she said "I will", his soft hands holding hers, his promise to be the one thing in her life that made sense. She wanted this, she wanted to know that she had the one thing made sense in her life, in the time when everything else didn't make any sense whatsoever.

Joyce wore Gia's beige evening dress with a lace neckline and lace flowers sewn carefully onto the wrists of the dress by Gia's mother who made the dress for her daughter a year earlier. Alma gave Joy her ancient, sky-blue handkerchief she once made herself when she was Joyce's age and Joy proudly put it into the dress' side pocket. Her bouquet was a combination of Alma's and Gia's very own home-grown sunflowers, she had six in total, all tied together by Joy's green ribbon which she received from her mother last summer at Ingleside. Her hair was tied back loosely, with strands of her red locks falling onto her cheeks and shoulders and her head covered by small lilies that grew in Alma's garden. Joy looked truly like the dreamiest of brides and she couldn't recognise herself in the mirror.

She did, however, recognise herself in Luca's eyes who waited for her at the end of the alter. Next to him was his friend Edoardo whom Joy had not met before but whom her eyes didn't much go onto that afternoon at all. Luca didn't wear his uniform as Joy asked him not to. He was in a lovely grey suit with a lily pinned to his chest-pocket and his blonde curls going in all kinds of mesmerising directions, making him look just as flabbergasted by the speed of the whole unravelling situation as Joyce did. They smiled at each other, took one another's hands tightly and in that moment Joy felt at peace, she knew that from now on she wanted to be Luca's one thing that made sense in his life, to keep him afloat once he was to go into the trenches.

The ceremony was a blur to Joy, she wouldn't remember any of the words, not even how the priest looked or sounded like. Her eyes were drowning in Luca's and her fingers held onto his throughout the whole hour when they were there. She found herself starting to smile, and without seeing herself in the mirror she knew her eyes slowly started to turn green again.

They exchanged their golden rings with shaky hands. They kissed for the second time, and it felt more true and more real than the first time three hours earlier. Their hands held onto each other for the remainder of the evening when they all went to Joy's and Gia's verandah to have a celebratory dinner with assistance of wine. Before she could blink twice, Joy found herself in the fanciest bedroom of the Luna Hotel with soft summer breeze making the open curtains flow and dance right in front of her. The crickets' song of love or war filled the room and Joy's heart was starting to pick up its pace once more.

Luca's hands embraced her from behind and she cupped her head underneath his chin. She closed her eyes. Took a deep breath in. Softly touched the silver "P" on the necklace around her neck. Opened her eyes.

She closed the curtains.

When she opened her eyes in the very early hours of the morning, just for a second she found it odd that she wasn't in her own bedroom with Bacio by her side. 'What happened?' She thought to herself. She turned around on the bed and saw Luca's asleep angelic face and remembered at once. A wave of coldness spread across her body as she still couldn't believe it and she still wasn't sure of such a final decision in her life. And yet she smiled when she stared into Luca's oblivious face. He looked so peaceful and happy and she knew she would remember him like this forever, whatever the future would bring to them both.

Suddenly a birdsong filled the bedroom and Joy decided to stand up. She quickly put a sleeping gown on herself and tip toed to the window. She opened it again and came out onto the balcony. The sun was slowly rising, the Tuscan hills spread in front of her as if whispering "Come to us! We're waiting for you! Rejoice in life! It's the only one you will get so you might as well enjoy it!". There was heavenly natural silence only slightly interrupted by the birdsong Joy knew was the right melody to her heart. She finally felt calm. It was the strangest feeling in such a moment, after the wedding she was unsure of, on the morning of the day when her now husband was to leave for the front, not knowing if she was to ever see him again. However, she felt absolutely calm. There was no stressful or confusing thought or feeling within her body, she was, for once in her life, at peace.

And thus, Joyce Blythe-Moretti closed her eyes, her freckled face glimmered in the waking daylight, her red unruly curls danced in the soft morning wind and suddenly she heard herself say "Life can be good.".