CHAPTER TWO (DUE) A NEW VENETIAN GHOST
William Shakespeare wrote that the world is a stage. None so much as the beguiling city of Venice, Italy. The Venetian stages, there for all to see, in a city where there are no roads and much occurs outdoors, usually on water or next to it. Since Bella arrived in Venice, a simple walk to the market became multiple performances viewed, acted and reviewed along the way. Bella watched scenes play out on canals and docks, at footpaths and bridges, around numerous bars, cafes and public plazas. Continuously they entertained and mesmerized her and the rest of an interactive and sometimes reluctant audience.
Today she didn't feel like going out to market or anywhere. It was the anniversary. The one she didn't talk about or even like to think about.
Today Bella couldn't shake it, she felt Edward's presence with her again. As she stood outside a huge palace's boat dock along the famous Grand Canal, she wept softly then loudly, for what could not be, for what was lost, for what she left so many times.
Although she didn't realize it, Bella's actions deeply moved a young man as he watched her from across the canal. He sensed her sadness as she stood grief-stricken to reflect on her life with Edward, like the final scene in a Greek tragedy. She threw the ghost letter into Venice's Grand Canal with great resistance, as she had done with Edward's short final warning, and only after greater insistence by friends and new lovers. She begged him not to leave her, but Edward chose to depart her world.
When Bella left Venice, and Edward, years ago to finish college, she hoped she might return-and become part of the daily play, find those things she wanted, submerge into this city's show, its ever-changing sets, the light-catching reflections, be more than an amused interloper or a woman who yearns for adventurous romance but never obtains it. Secretly she wished to finally be rid of the ghost of the memories of their love, their torrid but impossible love.
Bella was different now-confident, a rebel, outgoing-not the Bella Edward knew. Not the Bella he tried to tame. Although she detested him, she couldn't resist it, his pull.
Edward's wish for her was the contrary. He wondered how could she meet locals, negotiate labyrinths, speak Italian and Venetian dialects, explore secret lagoon islands, observe ancient cultural traditions, get lost and love it? It was his world, Edward's world, not hers, Not Bella's. He had other plans for her. Venetians would have plans for her too and those plans didn't fit with his plans.
Now that Bella had returned, was here in Venice, he had to make it all fit. With forces greater than his own at work, the best option was to make her leave. How could that be done? With this new Bella before him?
Indeed, Venice's countless charms instantly captivated her and she fell under its spell the moment she exited the train station many years ago, before she met Edward on her first trip to Venice. She scanned the splendid playground before her, that of the infamous Grand Canal, his current resting place. In Venice, where the lines between old and new, east and west, life and death, glass and sand vanish, so did Edward.
For now.