In Fair Verona

Chapter 3

Kenna had been wrong. This was sad.

To be a freelance writer by day, writing fiction nobody would ever read by night, with pens that could never contain their ink, as her black-blotched hands reminded her.

To be holed up in a flat she only owned because she had inherited it from her grandmother, while everyone else was out there living their lives with someone who cared for them.

To be wearing one of her best dresses with nothing to do but sit on her bedroom floor, digging through a battered cardboard box.

Inside were old CDs, cracked photo frames and other things Kenna hadn't seen in years. She rifled through the clutter. What she was looking for was her DVDs.

Nobody used them anymore. Whenever Gloria came over, they streamed whatever they wanted to watch. Tim had preferred that too.

A sob escaped Kenna at the thought of him.

As Gloria had said, he was despicable, and Kenna deserved better. He hadn't even had the decency to break up with her to her face. He had wronged her, so why was she still crying over him? He wasn't worth the years they had spent together, and he wasn't worth a single miserable moment more.

Even though Kenna's mind tried to be logical, her heart didn't pay it heed and drowned itself in its pool of pity anyway.

Through the tears blurring her eyes, Kenna spotted a familiar DVD cover. A girl with white angel wings kissed a boy wearing armour in front of hundreds of candles.

Not everyone liked this version of Romeo and Juliet. For some, it was too theatrical and gaudy, but Kenna couldn't get enough of the drama and flamboyance. She and Gloria had watched it together more times than she could count.

It was pure genius the way Shakespeare played with foreshadowing and teased everyone with a happy ending. It felt a little like the way Tim had teased Kenna, now that she thought about it.

She gave herself a mental slap.

No more thoughts about that twat.

Kenna fell in love with this story every time she watched the film or reread the play. There was no better cure for her heartache than this movie, no surer escape from her anguish.

Kenna grabbed the DVD and shoved the box into its dusty corner at the back of her wardrobe, then hurried into the lounge.

The DVD whirred after Kenna set it inside the player. As she waited for the movie to load, she crossed over the brown threadbare carpet and into the kitchen. She studied the label of the bottle of wine she had meant to share with Tim that night.

Well, there's more for me now.

Kenna grabbed a clean glass from the cupboard.

A glance out the pass-through window showed her that the movie's menu had come up on the TV screen. Something purple and gleaming on the speckled granite tabletop caught her eye as she turned to leave the kitchen. That chocolate had been for Tim too, but it was Kenna's now.

Between that, the wine, and the very colourful costume party in the movie, she could forget that she had just been tragically dumped.

The thought of it made the corner of Kenna's mouth quirk in a hesitant smile. All was not lost, even though she had expected a very different sort of evening.

Setting the chocolate on the cherry wood coffee table and filling her glass to the brim with wine, Kenna sank into the lumpy beige settee, blew the dust off the remote, and pressed play.

A news broadcast filled the screen. As the reporter spoke the prologue to one of the most famous plays of all time, goosebumps rose along Kenna's arms.

As beguiling as the words were, there was no mistaking the foreboding behind them. The audience had always known Romeo and Juliet's fate even though they hadn't.

How nice would it be if life had a prologue that gave away the ending? There would be no surprises or mistakes.

And no heartbreak.

Kenna smothered a sob by downing her glass of wine in one go as the scene changed, hardly tasting it before it passed down her throat.

Some said Romeo and Juliet had the makings of a comedy. Kenna had to agree as she burst into laughter at the antics of "The Montague Boys" in the first scene. By the time Mercutio stole the show in his sparkly outfit at the Capulet's party, the wine was a quarter gone, and Kenna was giggling.

She held her breath as Romeo and Juliet saw each other for the first time through the fish tank, then held it again as they shared their first kiss.

The wine was down to the halfway mark, and the movie moved quickly from there.

There was a forbidden love and a wedding. There was a fight and two deaths. There was betrayal, devastation, hopelessness—all feelings that leaked from the movie into Kenna's soul and from her eyes. Then Romeo and Juliet died within moments of each other, only three days after getting married.

The wine was all gone, the chocolate lay forgotten, and Kenna was sobbing into her hands, uncertain whether it was in sadness or anger, whether she was crying for the star-crossed lovers or herself or the unfairness of life.

Was it the alcohol that was addling Kenna's brain or was it her emotions? It had to be the alcohol. One did not down a bottle of wine with no consequences.

Still, nothing would make her forget the one thing she always wondered whenever she thought about Romeo and Juliet.

Whether the outcome of the play was down to fate or free will was the question that divided many who studied it. Gloria stood by fate, but Kenna believed it was free will.

Romeo and Juliet chose to get married the day after they met. How did they expect that to end well? A person could be in a relationship with someone for two years and still discover that she hardly knew him, as Kenna had found out.

Knowing someone for less than a day made them little more than a stranger, but maybe Kenna shouldn't be so quick to judge. Despite barely knowing Juliet, Romeo had loved her far more than Tim had loved Kenna.

Kenna dragged a hand over her wet eyes. She would do as Romeo did about Rosaline and forget Tim's name and its woe. Still, sobs racked her body, deaf to her resolution. Some things were easier said than done, and perhaps the star-crossed lovers would agree with that.

Why did Romeo not wait a moment before drinking the poison so that Juliet would wake up and he'd know she was alive? That was something that plagued Kenna ever since she first read the play. The ending of Romeo and Juliet was tragic, but it was by their own hand, wasn't it? They had made their hasty choices. Their rash actions had sealed their fates.

It was not so with Kenna. She thought long and hard before she committed, and her relationships still never worked out. It didn't make sense.

Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow, the graceful letters inked on the inside of Kenna's forearm reminded her.

Friar Lawrence's words implied that haste had doomed the youthful lovers, but sometimes it felt like Kenna's caution was what tripped her up. Maybe she would never know Romeo and Juliet's recklessness, but she'd never know a love like theirs either. Could anything be more tragic? 

Kenna had imagined another ending to the play, one where Romeo and Juliet were more rational and less impulsive and there was no needless tragedy, but her mind grew fuzzier with each thought, and she couldn't remember what it was.

It had to be a happily ever after, right? Maybe Romeo and Juliet escaped to Mantua as Friar Lawrence had planned and lived out their days in wedded bliss.

Before Kenna could answer herself, she passed out on her settee, lost to the fancies and dreams in a world beyond this one.