While visiting Verona, Italy, with her best friend, Jenny, a young woman named Ali Hall visits a wall where the heartbroken leave notes to Shakespeare's tragic heroine, Juliet Capulet. Finding one such letter from 1930, Ali decides to write to its n...
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𝐀𝐋𝐈 stood there in silence, gripping the strap of her backpack. Not really knowing what to say. Taking a deep breath, she spoke. "Mi scusi? Parla inglese?" she asked the women
"Oh thank god." the woman, Isabella, who had collected the letters murmured with a smile on her lips as she put her hands up. She was a beautiful, tall woman, with brown hair and olive eyes. She walked over to Ali and grabbed her hand, pulling her into the room. "Take this basket and...Come si dice? Dig in." The woman said with a smile
Ali furrowed her brows, yet she still smiled kindly. "Dig in?"
"You are the English translator for the employment office?" Isabella asked
"No...No I...I'm not, I'm sorry..." Ali said
"I've been waiting for 2 weeks..." Isabella sighed
"I'm sorry...My name is Ali Hall. I followed you, and I saw that you put the letters into a basket, and I just wondered why. I'm a writer, that's why I was in the courtyard to begin with, and I was trying to find inspiration." Ali said, smiling
"Why?" Isabella asked with a smile on her face. "Oh...you're a writer." Ali smiled and nodded in reply. "È una scrittrice!" Isabella said, as she looked at the other four women, then she turned to Ali and said, "Come. I show you."
Ali and Isabella approached the window while the three other women continued to write the letters, and read the letters from the wicker basket, which now had a few letters inside. Ali and the brown haired woman looked out the window. "They come from all over the world everyday..." Isabella started as she looked at the street.
"But taking their letters, is that not like taking pennies from a wishing well?" Ali questioned
"How else can we give them answers?" Isabella gently replied
Ali glanced at the table again, putting the pieces of the puzzle together, when she saw the three women, who were now concentrated on their writing. "So you write them all back?"
"Yes." Isabella answered
"You're all Juliet?" Ali asked
"Her secretaries." Isabella said, as she gestured for Ali to follow her to the table where the three women were sitting, and they turned their attention to Ali. "Donatella has been married for 51 years to the same man. She handles husband problems."
"Husbands are like wine. They take a long time to mature." Donatella said and then softly laughed, and Ali laughed softly as well
"Francesca is a nurse and she is responsible for losses and illnesses..." Isabella said, and Francesca just smiled, as if she didn't need to say more. Losing her mother deeply affected Ali, and Francesca could see it.
These women generated warmth and hospitality. Isabella gestured to a beautiful lady with red hair, a yellow cardigan, and red glasses. She must be the oldest amung them. "And Maria." Isabella smiled and sigh
"Why do always sigh when you say my name?" Maria asked
"She has 12 children, 29 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren. She writes what ever she likes." Isabella said as she smiled kindly at Ali
Ali turned to the woman next to her. "And you? What do you write about?"
"Isabella answers those we can't read..." Francesca said, handing one of the notes to Ali to read. It was a small note, less than half a sheet of paper. She could barely read it and she could certainly see what Francesca meant.
"Yeah, the lovers quarrels, the breakups, the really tangled hearts. Someone has to do it." Isabella said as she gently took the note from Ali.
Another voice pulled the blonde out of her thoughts. If her Italian wasn't so rusty, she could understand that someone was shouting that dinner was ready. "Oh, my mother." Isabella looked at the kitchen, and then looked back at the blonde next to her. "Would you like to stay for dinner Ali?"
"Oh that's very kind of you Isabella, but I must be getting back to my hotel. My best friend Jenny is waiting for me." Ali smiled, and Isabella placed a brown paper bag, which had such a pleasant smell coming from the inside, in her hands. "Thank you." the blonde smiled, as she accepted the paper bag.
"Come back with Jenny." Maria said
"I will." Ali smiled. "Goodbye."
As Ali made her way back to the hotel, she thought about what she had learned that day. How these women wrote letters and advised people from all over the world. It was a selfless act, and the women didn't ask for anything in return. She was happy to have made the decision to go to Juliet's house, but she definitely wanted to bring Jenny along.
Upon entering the hotel room, the blonde placed her backpack on the table, and walked over to Jenny, who sat watching MTV, and reading the Italian Vogue Magazine. "Hey." Ali smiled
"Hey." Jenny said. "Where have you been? I waited for you, but I was starving so I ordered room service. I saved some food for you."
"Thanks." Ali smiled as she grabbed the plate of food and sat on her bed and gave the paper bag to Jenny.
Jenny sat across from her best friend. "So?"
Ali raised her brow at her best friend. "What?" the blonde questioned.
"Where were you?" Jenny asked as she took a bite of the dessert in the bag. "Oh, this is good."
"I met Juliet's secretaries." Ali smiled as she ate her food."
"Juliet, as in Juliet Capuliet?" Jenny questioned as she continued eating the dessert.
"Yeah." Ali said as she continued eating her food. "There are these women who call themselves The Secretaries of Juliet, and they write letters to people that write letters to Juliet." Jenny set the paper bag on the table in between the two beds, then glanced at her best friend, urging her to go on. "These secretaries, they work for the city of Verona. Broken-hearted women come from all over the world, to write letters to Juliet, and they leave them on the wall."
"Whatelse?" Jenny questioned
"They post these letters on the wall in Juliet's courtyard, and then these secretaries come back with this basket, and they retrieve the letters everyday, and then they write back as Juliet, to all the letters that have return addresses on them." Ali said
"Oh Ali, I have to check it out." Jenny said as the blonde put her plate outside the door for housekeeping to collect.
"Well the secretaries invited us to come back tomorrow. We should go." Ali said as she closed the door.
After doing their nightly routines, the two ladies went to bed. Jenny fell fast asleep. Ali, however, couldn't shake the feeling something was about to change, and it would change for the best.
