Nal Murphino: Catch Me Once Upon The Hip

The Beginning

Nikole

"The play I have studied is "The Merchant of Venice" by William Shakespeare..."

I listen to our English teacher drone on and on about the same play we have been discussing for 4 months. It gets tiring. The language was hard to understand, the characters were boring; except for Shylock.

Shylock was such an intriguing character; I found him scintillating and was willing to answer question after question about him. He was the only interesting aspect of this otherwise boring piece of literature.

It was a rainy Thursday afternoon when I first crossed passed with him. I had just escaped the maths class from Hell, and was not looking forward to another English class spent discussing "themes" and "character profiles". But today was different.

I sat down next to Sophie at the back of the classroom as we both frantically attempted to complete last nights homework in the short few minutes we may have had before the teacher arrived. I was only halfway through when the principle strolled in and said to my delight;

" Class 2a1? Your teacher is absent. I will be supervising you as you watch this DVD she left for you."

I let out a gasp as I realised we were to be watching The Merchant of Venice. I would get to see Shylock in real life, in color, and hear him speak those amazing lines with my own ears. I couldn't wait.

Ten minutes into the movie, he appeared. A long, red cape draped over him, and a round red cap perched on his grey head. He was..  Perfect. His eyes danced before me as he wailed about his "ducats, Oh my Christian ducats!"

His voice enthralled me and I hung onto his every word. His grey hair was balding in some patches, other patches extremely overgrown. I found this attractive; every girl needs a bit of randomness in her life! 

The movie ended, and it was when saw Al portray a heartbroken Shylock in that final scene that I began to cry. I had fallen for a 74 year old man, and that's when I knew -

I had to stalk him.