Day 25/50 • “Fiction Friday”

 

Their party was seated in a little building separate from the main restaurant. It was basically a concrete box with large, elegant glass doors that opened onto a simple courtyard. Kate and her friends were at the only large table while two other smaller parties flanked them on either side. Take away the view, the pretty people, and refined place settings, Kate thought, and this thing could be a cold, dark tomb.

 

She leaned into the conversation with Sarah on her right. The echo in the space had been tolerable, but two more guests arrived tipping the volume scale over the edge. Shouting over local red wine, they compared notes on what they’d done earlier in the day. Kate had toured The Uffizi, and Sarah visited locations where “A Room With A View” had been filmed. Her favorite was the Piazza della Signoria, used in the scene where an argument between two friends led to a knife in the stomach of one. 

 

“It’s such a small part of the movie, but it’s so beautiful. The drama of it all,” Sarah said. “When the guy realizes he’s killed his friend, his agony looks like one of the statues in the piazza.”

 

Kate was listening, but the sparkle of Sarah’s tiny nose piercing held her attention more than the story. It always looked to Kate like the littlest piece of glitter was stuck to her friend’s face, but here, up close and nerves still on edge, she appreciated the tether it offered. 

 

“They drag him over to this huge fountain, I don’t know why. I mean, the guy is limp and dying, and the townspeople want to put water on him. The fountain is amazing though. It’s the Neptune Fountain.I threw some coins in.”

 

The noise of all the conversations and wine and silverware bounced off the concrete walls louder. 

 

“I made a wish, but I can’t tell you what it was.” Sarah took a sip of wine.

 

The sparkle kept Kate from screaming. 

 

“And you? How was the museum?”

 

Kate couldn’t turn loose of the little glimmer of light long enough to talk about what she’d seen. Letting go would mean falling into the dark echo of that tomb all over again.

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