Chapter 26 Gayle
G AYLE
Gayle’s grateful for the clear skies when she and Mike board the train to Verona. They climb the steep stairs to the top level.
‘To unpath’d waters, undream’d shores,’ Mike quotes Shakespeare, who’s the reason for the impromptu trip. ‘I wish I’d gone to college and studied Shakespeare.’
‘It’s a real shame you didn’t, hon.’ Mike’s always looking up interesting facts on the internet. He’d have made a great college professor with all that knowledge. ‘You sacrificed college to work at the tyre factory and provide for our family,’ she reminds him. ‘And we’re all so thankful for you.’
‘Not all of you,’ he bristles.
She quickly changes the subject. ‘Why don’t you go on and take a photo of the scenery? Got your phone there?’
The view from the carriage is of sweeping fields of the Italian countryside as far as the eye can see, shimmering emerald green in the sunshine. Gayle leans against the window and again, like yesterday, she feels as if she could be in a movie, or at least a country music video.
When Mike found out today that Verona was where Juliet’s thirteenth-century home from Romeo and Juliet was, he suggested they go there on the spur of the moment. He was inspired by their early morning tour of the Doge’s Palace, a setting for Othello, the tour guide told them.
‘ The Merchant of Venice, Othello, Romeo and Juliet. This Italy trip is our Shakespearian odyssey, hon.’ He holds the phone up to the window.
She loves it when Mike uses phrases like ‘Shakespearian odyssey’. Knowing how much smarter he is than her is part of the reason Gayle’s found it so troubling to be questioning his opinions lately.
Once they’re in Verona, it’s a ten-minute walk from the station through the town following Mike’s phone map until they reach Juliet’s cream brick house, still standing tall all these centuries later. They look up at the tiny, enclosed balcony where Juliet herself would have stood. There’s no denying how quaint the balcony is, with arches carved into the stone, curved windows on either side and ivy creeping along the walls.
‘Now, hon, I want you to picture Juliet there on the balcony. She’s looking out over the garden. She doesn’t know Romeo’s down here, hiding behind this big old bush just here. And Romeo whispers to himself,’ Mike reads from his phone, ‘ “O, that I were a glove upon that hand that I might touch that cheek!” And then Juliet, not knowing Romeo’s there, remember, calls out, “O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?”’
Gayle has goosebumps all over as Mike reads out the rest of the scene.
Afterwards, they walk to the centre of town, which isn’t as flush with tourists as San Marco but is just as pretty. They buy ‘I love Verona’ cushion covers from a street peddler for only three euro each. Then they enjoy a wonderful three-course lunch at a restaurant that was well reviewed online, but again, nothing matches Signora Bianchi’s cooking. The chef sends them home with a mound of mozzarella (it’s enormous!) freshly made on the premises after Mike gives the waiter some feedback that their glasses had dirty finger marks on them.
Gayle’s hips ache after all the walking, so they stay on the lower carriage for the train ride back to San Marco.
On paper, and indeed as it will appear on Mike’s blog tonight, it’s been a perfect day so far. Another delicious breakfast at the hotel, touring Doge’s Palace, the trip to pretty Verona. But through it all, Gayle has felt a weight in her chest and a heaviness in her limbs. And her headache refuses to go away, no matter how many painkillers she takes. She rubs her temples.
‘What’s wrong, hon?’ Mike says. ‘Is your headache giving you trouble again?’
She nods.
‘And we’ve been away from the bright pink walls of the hotel too.’ He sighs.
Gayle’s had a headache for six months. It’s got nothing to do with pink walls and everything to do with God punishing her. It started the day that Noah walked out of their home. And she doesn’t know how the headache will ever go away until she makes things right with her son.
She pulls out her phone to distract herself and scrolls Facebook. Even that reminds her of how Noah blocked her on there. Just then, a thought comes to her that’s so brilliant, it’s hard for her not to squeal.
With her heart racing and her hands twitching, one by one Gayle searches for Noah’s friends. Noah may have blocked her, but his friends haven’t. After much searching and clicking on profile photos to make sure she has the right people, she ends up finding six of his old school friends. She sends all of them the same message, asking if they’re still in touch with Noah and begging them to help her find him.
She doesn’t tell Mike.