Tragedy by Julia Vellucci
Any tragic novel, story, or movie is full of secrets spilt too quickly or kept too long. Some even feature words lost in translation or at sea.
One small aspect of the story goes wrong, that if gone right, they wouldn’t have both died in the end.
Life is funny in the way it is crafted and the way it is told.
So many people are involved in the story we call life. But you’re not the lead in their story. Maybe you are in their eyes, but you’re not the lead in your own.
As a preteen, my nonno (grandfather in Italian) always used to say, “Julietta, where’s Romeo?”
Romeo wasn’t anywhere close, wasn’t throwing pebbles by my window, and sure didn’t take the poison when he saw me lying there allegedly dead.
My response to my nonno’s iconic line was, “Romeo? He’s dead.”
I believe in life that everything happens for a reason. I view the tragic tale as two people desiring connection, wanting to be understood and escape their families or even personal battles.
Like the dagger Juliet took her own life with to join him, have I experienced that same feeling.
That same desire to feel safe in arms that aren’t your own, to have more in life than good company within yourself but to have someone to get you about as much as you understand yourself.
But no one considers whether Romeo died for Juliet out of love or because he couldn’t bear the guilt if she killed herself over him.
Maybe it wasn’t about her at all.
I don’t live in a world where someone would want to die to be with me.
I don’t even live in a world where someone would want to live a life on earth just for me.
I like to think I’m too broken, too insecure, too fragile to believe I would get a Romeo and that he’s not going to leave my side, my life, my pages, my story.
I can’t help but also think that even if I were to believe that, the dose of poison he took wouldn’t be enough.
He’d wake up and see my dead body bleeding out for real, and he’d regret trying to leave this world with me and instead walk away.
Romeo would live in a world without me and probably find a new book I’m not a character in while he’s at it.
I like to believe that everything happens for a reason in life. But I can’t help but wonder if my story will end up being a tragic tale if my insecurities continue to be the author of it.
Julia Vellucci, a 21-year-old from Mississauga, Ontario, has published eight romance books, a fantasy novella, and an anthology with Ukiyoto Publishing. She also has a few short stories published. Additionally, as a social justice writer for CCFWE and a journalism student, her words aim to leave a mark.
Photo – Janayara Machado on unsplash
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