~::Yamiko's Persona 4:FES Art Gallery!::~

[Yamiko Enoki]

~*Venetian Memory*~


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

'Venetian Memory'
As told by: Lewis Keys


(...5/3, Evening, Yasoinaba Station Rooftop...)

"Ah ha! Story time, is it? Well then, how does Venice sound to you? My last few weeks there were...well, you might call them interesting..."

"Why thank you," the Gigolo smirked playfully, though without sounding at all disingenuous in his appreciation. If he was genuinely entertaining a lady, making her feel better [happy, relieved, calm], then he was doing something right. And since she seemed interested in his tale about the lovely city on the water, he cleared his throat meaningfully, as if to set the tone. "Yes, Venice is a remarkably beautiful city; the waters, the architecture, the people...I spent two years there some time ago, when I was younger, living as a boarder in a riverfront inn run by an old man named Carlo Maradona. I spent my first two weeks in the town living night-to-night with the women I met along the way until I met his daughter, Allegra, on a bridge near the center of the city. She was...striking, really. Dark skin, dark hair, all curves in all the places a man would want them; she noticed me standing there, looking lost, and invited me to dinner at her home on a whim. I don't know if it was compassion or pity, but I didn't ask. I'd been waiting for a lifesaver since I came into the city, and she'd finally sent me one. So we ate dinner that night, and then she invited me to stay in one of the rooms at the inn for the night...and I just never left."

"Her father hadn't liked me at first, but Allegra eventually convinced him that I wasn't dangerous. I stayed, and she would come by my room occasionally to drink tea, watch the gondolas pass by on the water...she always had this distant, forlorn look when the boats passed and I never really knew why. I didn't ask...I just liked watching her, really. She had this mature grace, a form that made you wonder if human beings could really be so perfect. You could say that I admired her...you might even say that I loved her...but I don't know if I'd agree with that. She had me under a spell, though. Despite spending many of my nights on the streets doing...well, what I've always done to get by...I always looked forward to coming home and seeing her outside my door waiting for me. It was probably as close to having a real home as I've ever had," the Gigolo mused calmly, thinking back to those times with an almost picture perfect clarity. The way that he spoke was slightly wistful, though he didn't seem to be depressed or forlorn. More like he was lost in the memory, reliving a past experience, if only for the sake of keeping the image alive. It wasn't until a few moments later that he snapped out of his stupor and glanced down at Reina with what looked like a pretty genuine smile, as if glad that she was interested and willing to listen to him. Guys like him weren't usually the ones talking when with a woman, after all...he got paid to listen and listen well. Amongst other things.

"Anyway, I lived at that Inn with Allegra and her father for almost two years after that...probably the longest I stayed in one place in my life at the time. I didn't mind the way that my life was going, so I never made any real move to change things. But there was something about Allegra...I don't know, maybe her skin was getting a little paler, or her eyes just didn't seem to shine the same way as before. Every day when we would drink tea together she'd sit and stare at the gondolas, openly now, barely attempting to hide how they made her feel. I could tell that she wanted to ride them...she talked about the river a lot, about what it would be like to ride out at sea, but in all the time we'd spent together I'd never seen her go anywhere near the water. It all seemed strange...but, it wasn't my place to think about it. All I could think about was that expression, and how I could...lighten it up again. So, I did the only thing I could think of..."

[Reina makes a comment to the effect of the Gigolo taking Allegra out on the gondola for a romantic evening with a 'night cap']

Reina's response was enough to actually elicit a light chuckle from the Gigolo; well that was certainly the not-so-subtle way of putting it...not that he particularly cared whether or not she was subtle about it. She seemed to be having fun, and that was all that really mattered. Though the story didn't quite have such a happy ending.. "Well, that was the idea," the man admitted with a playful smirk, though when his eyes turned back towards the stars that began slowly dotting the horizon it would likely begin to dawn on her that things were never quite that cut-and-dry, "one night I brought home a large bottle of liquor from the Carnevale` and shared it with Carlo until he passed out in his chair. Then, I snuck into Allegra's room and lifted her from her bed, still in her nightgown, and carried her to the nearest dock and a waiting gondola. I had more than enough money, so setting the whole thing up hadn't been a problem...and a lot of women owed me favors. We had the river that night all to ourselves...the stars were out, the air was warm and comfortable...Allegra cried when I set her down in the boat. Said it was the most wonderful thing anyone had ever done for her. And I felt like I could walk on water..."

Lewis laughed a little at that, almost ruefully. "We were halfway through a ride around the city...her sitting in the gondola, and I was paddling...I could have got someone to do it for me, but the night was about her. Besides, if all went well, we'd be together soon enough anyway. Anyway, that's when Allegra moved, probably the first time she'd stopped staring at the water since we started...and she stood up, turned to face me, and with tears in her eyes she told me, 'Thank you.' ...and those were the last words she ever said to me," the Gigolo paused for a moment after that, as if remembering the scene, before glancing down at Reina with a strange sort of smile on his face...rueful, maybe? Wry? If you didn't know him better, you might have called it pain. But he wasn't really the type for that. "For two years she kept it secret from me, you know? A secret that big and she never told me," he remembered, sounding almost surprised now as he must have been then, "you see, Allegra was anemic. I never noticed because she always went out of her way to look her best for me. I never caught her in a spell, only noticed some subtle hints...the pale skin, the sunken eyes, but I never understood them. I just thought she wasn't happy because she couldn't ride the gondolas. Well...now I know why."

"Right after she thanked me, Allegra wobbled and fell to the side...I tried to catch her, but the boat rocked something fierce and we both fell into the side of the canal. She wasn't wearing much when she hit the water, but it soaked through fast...she sank to the bottom of the river before I even got my bearings. And by the time I pulled her out of the water onto a nearby dock, she wasn't breathing. The local guard came by and called for a doctor, but it was too late. Nothing we did could revive her. Allegra drown in the waters she wanted to sail more than anything. Such an unfit end for someone like her," he shook his head, that same, strange smile on his lips as he looked up towards the moon, and then back to Udon with a small laugh, "when the guards woke up Carlo and told then what happened, he went wild with rage. Allegra...she was all he had...and I was just an intruder in their lives, one who was now responsible for killing the only person left that he loved. He pressed charges of course, but not until he'd hit me a few times to let out some of the anger. I spent two weeks in a Venetian prison before some of the girls who had helped me set the whole thing up came forward and testified that it was an accident, that I hadn't had any ill intentions and hadn't known about her illness. But of course, that also brought out the sort of life I'd been leading, too. So I wasn't imprisoned...but the Venetian citizenry didn't look kindly on the face of a 'murderous prostitute' walking through their town. And with Allegra gone, I didn't really have anything tying me down to the city..."

"So I left. Put Venice to the rear view, and never looked back. ...Kind of a sad story, really. But then, the life of a human being is such a fleeting thing, isn't it? If you look at it in that context, human existence will always end up being a sad story," he mused quietly, before erasing that unusual look and smirking down at Udon with his usual charisma, "or, you can take that to mean that life is all the more beautiful because it will end. That the last sight you see might be more beautiful than anything you've seen before. I like to think that's how Allegra felt just before she died...though, that probably sounds a bit self-serving coming from me, doesn't it?"

 

[Yamiko Enoki]

~*Je Suis Vivant*~