Lady Luck

by Madhu Nayak (India)

I didn't expect to find Italy

"I love you", as I got down on my knees, handed over the gift to him, and waited for him to unveil it open. A good luck charm from the very city of inception of unconditional love. He stared at me "Huh?” at the proposal which was both unorthodox by gender and the bizarre thing he now held in his hands. 'A Keychain of breasts', not any breasts but of the Juliet. One could say I had lost a screw or two, but the origins of this took my mind racing back to the summers I spent the summer in Europe, not on a luxurious vacations but an exchange internship with long hours of work and experiments, however that did not stop me from exploring Europe every weekend. One such weekend was spent in Verona. A tiny little city in Italy on the banks of Adige. The journey to Verona itself was mesmerizing as the bus made its way through the famous Italian dolomite, the vineyards and beautiful curves of road, it was also that time I mistook the whitish dolomite to be snow and got overjoyed cause I had never seen snow coming from a tropical country like India, the southern part. As a student, I was always on budget trips and as I reached Verona, I could not afford to check into a hotel or restaurant. That is when the clown came to our rescue, McDonald. One thing about franchise around world is they are cheap and they do not mind anyone coming in. Any city McDonald was my changing and freshening rooms. I set out to explore Verona, with a group of walk sightseers. Soon I lost track as they walked at incredible speed for me match and I was lost in the narrow roads. I do not know if it is just Verona or all cities in Europe, they look the same. As I tried to venture around with the google maps with very feeble signal, I saw Shakespeare poster with an arrow pointing to an alley. I knew Shakespeare way to well cause he was the cause of all my distress back in high school also because he led me to the most amazing boy, back in school I played Juliet while he played Romeo and now he stood right in front of me with moist eyes and a pleasant smile. That is when it flashed my mind; I was in Verona, the Monatecchi and the Capelletti, the love story that spread wide and far that of Romeo and Juliet took place here. I bolted through the alley and reached a place, very familiar from the movie Letter's to Juliet. I was at the entrance to the courtyard of Casa di Giulietta of Juliet. Couples tying locks to the railings, letters stuck on wall with gum, graffiti declaring love and at the epicenter of all this stood Juliet in all bronze, as I tried to peer through the crowd gathered I saw something I could not well grasp my mind around. They were molesting Juliet! Everyone who climbed the pedestal went on to grope the bosom of the statue. I asked the lady at the Juliet store, she went on to explain with a heavy Italian accent, the act of touching Juliet’s breasts gives an invitation for lady luck to back you up in your love endeavors, My further queries as to its origins was gone unheeded, as she had a particular set of English vocabulary only. Probably many people asked her this. I am not a believer in this sort of superstitious belief, but wouldn’t it be a loss to not do such a romantic gesture? I also bought a keychain of the breasts of Juliet as a joke, who knew probably all the molesting of statue did give results as I ended up here with him. I did tell him the story and show pictures of me attaining good luck from Juliet as he went on to say "Hmm, sad I couldn’t attain it from Juliet, maybe I could get it from you? “With a creepy smile as I understood exactly what he said, I flushed red.