Isabel Giovanni (isabel_giovanni) wrote in voicesinmyhead, @ 2007-11-01 20:24:00 |
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Entry tags: | isabel giovanni, prompt #18 |
018. What was your most embarrassing moment?
You wish to know of my most embarrassing moment.
What is it you would hear from me? Of whispering to a lover the word no? Of momentarily losing composure when becoming acquainted with an admired personage? Of looking at the faces of your servants after you've lost yourself to the Beast?
Mere passing trifles in a long life, I would answer you. You see, adulthood is more forgiving and bears embarrassment far more easily than youth. To this night, I shall never be more embarrassed than I was the night I met my tutor and the man that was to become one of my closest confidants. While I might claim that events happened simply because of the folly of hot-blooded youth, it still remains that it was not one of my more gracious of days.
I always knew that Antonio would have to go away to university. Even as I so thoroughly denied that he would have to one day leave, if only temporarily. Ah childhood, only there could two such contrary thoughts have existed side by side. It could be that such thoughts co-existed because Antonio's departure was not openly discussed, and I could pretend that he would not leave. Then on one balmy midsummer's evening, two cousins from Venice arrived and the news was broken that Antonio had a place in Pisa. In hindsight, if I had stayed at home, listening quietly, I would have spared myself a lasting scar and an evening's embarrassment. But I was then as I am now, a Giovanni, and not one to sit quietly when my blood is roused.
Upon hearing that my brother would be deserting me, I ran from the house hoping to outdistance myself from such unwelcome news. I hid in my favourite olive tree determined to stay as far away from home as I could. Why? Who knows. The reason is lost to time and would no doubt only make sense to a child. In the time honoured tradition of petulant children worldwide, I was content to ignore the voices of those searching for me, preferring to pout and make a feast of my self-pity.
The sun gave way to the moon, and I could hear my brother's voice joined by another that I didn't know calling for me. The air around me grew frigid for a moment, and then warmed again. It would be months later that I would learn that was one of the bound spirits serving Stefano that had located my hiding place. At the time, I could only wonder that Antonio and this stranger made their way unerringly to the very tree I took refuge in. In my temper, I threw unripened olives at my brother's head for daring to find me and spoil my pouting. The wretch grabbed my ankle and pulled me from the tree, gashing my knee upon a stone when I landed. I was so furious, yet when I opened my mouth to scold Antonio, all the bitterness and anguish welled up and I began to cry instead. I was mortified and would have died on the spot had Stefano not bent down to begin cleaning my wound, scolding Antonio the whole time for not being sensitive to how I must be feeling. Perhaps that moment endeared Stefano to me, for Antonio's face clouded darkly before he offered to let mama and papa know I was found safe.
It was then that I learnt that Stefano was to be my tutor. I simply could not go to university. It wasn't done in rural Italy in the seventeenth century; however, I could still be taught at home. That night has taught me many lessons over the years, for which I am grateful, but I still could have done without it.
Warnings: None
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