Michelangelo's Love

• Summer Ceraolo-O'Donnell, Grade 5, Guardian Angels School
• Short Story
• 2001

1st in the '2001/2002 Schools Short Story Competition - Magic and Mystery Theme' competition

One day Lucia, known as Little Lucy by her family, was exploring a chest of drawers, a family heirloom. She just received the beautiful, Italian, carved chest from her grandmother, Ciara, as a birthday gift.
She was touching the carved front of the chest when to her surprise, a small drawer opened like magic. She’d stumbled upon a hidden drawer. In that unusual draw she found an old, yellowed letter. Unfortunately, the letter was written in a foreign language.
Little Lucy ran up and asked her mother, Clara, if she could read the letter. Clara said, “The letter is written in Italian. Go ask Mama if she can translate this for us.” Then Little Lucy went to her grandmother’s room. Ciara, her grandmother, was listening to the radio and on seeing her grandaughter she said,
“What is all the excitement about?”
“Look at this letter I found. I discovered it in a hidden drawer in the chest you gave me,” Little Lucy said excitedly.
Ciara smiled and said, “this is an Italian poem written in the 1500’s by a man called Michelangelo Buonarroti. He was a very famous artist in Italy. He wrote this to Vittoria Colonna.” Then Ciara read the poem. It said in English:

Your beauty touches my heart,
A love more than my art.
Your eyes sparkle in the night,
Vittoria, you give me my sight.

The rest was faded and neither Ciara or Little Lucy could make out the letters.
“Do you realize what this poem means, baby?”
Little Lucy said, “No.”
Ciara said, “my mother’s family name was Colonna. She’s your ancestor. This poem must have been hidden for centuries.”
Little Lucy could not speak. She was surprised that she had such a valuable family treasure.
That night before Little Lucy went to bed, she prayed to her Guardian Angel for someway to find out what the entire poem said.
Soon after been tucked into bed, she suddenly found herself transported to a foreign land. An angel was motioning her to follow. He lead her into a garden by a grand home. There sat, surrounded by flowers, a beautiful woman who looked very much like her grandmother.
Little Lucy understood without knowing why that she was Vittoria Colonna and understood what she said even though she spoke in Italian. Little Lucy watched the scene as Vittoria read the love poem. The angel smiled when she said the last two lines:
I love you much more than a friend,
My love for you will never end.
Now Little Lucy knew the entire poem and why it was faded?… Because of Vittoria’s tears of love. With a flash, she found herself in her room and suddenly realized that it was all a magical dream.
Little Lucy walked over to her birthday gift. She smiled, remembering the dream that solved the mystery. Then she put the fragile treasure back in the secret drawer like it had been for centuries, now waiting someday for her grandaughter to discover it.