For the Love of Magic

Shakespeare in real life sucks

"So I'm guessing it's like Gnomeo and Juliet where they inevitably fall helplessly in love with each other like in all cliché books?" he asks.

"Yeah, but then they die." I say. His head snaps around to me.

"What?" he asks.

"You've never heard the ending?" I ask, amazed at his lack of exposure to one of the most popular books in the history of ever.

"Something about her going to sleep..." he trails off.

"Dominico, when your mother told you your goldfish was asleep, you didn't actually think that it just needed to go to the ocean to get better did you?" I ask him.

"I knew that... well, I figured it out eventually," he grumbles. I laugh even though he seems serious.

"So she dies and then Romeo..." he waits for me to finish.

"No, she's just pretending to be dead but he sees her and commits suicide and then she wakes up and sees him dead so she commits suicide. Apparently this was the logic in Shakespeare's day. Ha! And they blamed their short lives on lack of medicine and unclean water." I tell him.

"So who dies first?" he asks.

"Romeo, Juliet wasn't technically dead even though he thought she was so Romeo was actually the first one to die."

"That's an awful ending," Dominico says, frowning at the book like it was now covered in dog feces.

"It's a tragedy," I explain to him.

"That doesn't mean you have to kill yourself," he reasons.

"I agree. And plus they were only 13. They had their whole lives ahead of them!" I say, exasperatedly.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. They were 13? This is a book about 7th graders committing suicide?!" he exclaims. I nod, taking the book from him and examining the cover again.

"And it's one of the greatest stories ever written," I say. He shakes his head.

"That's weird."

"It's such a weird world," I agree.

"Says the witch and warlock..." he trails off and I roll my eyes, grinning at him.

"Oh the irony," I say. Dominico changes back the subject.

"So are we done for today or do you want to keep trying?" he asks. I groan.

"I don't really see what we can do if we keep trying. I'm starting to doubt the power of Google. It's scaring me." Dominico laughs.

"Oh the horror. Heaven forbid we go to the second page of Google! What a tragedy."

"If he hid his name on the second page of Google then it is forever lost and there is nothing we can do about it. I vote break," I resolve.

"Same," he agrees.

"So how long are you over here for?" I ask, glancing at the clock.

"I have to babysit the little devils in about... ten minutes," he informs me. I smile at the mention of his cousins.

"Oh! Tell them hi from me!" I beg him. He shakes his head, still not understanding how I get along with the boys so well.

"I'm sure they'll be ecstatic. They want to know if you're coming over anytime soon," he says.

"And?" I ask.

"How did you know there was an 'and'?" Dominico asks, his face becoming a mask of confusion.