Page 249 of DATE
In 1940, for personal reasons, she had missed out on film roles for Gaslight and Casablanca, and chose to star with Clark Gable in Boom Town.
That gentleman later garnered multiple award nominations for It Happened One Night and Gone with the Wind, becoming forever etched in the hearts of audiences as Rhett Butler.
It was also that same year that The Bridge of Sighs became an instant hit, and she heard it was quite popular in the East as well.
As Hedy recalled the long-gone days of her past life, she lowered her head, writing an experimental report in Italian, and shared asad and poignant story with Leonardo.
A young dancer, falling in love at first sight with an officer on a long bridge, missed her performance to meet him for one last time. In the end, fate played its cruel hand, and she was reduced to living as a prostitute, selling her body to survive.
But contrary to the rumors, the officer didn’t die abroad. Instead, he returned, full of honor and pride.
The fallen and tortured young woman could never come to terms with it, and on the eve of becoming a bride, she jumped from the very bridge where they had first met.
Leonardo had originally been tending to the pea plants while listening to her tell the story, but gradually, his movements began to slow.
By the time Hedy finished telling the story of the girl who fell from the bridge, he remained silent for a long time.
Hedy observed his expression, her voice softening as she said, “Perhaps this story was a bit too heavy.”
But, in this era, people might understand the concepts of chastity and love even more deeply.
Extreme self-restraint and indulgence intertwined in a constant cycle, love and sex were completely separated, and Platonic relationships were illogically forced upon people.
Yet, even in the darkest times of the Middle Ages, people still longed for love, as if it were an instinct of beasts.
To approach one another, to become the only one in another's life, even to love someone so deeply that one would be willing to die for them.
“I think I understand a little,” Leonardo murmured. “She chose to fall from the bridge, not necessarily because she thought she was broken, no longer pure or clean.”
“You think…”
“Maybe it’s because such love demands perfection and extremity,” he said instinctively. “Because of love, one wants togive all the beauty of life to another person, to become someone flawless and worthy of being loved.”
And when she couldn’t achieve that, the overwhelming sense of loss and guilt would swallow her, as deep as an abyss.
Hedy paused, staring at him, then said, “That doesn’t sound like something you’d say.”
The Leonardo she remembered was a man who was almost obsessively focused on art.
He would embrace himself, hold his own hand, and had once firmly expressed his resistance to love and the opposite sex.
But when did he… start to understand all this?
The young man raised his eyes to look at her and suddenly realized something.
His feelings for her were no different.
She ran the ranch, researched the grapevines, and dealt with penicillin and political issues.
He instinctively followed her, and nearly all his time revolved around her.
His world had no room for anyone else.
“Yeah,” he lowered his gaze and smiled.
“I guess I had to understand eventually.”
Just like an unavoidable wind.
