The Girl From Pompeii

An Impossible Love Affair

By: Ed Gaulden

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Synopsis ~

A girl meets a boy. It's a very ancient story. This particular meeting is about Aliaa, the girl from Pompeii, who fell in love with Justus, the boy from Herculaneum. But I beg you to remember, not all boy and girl meet-ups are precisely the same. Each encounter can be written in a book.

Opposites attract. When the Pompeii girl and the Herculaneum boy met for the first time, their opinions clashed, hers from a rich girl's perspective and his from the boat-builder's point of view. Ah, their sparks lit the night sky!

In the days following their initial encounter, their opposite curiosities for each other blossomed.

The girl purposely left her haughty social circles and an already predetermined marriage in Pompeii to visit the hardscrabble boatbuilder from Herculaneum. She dressed and talked as a daughter of the ruling rich, and her charm beguiled the boy from Herculaneum. Moreover, the boy's audacity fascinated the girl when he declared that his boats were the best that Patrician money could buy.

The boy designed and constructed fishing boats for a living. However, his optimism grew each time this beauty, whose auburn hair gleamed like polished copper, visited his quaint boatyard. She appeared to be shopping for one of his small vessels, evidenced by her actions and words. She was kind, thoughtful, and dainty, asking the proper questions. The youthful boat-maker wondered how such a feminine beauty could know and speak as if she knew anything of the sea.

During Mount Vesuvious' explosions there was a disgruntled servant determined to poision Aliaa's entire family.

Fortunately, the Justus saw the wicked servants racing away – somewhere, anywhere, helter-skelter – to escape the raining hot ash and possible capture by the police. He managed to grab one of them. The servant’s eyes were wide with fear. His whole body trembled. The young boat builder begged the servant to tell him where Aliaa was. Threatened, the servant divulged the dreadful secret. Upon hearing of the evil plot, the boy fearfully looked toward the family's Pompeii villa. Behind him was the monstrous mountain belching red death.

It was a shame for such an inspirational mountain, its bright green foliage flourishing to its peak, to blow its proverbial top. But, Aliaa always contended, “I loved that mountain, so green and perfect.”