Silent Translation

           Franklin Devonshire, a thirty-five-year-old tailor from New Jersey, spent half his life dreaming of traveling to Italy to take in the culture, the food, the scenery, but most of all, the fashion.

           Franklin had always admired the creative flair of Italian designers, and he tried to copy some of their designs when creating his own custom-made suits in the United States. Unfortunately, he could not find clientele who were willing to spend high dollars on quality work in his neighbourhood.

           After nearly fifteen years of scrimping and saving, Franklin had banked away enough for a two-week vacation in Milan, Italy, and the surrounding area. He wanted to learn from the best how he could improve his stitchwork while keeping his cost low.

           There were two obstacles in his way, however; Franklin understood little Italian, and he was mute, unable to speak at all. In New Jersey, he could write information down on a pad of paper, or occasionally, a customer knew sign language. In Italy, however, he had no guarantees people would speak in sign.

           The day before he flew out, a regular customer wrote out a message in Italian for Franklin to show to people when he arrived. It read, “Non capisco l'italiano e non so parlare. Lei parla inglese?,” which meant, “I do not understand Italian, and I cannot speak. Do you speak English?”

           This was Franklin’s first trip out of the country, and he was both nervous and excited. The flight lasted nearly eight hours, but he had a difficult time sleeping more than ten minutes here and there.

           They touched down at the Milan Linate Airport. After locating his baggage, Franklin walked through the massive airport, and was amazed at the number of designer retailers like Dolce & Gabbana or Emporio Armani that were accessible without leaving the airport.

           Franklin had some time to kill, so he began to browse through the shops and examine the workmanship. The average Armani suit sold for around $1,400 Euro, or $2,100 USD, which was more than what he could afford to buy. The store employee seemed to assume that as well, judging by the looks she was giving him.

           His stomach began to grumble, so he decided to leave the store, and try out one of the restaurants inside the airport instead. Out of all the Italian cuisine that was available, he settled on a restaurant named, “MU,” who claimed to have the finest burgers in Milan.

           Unable to speak, he had to rely on a translator app on his phone to do the ordering for him, hoping that it would get the order correct. After his first bite, he had to agree that it was a delicious burger, better than any he had back in the States. It was washed down with a glass of Bordeaux.

           Surviving off a tight budget, Franklin needed to book the cheapest hotel he could find. After leaving the airport, he handed a note to the driver with the address to Combo Milano, a twenty-five-minute drive in good traffic from the airport.

           When the taxi pulled up to the hotel, Franklin was impressed at how beautiful it looked. The exterior walls were a red clay color, and it had a beautiful courtyard. The cost of $750 USD to stay there seemed too good to be true.

           As he walked inside, a casually dressed gentleman approached him and said something in Italian that Franklin could not understand, so he handed the man his prepared note. The gentleman read the note and nodded his head in understanding, then led him to the front desk.

           The man spoke with the woman behind the desk in Italian and she nodded in understanding. Using broken English, the woman asked for Franklin’s passport and check-in confirmation number. She told him that there would be a free breakfast in the morning in the courtyard. He was then led to the room where he would be staying.

           As they entered the room, Franklin was slightly taken aback at the simplicity of the room. Against one wall, stood a set of bunkbeds, and by the window, sat a metal clothes rack. There was no television or radio. There wasn’t even a coffee maker.

           Franklin peeked inside the bathroom and was pleased to see it was clean and bright. Tired from his flight, he decided to take a shower and have a nap before exploring the city. The water pressure was fantastic as the hot water massaged his sore neck and back.

           Following his shower, he wrapped a towel around his waist and dried his hair before going to lay down. When he exited the bathroom, however, he was shocked to see a young woman unpacking a suitcase in his room.

           She seemed unfazed by Franklin’s presence, and with a foreign accent said, “Hola!” while waving her hand. She introduced herself as Maria. Franklin handed her the note, and since Italian and Spanish are so similar, Maria was able to make out part of what it read.

           She tried to speak in broken English but knew even less English than she did Italian. The woman continued to unpack her clothes and hang them up. Franklin, still in his towel, removed his phone from his pants pocket and set the translator for Spanish.

           After explaining his situation, he introduced himself to Maria, and asked what she was doing in the room. She spoke into the translator so he could understand her in English, and explained that they were staying at a hostel, so the rooms are shared with other travelers. She was assigned to his room.

           Unsure of how he liked his living arrangements, Franklin decided to make the best of it and welcomed Maria before grabbing his clothes and returning to the bathroom to get changed.

           After he finished in the bathroom, he used his translator to ask Maria if she preferred the top bunk or the bottom bunk, but the translator misconstrued the words and just asked her if she preferred top or bottom? A look of shock appeared on Maria’s face, followed by a flirtatious smile. Unaware of what he had just asked, Maria responded in Spanish, but the translator wasn’t set up for her response.

           Maria walked up to Franklin and kissed him softly on his right cheek, then slapped him hard on his buttocks before going into the bathroom and shutting the door.

           Franklin set his suitcases aside and laid down upon the lower bed and closed his eyes. Moments later, he heard the bathroom door open. Not wanting to try to continue a conversation with her, Franklin kept his eyes closed.

           However, his eyes flashed open abruptly when he felt the weight of another person on top of him. Maria laid facedown upon Franklin, staring into his eyes with that same flirtatious smile upon her face.

           Franklin wasn’t sure how he should react. His mind was telling him that something wasn’t right, but other parts were telling him to lay back and enjoy. Maria leaned down and kissed his lips passionately. Franklin felt his body start to tingle.

           The women he had dated in New Jersey were flirtatious, but not nearly as beautiful as Maria. He suddenly had a surge of guilt wash over him and pushed Maria off, only to discover that she stood there completely naked. Franklin felt bad for staring but could not resist.

           Maria looked shocked at Franklin’s dismissal of her, which soon turned to rage as she marched back to the bathroom shouting something in Spanish that did not sound friendly.

           Franklin quickly grabbed his phone and tried to type in an apology for Maria before she returned. She returned while he was still typing, so he did not have time to proofread it before hitting the translate button.

           What he wanted to say, was that he was sorry for the misunderstanding, but she caught him off guard and he didn’t know how to react. Instead, the translator told Maria that she didn’t understand or know how to react. She took it as another insult and began to yell in Spanish once more. Franklin knew that things were spiralling out of control and if he didn’t do something soon, things would only escalate.

           Without a second thought, Franklin grabbed Maria’s shoulders while she continued to shout, and he pulled her toward him. Then, before she had time to react, he kissed her on the lips. Her muffled words turned to soft, subtle moans.

           One thing led to another, and they returned to the bottom bunk, this time removing each other’s clothing. No words were necessary for the next hour. The only words that were spoke, were curses in Spanish when Maria hit her head on the top bunk more than once.

           As day turned to night, Maria and Franklin fell off into a blissful sleep together on the lower bunkbed. When Franklin awoke the next morning, Maria was no longer by his side, so he got up and showered before heading down to the courtyard to see if she had gone down for breakfast.

           She was nowhere to be found, so Franklin helped himself to some fresh rolls and cheese, along with a hot cup of espresso. He smiled a gratifying smile as he thought of his moments with Maria, hoping they could relive those moments together again.

           After finishing his breakfast, Franklin made his way to the fashion district of Milan. He browsed the stores along Via Monte Napoleone, Via Della Spiga, Via Manzoni, and Corso Venezia. For the most part, the sales associates gave him a wide berth, but as he stood in the showroom of Versace, Franklin heard a familiar voice saying his name in broken English.

           Maria stood behind him as he stared at her in the full-length mirror before him. She was dressed in an elegant, tan-colored pant suit and wore a black Gucci bucket hat which emphasized her bright red lipstick. Unlike Franklin, she fit into the designer fashion scene.

           Franklin embraced her tightly, and using his translator, asked her why she left so early. She replied that she had to meet a friend for coffee, then grabbing Franklin by the hand, she dragged him across the store without explanation.

           They stopped at the back of the store where she tapped a man on the shoulder who had his back to them. When the man turned around, Franklin realized that he was staring in the face of the CEO of Versace and Burberry, Johnathan Akeroyd.

           This was the friend who Maria came to meet. Maria spoke to him in Spanish, and he appeared to understand her. She explained that Franklin was unable to speak and only understood English.

           Using his translator once again, Franklin explained his desire to learn the art of Italian fashion stitchwork so he could pass that kind of quality onto his customers in America. Johnathan was apprehensive at first to bring a stranger into the nerve center of his company, but Maria was hard to resist as Franklin knew.

           They climbed into Johnathan’s limousine and were brought to a factory where many of his designs were manufactured. A tailor at the factory was asked to show Franklin how they create a suit from scratch.

           Franklin watched intently as the Italian woman carefully measured, pinned, cut, then sewed a suit to match Franklin’s measurements. The process took several hours to complete, but in Franklin’s mind, it had only lasted minutes. He was astonished by the experience that he had just witnessed.

           Before leaving the factory, Johnathan asked Franklin to try on the suit to see how it feels. It was a perfect fit. Franklin began to remove it, but Johnathan told him that it was a gift for him to take back home to study and use as he pleased.

           Franklin was overwhelmed and endlessly grateful for Johnathan’s wonderful generosity. He and Maria were dropped back off at the hostel and returned to the room, and just as Franklin had hoped, they continued where they had left off the day before.

           In the days to follow, Maria showed Franklin around Milan. She had traveled here several times before. Even though they had been together almost constantly for several days, Franklin knew extraordinarily little about his beautiful Spanish senorita.

           On their last day together, Franklin gave Maria his address in New Jersey and asked her to look him up if she was ever in the United States. She went with him to the airport and waited until he boarded the plane before getting on her plane.

           During the flight back to the United States, Franklin thought about Maria constantly. He felt a bond between them unlike anything he had ever felt with anyone else in his life. The question in his mind was, will they ever have a chance to be together again?

           After returning home to his apartment in New Jersey, Franklin carefully ironed out the wrinkles in his new designer suit and hung it safely away in his closet. He finished unpacking and went to take a shower.

           When he finished in the shower, he heard a knock at the door, so he quickly wrapped a towel around himself and hurried to the door. When he opened it, Maria stood there with a mischievous smile on her face. She looked down at his towel and smiled even more.

           After the shock wore off, Franklin invited her in, then went to grab his phone to use as a translator, but Maria stopped him. She pulled a translator of her own out and began to speak into it.

           “Tengo una confesión que hacer.

No puedo vivir sin ti.

Hay más; Volé aquí en mi avión privado para estar contigo. Quiero que tengas todo lo que siempre quisiste en la vida, incluyéndome a mí.”

           When the translator related the message back, it said, “I have a confession to make.

I can't live without you.

There is more; I flew here on my private plane to be with you. I want you to have everything you ever wanted in life, including me.”

           Franklin Devonshire, the simple tailor from New Jersey, despite his obstacles, had to travel across the globe to find out that language does not have to be a barrier, especially the international language of love.

           Maria spoke into the translator once more:

           “Now, about that towel…”