starting-with-a-mouse

[starting-with-a-mouse]

Pizza slices but only with 8 hours sleep

‘Lavi…So, how about pizza with the gang at your place tonight? Let’s keep it chill…’

‘Superb! Who’s ordering?’ Lavinia enquired while fixing her skirt and straightening her apron.

Feeling the silence she lift her head only to be showered with glaring eyes and clear expressions.

‘Well, you of course!’

‘But…come one…why…i mean…’ Lavinia tried a dire rebuttal, but to no avail.

‘You are way to good…

[starting-with-a-mouse]

Magical Halloween in St. Augustine

The sun rose and set while the Floridian summer days intertwined with Epcot’s Food and Wine festival.

Guests increased copiously, flowing whimsically through the pavillons and additional kiosks representing countries not regularly present in the World Showcase. Guests eccentrically gulging and gulping the globe, while the Italian pavillon desperately lacked cast members to keep the invasion at…

[starting-with-a-mouse]

‘If you fall, i’ll be there’ said the floor

Lavinia headed to the door, only to encounter Sophia sitting on the couch almost in tears, with her foot on Eiko’s lap.

‘What’s wrong?’

Eiko looked up and smiled at Lavinia, ‘since your remedy for my sunburn helped a lot, maybe you can help Sophia with her…’ she couldn’t find the term and just pointed at Sophia.

A couple days before, Lavinia came home to find Eiko a bright iridescent scarlet…

[starting-with-a-mouse]

Green tea and dreams

The alarm clock hammered heavily in Lavinia’s head. It was strenous for her to get up, while the room had not stopped spinning, it was even more arduous to make her way to the bathroom in a straight line.

She somehow made it, sprinting to grab on to the sink and dive under the cold water to regain some lucidity, while the phone rang for the usual morning call from her mom. She tried to follow the…

[starting-with-a-mouse]

One shot...two shots...

One shot…two shots…

As the days passed, life started to show its true colors where there was no distinction between work, home, friendship, “love” or better, sex: it was all a massive mixture of hormones and marvel. It could not be in any other way considering the apartment complex name was also its explanation: The Commons.

Just like the houses, the pool, the gym, and the rooms were communal, so was mononucleosis.…

[starting-with-a-mouse]

Espresso adding up the points

‘Lavi, wake me up tomorrow morning. Call me when you wake…just in case i don’t hear the alarm.’

That was usually Mari’s plea as she was always late…and not just for work…along with leaving the numbers of her dates to her friends, in the eventuality no one heard from her in the morning.

Lavinia woke up and dialled Mari’s apartment number: nothing. She tried her cell phone: zip. She decided to have…

[starting-with-a-mouse]

Letting it go

The days proceeded pouring wine, selling chocolates, folding shirts, projecting a positive image and attitude. Withstanding the usual, tedious, unfailing questions: where is the bathroom, do you really come from Rome, then how come you don’t have an accent, I would like champagne, I am Italian as well considering that the father of the cousin of the sister of my next door neighbour’s doorman is…

[starting-with-a-mouse]

Devasting beginnings, make magical endings

'Rome-Brussels-Atlanta-Orlando. Cost $1056. Would you like for us to find another itinerary?'

In less then 24 hours, she had to be in Orlando. Her head and heart pounding rhythmically to the beating concotion of infinite emotions.

‘No it’s perfect.’

While she still hadn’t grasped the surreal grandeur of the journey she was about to embark, she celebrated letting spirits and, not only, penetrate the night away.

4.30 a.m. of a warm italian summer morning thickened by her mother’s despair. She carried her luggage out the door and her dog started howling desperately: the dog knew she would be gone for more than a day, she felt it. The dog’s sadness crushed her, making her weak in the knees.

She couldn’t get herself to walk another step as the tears in her eyes made her entire body freeze to place. She walked back in to give her ginger labbie mix just one last hug and kiss, to gain that one last ounce of courage to carry on.

‘I will be gone for just one year. You won't even realize i'm gone. 365 days and we will back running on the beach together. I love you furball. I will miss you and your feline brother the most.'

That was when it sunk in, like a ball of metal dipped in a glass of water.

Believing that the hardest part was over, she picked up the luggage again and walked down the stairs, not realizing the worst had yet to come.

As dust swivered through the air breaking chaotic silence, her mother uttered no sound. They reached the airport two hours before departure only to realize the spectral emptiness of their surroundings, there was no one to be found, not even security, while the check-in clerk arrived with the same yearning of a cow in a butcher’s den. She hysterically handed over the tickets checking-in the luggage.

Her mom started crying while she hugged her and crossed the metal detector where she could finally start to breathe again.

Commotion and lack of sleep made her eyes heavy and as she closed her eyes, she was already landing in Brussels, overflowing with tourists. Endless queues of people, serpentine loops of infinite Automated envelopes of bones walking with the sole assistance of inertia. While she waited her turn for yet another security scan, she looked at her ticket only to realize there was barely an hour of layover...shit.

She zipped theough the entire airport to reach the Terminal where she was greeted by the joys of the middle seat. 'Are you seriously kidding me?!'

She had been awake for more then 48 hours and at this point all she needed was a place to sleep.

No can do. her flight inmates? An extremely loquacious Hindi who held the world record of words per second and a 350 pound man whose nervous twitches made him strap himself in.

In Atlanta, her fate with impossible layovers didn’t budge and while the immigration officer suspiciously checked her visa, desperation catalyzed by wariness took over, ‘Please officer i need to catch a flight...' She interupted her with an evil grin and hysterically declared 'i've never seen this type of visa i need to check with my supervisor.'

'Of course because if i was to fake a visa i would completely create a visa that doesn't even exist!'

Fortunately the supervisor arrived, looked at the visa. He looked at the officer and said 'she's clear, the visa's fine. Let her go'

Her desire to shout ‘see ya bitch!’ Was never going to win over fate.

She recovered her luggage and passed security where she rapidly handed over the lighters she had forgotten in her purse, ironically she doesn’t even smoke. She reached the terminal gasping for air, realizing the friendly check-in clerk back in rome placed her on the wrong flight. In lack of oxygen, thristy and sweating, her phone gasped for credit, Payphones only accepted dollars, her debit card empty, her only currency euros. She asked a couple of people if she could make a quick call to warn the bus that had to pick her up that she would be on the flight after. They all magically had dead batteries.

She asked the information post where she could change euros: two terminals down. She ran for it.

Once again queues. She managed to change money and ran back to the gate but they were already boarding and there was no time to reach the payphone.

Desperate and exhausted she dropped defeated on her seat.

Maybe life was magically gaining up on her and as she lost it all: the kind man in the seat next to her asked what was wrong. Crying and sobbing she described the nightmare she had been through. Without saying a word, He handed over his phone.

He placed a hand on her shoulder and said 'you had a long day, take a nap and relax. I will wake you up when we get there.'

She finally smiled and relaxed for the first time.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Her apartment was in the last building of the complex, apartment 2814 where she was greeted

By the Japanese roommate, Eiko, trying one of her culinary coctions that seemed fried burned and used gym shoes.

Uttering random syllables, she plunged on her bed.

‘Lavinia.

Italy.

Pleasure.’

While she thought she could finally take a break, her mother called sobbbng begging her to come back while her brother and sister jealously called saying that they would not take care of mom and that it was her responsibility.

She clenched to the last spectacles of force left in her body.

‘This is my time. My year, don’t you dare take this from me!’

She avoided the numerous calls after that, hoping, praying and begging that the saying 'if good beginnings make good endings...' wasn’t true.

Mr. Sandman brought a dream, as no night is endless and the sun rose on the start of the most memorable and spectacular year of her life.