The Fates

Part I: The Failed Tour

My tour guide wrapped her fuzzy jacket tighter around her arms as the evening chill set in. I thought it was kinda pointless, because it left her shoulders bare to the assaulting wind. She kept on refilling her wine glass with sweet wine. She tried to convince me to take even a tiny sip, but I didn't want to totter down the street. And I was not legal yet in America. But l wasn't exactly in America at the moment.

I was taking my long-awaited gap year in Italy before attempting Law school. It would have been nice to tour all of Italy, but my annual allowance and the few titbits I scraped together from working just about covered the tour around Sienna and Pisa.

"Dio, mio! The weather is very cold, sì madame?"

I pulled my seasoned hoodie tighter around my neck.

"Sì." I agreed.

Madame Bianchi, stained the top of her flute with more rouge lipstick. She had enthusiastically taken me through all the sites of Pisa, like the Leaning Tower, the Cathedral and the seminary. I was ready to hit the sack right away.

But she insisted I take a look at something before then. She put her glass down and flashed a pearly white smile at me, marred by a line of red. She was smiling so wonderfully that I hadn't the heart to tell her she had lipstick painted on her two front teeth. I gave a weary one in return.

"Madame you must see this, no?"

She slid a pamphlet to me and I slid it closer, where the flickering bar light shone above my curls. I read: Castello di Volterra.

Beneath the bold heading, thankfully, in English laid: a glimpse into the past before arriving at your final destination.

That last part sounded strange, but l'd love to see a castle.

I'd always dreamt of being a princess like those characters from the Disney films, until my mother clarified that girls from our neighbourhood didn't live a happily ever after, we were lucky to even get by at all!

I looked for the city it was located in, because I couldn't remember the website I used to book my tour ever mentioning a castle in Sienna or Pisa. And it wasn't in any of those places.

"Mi scusi, madame. This says it's not anywhere where we booked, but in a place called Volterra." I said pointing a chubby finger at it.

She nodded and gave me another lipstick-stained beam.

"Sì, it is not in Pisa or Sienna."

I gave a scrunched-up look. So why bother showing me this?

"Need I remind you we are on a tight budget? I can't afford this."

I pushed it back to her. She smiled as if she expected this.

"But madame this is a complementary package it comes after booking more than one city to tour, which you did!"

Hhhmmm, it was free? I began wondering why.

"It's free?"

She nodded and l scowled.

"Why would a tour be free?"

She threw her brunette hair back and showered it over the chair rest.

"If you find it dissatisfactory. You may call me and discontinue the tour."

I raised my brow.

"You won't even come back, that's how absorbed you'll be!"

I nodded disjointedly, too tired to argue. She grinned triumphantly and declared it was time to take me to my hotel. If this tour was a piece of garbage I would hightail it out of that place.
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My tour guide met with a colleague of hers and spoke with her quietly. How could they hear one another over the gurgle of children screeching?