Destino

Finding out about her ancestry was what Francesca always wanted to do. She was part French, Italian, and Irish. Her parents were an interesteing mixture...her father was half French and half Italian, and her mother was full Irish.

Lately, Francesca had been having dreams of Italy. She was actually born there and her memory retained glimpses, little scenarios that she could faintly remember...little sketches of experiences such as walking on the hardwood floor, running on it...in the villa that her parents rented. She remembered a few things briefly like a checkered table cloth and getting in and out of cars, smiling, playing...

She decided to book a trip there. Her boyfriend and her recently broke up. Although she missed him a lot, she realized that she was more free and was now able to make spontaneous decisions based on whimsy.

She sat at her computer. The day sank into night. There was not much noise around her...the faint sound of a TV on in the apartment below her and the ticking of the clock in her dining room. She looked out her sliding glass door that overlooked the lights of Los Angeles.

Francisca found herself dreaming, wondering, but felt a bit unnerved. How will Italy ipact me now...years later? Will I even want to come back to L.A.? Francesca started daydreaming of Tuscany, Florence, Venice...

Her phone suddenly rang and startled her from her reveries. It was her mom. Francesca's mom had been to Europe a few times over the last few years, and her mother, Jenny was aware of how much Francesca wanted to travel too.

Francesca randomly opened some travel pages on the internet. She came across a picture of a beautiful house, a block from the beach in Cinquaterre. Her mother told her about this...years ago-when her mom was on honeymoon with Francesca's father, Jake. She looked at the price...it was amazingly low. She hadn't told her boss yet that she'd be going, but the trip wasn't until July. It was April now. She clicked on "submit payment". She was going somewhere she's never seen (except for online) for 7 nights and 8 days. She decided also to book her flight and saw that Virgin Atlantic was flying out of LAX on July 10th...perfect!

She decided not to tell her friends and exboyfriend about her trip ahead. No one would know except her mother and her work. She wished she could tell her father, but he passed away a few years back...she wished they could have gone to Italy together, but Francesca knew he would be with her in spirit...

On the plane, Francesca couldn't believe her luck! She had a lot of leg room and the flight wasn't even full! It was July and she told her work she needed some time off. She was a bit dodgy about where she was going; She did say she was going abroad.

Francesca pulled her long, curly brown hair back into a rubberband. The plane was about to take off. Her large, almond shaped eyes peered out the window to her left. She had a window seat! The flight was still boarding...all of a sudden, a young man around her age...about 33 sat next to her. He had an aisle seat. He looked over and smiled at her. And she realized that she was in trouble...he had tousled, brown hair...not terribly short. he had blue, gray bright eyes, tanned skin and he was wearing glasses.

Francesca sat quietly for awhile and pulled out a book. And then, she felt like someone was staring at her...it was him.

"Francesca!" he exclaimed. "I knew it..."

She looked at the handsome stranger and suddenly a light bulb clicked on in her head...overweight, nerdy Franco Arneli...the only Italian boy in her 4th grade class. She remembered being nice to him and recalling how he had a crush on her. Her mother would tell her that outward appearances weren't everything when it came to love...

Francesca and Franco had endless topics to talk about on the long trip across the oceans to Rome. She found herself excited by the way he spoke, carried himself. She was charmed by the same humor that he had as a young boy.

They got off the plane...still walking and talking together. Francesca said she would be right back. She went into a bathroom and freshened up and looked at herself in the cracked, tiny mirror over the sink. She decided to put on another coat of lipstick and then call her mother. Her mom was thrilled to hear from her only daughter. Francesca told her mom about who she ran into and her mother repeated the infamous line about appearances...

He's still waiting and looks at her with such warmth...9 months later. They (Francesca and Franco) made it back to the states. Francesca finally told her friends where she was...and she returned pregnant...with his child.