Week Three

“Are you nervous?” Lisa’s mom asked they boarded the plane.
“No, not at all, I love flying.” At that moment it might have been a tiny stretch but Lisa was determined to convince herself it wasn’t.

“I’m so excited; I can’t wait for Franco’s wedding.”
“I know me too.”

“Attention ladies and gentlemen welcome aboard flight 876 from New York Kennedy Airport to Rome, Italy.”
“Ashley, we’re getting ready to take off, are you ready?”
“Um, yeah…sure.”
“Your face looks a little a little pale.”
“Just be quiet! I just need to breathe.”
“Okay, just think only eight hours now!”

“We’re about to land, Lisa.”
“Ok,” she wipes some sleep from her eyes and turns to face her mother,” I finally fell asleep, that felt so nice”

“Wait…never mind my neck feels so cramped”
“Well sleeping the prostitution you were sleeping in wasn’t conducive to sleeping”

The family deplanes, goes through customs, and walks out into the Italian sun. Familiar faces assemble in from of them.

“Benedetto, ciao!” Lisa’s grandfather said.
“Sono così felice di vederlo. così uscito che siete qui con l'intera famiglia.”

“What‘d he say?” Lisa whispers to her dad.
“He basically said he’s excited to see us.”

(Indistinct Italian chatter)
“Lisa, hurry up I need to get ready too,” Ashley, her sister, pleaded.
“One second, seriously Ashley!”
“Oh my god, it’s not like anyone we can speak with who is our age is going to be there”

Lisa smiled, “Sure but it’s not like I can’t look nice”

“Andiamo, mis bellas” Lisa’s Dad called.
(Let’s go my beautiful girls)

“Aspete! Wait!”

Clamoring down the stairs, Ashley and Lisa were filled with excitement.

“What do you think is going to happen?”
“Dad says Franco is going to sing to her”
“Sing? Franco? No way!”
“Yup, apparently he is.”

“Lisa, look at the house!”

Lisa gazed out the window at Annarita (Franco’s fiancé’s house). “I told you they’d have to have a balcony for this whole thing to work Ash”

“It’s like this Ashley, every house in Italy has to have a killer balcony a la Romeo and Juliet for nights like tonight.”

“Lisa, ciao.” Pamela, her cousin approached.

“I am how you say, shy more tonight?”

“Why?”

“I no want people to see my hair,” she pointed to her head encased in curlers.

“Whatever, you are fine plus we are here for Franco, right”

“Si si va benne”

“Oh sole mio,” Franco began to sang. (Writer’s note: It might have been something else but I don’t remember so we’ll just go with a traditional Italian song)

“Wow, Ashley look he’s climbing up the ladder”

The crowd that had gathered stood transfixed at the sight.

“This is really cool”

“Girls, come here,” Lisa’s mom called “Look at the window, Annarita is coming out”

“This is such a cool tradition, before you get married having your future husband come and sing to you,” she said.

“Yeah, sometimes I wish we carried on more of our traditions at home” Lisa said.

With the crowing of the next door rooster who seemed to have the worst internal alarm, Lisa awoke to a bevy of activity at the house.

“Girls, girls wake up we need to get ready”

“No…..I was up too late last night,” Lisa replied and rolled back over.

“Now!”

“Okay okay!”

Lisa took a shower, did her hair, and put on her best outfit, Franco was getting married today!

“Ashley, get Danny and meet me downstairs”

“Okay.”

…

“Lisa, Pamela, Ashley pose for a picture,” Lisa’s cousin from the states Danny commanded.

“Hurry the procession is just about to start!”


“Ciao ciao”

The family filed into the church for the ceremony.

The ceremony was entirely in Italian and too fast for Lisa to understand but the familiarity of the actions was clicking with Lisa.

“Okay girls, follow them into the town square and then we will get ready to go to the reception”

As they piled into the car, Shaggy’s “Angel” filled their ears

“Short you’re my angel you’re my darling…”

“Are you serious?” Lisa rolled her eyes and looked at her sister.

“We will never escape this stupid song” Ashley agreed.

“I cannot wait to see what will happen.”