Chapter 11
The evening after the big meet between Michael and Sydney’s mother, Sydney spoke with Michael over the phone. He was concerned about the impression he made, or rather, the impression his accent made for him. Sydney assured him, though, that her mother thought he was very nice. In their conversation she left out her mother’s warning about what they were getting into, but mostly because their uncertain future was something she just couldn’t think about at that moment.
A few weeks later, once they were both done with school for the semester, Sydney and Michael were cuddling in their little corner of the library, when an idea crossed Michael’s mind. “Hey Syd?” he began. She grunted at him. “Well, I was wondering… what if we went someplace next weekend. Someplace with other people…”
“The burger place?” Sydney asked, confused as to what he was talking about.
“No, some other place… like in a city…,” he said, his smile growing wider.
Sydney sat up and looked at him like he was insane. “What are you talking about? You know we can’t go anywhere.”
“But what if we could…”
“What are you talking about?” Sydney asked, still utterly confused.
“Italy,” he smiled.
“Italy?!”
“Yes, Italy,” he smiled even bigger that time.
“Seriously, Michael,” Sydney sighed as she rubbed her brow, “what the hell are you talking about?!”
“We should go to Italy,” Michael told her. “It’s only an hour, hour and a half away right? If we both go to Italy and meet there we can walk around just like normal people – together.”
“Really?” Sydney asked, a slight squeal in her voice.
“Yeah really. You think it’s a good idea?” he asked.
“It’s a GREAT idea!” Sydney squealed once more and hugged him tightly. “I can’t believe we didn’t think of this before… okay, okay here’s what we’re gonna do. As soon as I get home I’m gonna check the train schedule and then I’ll call you and then we can figure it out over the phone okay?”
“Okay,” Michael agreed with a nod.
As soon as Sydney went home, she did just as she said. As it turned out, their going to Italy plan was slightly more complicated than she’d originally thought. No train went from both East and West Lasonvia to the same station in Italy. One of them had to take an additional train to the other’s station. Sydney volunteered to do this and they both made their reservations.
On the morning of their Italy trip, Sydney could hardly contain her excitement. She packed her extra large size purse with her passport, some snacks and left plenty of extra room for the shopping she knew she was going to do. She couldn’t wait to spend some time with Michael in a normal environment, walking hand in hand along the streets of Italy. That thought alone left her with an ear-to-ear grin for the few days leading up to their trip. Once over the Italian border, Sydney showed her passport and then switched trains to take the one to the station where Michael was waiting. There, she stepped off the platform utterly lost as to how she was going to find Michael in the busy station until she spotted him leaning up against a wall. She squealed, ran over to him and threw her arms around his neck. “Look! We’re here and there are people!” she exclaimed.
“I know,” Michael laughed and gave her a brief kiss. “Let’s go beautiful.” Sydney grabbed his hand and they headed out of the train station.
Sydney had the best day of her life walking around Italy with Michael. The first thing they did was browse some shops on the way to find lunch. Once they ate, they walked around the city a bit more as Sydney did some shopping for herself and her mother. The two of them really didn’t care what they were doing, since it was the first time they were doing anything together besides sitting in the library or eating ice cream. Everything for them was a new experience, including the elderly shop keeper Sydney purchased something from who told them what an adorable couple they made. Of course, they didn’t understand much of what she said since she was speaking Italian, but from her tone and body language they were able to get the gist of what she said.
“Oh I don’t want to go home,” Sydney sighed as she hugged Michael around the waist. Five o’clock was coming quickly and her train was leaving at five-thirty.
“I know,” Michael sighed, placing a kiss atop her head. “But this was pretty easy, getting here that is. We can do it again, right?”
“Yeah,” she sighed, though her tone was still sad.
“Maybe next time we could try another country… ever been to Austria?” he grinned. Sydney couldn’t help but laugh.
The two of them sat around in the train station holding hands and talking about their day until Sydney’s train arrived. Then, Michael kissed her gently and promised to see her at their library in a few days. In the previous month he’d started referring to The In-between’s library as their library. After all, they were the only two people who ever used it and in the nine months they’d been going there, it had become like theirs; the only place in the world where the two of them could be completely alone together, aside from the only half-attentive elderly librarian, of course.
When Sydney arrived home, it was late and she was tired from the long day she spent during most of which she was walking around, but before she headed towards bed, she presented to her mother the gift’s she’d bought her in Italy. Her mother loved the necklace and tiny figurine Sydney bought her, but there was still concern written across her face. “What is it?” Sydney asked.
“Nothing… nothing,” her mother said, though Sydney could tell it wasn’t ‘nothing’. Fearing it was something Michael related that would ultimately upset her and cause her to re-think the virtually impossible situation that was their relationship, Sydney decided not to press the issue.