(But first, a bit of prologue)
I don't think I have ever felt such a need to be somewhere yet dreaded it at the same time.
I woke up on Monday to a phone message from Marco telling me that Francesca & Chiara were in the hospital in Udine. They had a car accident coming back from Munich on the A10 highway. He didn't leave specifics but I wouldn't expect him to; I wouldn't expect a phone call with this kind of news at all. I was able to get him on the phone a few hours later and got a bit more info - Chiara has broken her ankle, leg and arm. Francesca has a head injury and isn't awake. I couldn't get an absolute translation from him; he was speaking only in Italian and I could tell he was very stressed so I just listened without asking questions. He said Mamma was with him and that they drove to Udine so they wouldn't have to wait on train timetables and that he wanted to take Mamma home to Venice but she insisted on being at the hospital. Understandable, it is her daughter and granddaughter after all.
Mamma got on the phone and said "Si prega Kricka, ti aspettiamo." Please, Kricka (her name for me) please come."
Vacation plans, you're toast. It's about family now.
***
Cut to Wednesday morning. I didn't sleep a wink. I second-guess myself at packing at the last minute before any trip and this time was not an exception. A million things on my mind, did I do this, did I do that? Whatever. It is what it is and I can't change it now. Mark took me to BART at 5:30 and as I walked on the platform I reached in my purse to check for my passport for the umpteenth time and suddenly had the panicked notion that I forgot my cellphone on the coffee table. I have a mobile for when in Europe but I would be lost without the phone numbers stored. I can't usually remember even my mother's mobile number. Crap. I'll just have to deal with it later.
Fell asleep on BART. It was a lovely short nap. It takes an hour from MacArthur to SFO. It was what I needed to recharge me until I got on the plane. I'm not taking the gigantic suitcase this time, yay me. It's small enough that some people would definitely try to pass it off as carry-on luggage but I'm not putting that thing over my head. At check-in I weighed in at 43 pounds anyway. And I found my phone - whew! I remembered that I didn't change my outgoing message at work so I called in to do that. I made the mistake of listening back to the message and determined it sounds like I was in a bass-o-matic. Rather garbled, but oh well.
Special kudos to Delta agent Lynn. I asked just before boarding if it was at all possible to change my seat to a window. Traveling with the walking cast, I was concerned that being on an aisle seat I would get bumped by the food carts, or worse, be passed out and asked to wake up 17 times by someone in my row so they could go to the bathroom. Lynn seated me in the extra row reserved for airline attendants, in the window seat. She said it has more legroom than the emergency aisles too. SUH-WEET! Got on the plane and it was so true. My 6'6" brother could stretch out in this row, and there were leg rests that popped up too. I am never leaving this plane. It's the best plane ever!
I was the only one in the row too. I slept from the second we took off until the wheels hit the ground.
Delta was incorrect about where the connection flight was going to be. They had told me it would be in the same section of the airport, but things changed mid-flight and I ended up having to walk about a half-mile to the gate. It happens. Made the connection flight and was seated in the headrow of the coach section. Not quite as comfortable in the legroom department, but I had no seatmate so I stretched out okay.
As I walked off the plane my thoughts turned to what I am walking in to. Please let it be a mistake in translation. Not awake could just mean sedated. They sedate people often when there is head trauma, don't they? Off to immigration to get the passport stamped and onto the next leg of the journey.
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