This is actually an alternate-reality actor fic... where Nic is not Nicolas Cage the movie star, but Nicolas Coppola, an Italian police officer.  Enjoy!

            When I was offered the opportunity to go on a real vacation – not just a quickie road trip to visit relatives in another state a few hours away, but a chance to go somewhere I’d never been – I was a bit apprehensive.  The whole scenario seemed surreal, almost like an elaborate practical joke.  I really didn’t believe she was serious at first, because it sounded way too good to be true.

            “You have a cabin where?”, I remember saying on the phone.

            “Alagna, Italy.  It’s a little ski resort town up north, near Switzerland.  Actually, the cabin itself is just west of Alagna, about 15 miles away.  You’ll have a great time!  It’s gonna be you, me and Jason.  We went last year and had a blast.”.

            I was terrifically excited by the idea of getting to visit a foreign country, especially Italy.  It seemed so cultured yet friendly, and of course there’s the Italian men… Joy must have read my mind, because she made sure to mention that I would have too much fun being chased by the locals to worry about not being able to ski.

            “Lots of people who can’t ski go there.  Think about it, but let me know pretty soon… we leave in three weeks, and there’s lots of stuff to do before then.”.  I told her I would give it some thought, but my wanderlust had already made the decision.  My brain, however, was trying to come up with reasons not to go.  Would I have enough money?  What about the language barrier?  Even if I’m with Joy and Jason, we might run into problems… and how would I feel about being a fifth wheel to a married couple?  Do I really want to go through with this?  After batting it back and forth all afternoon, I called Joy back. 

“Count me in… I can’t believe I’m going through with this, but I’ll give it a shot.”.  And then I added, without really knowing why, “You guys had better not bail out on me or leave anything unplanned.  You know how anal retentive I am about details, and this whole thing is freaking me out enough as it is.”.

“You worry too much… you’re so Type A.  Just chill.  Come over to the apartment after work and we’ll show you pictures from our last trip.  You need to learn to relax and really live life.”, she added before hanging up.  I guess she did have a point, but I hated to jump into things without a thoroughly detailed plan… always had.  And, had it not been for one fateful night in Alagna, I would still be that way.

            After seeing all the gorgeous photos of Alagna and the cabin Jason’s father owned – he had gotten it for a ridiculous price from a co-worker who inherited it but hated traveling and would never use it – I started to get more excited.  I have to admit, I had a bad habit of talking myself out of fun, exciting opportunities because in the back of my mind, “fun” and “exciting” really meant other things – “danger”,”embarrassment”,”no running water”, words like that.  True to her word, Joy had an itinerary set up and even had a plane ticket in reserve for me.  It’s actually kind of weird how I got the chance to join them on a trip to Italy… her sister had originally wanted to go, but when her best friend’s boyfriend found out he would be deployed overseas in three months, a quickie wedding was set for the same week as the vacation.  And, since I was the only single, childless person she knew who would be free to carouse the streets of northern Italy with her and her husband, I got the chance to tag along.

            For the next three weeks, I was dancing the line between “I can’t believe this is happening” and “I can’t believe I agreed to this”.  My optimistic side fought to surface, and the last few days leading up to the trip were spent jubilantly searching for cute winter clothes and boots, all the while ensuring that I would understand at least enough Italian to order coffee and maybe ask for a few email addresses from admiring strangers along the way.  But, of course, good fortune approaches with a golden ticket in one hand and a bullwhip in the other… at least, it does for me. 

            “OK, here’s the deal…”, Joy said on the phone, the evening before we were set to leave.  “Jason’s mom is in the hospital.  We don’t think it’s anything serious… she does this all the time.  She’s got this thing with her heart valve… it’s not life-threatening, but sometimes her heart flutters and beats really fast and she has to go to the hospital.  They’re going to keep her there overnight and run some tests on her in the morning, so we’re going to stay here until they release her.  They’ll be done with her by mid-morning, but we’re going to have to move our flight up.”.  Then, she paused.  The dreaded, empty pause.  “But we couldn’t move up your flight… there was only two seats left.  We could either leave you here until the next flight, which is like 14 hours later,”, she guesstimated, “Or you could just go by yourself and we’ll meet you there.  It’s up to you, but if you want to move your flight up, you’ll miss a day.”.

            This was too much information for me to take in, and the mild hyperventilation I could feel building up in my chest certainly didn’t help matters.  I looked at my luggage (which, of course, was neatly packed three days ago) and, without realizing why I was saying it, blurted out, “I’ll go ahead as planned.”, then added, “I’m not leaving the hotel room until you guys show up, I’ll just wait for you there.  Tell Jason I hope his mom is feeling better.”.

            Joy seemed immensely relieved on the phone, and assured me that I would not have to wait long.  After hanging up, my brain neatly chugged out at least two dozen scenarios of what would happen to me, as I merrily marched my way into a situation of uncertain outcome.  Hey, maybe this will be fun!, I could hear my little inner voice say, taunting me sarcastically.  My inner voice has always dripped with sarcasm.  You don’t speak the language, you don’t know anything about the city, and you’ve never traveled alone before.  What an excellent adventure!.  But then I looked at the brochures of Alagna, and I still had the map to the cabin.  How hard could this be?  People do this all the time..., I thought, trying to placate my nerves.

            Needless to say, I couldn’t sleep.  Not the night before, and certainly not on the plane that morning.  I was there early enough… I arrived at 5 a.m. for a 6:15 a.m. flight, but still I was expecting something to go wrong at any second, something that would cancel my plans completely.  In a way, I was almost hoping it would happen so I wouldn’t have to fly there alone.  But, for now, my bad luck had been put on hold.  The plane arrived, and I was ushered on with no issues.  So as I sat on the plane, and for the next eight hours until we landed in Alagna, I pored through my handy little English to Italian translation book.  It was of no help to me whatsoever… it offered up phrases that I would never need to know, and at length I gave up.  Still unable to sleep, I looked out the window and saw snow-peaked mountains… lots and lots of mountains.  God, it was gorgeous… I strained to see any signs of life, but found nothing.  It was a vast, unforgiving, rugged landscape and probably had snow all year round… I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to visit such a place, let alone live there.