Tutti Italia: A Novel (9 page)

“If you come with me, I’ll show you which room you’ll be
in.  You’ll have a total of fifteen children, and someone assigned as a
teacher’s aide.  I haven’t gotten so far as to actually give you one yet, but
it won’t take me long.”

“I’ll do it!”  Elena was bouncing up and down with her hand
in the air.  It was quite comical, but Rachel didn’t laugh for fear of it being
considered mean.  Mrs. White, on the other hand, had no such thoughts, and
laughed blatantly at Elena’s outburst of energy.

“Alright, alright, I’ll assign you.”  Elena did a little
victory dance, then sobered up.

“I’ll make sure I teach her the ropes.”  Elena winked
conspiratorially at Rachel.  They arrived at a room that had no decorations on
the door.  Mrs. White opened the door and ushered the two younger women in.

“This room has stood empty because we didn’t have a teacher
to fill it.  Luckily, now it’ll get some color to it.”  With those parting
words, Mrs. White left Elena and Rachel to look around the room.  It was dusty,
and Rachel had to guess that it had actually been more than just
one
year that they didn’t have a teacher for this room. 

“So…what exactly is the story behind this room?  It’s not
like cursed or something is it?”  Elena burst out laughing and had to actually
grab on to the counter that ran along the side of the room to steady herself.

“No.  There’s no curse or anything.  It’s just hard to find
someone who wants to leave their comfortable home for a job in another
country.  I, for one, wouldn’t want to do it.  Then again, I already live
here.”  She smiled at Rachel and hoped that her little joke would be received
well.  Rachel forced a smile, but she could understand what she meant.  After
all, Rachel had briefly considered turning the job down, because she was a
little afraid of having to move to another country where she couldn’t even
speak the language.  “We have another week until classes actually start. This
is the last week of the summer term.  But it won’t take us that long to get the
room cleaned up and ready for the munchkins.  Do you know yet what you want to
do for a lesson plan?”  Rachel was a little confused.

“Don’t they just play and we make sure that no one gets hurt?” 
Elena smiled at her naivety. 

“They do take naps occasionally, but it’s up to you to
provide a structured activity that the children can opt to join in.  Not many
of them do, but that’s where I come in.  While you’re doing the structured
activity, I’m going to be monitoring the ones that don’t want to do whatever it
is you come up with for the day.”  Rachel smiled.  One activity a day?  How
hard could that be?  She used to babysit. She knew what kids liked to do…ish. 
It took them less than an hour to get the room cleaned up, and Rachel was
already brainstorming ideas for the first few days that she could do.  She was
also thinking about decorating the room in an ocean theme.  That always made
her happy, so it must make other people happy, too, right?

It was lunch time, and true to her word, Elena took Rachel
over to the bank.  It was almost right across the street from the school.  The
only building that was in between was the library.  That fact alone made Rachel
smile.  She would probably spend every lunch hour here at the library.  This
would be her safe haven.  Rachel loved to read.  The characters in the books
were her friends, and the books themselves became worlds that she could visit
when life got her down.  Elena escorted her into the bank, and showed her where
she had to sign in to get service.  Rachel had barely been waiting five minutes
before she was called.  She was happy about that.  Maybe it wouldn’t take the
whole hour.  She followed the woman into a cubicle, and twenty minutes later,
Rachel had a checking account, a savings account, and a debit card in the
mail.  That was really easy.  Now if only her bank back home in the states were
so nice.  When she came out Elena had a big smile on her face and it made
Rachel wonder what she was scheming. 

“What?  You look like Christmas just came early.”

“Oh, nothing.  But we have plenty of time to sneak over
there to the gate and let you talk to your lover boy.”  Rachel blushed
furiously. 

Chapter 12

Rachel wasn’t sure yet if she wanted to go down to the
gate and see Jason.  Part of her did, and part of her didn’t.  She just didn’t
know which part was bigger.  Elena was grinning at her and hustling her along
so they would make it to the gate and back in time before lunch was over.  She
couldn’t exactly get away from her, either, because she didn’t have a valid
excuse to get out of it anymore.  She’d already been to the bank, and that was
the only thing she’d needed to get done.  It seemed like she was being
strong-armed, and yet, she wasn’t.  The gate shack was looming in front of
them, but it wasn’t Jason that was checking ID’s.  It was an Italian army man
that Rachel had never seen before, but Elena obviously knew, because she was
waving and calling his name, speaking in Italian.  As they approached the gate,
the door opened and Jason came out to see what all the commotion was about. 
His face lit up when he saw that it was Rachel.

“Hi.  I didn’t know if you’d be coming by to visit or
not.”  Rachel didn’t have anything to say, so Elena spoke for her. 

“We finished our errands early and decided to visit.  After
all, it’s not every day that we have such handsome men guarding the gate.”  She
winked at her friend.  Rachel smiled and looked like this minor flirtation was
nothing new. 

“Well, if you have a few minutes to talk, you can step in
here.”  Jason opened the door to the shack and went inside.  Rachel wasn’t
exactly sure if she wanted to follow him, but Elena gave her a shove, and
closed the door behind her.  She preferred to stand outside and chat with her
friend instead.  Hoping that Elena would pull her out of the shack before
anything awkward happened, she raised her eyes to Jason’s.  He took that as
encouragement.  He smiled at her.  “I was going to ask you for your number on
Friday, but when I turned around you were gone.”  He sounded a little hurt. 
Rachel blushed, but she was a little put out, too.  If getting her number had
been so important to him, wouldn’t he have done it before he sat and talked
with his friends?

“I’m sorry.  I saw you talking to some friends of yours so
I just went on home.  I didn’t know that you wanted to talk to me.”  She’d said
it in the sweetest way she could, but the point she was trying to make had
gotten across just fine.  Jason blushed.  It almost made Rachel want to laugh. 
It was cute how he fumbled for words when he was coming up for a reason why
he’d left her.  She had to bite the inside of her cheeks not to laugh. 

“I’m sorry myself.  Let’s fix this problem right now. 
Would you be ok with giving me your number?  I would like to hang out with you
some time.”  Rachel’s cheeks were burning so brightly she thought she would
turn into a supernova at any time.  She pulled out her cell phone and found the
information, reading it off to him.  She’d barely had the phone for over a
week, and she still didn’t have the number memorized.  He listened attentively,
then made sure he saved it.  The Italian came in, and Jason checked his watch. 
“I have to excuse myself.  It’s my turn to check ID’s for an hour.  I’ll text
you when it’s my break again.  If that’s ok?”  He searched her face for the
permission he was hoping for.  Rachel nodded, and hurriedly got out of the gate
shack.  Elena was still outside, grinning from ear to ear, and trying her best
to start a conversation with Rachel, but she cut her off at every attempt until
they were out of earshot of the gate. 

“So?!?  What happened?  Come on!  Tell me.  You have to
tell me what happened.  I’m living vicariously through you.”  Rachel laughed.

“How can you live through me?  That makes no sense.  You’re
happy, aren’t you?”  Elena waved her hand dismissively. 

“Yes, I’m happy, but that means that I can’t have romantic
adventures anymore, and I need to hear about them from other people.  Or read
about them in books.”  That made a little more sense to her, and she let the
matter lie.  The two of them went back into the school, to the room that they’d
been working on cleaning up.  By the end of the day, the room was positively
sparkling.  The two of
them
, however, were covered in grime and dirt,
and all Rachel wanted to do was take a shower.  When Elena dropped her off, she
also handed her the new ID she’d need to get through the gates.  Rachel thanked
her and made her weary way to the stairs.  She was dragging, but she had a high
sense of accomplishment to match the soreness in her limbs. 

Rachel let the water run over her for a few minutes before
she started to feel her joints loosen up.  When she did, she washed her hair,
got out, and dried herself off, ready to relax with a little sewing before she
went to bed.  When she finished putting on her pajamas, she jumped onto the
bed, causing her cell phone to bounce on the blanket.  It caught her eye, and
the little light in the top corner was blinking red, indicating that she either
had a missed call or that someone had sent her a text.  She picked up the
phone, but was surprised to see that it was a text from Jason.  She smiled to
herself, and opened the message.  He was telling her that he got off at six and
was wanting to know if she wanted to walk to the food court with him for
dinner.  She looked at the time.  It was ten minutes till six.  She wrote him
back, saying that she would love to, and let it be.  She didn’t change out of
her pajamas, though.  She’d had it happen too many times before that she got
herself all dolled up for someone who never showed up.  She’d continue to do
her own thing until he was at her front door to walk over with her.  Then maybe
she’d believe that he was being honest.  She picked up her sewing. 

Half an hour later, her phone pinged.  She looked at it. 
Jason was letting her know that he was home, and was going to get a quick
shower in before they went to eat.  He asked her for her dorm’s building number
and her room.  Rachel sat staring at that message for a while.  This could go
two ways.  One, he could actually be a nice guy and want to meet her at her
room, or two, he was a predator and knew how to get what he wanted once he was
allowed into someone’s room.  She texted him back telling him to meet her at
the foot of the stairs of her dorm.  He shot back a quick ok, then the
conversation went dead.  Rachel picked up her canvas.  She’d just finished the
petals of a flower when her phone pinged again.  Jason told her that he was
going to be at the stairs in about five minutes.  He was leaving his dorm right
now.  She decided to take the risk.  Rachel put on her favorite pair of jeans
and a loose hanging sweater.  She didn’t want him to think that she’d gotten
herself dolled up just for going to the food court together.  Besides, he
hadn’t exactly specified that it was going to be a date, so she wasn’t going to
treat it like one until he did.  She got to the foot of the stairs, and saw
that he was actually there, waiting for her.  She wanted to smile, but she kept
her expression neutral.

“Hey.  Sorry that it’s so late.  We usually get off later
than the end of our shift because we have to wait for someone to relieve us. 
We can’t just leave when it’s time to go home.  Then we have to go turn our
weapons in, and it can be a big fiasco sometimes.”  He looked almost
embarrassed that he’d gotten off of work late.

“It’s ok.  I understand that you have to do those things. 
You don’t have to apologize.  None of that is your fault.”  He looked up at her
through his eyelashes, trying to gauge if she was being serious or sarcastic. 

“I just feel bad that the first time we hang out it’s to
get some greasy food at the nasty food court.  I work twelve hour shifts, then
with the prep for it, it usually turns into a fourteen hour one.  The days I
work, I’m usually completely wiped.  Sorry.”  He seemed overly sheepish.

“Hey, Jason, it’s ok.  We all have jobs, and it’s a hazard
of the job.  It’s not something that you can control, so don’t apologize for
it, ok?”  She stopped walking, forcing him to stop and look at her.  It took a
few seconds but he nodded.

“If I were to let you know what my schedule is, would you
want to hang out again on a day that I’m off?  I’ll have lots of energy and time
then.”  He said the last part with a lot of enthusiasm, and it made Rachel want
to laugh at him.  He was being serious though, so she had to bite her tongue.

“Sure.  I would like that.  When are you free?”

“Well, I’m in this thing called a Panema schedule.  One
week I’ll work Monday and Tuesday, have Wednesday and Thursday off, and work
Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  Then the next week it will be the opposite. 
This week is the long work week.”  He looked disappointed by that fact.  They’d
started walking again during the conversation, and had reached the food court
now.

“Ok, so maybe we can work something out for next weekend.” 
Jason looked like she’d just stabbed him with a double edged sword.  She’d said
yes that she wanted to see him again, but not until almost two weeks from now. 
Rachel realized that it was a mixed signal as well, but she wanted to make sure
she knew what he was looking to get out of this friendship before she committed
to one or the other.  She’d been down that road before and she wasn’t going to
be the loser again.

“Ok, that sounds good.  I’ll look over at the ITT office to
see if they have any interesting trips coming up.”  Now it was Rachel’s turn to
stop and look at him. 

“What’s ITT?”  Jason slapped himself on the forehead.

“I’m sorry.  I keep forgetting that you’re not military,
and that you don’t know what all the agencies on base are.  The ITT is short
for Information, Tickets, and Travel.  They usually have really cool trips to
different places.  Like, last year they went to Dracula’s castle in Romania for
Halloween.  I’m looking forward to that one.  I’ll take leave if I have to. 
It’s a three night, four day trip through Romania.”  Rachel could see that he
was really into traveling, and she was too, so that was at least one point in
his favor.  They decided to get in line at Taco Bell.