In your arms

March 29, 2023 - Catania

A little treat for you. Just tonight, then i'll come back with the regular schedule. See you all on Friday.

March 29, 2023 – Catania

I am exhausted. I flew for a total of 15 hours, over a 9-hour time zone and with a stopover at Rome Fiumicino airport that lasted 2 hours. I feel like a steamroller has knocked me to the ground. Or even better, an example I can say I have experienced on my own skin, I feel like my brain is made of jelly, like when you are in the middle of a crazy fire and find yourself without oxygen in your tank. Plus, I'm surrounded by people who speak their language, Italian of course, and I feel like I've ended up in a Laurel and Hardy comedy movie. Another factor, there is a strange climate: I can't tell if it's hot, if it's cold, there's this wind pulling and a strange sun that dries out my skin. Yet, all these nagging physical sensations that once would have made me shout bad words and made me an untolerant and mean person, now fade into the background. I lost half an hour in the middle of a cab stand, because while I was trying to get my phone to work, there were people who kept asking me if I needed it, trying to grab my backpack to load me into a cab, or talking to me in gestures that made me want to scream that I am American, not dumb. I gritted my teeth, though, ignored everyone, and finally my phone was resurrected, complete with Internet connection.

Immediately I write to Carina.

Maya: hey, where are you? - I inquire. Her answer comes, as always in the last 48 hours, in a bad mood, but immediate.

Carina: at my parents' house, where do you want me to be?

Maya: are you busy?

Carina: Maya, what the fuck!!! - I sigh and call her. If not, we'll never get out.

C < Maya, what do you want?> she almost attacks me, but she answers after one ring.

M < how busy are you from one to ten? >

C < Maya, please. This is not the time...>

M < okay, okay...sorry..> I interrupt her. < it's just that I'm in Catania and I need to know if you're busy to the point that I have to take a cab or if you can pick me up instead...> on the other end there's such a long silence that I'm afraid the phone doesn't work that well for me. < Carina?> but I keep hearing nothing, and when I look at the phone handset I realize that Carina has put the call down. I laugh, not to cry from "desperation." I call her back and again she answers after one ring.

C < Maya, stop kidding around!> I sigh.

M < I'm not joking. I'm serious...> I look around and see the clock on an advertising sign and I get the idea. < it's 12:37 Italian time, it's sunny, but there's also a strange wind..>

C < it's the volcano..> she interrupts me.

M < what volcano?> I ask confused.

C < the strange wind. It is for the volcano. There is the alert...it started erupting last night..> I look around confused: everyone seems so quiet.

M < and why everyone is so quiet? What is the evacuation plan? What are the standard procedures? Where is the fire department's information gazebo? Do you have a station nearby?> Carina laughs, as I haven't heard her laugh in days.

C < are you here for me or to work?>

M < for you..> I answer immediately, without blinking.

C < it will take me half an hour to get here. You should have told me earlier..> I shrug my shoulders.

M < if the volcano doesn't kill me, I'll be here waiting for you..> Carina laughs.