She smiled shakily, "We're here honey."
Now it was time to face yet another fear of hers, which was to find her way, alone, around in a foreign country with an autistic child that liked to wonder off. She'd watched far too many horror movies as a teen and now every half-baked corny movie plot was rising up to haunt her.
"Please God let them speak English!"
She whispered to herself as she undid her seatbelt.
The Italians she came in contact with were particularly unhelpful and even rude. To them she was just another American tourist. Finally she found someone who could speak English and would work with her. From him she found out were to rent a car and exchange money.
Anna sat in the seat of the little car clutching the wheel hard. She glanced in the rear view mirror at Kevin buckled up in the back.
Oh God don't let me kill him or anyone else! She pushed the clutch in and turned the key. She'd had to drive a friend's Jeep that was a standard for a while, but it hadn't been a good experience. The experience had abruptly ended with the Jeep wrapped around a telephone pole. She'd sworn that day to never drive another standard. Apparently some promises were made to be broken.
She put it in gear and in an effort to not ride the clutch she let it out too fast. The car gave a weak attempt at movement and then died roughly. She gritted her teeth together. Hatred couldn't even describe the level of apathy that she already felt for this little box on wheels. She started the car up again and this time she gave it more gas. The little car took off with an uncomfortable lurch that was repeated moments later as she shifted into second gear.
Five hundred feet further she had to stop for traffic, which necessitated starting the painful process of driving a standard all over again from a dead stop. The navigation device had far too many hours listed until destination reached. What did they do to tourists guilty of vehicular manslaughter in Italy?
It wasn't so bad when she got out into the country and didn't have to stop often. That is the views weren't so bad. She couldn't say she'd ever been on more curvy narrow roads before then she was now, but at least there wasn't much traffic.
She was pretty sure that she was lost. The navigation had her going on and on and it only seemed to become more rural with every passing moment. She entered a private drive that seemed to drag on and she was just about to despair of an ending when the villa appeared.