The Marionettes: Act Three

After being suspiciously quiet for the past two months, those ghastly marionettes have returned with a vengeance. The day dawned sunny and bright, if a bit cool. While getting dressed this morning, I accidently knocked a little drawstring bag containing two lovely Murano glass necklaces onto the tiled floor, shattering both beyond repair. I was sure I had not left my special jewelry so close to the edge of the dresser and a closer examination revealed that the dastardly duo had levered open the cover to their tomb and climbed out leaving the top propped open with one of the magazines which are supposed to keep them locked in. They then made their way into my room and shimmied up the lamp pole, stretching a couple of inches until they could climb atop the bureau where they dragged the bag containing my lovely jewelry to the edge of the marble dresser top in hopes I would knock it to the floor as, of course, I did. They are not so blatant as to actually throw the jewelry to the floor themselves. It is much more fun to watch me do it!

I walked to the café for my usual café latte, but hurried through it to catch the bus to Camucia to explore for the first time. My intended bus never showed up having apparently been waylaid by the dastardly duo, but no matter, the bus to Terontola eventually arrived which makes a stop in Camucia at the train station. I’ve decided to visit Florence one last time before I leave. I want to look at some jewelry and I also want to scope out the train situation again and locate where to catch a taxi when to the airport when I am ready to leave. I walked to the travel agency near the train station and bought one round trip ticket to Florence for my exploratory trip and a one-way ticket for my ultimate departure. The man working at the agency told me all about how Italian is the most beautiful language in the world, but he would not let me use the restroom. I guess the marionettes got to him first. I saw one of them lurking behind a display of travel brochures but wasn’t fast enough to grab the little devil.

My son Jordan’s birthday is fast approaching so I stopped at a few places to look for a birthday card, to no avail. The tiny selection I found just did not meet my needs. I then walked to the Coop grocery store where I bought some of my favorite Foxy toilet paper, a small bag of bar mix (nuts and stuff), and a jar of these tiny, salty olives with which I have fallen madly in love. I browsed the strip mall near Coop for a time looking at shoes, watches, and jewelry, until I reached the bar/café where I ordered café mocha. It was heavenly……rich and covered with whipped cream and cocoa. I sat outside under a large, white umbrella and enjoyed my treat while watching dark clouds move in over Cortona as they seem to do each afternoon blocking out the golden sunlight with their menacing presence.

A few minutes before the bus was scheduled to arrive for my return home, I walked inside the café to pay for my coffee. As I stood waiting, one of those hideous dolls ran up, and tore my shopping bag from my hand dropping it heavily to the floor breaking the jar of olives! Unfortunately, the bag was not water tight and soon a large puddle of olive brine was seeping out and spreading across the floor in an aromatic lake. I trotted to the bathroom where I cleaned as best I could by dumping the broken jar and olives into the trash, then rinsing the bag in the bidet (yuck!) before stowing the toilet paper and snack mix back in the dripping wet and smelly bag. I then had to mop the floor with paper towels which immediately turned black suggesting to me that the bathroom was in need of a good scrubbing. I slunk from the bathroom and zipped out the door before someone could yell at me for making the huge mess. The bus arrived on time and transported me and my smelly, sticky load to the top of the hill.

I stopped by the bakery for two rolls (yes, I finally located rolls at the bakery) and loped home for lunch, which brought on the next mishap. As I carefully sliced open the bag of snack mix to put into a resealable (and dry) container, the top of the bag exploded open pouring tiny nuts, rice crackers, and roasted corn kernels all over the counter and floor. It took 5 minutes to clean up the mess and I am still stepping on little nuggets I somehow managed to miss with the broom. You should have heard those horrible marionettes wheezing and cackling in their wooden coffin! They’ve never had so much fun!