บททั้งหมดของ A Waltz With Wolves (Sequel to The Publicist's Plight): บทที่ 31 - บทที่ 40

** "Benvenidad a ele paisia bella,Venetia. Welcome to the beautiful land of Venetia." I've been cramming as much Venetian as I can since I got onto the 15-hour flight here. Luckily, Venetian is a Romanic language like Spanish and Italian (one of these languages I happen to be fluent in) so it hasn't been a lethal task. Still, it's a bit hard to keep up. I clutch my Guide to the Beautiful Venetian Language pocketbook close to me as I try to navigate my way through the airport. The intercom above broadcasts important information to the many tourists scrambling around in the airport, but unlike the first welcome message transmitted in Venetian and English, the speaker over the intercom decides to talk only in Venetian; the only takeaways I get are the we

** I'm tired of fighting. My father would be ashamed of me if he heard these words coming out of my mouth. "Leslie," I can imagine him scolding me. "Don't you ever quit fighting. My girls are fighters; they never quit." I suppose if my dear father understood the circumstances that currently plague me, he would have a change of heart. I should have talked to him before going to Venetia; he probably knew the extent of Ramona's 'fury.' Now that I think about it, talking to him should have been the priority. I could have asked him about what happened between him and Genina and about Ramona - my grandmother. But I didn't. I was too eager to meet her, and now I'm left not empty handed, but with a threat in my palm. Ramona had apparently guided my life this entire time, and I didn't ev

** After breakfast, everyone retires to the living room, the kids having gone outside to play in the rain puddles. I'm in the kitchen by myself since it's empty in here. I think Sebastian knows that I'm trying to avoid him. It isn't the smartest plan, but the only one that I can think of doing. I get up and decide to take another nap in my room, but right when I do, Sebastian comes into the kitchen. He pauses when he sees me, then smiles weakly. I do the same, but somehow goose bumps accompany my grin. "Why are you hiding out in here?" he asks me. By his mood, he seems unfazed by what we spoke about outside earlier this morning. "I'm just thinking," I reply. "I hope my family isn't giving you a hard time."

  ** SEBASTIAN Being back home is a feeling almost unfamiliar to me. Everything is pretty much the same - the Board up my ass, Claire's pestering me to no fucking end and the everyday struggles I'm used to facing with carrying a name like mine. Nothing has changed. But still, something is off. Different. Leslie is still in Scotland. At least I think she's still in Scotland; I left before I could even ask her if she was planning on leaving back to the states that morning or staying with her family. The morning after Leslie and I had sex, Claude woke me up when the sun was barely rising above the horizon.

** It isn't a good feeling to wake up and find the man you slept with the night before nowhere to be found, especially when you're thousands of miles away from your home country. I'm sure the entire table at my grandmother's house feels bad for me; they suspected that something was up between Sebastian and me, and the look on my face after being told by my grandmother that both Sebastian and Claude are gone has only solidified their suspicions. "Oh," is all I reply, forks and spoons clanking against everyone's plates and bowls awkwardly. I retire back to my room and immediately start packing all of my belongings into my suitcases. My hands move faster than the thoughts in my head, which is a good thing because I would have somehow convinced myself to stay; the