Summer vacations (2)
Fausta Pausini is an Italian woman in her late 20’s and in vacations somewhere in California. It’s her first time here in the United States and she definitely feels lost. She looks through her phone and finds her first pictures she took in a bar wearing the same black dress she’s wearing right now and holding her drink as she has written under the pictures:
But with time, Fausta feels lost and hopes coming back home fast enough to never going back to this enormous country where everything is gigantic. And today when she finally feels the worst, she has ever been, she starts wandering into town, with her little black dress, her sandals from Firenze and her designer sunglasses perching on her head.
She finds a peculiar little shop tucked between a coffee roaster and a surf shack called: Curios from Elsewhere. The bell above the door tinkles like wind chimes as she enters. An elderly woman with silver hair and mismatched eyes greets her. “Good morning ma’am… looking for something to remember your journey?”
The shop smells like a mix of old paper and incense, Fausta browses idly until her fingers brush a small, ornate hand mirror with a frame of twisting silver vines. It feels warm to the touch, almost alive. Etched on the back was a faint inscription in what looked like archaic Latin:
She smiles and buys it along with a few postcards. Back at her hotel, Sophia lights a candle, pours herself a glass of rose from California, and sits before her new mirror. She studies her reflection: her strong jawline, the subtle crease between her brows from years of responsibility, her face still wondering why she chose to travel alone in a foreign country, she finally murmurs “Se solo potessi tornare giovane… essere diverso in qualche modo… non preoccuparmi più di niente o di quello che direbbe la famiglia...” [If only I could be young again… be different in some ways… no more worrying about anything or whatever family would say...]
She sets the mirror down and goes to bed, her head already fuzzy because of the wine. The change begins while sleeping… Fausta’s body goes sweaty despite the cool room, a strange tingling spread all over her body, like electricity dancing under her skin. Her face seems softer, the laugh lines shallower, her cheekbones shifted subtly higher, her nose narrowing and turning up slightly at the tip, a pert American button nose replacing the more prominent Roman one she had always loved. The tingling intensifies, racing down her spine, she stands at 5.8 ft. in heels; her legs shorten, thighs slimming from their full, womanly curves into the leaner, coltish lines of youth to a much smaller 5.3 ft. girl. Her hips narrow with audible pops, her waist cinching inward until she could have wrapped her hands around it. Her breasts, once full and heavy, deflate slowly, reshaping into small, perky mounds barely filling her black dress she’s still wearing and now slipping off one shoulder, revealing skin that was lightening from deep olive to a fair tone typical of California teens. Her hands are shrinking, fingers becoming slender and delicate, nails short and unpainted, her arms lost their definition, becoming smooth and girlish. The changes climb to her face, her lips thin slightly forming a natural pout, under her eyelids her eyes widen the brown irises lighten to a bright blue. Eyelashes lengthened and darkened. Her long, luxurious black hair lightens strand by strand into a beautiful chestnut with natural highlights. As she speaks in her sleep her voice is changing too rising in pitch, losing its maturity for a lighter, American lilt with a faint valley-girl inflection. Then pressure builds in her jaw as her adult teeth shifts, crowding slightly. Metal brackets materialize with tiny clicks, wires threading through them, forming a full set of silver braces complete with colorful elastic bands. The metallic taste flooded her mouth as she runs unconsciously her tongue over them, feeling the unfamiliar ridges.
At this moment her mind begins to swirl as memories flicker like a faulty film reel. Harvesting olives under the hot sun... replacing by flashes of cheerleading practice and mall trips. Family dinners with Nonna’s pasta... overlaid with images of school lunches and TikTok dances. She barely tries to fight it but English words started dominating her thoughts. Italian vocabulary slipped away, replaced by slang she had never used, her Italian origins disappear to be a full American girl from California. The name Fausta now sounds wrong, she’s now Brooke Mary Sophie Lester she’s a 16 years old girl born and raised in Beverly Hills, the palaces in Firenze, her studies of Renaissance Art, her visions of Tuscany hills and the sounds and scents of these wonderful places… she forgets everything to be this girl raised by her parents Bethany and Roger Lester working in the Silicon Valley, she loves her life in Beverly Hills, going out with her friends to the cinema or the swimming pool since it’s summer holidays. But Brooke is also a student and co-captain of the cheerleading squad of the Beverly Hills High School, she’s also a good student with top grades.
The transformation finishes with the change of the hotel room starting with the walls now full of posters, a huge bookshelf with romance and all her books she reads in school, the desk in front of the window is still there but a bit different and spotless since she loves tidying up her room, the bathroom is still there but much smaller as a nice dressing-room with lots of teen clothes, bikinis, jeans, tops, t-shirts, lingerie, dresses, but also her cheer uniform. Finally, the mirror Fausta bought in her other life is still there but this time it is placed in her room next to her dressing-room.
As one last step of her transformation, her clothes change as the black dress, lingerie and sandals from Italy disappear for a cute pink shorty and white tank top with the name of her high school BHHS.
Now that everything is ready, it is day light and Brooklyn opens her eyes, watching her old iPhone 12 it says 7:30 am, on the lockscreen she sees herself with another girl… after a second of hesitation while her new memories finish to set up everything it’s her best friend forever Ellie Jesper also 16, in the same school, same cheer squad and shares so many things together.
She gets up her bed and after a quick shower, she dresses up with a cute blue shorty, matching sport bra, yellow tank top and her favorite ripped blue jeans, she joins her parents for breakfast and while doing so, she receives a message from Ellie saying: “Hey bestie! Can you ask your cool parents if we can spend this day together at my place, we’re going to have, pool, music, tanning, lots of water and Pizza?”
Her parents say yes and it’s with her bikini, her phone and sunglasses that Brooke goes out of her house to her bestie’s house just next door instead of the hotel. The girls are so happy to be together again and spend the day at the pool, swimming, playing, gossiping about school next year, teachers, students, anything... adding between every gossip with their valley girls accents “Like... what the actual heck?” then they laugh together and come back to the pool or their phones, or eating another slice of pizza.
In the afternoon the girls stay inside for the AC, Brooke is dressed in her normal clothes and they watch Netflix together before going out in the neighborhood where Ellie takes these adorable pictures of Brooke with her cute braces smiles in front of flowers with Brooke’s phone. Then it’s time to leave and coming back home next door knowing that tomorrow they’d probably do the same but this time in Brooke’s house.
Back in her bedroom, Brooke smiles watching the pictures and publishes them saying:
After that Brooke can hear on TV the news about the disappearance of a woman called Fausta Pausini as the anchors keep asking people to call if they have any valuable information about that Italian woman…
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