Chapter 2: Roam
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Tammy sleeps through most of the flight across the Atlantic. Waking up she looks out the window and sees the Straits of Gibraltar approaching under them. She can only think that in another hour or so she would be landing Malpensa International Airport, also known to tourists as Milan International. Only knowing that she had made this trip once before when her mother got married over a year ago to this Polancco guy who she did not trust, she thinks to herself of some of the various places she should go. The Italian Police would be the first place to go, she thinks.
The panel in front of the cabin section is turned on saying, "Please Fasten Your Safety Belt", as the pilot repeats the message over the loudspeaker and saying that they were getting ready to land in Malpensa International Airport. In another 40 minutes they touch ground on the runway and make their way across the tarmac to the gate. The bridge extends to the airplane from the terminal before the doors open. The passengers prepare themselves to leave the plane as they gather their belonging from the overhead bins. Tammy gathers her backpack and leaves with the flow of passengers out of the rear doorway.
She steps onto the loading area and looks around, looking herself as if she was lost, for she was lost. She knew the airport was within the city Milan but at the very outskirts of it. Eventually she takes what little Italian she knows and makes her way to the outdoor area. She understands that Milano Centro was Central Milan in Italian and manages to find a bus with that on its sign. She gets on it and takes a seat in the rear of the bus, thinking the 30 Euro price was a bit high. But a taxicab from airport would have cost her six times more.
The bus lets out in the middle of the tourist district. She looks around and finds a street directory marking off the various streets, sites and hotels on a map. She studies it and pulls out a paper with directions to the scooter rental and hotel, but neither was not on the map. An information booth was nearby but closed, lucky for her there were maps of the city in plastic holders. She grabs a few different pamphlets and makes her way to a public area where she can sit down to study them.
It takes her a while to find the places she had marked out for renting transportation and a room. Finding her way to the scooter rental, she drives around and finds her hotel, where she gets her room key and freshens up. It was in the six in the afternoon when she gets up and decides to go to the main police station in the middle of Milan.
It takes a couple of hours to find an English-speaking officer. Though he and a supervising officer were there to hear her story, they refused to believe that this American trash was related to the Billionaire Polancco family. Thus she is given the run-a-round and wasted her time even though much of her story was verified to be true. In the end they tell her that there was not much they could do and send her on her way home to her hotel room. She did not know she was followed. Without eating she goes to bed like she took her ride to the hotel – crying.