by Lucia Ashta
Still smiling, she turned to take in the rest of the cabin and startled in surprise at the man sitting a seat away from her. No one had been sitting next to her when she had fallen asleep. The man noticed her reaction and smiled at her.
“Hello,” he said in a slight accent that Elena couldn’t immediately place. It was European.
She took him in with a soft gaze and couldn’t help but notice how attractive he was. He had a sunny face with golden blonde hair and piercing amber eyes framed by dark lashes. More than just his features were appealing though; there was an air about him that Elena couldn’t quite figure out. It was as if electricity sparked about him.
Even though he was sitting, Elena could tell he was tall and broad-shouldered with an athletic body. He was at ease with himself, and his smile warmed her. The man’s face broke into a grin. Elena’s cheeks colored as she realized with sudden self-awareness that she had been staring at him without even responding to his greeting.
“Are you all right?” he asked, with a hint of playfulness that Elena thought she might have imagined.
Elena blushed more, embarrassed. She honestly didn’t know if she was okay, but she wasn’t worried about it now. She checked in with herself to answer his question and was surprised to discover how happy she felt.
“Yes,” she answered. She said it with an honest dubiousness and surprising complacency. Her shoulders shrugged accentuating her quizzical smile.
Then Elena let a genuine smile spread across her face, lighting her up. She felt true happiness inside without needing to understand why. And with that one guileless smile, the man was captivated.
Elena gazed out the window, unaware the man was watching her. He thought she was an unusual creature. With her voluptuous lips, straight nose, and big eyes, she was undoubtedly stunning, but there was something else about her that was more extraordinary than physical beauty. She possessed an other-worldliness. You had to know what you were looking at to see it, and he knew.
He had left a life of trouble behind many years before. He was lost, and when he could no longer resist the need to understand the essence of his soul, he left Rome seeking spiritual teachers. He traveled the world in search of that one person or thing that would lead him to inner peace. Inner peace remained elusive, but every day he came closer to finding it. That elusive path to peace had spurred him on the path of spiritual growth for many years.
He had steered clear of old patterns and allowed many childhood friends who didn’t support his spiritual search to fall away from his life. He had returned to Rome only once in the previous four years and even then it had been a brief visit. He knew his parents missed him, but he had to be true to himself. He alone was responsible for his soul.
Elena turned away from the window to look at him.
“Do you live in Phoenix, or are you just passing through?” she asked him.
“I do not live in Phoenix,” he answered. “I do not live anywhere at the moment. I have not yet found my place in this world. I am going to Sedona. That is my destination.”
Elena listened to his response, enjoying the rhythmic lilt of his voice. She had always had a soft spot for accents. She wanted to have a sensuous voice with an exotic accent. Instead, she had an even American accent, or a standard Argentinean accent, depending on which language she was speaking. She supposed that somewhere in the world that would be considered exotic, but to her it just seemed boring.
As the content of his answer hit her, she realized they were both going to the same place. They were both drifting to Sedona—searching.
“I am also going to Sedona,” she said, surprised. “I’m going there in search of something; I just don’t know what yet. I’m hoping that it will find me.”
This man intrigued Elena. She was drawn to him.
“So you do not live in Sedona either?” he asked her.
“No,” she said. “I don’t.”
After a moment’s pause, she added, “I suppose I don’t live anywhere at the moment either. For the first time in a very long time, I am open to where life takes me. I am in search of my destiny.” She paused again. “And joy,” she added. “That is truly what I’m looking for. I want to remember who I am and what my purpose is.”
She found it curious that she was telling this nameless man who was sitting beside her on a plane new ideas she had unearthed only a day before. It was very unlike her to bare herself to someone she had just met. Most of the time she was animated and charismatic, but in situations such as these, she tended to be private and reserved.
He made her feel comfortable, as if she could trust him. She wanted to tell him the truth about her life. Before she knew it, she was sharing those parts of her life story that he asked about. She talked about how difficult and painful her marriage had been; how disappointed she was that it had taken her so long to extricate herself from it; how she hadn’t even mustered the courage to end it; how her ex-husband had asked for the divorce. How long might she have stayed with Brandon had he not insisted they end it? Why had she valued herself so little?
She shared her private thoughts with this man until tears started to well up in her eyes. That got her attention. Was she really crying in front of a stranger? Telling her sob story? What was wrong with her?
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I don’t know what’s gotten into me. I don’t ever do this. I don’t tell my private business to complete strangers. I especially don’t act like this,” she said while gesturing to a tear-streaked face. “I’m sorry,” she said again, this time more softly, more timidly.
He thought she looked lovely when she cried. Her cheeks were flushed, her nose pink, and her eyes tinged with red so that her yellow eyes glistened even brighter. Elena noticed him studying her and tried to hide her face behind her hair. Tenderness rose within him in response to her defensive gesture.
“There is nothing to apologize for,” he told her. “I am so sorry you had to experience that.” He noticed protectiveness running through him and found it alarming that he would feel protective toward a woman he had just met. Just like her, he had been through a lot in his personal relationships, and he guarded his emotions. He was careful with his heart.
Caution bells went off in his head. He needed to be careful. He was on the path to understanding himself, to enlightenment. He couldn’t get caught up in another person’s drama, even if she happened to be a beautiful woman with an apparently beautiful heart.
As the plane approached Phoenix for landing, Elena pulled herself together. It had been comforting to share space with this man, but now she braced herself for the experience that lay ahead of her. She was there to begin a new life where she would put herself first for once.
She had no idea where she would go. She didn’t even know where she would be sleeping that night. Her friends had tried to convince her at least to set up a hotel room for her arrival in Sedona, but she had refused. She wanted destiny to lead her, free from the influence of her reasoning mind. She would be open to finding a place to stay once she arrived.
She and her row mate stood together waiting for their bags to appear on the baggage carousel. Elena realized this would likely be the last time she saw him and in all the hours they had spoken, they had not exchanged names. When remembering the alluring stranger that had accompanied her on that destined flight, she wanted to attribute a name to his face.
Elena turned to look at him. “I want to thank you for your compassion in listening to me. I’m still a bit embarrassed that I told you so many personal things,” she said.
He interrupted her. “Please,” he said in his musical Italian accent. “It was my pleasure to be there for you,” he said. To her astonishment, Elena realized that he meant it. She had become accustomed to men that were callous and apathetic but this perfect stranger had been genuinely happy to be present for her. She was speechless.
The man took the opportunity to ask Elena the question she had intended to ask him. “For when I think of you later, what is the name
of the beautiful woman I met on the flight from Detroit to Phoenix?” he asked.
She was flattered; he had called her beautiful. Though there had been a time when she had known she was beautiful, both on the outside and the inside, the trauma of past relationships with men that rejected her had devastated her self-confidence.
“My name is Elena,” she said.
“Elena,” he muttered. “That is not a very common name for this country.”
“That is because I am from Argentina. That is where my family is from,” she explained. “I have lived in this country only part of my life.”
“Ah,” he said. “Now it makes more sense.”
What made more sense? Elena was puzzled.
Knowing that she was from Argentina, though living in the United States, made more sense to him. There was something exotic about her. It was a mixture of different cultures, influenced by all the countries she had lived in and traveled to.
He had not been able to understand at the time. Though she sounded North American and did not look South American with her blonde hair and light features, there was something distinctly different about her. It was apparent that she was not of average Anglo-Saxon background. She had olive skin with a rose-colored tint and ultra-sensuous lips that made him think of juicy, ripe fruit. She had large sultry eyes, framed by arched brows that were slightly darker than her hair.
Her eyes were yellow and rich like amber. When he looked into Elena’s eyes, he saw in them the dormant passion of a lioness. He knew fire hid just beneath a veneer of trauma and pain. As Elena healed, the lioness would come out to roar. He was certain of it.
Elena looked back at him. He had been looking, almost without blinking, at her face for a full minute.
Elena interrupted his staring. “And what is your name?” she asked.
With difficulty, he pulled himself away from the mesmerizing features of her face. “My name is Marco,” he answered. “Marco Bianchi.
“And you are Elena what? What is your family name?” He wanted to be able to find her if he ever needed to—if her face and otherworldly allure haunted his dreams.
“My name is Elena,” she started but then stopped herself mid-sentence. “You know,” she said, “I don’t believe that I have a last name anymore.
“I was known by my father’s name for many years, and then by my ex-husband’s. I won’t do that any longer. Now, in my new life, I am me. Just me. I am no one else’s anything. So, Marco, I guess I don’t have a family name.”
She became more intriguing to Marco by the minute. “Okay, just Elena then. It has been a great pleasure meeting you. I hope to see you again someday. I really do.”
“If we are meant to see each other another time, I am sure we will,” Elena said. “I have handed my life over to destiny, Marco Bianchi.”
Elena picked up her bag when it made its way to her on the carousel. Then she smiled at Marco. It was a warm smile from the heart, expressing her genuine gratitude for having met him. It had been wonderful to meet a kind-hearted man after the men she had grown used to in her past. She took him in one last time, feeling a surge of attraction run through her. He looked seductive without even trying.
“Thank you, Marco. I am very grateful to have met you. Goodbye,” Elena said.
Then she turned and sashayed out of the terminal. When the automatic door moved open to make way for her, she broke into a grin that no one saw. She had always wanted to make a dramatic exit. It was like a scene from a movie. She knew without having to look that Marco’s astonished gaze had followed her every move out the door. That diva exit did her womanliness some good. She would be able to erase the patterns of rejection her ex-husband had put her through and remember that she was a beautiful woman—goddess-style.
5 Destiny Unfolds
How could there not be a single car for rent in the entire Phoenix airport? Elena couldn’t believe it. The employee that staffed the third and last car rental agency in the airport explained again.
“I am sorry, ma’am, but I can’t help you. Like I told you, there is a festival going on in Flagstaff over the next few days, and all of our cars have been reserved.”
“Okay,” Elena said, her mind already spinning wondering what she would do now.
The car rental employee was no more than twenty years old. He stared at Elena impatiently from behind shabby orange bangs and smeared glasses. He was wiry thin, and his skin was pasty from too much time spent in front of a computer screen.
“Can I have just a minute to think about what to do?” Elena asked. “I hadn’t anticipated this problem.”
The employee looked back at her noncommittally, bored with her already. There was nothing more he could do to help her.
“Is there some kind of other transportation that could take me to Sedona? A car or bus or something?” she asked.
“Well,” the employee said, “that may be a possibility. You usually have to make reservations in advance for the shuttle, but they may be able to fit you in.
“They are on the other end of this terminal,” he explained while pointing. “They have a yellow sign with a map of Arizona on it.”
“Okay, I’m going to go see if they can help me. But once I get to Sedona, I still won’t have a car,” she told the kid. “I guess I could just buy one.”
“Sure,” he said. “If you can’t rent a car, just buy one.”
He was mocking her, but the reality was that she would need to buy a car anyway.
“Do they have car dealerships in Sedona?” she asked him.
“Clearly you haven’t been to Sedona before,” he said.
Clearly, she hadn’t, because she had no idea what he meant. Elena was tired of his attitude and didn’t care to hang around to figure it out. She would find out soon enough, once she actually found a way to get to Sedona.
“Okay, thanks for your help,” Elena told the kid. “I’m going to try to find a shuttle.”
“Or buy a car,” he added.
It wasn’t that the kid was being incredibly rude; she just wasn’t in the mood to deal with his attitude. She spun around to go and ran into Marco.
Startled, she asked, “What are you doing here?”
Marco laughed aloud. “Surely you can’t be that surprised to find me in the airport when you just saw me here fifteen minutes ago.”
He had a point. It’s just that after her theatrical exit she hadn’t expected to see him again, especially not so soon.
He answered her question, “I am picking up a rental car to drive to Sedona.”
“Well, they don’t have any rental cars available in the entire Phoenix airport. I’ve checked all three rental companies,” she told him. “Apparently there is a shuttle that may be able to take us. I’m headed to the shuttle desk now if you want to join me.”
“I made a reservation. They have a car waiting for me,” Marco told her.
“Oh,” she said. It wasn’t the most eloquent of responses, but it was all she could muster. Her friends had tried to talk her into being responsible and making reservations.
Marco smiled. “Elena, you are welcome to ride with me.”
“That would be really great, thank you,” she said.
As Elena buckled herself into the passenger seat of a black sports car, she couldn’t help but wonder what destiny had in mind for her. She left the Phoenix airport behind riding with a handsome Italian spiritual seeker with determination to allow things to develop on their own for once.
“Destiny has a funny way of unfolding, doesn’t it, Elena?” Marco asked as they pulled out onto the highway. Elena looked over at him and thought she saw a mischievous smile sneak across his face.
Elena didn’t know what Sedona looked like. She had expected brown, dry landscapes typical of deserts. She was amazed at how different Sedona actually was; Elena had never seen anything like it before. The city was nestled in red mountains striated in tones of pink and orange that glowed like fire when the sun set.
Elena could t
ell Marco was amazed too. Like her, this was his first time out West. They had talked almost non-stop for the two-hour car ride, but now they were both quiet other than a few comments about the breathtaking view of Sedona. It felt like an enchanted place.
Elena realized what the young man at the rental agency had been talking about. Sedona was small, very small. One main road ran through the city, and it took less than ten minutes to drive from one edge of town to the other. Elena instantly loved it.
“Where are you staying?” Marco asked her.
“Would you be terribly surprised if I told you I have no idea?” she asked him with a smile. She had enjoyed his company so much during the drive that she had relaxed and no longer cared about little details like where she would sleep that night. Everything would work itself out.
He bellowed in laughter. “No, Elena, I would not. I would expect nothing less of you.”
Elena jerked her head up out of habit. She had developed many defensive reactions to the judgment and unkind mockery that she had received from her ex-husband. But as Elena met Marco’s eyes, she found only good-natured playfulness there. Her defenses melted away.
“Where are you staying?” she asked.
“Does it surprise you that I do not know either?” he said and smiled at her warmly.
She smiled back.
“Let’s try this place,” he said gesturing to a lodging sign up ahead. “Does that sound good?” he asked.
She nodded. She didn’t really care where she stayed that night; almost any place would have been fine. What she did care about was that he had included her in his plans. That felt nice. She felt like she had a friend. Though she had only met him early that morning, Elena trusted Marco. She liked him and he was fun. It was nice and refreshing to look at a friendly face.
Marco was unusual in some ways for an Italian just as Elena was unique for an Argentinean. Marco had long, blonde hair that he wore pulled into a ponytail at the base of his neck. It was thick and lustrous. A day-old beard made his eyes more piercing. He carried himself with humble confidence in a button-down olive green shirt, khaki pants, and beautifully crafted brown leather shoes.