It had all seemed so long ago and far away.

Lena’s first trip to Venice was almost twenty years ago. That fact stunned her as she sat on the passenger jet airliner over the Mediterranean Sea and circled for an approach to the airport near Venice.

Her first trip to Venice was all by ship and train.

This time, she had to take two pills to overcome her fear of flying to get onboard this miracle of science that put humans into the air like soaring birds. The impossibility of such a heavy piece of machinery rising up to 30,000 feet and then floating like a huge prehistoric bird defying the laws of gravity boggled her mind with doubt.

In a way, it was painful for Lena to remember that first trip to Venice.

It was where she had met the always smiling Bob with his youthful enthusiasm that seemed typically American with presumptuous confidence that he and his country had to lead the remainder of the planet to the happy banquet of prosperity and success. At first, she hated him for his egotistical assumption that because he was American, he had to be right.

She knew without a doubt that she was far too creative to worry about right or wrong.

The temptation to let the politicians and the generals rule the world and leave ordinary people alone rode her shoulders like a shroud of disturbing unconcern. When she was younger like that time almost twenty years ago in Venice, she had the fire in her belly to change the world.

To make it a better place.

She so much wanted a cleaner place with no nuclear waste, no smog to dirty the air, no dirt to clog the water supply and no violence to prey on the weaker parts of society in ways that degraded all humanity.

In the rosy atmosphere of her youth, she assumed everyone wanted that. At the very least, everyone should want it if they understood the challenges of the alternatives and the risky avenues of a world less idealistic.

While the airplane was still in the air, she wondered if Venice would look the same.

One looks at photos and the answer seems obvious. Of course it does. It remains the same because some things never change.

The Coliseum in Rome still had vestiges of the original splendor even in acute disrepair.

The London Bridge stands always at the ready for moving traffic and people to and fro.

The Parthenon in Athens in glorious splendor like a beautiful woman donning a bikini at the beach to reveal her secrets to all that viewed.

The aircraft was descending now.

She was in the first class section because her boss had upgraded her ticket at company expense to thank her for a year of profitable design strategies. This was her first vacation in almost five long years and she was looking forward to it with nostalgia. Of course, she knew she couldn’t go back again like some time traveler with options. In fact, she wasn’t even sure that she wanted to go back at all. After all, she had, not one, but two accomplished lovers and each one was adequately devoted to her adoration. She was in a world that she never had when she was young. Young and in love all the time, with life, with boys and even with herself because she felt so utterly confident.

No, it was far better to have two handsome men that adored her and loved every inch of her still beautiful body. She kept them at a distance from each other despite the fact they were well aware of the other’s existence. One of them was a married man and had no less than four children. He was her weekday man because they worked together on almost every project. Their weekday lunches with time enough for delightful coupling still wearing all their clothes was her special treat and she relished the view of them standing joined together in the full length mirrors of the locked bathroom at his club. She still called him “Mister” because he was a few levels above her in the organizational structure, but when he was inside her she insisted on calling him darling and he called her, “My dear”.

The other man was her favorite.

He had the biggest male equipment and he had love-making skills that he had learned over the years from women that understood the needs of human interaction. She loved the touch of his little moustache on her charm point just above her vaginal opening and the wetness of his tongue up deep into her feminine core at times they wanted a more intense experience. She was always quick to return the favor with him because he appreciated it so much and begged her not to stop.

The plane was already landed and they were disembarking now in the full brightness of the mid-afternoon sun. The passengers filed across gleaming flat surface between the yellow lines that showed their route to the customs desk. This flight had come from Rome, so there were no delays to be expected like on other flights from countries other than Italy. The arrival center and the departure center were separated unlike most of the airports that she had been in.

She forgot completely about her two male admirers that would jump at the opportunity to kiss her toes or lick her in places that she simply adored. In fact, the moment she got off the aircraft, she forgot their names and they occupied no space in her thinking processes.

It was like a religious person being “born again” and having a fresh outlook on life and love and everything in between.

She handed her papers to the hotel clerk with a tentative smile. Lena knew her photo was a disaster but one has such difficulties in explaining lighting to a bureaucrat. Her room was on the top floor. She was not quite certain if that was a good thing or a bad thing. The bellboy was actually a seriously older man with a crooked back that made him seem a full foot shorter than he really stood. It was so ridiculous that she was tempted to carry the bag for him.