I just didn’t know if I would be here.
“Yeah,” I said, “just try to catch the right train, okay?”
She looked at me with hermadface for barely two seconds, and we burst out laughing.
“I forgot to tell you something!”she announced enthusiastically.“There’s this festival on my future campus.It happens every year.And you know that bandSwitcherooyou told me about?They played there last year, and the year before.Maybe they’ll be back next year or the year after!We should go; you could meet me there!Consider this an early official invite.”
“Sounds like a plan.”I smiled at her.“Early invite officially accepted.”
Chapter 22
Miles
May 20th, 1999
Thursday
Muriel and Joseph left the Youth Club room after helping me store the instruments in their respective boxes.They were both eight-year-old boys, always going everywhere together, very devoted and enthusiastic guitar students.
“Come look at the sunset!”Ella showed up at the doorway out of nowhere.
I didn’t even know she was at the CIC today.How she managed to be everywhere all the time was beyond my comprehension.
“C’mon!”She stepped into the room, demanding that I go.
I giggled at her enthusiasm.“I am looking at it!”I pointed to the window.
“No,” she shook her head.“Really come see it.”
I followed her out of the room at a fast pace.
We passed by Miss Amara, who didn’t stop our brisk walking.“Where are you two kids running to?”she asked.
“To look at the sky!”Ella spun around as she answered, and Miss Amara’s laugh echoed in the hallway where we left her.
Ella and I watched the sunset on the horizon, the sky painted in shades of orange, pink, and purple, all melting slowly into the darker blue where some stars were beginning their night show.
When we returned to the CIC, she was running late to a dance class she’d signed up for.So we said goodbye.
I went back to the Youth Club to grab my guitar.
Miss Amara was in the hallway again, going in the opposite direction from earlier.
“You know,” she looked straight into my eyes, “sometimes we need these more sensitive people in our life.Because they bring a meaning to it we weren’t used to.You start seeing small parts of the world in a different light.”
I knew who she was talking about.And I knew what she meant by the words “more sensitive”.I hoped Ella would always be the person who got excited about the change of season, the sound of the ocean, the smell of rain, starry nights, and “really” watching a sunset.
I parked the car in front of my house and went to close the gate.My mom was having dinner out with her new boyfriend, who had come to pick her up at 7 p.m., according to the note she left for me on the kitchen counter.Frankly, the only thing I liked about him was precisely that he would come pick her up and give me the possibility of driving around in her car.
He was an agricultural engineer who was in Evermere for a period of six months to work at the Ericksons’ farm and help them improve their crops and farming techniques.
His opinions seemed to matter more than everyone else’s, and he was “most certainly” always right, as he would say.He carried himself as though the world owed him something.
I didn’t like him, but at least he was not a fraud.He was openly and undeniably a snobbish clown.At least he wouldn’t end up showing two faces like my stepfather did, pretending to be one thing and then betraying us overnight.Ben was still the only one of my mom’s boyfriends I ever calledstepfather.The only one I thought I could, and the only one I truly felt I wanted to.
But the new boyfriend, Mister Engineer, was just another one.He was someone I could see through, and hoped my mom would move on from once he was gone.
My thoughts didn’t linger there for long.I was in a good mood.I had been for a while.Evermere and its green mountains had grown into me.The people of this small town no longer felt like strangers, they were slowly starting to feel like a community I was becoming a part of.The feeling of disorientation had been replaced by Miss Amara’s presence and guidance.And the feeling of loneliness had been replaced by Ella’s company and care.
