Date: Fri, 8 Jan 2021 22:47:56 -0600 From: Billy Wright Subject: Us, For You (Chapter 14) This story is fiction, based on real events, but fiction. This is the final part of the series that includes five chapters so... you are in for a final ride, a final boy and a final everything. (I'm a college student so you'll have to forgive me if I don't upload that often). If you'd like to talk to me about anything, here is my email: billy.alexander.wright@gmail.com ------------------------------------ ------------------------------------ *** Characters *** *Alex - Me (16) *Chris - My brother and frenemy (2 years older) *Minakami - Japanese boy, kind, daring and helpful (same age as me) *Ekrem - Turkish boy, warm, caring and sweet (2 years older) *Baruk - Ekrem's boyfriend (1 year older) ------------------------------------ ------------------------------------ *** Part 4, Finale *** Skyscraper Constellations 1 (?) There was something different in the air. The smell of flowers, dew and garden was slowly being replaced by that of the san, sun and lemonade. There was still a month of classes left but you could already smell the summer. "Alexander!" My father greeted me as soon as I got home. That was unusual, normally he got home after me, yet there he was, with my mother and brother, in the middle of the living room with a computer in front of them. "You got here just on time, we are going to vote." "Vote?" "For our next vacations." "But..." I stopped for a second. "We've never chosen where to go." The trip to Japan had been a courtesy of the company my father worked for, we went to Turkey because my mother had a conference there and Czech Republic had been a school trip. "That's why this time we are going to choose," my mother pointed to the screen where were an endless number of pictures where. "These are the options," there was a cold place with lots of gardens, a city with wide squares and another with the biggest buildings I had even seen. "They are Seoul on South Korea, Buenos Aires in Argentina and New York in the United States." "We picked Buenos Aires for the discounts, New York because Chris said it had things each one of us liked and Seoul because... well, because it's cool." I raised my eyes. "Have you already voted?" My father moved his head side to side. "We were waiting for you." That was new, interesting. I liked it. We all took a piece of paper and wrote the name of the city we wanted to vote for. It wasn't secret but we agreed that all votes would count as one point but, since my parents were the ones paying, their votes would count as two. In the end, the four of us put our papers in front of the table, facing down. "Who's first?" We all exchanged looks, insecure. "Cowards," my father said, joking. "I'll go first," he said while turning his paper. It said Seoul. I sighed before realizing that my parents and brother had their eyes on me, I was next. Slowly I turned my paper around. It said Buenos Aires. I wasn't sure but there was something about that city that called me, I didn't knew a lot about South America but I wanted to change that. Then my mother's turn came and, to my surprise, it didn't said Seoul as I thought, it said New York. "What?" She defended herself. "I've always wanted to see a musical in Broadway." I smiled but I was actually nervous. We all turned to Chris. My vote was in danger. Buenos Aires had one point while Seoul and New York had two. If Chris also voted for Buenos Aires then all three cities would be tied and, maybe due to the price, Buenos Aires would win. My brother, slowly, delicately, turned his paper around. There, in blue ink and with Chris' uneven letter, there were two words. They weren't, however, the two words I had been hoping for. His vote said: New York. ** "It's because of his girlfriend," I told the screen. "That's why he voted for New York. It's not because he wants to go there, not really, it's because his girlfriend will be there for the summer so he wants to go see her." "Wait," Minakami, my Japanese friend, answered through the other side. "Chris has a girlfriend?" "I didn't know either," I explained. "Do you remember the boy from Prague, from Czech Republic?" "The other Alex?" "No, not that one. And he wasn't Alex, well his name was Alexjei, I'm Alexander but it doesn't matter. Not him, I'm talking about the other one, the one from my school, the golden-haired boy, remember him? Well, do you remember his sister? I told you that Chris kicked me out of the room several times to be with her and, well, turns out they are now a couple. I'm sure Chris only voted for New York so he could see her. And not only that, Chris said we shouldn't go as soon as the vacations arrived as my parents said we would, he spent three hours talking them into changing the date to the middle of the summer. He must really be in love with that girl, I had never seen him make that big of an effort for anything before." "Chris' intentions aside, New York doesn't sound that bad," Minakami was yawning, the sun had just come out in Japan. "Actually, it sounds pretty good, not as good as Tokio but pretty good." I laughed a little with that. "I've never liked the idea of going to the old US of A, it's like a... hot dog, nice but only okay. I'm not sure I want to taste it." "Hey, what did we learn in Turkey?" "That it's okay to enjoy life," I replied. "Seize Turkey. That was my mantra." "Well, yes but, what else?" I remembered the moment when I found out that Ekrem had a boyfriend and how surprised I was to find out that he and Baruk had an open relationship. At first I wanted nothing to do with them but, thanks to Minakami, I found out that things were more complex than that: "I should give new things a change, even things I had never thought about." And truth is, I had never thought of New York. True, movies, books and stuff like that loved to feature it but it had never caught my eye. That night I also would've wanted to talk with Ekrem and Baruk but they were out on a date, if it was just by themselves or with someone else, they didn't say but they were a couple, dates were a regular thing. Maybe that's why Minakami was the one I talked to the most. However, next day, they said the same thing: New York sounded like an adventure. ** When we voted we were a month away from vacations and another month and a half away from the trip. Yet, those two months and a half flew by. Before I realized the school year was over and the plane was landing. Outside of the airport I didn't found the great metropolis I had imagined, nor the huge buildings or the busy streets movies often featured. However, people did seem to be in a hurry. "You are thinking of La Guardia," my father replied. "This is JFK." As per my mother's and brother's request, we didn't take a taxi (with those infernal prices) and chose to buy four temporal metro cards. My mother was beyond excited for getting on the New York subway. Even I had to admit it felt like I was in a movie. It took us longer than I thought to get there and it was uncomfortable to be inside the metro with suitcases, however, as soon as we got out we found our first New York experience: music. There, right in the intersection of the subway there was a man playing the clarinet next to a woman playing the saxophone. The four of us stopped to look at them, as if the suitcases alone weren't enough to give away the fact that we were tourists. "Wow," was the only thing I was able to say. The guy was good but the woman was amazing, she wasn't only good, she was a wonder with the sax. It was astonishing how few people stopped to hear them. Were New Yorkers really too busy to enjoy life or was the city's talent so plentiful that I hadn't even seen the start of it? A little bit of both, I found out with time. We kept walking until we were a block away from the hotel. It was weird how familiar everything was, a city I had seen so many times on screen before that those metro signs, the taxies and the facades were all familiar. When we got out, we were in the heart of Manhattan. The skyscrapers next to us, so tall and full of colors, life, the sound, vibrant, chaotic, deafening, the air, the cold, the city's action. It was all incredible. "So this is why they call it the Center of the World," said my mother, impressed. We walked towards the hotel, it was only a block away but that couldn't have been farther away. "And now I understand why they call it the Big Apple," my father complained. As was customary by now, when we arrived at the hotel my parents went to one room and me and my brother went to the other. They gave us thirty minutes to unpack and relax before going to the Big City. Chris looked at me confused when he saw me making myself a cup of coffee. "What?" I asked taking a sip. "It's the City that Never Sleeps, I need to be ready." He rolled his eyes but, this time, instead of walking away he came towards me and started making his own cup of coffee. "You, mom and dad think you are so funny with your bad jokes, right?" "What are you talking about? My jokes are the best." "Saying all the cities nicknames isn't special. This city has more names than a Hispanic girl," said Chris, I stayed quiet. "What? He have a little bit of Latino blood, we can make those kinds of jokes. Besides, you laughed a little." "Only a little," I admitted. "But it's still racist." "Whatever," Chris put his cup to the side. "Out of all of the city's nicknames, which one do you like the most?" "That one," I answered immediately. "The City that Never Sleeps. You?" Chris didn't have to think it. "New York, New York, the City so Great They Named it Twice." "That counts?" "Of course! The best things are done twice, haven't you seen that's how it is called? New York, New York." "That's because one is New York City and another is the state of New York." "Exactly, the City so Great They Named it Twice." I rolled my eyes and chucked with that. That day, due to the time, we didn't have a chance to do much. We walked through Broadway in the night, had dinner at Hard Rock and went to Time's Square, that great place where all the billboards shined around us. It was overwhelming, partly, yet, it was also impossible not to feel that there, right there, everything was possible. That night, during dinner, we talked about all our past trips: Turkey, Japan and Czech Republic. We talked about all the things we regretted not doing and how this time we were not going to let the opportunity get away. When our parents asked us about how Prage had been, a lot of memories rushed back, one in particular had been bothering me for a while. When we got back to our rooms, that memory was still with me. It was the moment after Alexjei and I had our final fight, after he kicked me out of the apartment, when Chris found me crying on the street. "Who goes out like that just to see a boy? And without telling anybody!" The thought tormented me. "Chris said that I went out to see a boy," I thought. "How did he know that?" I turned in my bed to see him. The light was off, Chris was sleeping, I could hear him snore. "Did Chris know I liked boys? But how? I had never told him, I had never told anyone." I wasn't in denial, confused or didn't trust my family, I just never had seen the need to come out. So, I was surprised when I heard him say that. "Does it show?" I raised the blankets and looked at my body, dressed in nothing but boxers, like I could check that way. According to me no one could guess it just by looking at me. I wasn't feminine nor delicate. True, I didn't like soccer or cars but I liked watching American football and videogames. "You are thinking of stereotypes," a part of me said. "Things aren't always what they seem." That was true. I sighed. Things aren't always what they seem. The next morning we all got up early to go to breakfast and see the first passengers at Grand Central Station. I thought it was a weird place to go when my parents suggested it but as soon as we arrived I understood: it was magnificent, golden, and splendid. A couple was there, dressed for a wedding, taking pictures. My parents walked towards them and watched. "This is where they probably met," my mother suggested. "Or where he proposed to her," my father speculated. With everything that was going on, with choosing where to go, visiting the city and Chris, I hadn't stop to think that I hadn't yet met a boy on that trip. That was odd but until now I hadn't even payed attention to the people around me, not even at the hotel. I smiled, maybe I didn't need a boy to enjoy a trip. When we left the station we walked to our next destination: the Empire State. Yet, right there, outside the building was the answer to the theory I had had all along, the answer to the why we had gone to New York: a blond girl, almost as tall as me, with a purse and a hat, was waving at us. It was Chris' girlfriend. Chris walked towards her and greeted her with a hug and a quick kiss. My parents weren't surprised. "Chris probably asked for permission," I knew immediately. I wasn't sure how I felt about my brother's girlfriend joining our vacation but I didn't have much time to ponder because just then I saw who was next to her. I seemed like Chris' girlfriend hadn't come here by herself: she had brought her brother. The golden-haired boy, the one from Prague, the one from school, and the one I abandoned to be with Alexjei. "Welcome to New York!" Chris' girlfriend greeted us. My parent's smiled, Chris did so too. Only the golden-haired boy and I didn't, we were looking at the other. "Okay," I said to myself. "Now I see what God has planned for me." ------------------------------------ ------------------------------------ Part 4, the final part. Here is where everything ends. Did you expected to see the golden-haired boy again? You know what they say: New York is the city so great they named it twice and great thing are meant to be done twice. Oh and please, don't forget to donate!