Clementine had become a wild child. Born in America but raised abroad, she now had little regard for the expectations of high society. But her reckless ways eventually catch up with her when she is kicked out of college in New York City and forced t...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
27
At home, Clementine helped her mother tend to the garden. Even though they had 'people' for that, there was a part of this duty that her mother saved for herself out of sheer enjoyment. And Clementine liked having the chance to do something together.
They were fixing flowers that were more tropical than anything you'd find in a city in America, and for a moment it made Clementine feel like she was in a fantasy world, like Neverland, instead of what used to be a jungle in Brazil. Though perhaps that was pretty closer.
"Mina's mother tells me you two saw each other right before, well, the incident," Her mother stated. Casually, not looking up from the flower bed, her eyes and face shaded by a large pair of sunglasses and a floppy hat. Her mother, always going on about protecting yourself form sun damage.
Clementine pause, because she didn't expect that she would know, but of course in a circle as small as theirs, it didn't surprise her.
"Yes, I saw her at the studio. She invited me this weekend actually, but obviously that's out of the question now," Clementine was testing her mother's boundary.
Since seeing Zico, she rummaged her mind trying to figure out a way to get to the party under her new stringent living conditions, living in a sort of lockdown.
"On the contrary, actually. Your father and I don't want you running around God knows where, but it might be useful for you to have some connection, somebody useful to look up to and somebody to guide you. Mina is a very smart girl, she's responsible. And if some of that rubs off on you, that would already be a win in my books." Finally, herm other looked up at her, and Clementine tried to understand what she was saying.
"You mean," Clementine putting her gardening tools down and taking off her gloves to let her skin breathe a bit in the heat, "you'd let me go with her this weekend?"
"Yes, on strict conditions of course. Just there and back, and you'd be with Mina the whole time. It would do you good," gently smiling at Clementine, her mother took off her own gloves and took a breath in, exhaling slowly. "I'm a bit tired, actually. Must be the heat. I'm going to go lie down." Getting up off her knees, she looked back at Clementine and said simply, "see you at dinner."
Clementine had a hard time focusing on anything else before dinner other than how she was going to escape to see him that weekend. It's as if she was so close, a clear path forward, and yet so far away - an obstacle.
She knew that this time, if she was going to fo out with Mina, whether it was the country club or something along those lines, there would be little opportunity to escape without Mina going on about it and it going back to her mother.
Unless...unless she didn't tell anyone. She knew it would be harder to pull this off alone but at least it will be fool proof. Clementine sat in her room, with nothing much else to do than to torture herself with her foolish dilemmas.
Falling back on her bed, and exhaling, blowing ap piece of hair away from her face, she stared at the ceiling fan going in circles. Again, and again, until she was lulled into a hypnotic sleep.
She dreamt of jungles. Of running through the Amazon river, of being in a lush and green place. Fertile with life. She was alone, but she wasn't afraid. Suddenly, she came upon a small village, there were some people she somehow knew, some she didn't. Then, Zico's face came into formation. She knew it was him but she had no way of touching him or reaching out to him. He was on the opposite side of the village, and though he glanced at her - he saw her - there was no way to talk to him. As if there was a glass wall between them, and he was untouchable. She tried to scream, but he didn't hear her. Others looked at her, talked to her, but he was gone.
Clementine woke up in a cold sweat, her gold necklaces tangled at her chest, and she reminds herself that she needs to be more careful. She looked at the alarm, and the bamboo covered walls tried to ground herself in the room. And though it didn't seem like a long time that she was sleeping, it was long enough for her to have to take a moment to shake of the dream like quality to the day.
Then her problem came back to her, and she felt a bit like junkie, trying her hardest to hide her addiction. Trying her hardest to score again.
