Untrodden

05. At the gates

Honk! Honk! Bellowed the surprisingly loud bike filled with a bazillion stickers. And the noises only stopped not because of a few annoyed looks from the people at their apartment's windows but because a startled young lad finally decided to appear in the gates.

"Finally the sleeping beauty has awoken!" proclaimed loudly the miss on the bike. Her dark hair waving happily by the strumming of the wind and her green eyes winking impatiently.

"Sorry, Suzie. I lost track of the time talking with my father."

"Oh, Richard," immediately she laid off her smile and put on a sterner look. "You should not get distracted on your first day at the Collegium."

"I know, sorry," said Richard getting on the bike and embracing Suzie's waist.

She left a delicate sigh as she felt his arms encircling. Then with a tiny bit of reluctance said:

"It's been some time since you both chatted. Richard is not the most talkative person. So I believe you had a lot to say."

"Kinda," said Raymond dismissively.

"I hope he is ok. He is a good person, your dad."

'Wow,' thought Raymond, 'this is progress!' He then pressed one of his hands gently on Suzana's shoulder. "He is fine. He told me to say 'Hi' for him."

"Pfft!" gushed Suzie, "tell him I've said 'hi' too. Now, buckle-up buckaroo, we going fast!".

And the bike roared fast and away it went. At the window Richard looked them rapidly disappear around the block.

"Do you need to go this fast, Suzie?"

"It is not that fast, don't be a scaredy kobold! This bike can't even go beyond 30 miles!"

They were screaming, their voices fighting the speed and the wind as the bike rolled through the streets.

"But we still have a lot of time before class!"

"Yeah, but we have to get early for you the meet the guys. Come on, I thought you got over that fear. Yesterday you were not complaining".

"I was not verbalizing my complaint."

"Wow, verbalizing, big word for a big boy. I guess we can go faster then."

"Suzie, waait!"

They followed the streets of the city who merged together in a very well-planned grid. Of course, some parts of it got a little chaotic. With the economic boom and the renovated interests on the mining sites, what was once a very meticulous planning became not so meticulous. So, you had those very well established construction sites and procedures on one side, and some very disorganized ones in the other. When all that money came down from the asterium deposits the High Council signed every expansion project they could lay eyes upon. This backfired a bit with the real state crisis around a decade ago, stranding the city in a sort of building limbo. But things are now coming back together. More jobs, more construction...and, of course, more seats in the Collegium for aspiring students.

Now beyond the tiny narrow streets inside the city blocks and riding through the central highway of Gallupa, the two were on their way to the Collegium. Suzana, knowing very well how distracted Ray was yesterday, repeated her presentation of the city sites: the Wayne Center department store, the vampire High Council, the Arcane Gathering, the park Grove of Artemis, the new and improved convention center...

And again, Raymond started to doze off. It was not because of tiredness alone of the restless night, but instead for the whimsical nature of that reunion. He could still remember vividly her departure one year ago. The tears both of them shed. The trembling of voices and the dour gray mist that occupied his mind since Suzana moved to Gallupa.