2024: diary of a girl in her 20s

03.30 The Cairo's Cross weekend

In the morning, we awoke at 10:30 approx, but it took us several hours to began cleaning and packing up the place. All of us talked in bed, the windows open, light rain sound in the back, a smell of fresh grass, is discussing who was going to go turn off the stove of the coffee that was brewing, realizing we had no milk. Archer and I rested one against the other with our backs against the wall, Mike and Van fought on the bed, Julie and Luke talked closely.

We cleaned up, cleaned our shoes and the cars outside, closed with a key, and left. We took a stop in Uhab's lakeside store to buy milk, cheese and bread.

We resumed our driving until we reached Winterglen, Archer's hometown.

In Winterglen, we parked and walked into Archer's hometown house, which is a beautiful restored rural home of several floors. It brought memories back, last time I had been there had been more than a year back.

His father was expecting us upstairs, cooking some food. We began setting the table, cutting the cheese and serving the wine and soon we were all sat down having good times remembering the night before. Towards the end, Mike, Luke and Edward (Archer's dad) got involved in a very interesting conversation about the Ukraine war and anti-arms politics. Suddenly Edward asked the boys "what would you do if you were sent to war in a year from now, which is, potentially, a realistic scenario?" and soon the conversation became quite depressing, about memories from the civil war.

After lunch we had coffee and tea, and we talked about other social topics such as identity in the era of consumerism, which didn't really lead anywhere since we couldn't agree on a base definition of consumerism to begin with.

Then it was time to go home. We helped clean and packed our things. Archer and I were left alone for some seconds at the end and he said "give me a goodbye hug". I did and could see something in the way we looked at each other like there were things left to say. I told him I might organize something in my hometown for the summer, he said he was glad to come, we hugged again, then I left. I ran into Edward on the door and I said goodbye to him too.

We drove back to Cairo's Cross and Julie and I helped Luke unpack at his place.

We walked home under heavy rain and for a second I had a memory of Cloyd and I running through the streets of Warsaw under a heavy storm two summers ago now.

We arrived home and Julie showered. She told me that she was confused. She likes Luke, she always has, but she doesn't want to hurt Mike, who still has some feelings for her. She then went out with her sister Lucy, who was moving out to France the next day.

I showered and stayed in her room reading Dubliners. She was back in two hours and we talked on the bed. Then I packed my things in my school bag, and we went downstairs. On the door, we ran into her mother, who was back from a trip, and we said hello and goodbye.

Julie and I stopped at a liquor store to buy Rhiy, a typical drink of Cairo's Cross, as a gift for my friends. Then we went to Ruiz and I bought a croissant sandwich and a coconut half moon, which was Julie's favourite desert as a little child.

She then walked me to the bus stop under the rain, we waited for the train, and eventually, we said goodbye and I rode to the train station.

My train was a little delayed, but it was all fine. I listened to music and arrived in Sun Valley at 23:20 in the night. I took the underground from Genièvre to A-Lane, walked home, and went almost straight to bed.