Chasing The Sun

Chapter 16 - Ghosts of the Past

Amada simply couldn't fall asleep tonight. After rolling and kicking in bed for what felt like hours in an effort to find a comfortable sleeping position, she realized her mind was the problem. Something bothered her and just wouldn't let her relax. The digital clock on the nightstand next to her showed 2:28.

She sat up and stared at the stars through the open french door. After a few more minutes, she decided there was no way she could force herself to sleep, so she might as well find something to do, she could always nap during the day, tomorrow.

Amada went to her closet and grabbed her tablet from her backpack. Since she hadn't found the time -or need- to use it since their arrival, the device was still fully charged. She quietly stepped outside on the balcony and sat on a long chair, then powered on her tablet and spend a few minutes catching up with emails from friends. She read most of them but didn't really feel like replying to any of them.

Something was still troublesome, a feeling that she was missing something. A sensation of an important fact floating around her, but she was unable to pinpoint it. Her hands still on the touch-screen, she let her eyes wander over the tree line, her long hair gently tickled by the night breeze. She was remembering the last few days spent on the property. She loved the scenery and ammenities here, and she had never felt so alive in a long time. Alive was maybe not the correct word, she was feeling free and daring, a sensation she had dreamed of many times but never had been through while awake.

She shook the sensation away and her eyes went back to the screen, reading the last few emails on the open window. The last one was from her mother. She said she had tried to reach her by text but wasn't sure if the message had made it accross the Atlantic Ocean. Amada smiled imagining her mom trying to understand how texts actually travelled. With the time difference, it was close to mid-morning in Tarragona, Spain. Amada put the tablet aside and went back inside to get her phone. She hadn't talked to her mom in too long, now was the perfect time to do it.

After punching in the international code and her mom's cell number, she slowly walked back outside and stood by the curved iron grid of the balcony. It took a good 8 rings before her mom finally answered the phone.

"Si, Hola?" Greeted her. Amada smiled, happy to hear her mom's comforting voice.

"Mama. It's me, Amada."

"Oh... my beautiful. Como estas carina?"

"I'm doing great, mom." Amada answered in English. Her Spanish was quite good but she always felt intimidated to speak in that language with her mom. That uneasiness had forced her mother to improve her own English so they could converse in English at all times.

"Baby, it must be early in America. What's wrong?"

"Nothing, mother." Amada replied quickly, not wanting her to worry. "I just couldn't fall asleep and was going through my emails. I saw you tried to reach me so I thought I'd give you a call."

"Oh. Que buena hija eres tu!" Her mom started in Spanish, then quickly went back to her daughter's preferred language. "I don't remember why I sent you that message." Amada couldn't help but feel good about hearing her mom speak english for her, rolling her r's as if her tongue was dancing the flamenco in her mouth. "Probably nothing."

The mother and daughter spent a few more minutes of genuine feel-good conversation when Mama Garcia finally recalled the reason she had tried to reach Amada.

"Hija, I remember... I keep receiving letters for you from that orphanage we visited in Jakarta. Do you want me to forward them to you?" Her mother asked.

Amada froze. Her eyes looking far far away in the distance, but seeing nothing. Nothing but that far land in Southeast Asia. And, again, feeling the same sensation of uneasiness as earlier when she couldn't fall asleep.