Half A Day Away

Chapter 7 ▪ Blossoms

Thus Emily did meet a boy...from the Philippines...on Le Bab. Emily looked back over these past two months with astonishment. Astonishment at the accelerated pace at which she and Paulo [nee Dantellos] had become close. A closer relationship, she admitted to herself, than with any other person of the opposite sex in her short history of dating. She thought about him constantly. It took effort to focus on Trigonometry, U. S. History, and Chemistry, when your thoughts gravitated across the vast Pacific, to a chain of seven-thousand islands -

"Emily - aren't you coming to dinner dear?"

Her mind was jolted back abruptly to her own continent. "Oh yeah, of course Mom."

Emily - lying prone on her bed - simultaneously swiveled her body toward the door of her bedroom where mother's voice emanated, while closing the case of her tablet in one fluid motion with her knee. Paulo would have to wait till later.

And it wouldn't do to tell her parents about Paulo. They had warned her many times about the real threat of internet predators. She had even read about a few cases in North Carolina and the southern U.S. involving abductions and even worse - usually of young teenage girls deceived by the worst kind of evil. But she was confident that Paulo was genuine. Wasn't he?

She hadn't even confided to Joy the full extent of her relationship with Paulo. They could have named the site after her, Emily reflected - she was a bab. She couldn't help herself and loved to talk. Too dangerous to spill all of the beans, so she had minimized the whole thing. But still, Joy had been responsible for bringing them together.

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1:43am Asheville, NC USA

1:43pm Manila, PH

"I'm keeping you awake. You need to sign off."

"I don't ever want to sign off! I want to see you, be with you!"

"Of course you know I want that too, but it's difficult." Now, I am signing off for your own good. We can talk tomorrow. Good night Emily."

But she couldn't sleep. She thought of the private electronic messages on Le Bab as real conversation. She could imagine the tone and pitch of Paulo's voice as he spoke to her. She would often find herself scrolling back through them, reliving the moments they had shared. He had sent her pictures of himself; playing basketball with his friends and cousins, a school picture, and one by the ocean. She longed to put one on her phone or tablet background, but that was out of the question. She would get the same old lecture about the dangers of internet stalkers pretending to be someone they're not. A danger she acknowledged, but could not fathom being present in the boy she had begun to love...

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Paulo was reflecting on his life. Not an altogether common practice for those young and headstrong. But still, he thought of deeper things than most teenagers he knew. Where was this relationship heading? How could it have a chance at all? Too much time and distance... But was it really?

His parents had tried to encourage his interest in some of the young ladies that attended their church, or in daughters of the families that were close to his own within their part of the city. But he had not found the "one." Now he was becoming more lovestruck with Emily than ever before. What if they could never meet in person? Can love survive such monumental geographical and cultural boundaries? That's why he had not told any of his family or friends about his long-distance love interest. They wouldn't understand anyway; only try and talk him out of this nonsense.

But it wasn't nonsense...at least not to him. And he was sure that Emily felt the same way. There just had to be a way to see her!

Paulo strolled through the side streets of his neighborhood; a mixture of houses stacked next to each other, markets and shops, parks, and plenty of traffic. As he passed by a small flower shop, he stopped and remembered:

6:08am Asheville, NC USA

6:08pm Manila, PH

"I can't believe I'm saying this...I've never said this to any boy before. I think I am falling in love with you." I am amazed that I just typed that, but it's true!"

" I know, it's crazy. I think I feel the same way. I have never met anyone like you. I can talk to you like I cannot talk to anyone here in my country. I really love our short bursts of time together, and I love you."

"Our love has blossomed like a bulaklak [flower]!"

Paulo turned off the translate function in his private messages to Emily. He wanted her to hear as he spoke, in Tagalog. Now if he could only hold his precious bulaklak.