Under the Palm Trees

December 22, Friday

The next morning I woke up for the loud buzzing sound of our car as it went slowly down the asphalted road. I struggled myself up into sitting position and looked up, through the windshield and realized that it was already morning! How the hell can I sleep that much?????

"Good morning sleeping beauty! Did you sleep well? Sorry for waking you up...I bought you a croissant and a coffee for breakfast! I tried them myself and they were pretty good!" said Ethan, weakening me up from the storm of my thoughts.  

"Yeah, thanks! Uhm, How long have we been traveling?" I asked as I tried to untangle my long hair, with, sadly, no results (that is what happens when you forgot to bring your hairbrush on a road trip...Oh well...). 

"Around an hour, not much, " he said, peering at me in the rear-view window.  

" Until then you should probably eat some breakfast!" he enjoined, just like how my mother would have said...maybe THEY are relatives...

I quickly ate my croissant and gulped my hot coffee down my throat. I set the bag aside and looked up at Ethan in the mirror. I saw concentration written on his face, his narrowed eyebrows and his eyes stuck to the road. When he noticed me staring at him, I quickly turned away and pretended to be searching for something in my bag (probably a hairbrush...I was really praying for one!).  I knew I saw a little smile hiding under his nose!

For about 4 hours as we traveled, we talked mostly about music genres and we sang along the songs he put on from iTunes. We sang along "Thinking out loud" by my fave, Ed, and "24K magic"...it was so good listening to his favorite songs (which later on became mines too) and listening to the top lists. 

"We'll arrive at our destination in 10 minutes." He said, breaking the middle of "Perfect" with Ed and Rihanna. 

"Aye, Aye captain!" I shouted, just like in the theme song of Sponge Bob Squarepants (btw I loved that cartoon when I was little!).

...

It was already sunset when we got to the small village. We were in a parking lot and in front of us was a building and a text written on it with fluorescent blue letters: "Finn's Fisher Bistro". I guess the man we came to was called Finn. We got out of the car and started walking towards the small, white building. The whole place smelled like the ocean; fishes and salt. 

As we got to the door, Ethan raised his hand for knocking, but his hand stopped in the air. He just looked at me with wide eyes and swiftly turned around. There were three people walking towards us, talking and laughing, from the pier, a net in hands and a grey, dirty bucket. Two of the men had the same darker skin, just like ordinary Thai people. But the third one had white skin and as he looked at us, I knew instantly that we were facing Ethan's dad. He possessed the same curly hair, same navy blue iris, and harp jaw. I just stood there, standing still as a statue, looking at their familiar features. 

I saw the man move towards Ethan as he noticed us standing there. I saw shock in his eyes, combined with a little bit of excitement. 

"Nancy?" he said, reaching out his hand to touch Ethan's white skin on his face. 

"No. It's me, Ethan, your son."

... 

The man, (whose name is Finn) invited us into his bistro. The small restaurant was elegant inside, with only three or four tables. The smell that came from the kitchen was the smell of freshly smoked salmon and cinnamon. I instantly got hungry as these precious smells tickled my nose and made my mouth water. I went to sit down on a 4-chaired table illuminated by dim light, while Ethan and his DAD were talking, I guess about daddy-son stuff. I hopped down on a seat and took the menu inside my hands. There were only fish dishes, but I didn't mind; I just wanted to get something in front of me before I would start to chew on the menu...