Finding Home

Chapter Three: Stockholm

“Ma ‘am…ma ‘am” I heard an unfamiliar female voice call me as she summoned me out of the darkness of my subconscious mind, “Ma ’am, we’ll be landing in Stockholm in a few minutes” I looked up to see a blonde headed, blue-eyed flight attendant leaning over the seat to wake me.

“Yes, thank you” I told her as I sat up and fixed my clothing and hair looking out the window to see only clouds. I had never been to Stockholm but I knew a photographer that often traveled to the city, I had often looked through his countless albums that captured the beauty of the city and Sweden. Finally, there came a break in the clouds and I could see the snow covered city with the many buildings lighting up the windows of the assortment of beautiful buildings with a yellow hue some modern and some older pre-World War I. The water around the city was covered in ice and gave the city a mysterious look like that of an ice fortress.

Soon, we landed in Stockholm Arlanda Aiport, I quickly retrieved my hiking bag and made my way out of the airport to Arlanda Norra Station to board the Arlanda Express heading for Täby Centrum in Täby, Sweden. The ride was to take an hour and a half, and I was glad I had bought a book, Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist, while in the airport. By the time we arrived at Grindtorpskyrkan, I was almost done with the book, I got off the bus and walked the 400 meters to Täby Centrum. I entered the mall and quickly found a directory, upon finding the store I needed I made my way to it avoiding people as they walked by with their shopping bags full of clothing, shoes, and other accessories, I saw very few electronic bags and thanked any god that would listen and sped up. I soon saw the glass wall of the Apple Retail Store, I saw that there were very few people within the store besides the employees. I walked in and made my way to the laptops.

After looking over the MacBooks, I decided on the 11-inch MacBook Air 256 GB. I looked around and saw an employee coming toward me, I smiled at him.

“Have you found what you were looking for, miss?” he asked me as he approached, his accent and dialect nearly through me off but I tapped into my memories of speaking to Stockholm University boys visiting JapanTown a few months before and what they had taught me of the dialect.

I nodded, “Yes, the MacBook Air 11-tums 256 GB” I told him and he smiled at me.

“Follow me, I will get you one out of the stock room now and ring you up, are you just arriving in Sweden?” he asked as I followed him to the cash register.

“Yes, I am here visiting family, my brother recently broke his laptop so I wish to surprise him with a new one” I told him smiling.

“You speak like a native, where are you coming from?” he asked as he checked me out.

“I am from New York City, I speak to my brother often and he’s taught me well” I told him keeping the innocent smile.

“Well, he’s lucky to have such a lovely sister” he smiled at me though his eyes more or less held a smirk, “That’ll be 10.995 SEK” he told me as I handed him Emily Smith’s card, “Do you have an ID, Miss Smith?” he asked me and I pulled the ID out of my messenger bag, handing it too him. He looked at the cards before swiping the credit card and handing them both back to me. I slipped the cards back into my bag as he walked into the stock room to retrieve the computer.

“Here you go, have a nice day” he told me with a smile.

“Thank you, you too” I told him picking up the notebook and leaving the store. On my way out I stopped by Akademibokhandeln and bought a few of the popular books I hadn’t read and a few that you could not buy in the states. I left the mall and headed back to Stockholm to find a room for the night and begin leaving a trail for them to follow, at least for a few days.

Over the next three days, I spent my time eating at fancy restaurants, buying an expensive eight piece luggage set, leaving the smaller of the two rolling suitcases at a pawn shop, clothing, and a disposable phone. After drawing several hundred dollars out of an ATM, I took a bus to Gothenburg, where I retrieved my other ID and credit card from a P.O. Box which Vilmar had sent me on request. Now as Han, Hyeon Yoon, I flew to Seoul, South Korea leaving a dead end for the ones tracking me and the disappearance of an Emily Smith for the US government.

Once in Seoul I did not waste my time like I had in Sweden, and quickly bought an iPad mini from an Apple Store and left a little bit of a trail before hiring a girl who looked somewhat like me and paid her a decent amount to go to India as Han, Hyeon Yoon giving her the iPad mini telling her that she could not access any of her information or accounts on the iPad while in India. She agreed and soon enough she was gone on a plane to New Dehli as I boarded a plane for Tokyo, Japan with another new identity, Saito, Tsubame, a young Tokyo girl visiting Seoul after graduating college.