Rise Up

Talie

I quickly dried my hair and then laid on my tummy on my bed.  It was a bit lumpy, but I'm sure it would be fine.  I pulled up Lin's number and got an error message on my screen.  I realized it was probably because I was out of the country.  I quickly asked Dad for help, and he showed me how to put in the country code.  I tried again and it worked.

Lin's face came on the screen, with baby gurgling going on in the background.  "Talie!" he greeted me excitedly.

"Lin!" I hadn't realized how much I already missed them.  I suddenly felt homesick.  "Oh my God, I miss you guys so much!"

"We miss you too," he said, walking around with his phone.  From the background, I could tell he was on his way to Sebastian's room.  "Especially Sebby.  He cried at bedtime last night because he wanted you to read him a story."

"Awwww," I cooed as I heard the door open.

"Sebastian, guess who's on the phone?" I heard Lin say.  Sebastian squealed with excitement and the phone was roughly transferred into his little hands.  I got a close up of his snotty nose.

"Talie!!" he practically screamed.  "When are you coming home?"

I laughed and wished I could hug him.  "Not for a few weeks at least," I told him.  I didn't get into the fact that I might permanently be moving here.  "What did you do today?"

He went into a several minute monologue about all his activities for the day.  It was so cute to hear him ramble on and on.  He eventually took me on a trip around the apartment in case I was forgetting what it looked like.  After ten minutes or so, I saw Lin come back into view again to cut him off.

"Alright, buddy, time to say goodbye to Talie," he told his son gently.  Sebastian wished me a reluctant goodbye, then went off to play again.  Lin now had Cisco in his arms.  He sat down on the couch so I could see both of them.

"Hi, Cisco!" I cooed, waving at him.  He gurgled in response and reached for the phone.  Lin kissed his head several times.

"How are you adjusting to the time change?" he asked.

"Haven't really had a chance yet," I said.  "It's just after 6:30 here and I'm gonna head to bed right after this.   I'm exhausted."

"A trip across the ocean will do that," Lin said.  "Take your time.  Have you had fish and chips?"

I smiled.  "That's the first thing my dad took me to get."

We talked for a while, mostly about the boys and school.  Naomi had asked about me earlier in the day, which I thought was cool.  Maybe if I ended up moving here she could come visit me.  Vanessa walked in the door a few minutes later and said a quick hello before disappearing to go change.  She came back and took Cisco from Lin.

I started yawning, so Lin told me I better get to bed.  We signed off and I climbed into my new bed.  At least London was a lot like New York in terms of noise - I could hear the sounds of traffic, horns honking, and the gentle glow of all the city lights.  I very quickly drifted off to sleep.

By the time I woke up in the morning, everyone else had left for the day.  Dad promised to take me to the London Eye and to see Buckingham Palace, and the changing of the guard.  I felt much better after a full night's rest.

I was glad I'd worn good shoes because we did a lot of walking.  The view from the London Eye was amazing.  I took tons of picture on my phone and I texted them to Lin, Vanessa, and Naomi.  I got lots of smiley faces and positive comments. 

We happened to walk by Giles and Alice's school, so Dad pointed it out to me.  It was a tudory-looking building and looked very serious.  Dad asked if I wanted to go for a day to see what it was like.  It was a little intimidating, but I figured if Alice and Giles went to school there it couldn't be too terrible.  They seemed like regular kids.