Sanders Sides One Shots & Shorts

The Boy Who Didn't Speak English - Part Two (Royality)

Date Published: Sept 10, 2019
Word Count: 1268
POV: 3rd Person

Patton was sitting cross legged on the ground with a large, leather-bound book in his lap. He was home for the holidays, since he was on break from his classes in university. His mother had decided that their Christmas project this year, was sorting through all of the old photo albums. This one was more recent. It was one that his mother had made herself, documenting his own childhood. He flipped through it, smiling fondly at some of the memories that the photographs showcased.

He was currently admiring the pictures from their family trip to Spain.

Patton didn't remember much from that trip, as he'd only been five years old at the time of the trip. But he remembered the warm sun, the orange evening skies, and the marketplace with the large fountain in the middle. But, that was about it. He hadn't really thought about it in a long while. His fingers danced across photographs of his mother and father at kiosks in the market, or of him bouncing on the bed in their little townhouse that they had ended up staying in. It was all pretty normal. This stuff, even if he didn't remember all of them, were pretty standard vacation things. He could imagine himself doing it. But, then he turned the page, revealing a picture that made him pause.

It was of two people. One of them was himself, with those old glasses that had always been too big for him. He was barefoot on the cobblestone pavement of the busy market that was still bustling along in the background. The other person, though, was someone that Patton didn't recognize. A little boy, that looked to be the same age as Patton. Maybe a little older, but not by much. No more than a year. He had bleached brown wavy hair, and an adorable little smile that would've made anyone want to pinch his cheeks. He too, was barefoot. He and this younger version of himself were holding hands, and wearing matching cheeky grins. They were both covered in water from head to toe. Patton's own hair was curling a little at the ends, as it always did when wet.

He frowned a little.

"Hey mom?" He called, carefully pulling the photo out of its little transparent plastic pouch. "Who's this?"

He heard a shuffle from across the room, and then felt a presence behind him shortly after. He looked up to see his mother's eyes sparkling a little. "That's your little Spanish friend."

"My what?"

"You met him one day in the market. The two of you had been running around in the water for a while, making a complete mess of yourselves." His mom laughed as she remembered the incident. "I had no idea how you did it."

Patton was about to ask her what it was that he'd done, but she beat him to it.

"I'd known that you were good at making friends. You still are practically a people magnet. But this little boy didn't speak a word of English, yet you had managed to become best friends with him anyway."

He pushed up his glasses, and looked back down at the picture of him and his "little Spanish friend". He saw the joy in his own face from years ago. He couldn't believe that he didn't remember him.

Or did he?

"Wait a minute, mom. Did we play tag at some point?"

"You said that that's how you met him. You were very proud of yourself." His mother joked.

Now that he thought about it, he did remember playing tag with someone in water. He hadn't realized that had been on their trip to Spain. Or that it was with this little boy. Well, he clearly wasn't that little anymore. If Patton was in his third year of university, then this boy was an adult too. He wondered what he looked like now...

His mother sat down beside him, and delicately took the photograph from him. "You went out to the fountain every day after that to look for him. But, he never came back. I assumed that he was the son of one of the travelling venders in the market there." She handed the photo back, and watched her son slip it back into its place in the album. "I wonder where he is now."

"Me too." Patton said, his voice distant and thoughtful. "Can you imagine if I found him again?"

"That would be something." His mother said, in that dismissive and entertained tone that told Patton that she was just humouring him. Patton tried to do the same after that, and continued to go through the albums. But, his thoughts kept turning back to his foreign friend.

Eventually, after his mother had left the room to get a snack for them both, Patton grabbed the documents of their trip to Spain once again. He opened it, and leafed through it quickly, until he found the picture again. He then fished into his pocket, and hastily took a photo of it with his cellphone camera. After that, he tucked it all back away after. He'd come back to it later.

He did just that.

It was late at night, and Patton was lying in his childhood bedroom. Everyone else in the house was asleep at this point, and Patton was looking at his phone. He'd heard about how may people had met over social media. Maybe, just maybe, he'd be able to re-meet someone over it too? It was a bit of a stretch, sure. But, Patton figured that it was worth a shot. He took to twitter, because it was his only platform that wasn't private. He typed out a quick message about this boy who didn't speak English, who he'd befriended in Spain sixteen years ago. He attached the picture that he'd taken earlier, and sent it off into the world.

Then he plugged in his phone, and forgot about it.

Until about a month and a half later, when he was least expecting it. The ding on his phone, signifying a notification. One from Twitter, he realized on further inspection.

Someone named "Roman El Príncipe" had mentioned him in a post.

He opened it to see a selfie of a man that he didn't recognize. A man with wavy dark hair and eyes, who's face was angular and handsome. He wore a red and gold jacket that didn't disguise how strong he was. His pose was relaxed, with a glimpse of one hand stuck in the front pocket of his jeans. The other was obviously holding his phone. But then, there was his smile. That dazzling smile that made Patton's familiarity bells ring off somewhere in his mind.

Wait a minute. Was this...?

His eyes drifted to the caption with anticipation. Could it be?

"Oí que me estabas buscando ;)"

There was a little button that said "translation" at the bottom of the post, and Patton clicked on it with a shaking hand. The words changed before his eyes.

"I heard you were looking for me ;)"

I kind of love this? Anyway, this was inspired by those two childhood friends who had met on a cruise, I think it was? They found each other again through the power of the internet. I'm trying my best to not want to make it it's own book. I have too many of those as it is! Maybe one day. Also, same thing goes for last time. I don't know Spanish, so feel free to correct me on Roman's line.