Two Weeks With Chelsea

Chapter 25

Trevor followed directions from the hotel desk clerk to find a view of the city from Montjuic. He guided Chelsea along the road from the funicular station in the direction of the Mediterranean as instructed. When they finally stopped to take in the view, she stood and gazed in wonder. Trevor remained silent for a moment as he looked at the cityscape. Eventually his eyes moved towards to the girl to his right.

"A bunch of the Olympic venues are up here somewhere," Trevor said after he had watched Chelsea for a minute.

"The city is huge!" she said. "Look at that! That building there looks like a... what, sort of an egg, a black egg, maybe a..."

Trevor noted the dark cigar shaped building and added his own description, "More like an alien mother ship."

Chelsea laughed then lifted her camera to snap a photo. Through the view finder she scanned the city for other things of interest. The W Hotel on the coast with its sail shaped architecture was captured in a photo as was the statue of Columbus she hadn't photographed a day earlier.

"Look at this! I got a picture of a seagull sitting on Columbus' arm," she said as she showed the photo to Trevor. "Pirates have parrots, Columbus has a sea gull."

"Where do you think he's pointing?" Trevor asked.

"Well, towards America, I guess?"

"Yeah, you would think, but he's actually pointing toward Africa. I don't know why, probably just a mistake. Something I read says they plan to turn it, so he would point west."

"Maybe he's pointing that way like he's saying, 'Next time, we go that way,'" Chelsea said as she giggled.

She lifted the camera again and zoomed in on something to the left of the cigar shaped building. Several tall spires and construction cranes reached into the sky. She snapped a photo, then showed it to Trevor and asked if he know what it was.

"That's Segrada Familia. That's the place I said we should go this afternoon," he said.

"Really? Wow! Are you sure we can go there? It looks like its still under construction."

"Yeah! Construction started on it, like, over a hundred years ago. They still have another ten years or so before its finished."

Chelsea's jaw dropped open. She was sure Trevor was making up stuff. There was no way he could be right about a building taking that long to complete. She wanted to call his bluff, but only twisted her face into a sour look.

"Let's just have a bit more of a look around here then head back that way. The desk clerk said the walk through the park around here is really nice and we should go here,"—Trevor's finger moved along a map he pulled from his pocket—"it's a museum or something and there's a fountain here. There's some sort of castle somewhere up here too."

"Sounds good," she replied as she turned her eyes back towards the city.

He watched as she stood with her camera held at chest height, her eyes darted left and right to take in the view. She seemed poised to record it all in photos but didn't. No photo could capture how the view made her feel inside. Everything she saw excited her. The approach of a cable car coming up the hill filled her with wonder that set her face aglow. For Trevor, watching her take in the sights was more enjoyable than the view itself.

"What?" she asked when she noticed Trevor watching her.

"Nothing, just... you look different," he said.

"Different?" she said feeling self-conscious.

"It's good. A good kind of different," he stammered. "Nobody back home would recognize you. This is how everyone at Well Stone should see you."