Somewhere between Sunset

Prologue

"Lost— yesterday, somewhere between sunrise and sunset, two golden hours, each set with sixty diamond minutes. No reward is offered, for they are gone, forever." -Horace Mann

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June, 2015
Singapore

Kelsea's Apartment

Inside an apartment room for one, stood a woman in her late 20s going through boxes after boxes of her personal files and design portfolios. Her laptop was opened on top of a small writing desk facing the only window in the room. A white sheer curtain provide enough privacy and ambient light on another warm and humid Sunday afternoon. The glass window is partially opened but she could still hear the bustling city noise from the outside. Cars, buses and trucks could be seen and heard from the road just adjacent to her apartment. Her small desk fan barely could drown the sound.

Her room has the court side view of a roundabout driveway and a garden filled with different plants and tall trees. She always appreciated that view. But when she look straight at her window, the view is less interesting, it's the other apartment building where you could see and hear more than you would like from your neighbors. But she's used to it. It's been five years since she left home, now she's far away from home, a continent away. All her life her eyes could only see that small town that she grew up in, back in South Carolina. Now her eyes are used to seeing this busy and modern city of Singapore.

Today was supposed to be her usual slow and easy Sunday except she has bigger things to prepare for. She's preparing to moved to Australia after working and living in this city for the last five years. It wasn't an easy adjustment for her moving to another country and learning the local culture. But each passing day, she felt more at home than ever before. But five years feels too long for her. It's about time for her to do something new.

Her family kept persuading her lately to settle back home but she made a promise to herself that she won't. Initially they were supportive of her plans to work overseas but as the months and years passed, they felt that she is getting attached living in Asia and fear that she may never go back to living in America.

As much as she missed them and the town she grew up, she made this choice a long time ago. But recent events in her life before she left her hometown has convinced her more that she's doing the right thing. Most people, travel to see the world. She, on the other hand, wants to be part of that city and be like the locals. She wants to be part of the story. Most of all, she wanted to escape her yesterday and never look back.

Right now, she wants to be more proactive and she knows everything works faster online these days. So she is setting up her online professional profile and updating her design portfolio. She knew she signed up a long time ago on this website for professionals like her but have never checked in as she got too busy with everything that's been going on since she moved in this city.

As soon as she logged in, she noticed that she received a long list of notifications from invites to messages that she haven't checked. She curiously browsed through each one, and a familiar named kept popping just within the past six months, and her heart start to beat faster...

Briggs Calhoun.

The last message was just few days ago:

Hi Kelsea, I understand you might be busy but if you get to received this message please send me a reply. I'll be waiting. -Briggs C.

She turned her gaze away from her laptop's monitor and just gaze straight outside her window. She saw on one of the other apartment units, a young couple kissing. They look more like teenagers to her. Everyone seems to look younger as she's growing older in years. She took a deep breath and gave a sigh as she gently touched the necklace she's wearing. It has a compass for a pendant and she started to traced the engraved N with her fingers while getting lost in her own thoughts.