Synchronized 🔄

1. The return to Shoreham-by-Sea

I'm sitting on the beach and watching the sea waves crash on the shore. Around me there's only a long expanse of golden sand that, looking at it from below, seems to be magic dust like the one that magicians use in cartoons. The air has a delicious, fresh and familiar scent. I haven't been to this place since before I moved to the city ten years ago.
Now my life was very different from then, 22 years, a job, an house and a bunch of friends scattered here and there. When I am not at work, I spend my time reading a book, it relaxes me a lot, going for a walk in the park or going shopping with my best friend Johanna, my crazy friend since primary school, crazy for her exuberance but, at the same time, very wise given her passion for psychology... her library grows every week, she loves reading and increasing her knowledge about it.

My parents and I thought about spending the summer together here this year, they come every year and I decided to keep their company, so I distracted my self a little from the hectic life of Oxford. They are preparing a welcome back lunch just for me, to greet all the neighbours who, in a certain way, raised me during my childhood.
Who knows if I will recognise all of them. What a gaffe otherwise. I will just say hello and ask them if everything is fine, I don't like having attention on me.

   I put the IPod headphones to my ears and listen to one of my favourite songs, "One" by U2. It's so nice to be on the beach, the sun warms my skin and I think I haven't felt so peaceful in a long time. Sometimes I do the same at the University Park, but it's not the same since it's invaded by kids or families with children playing with the ball and I have to try dodge it every time. Once they even hit me on the head and when I got up I spilled the cup of tea on the book I was reading. I was furious, but my education took over and I didn't scream at those children who had fun on Sunday afternoon.

There is a call on my phone, I feel the backpack that I am using as a pillow vibrate. It's my mother. «Mom?»
«Kate! We are waiting for you! All the neighbors have arrived and are looking forward to greeting you! Hurry up!»
«Ok mom, I'm coming» and hang up.
I get up slowly shaking off the golden sand on me. I take the backpack and head home, in the meantime I turn off the iPod and roll up the headphones putting them in my pocket.
From a distance I see a dozen people on the fence of the house, some standing, some sitting, almost all with a champagne flute filled with orange liquid. Mum is serving them some appetizer tastes that she proudly prepared with her hands and with the help of our Còlf Sissi, with us always, since I remember.

   Dad raises his hand to greet me «Kate, finally!»
Everyone looks at me, I start to heat up with embarrassment and I smile forcefully.
«Hi Kate!» I hear a voice that I recognize, it is Mrs. Clarke of the villa next door, I go to meet her to embrace her.  She is always beautiful, she wears a blue sweater with a boat neckline that highlights the pearl necklace and beige trousers with a high waist that end up wide underneath, cover the heeled shoes and show only the toe.
«Good morning, Mrs. Clark, how are you?» I ask hugging her warmly.
«I'm fine Kate, but I see that you are also doing very well, you have become even more beautiful than I expected!» I blush.

I keep saying goodbye to everyone else who is there for me, Mr. and Mrs. Anderson, Mr. Brown from the candy store, and even Mrs. Evans from the corner bookshop. I remember taking refuge there when I was arguing with someone, that place was magical, it alleviated all tensions. But, I was right, I don't recognize everyone, but I greet them pretending to remember them. They offer me a flute of that orange liquid which I learn is ginger and I take a salmon pie, one of my favorite foods, mmm delicious.

     I enter in the house and I see that on the table in the living room there is a flood of appetizers to eat, I would like to taste them all. Do I have to say that Mom has really worked, did all this for me, am I grateful to her, or will she have done it to show the neighbors that nobody is beating her in the kitchen? I want to think that the first one is the right answer but then I think it's a mix between the two. It does not matter. The house is beautiful as I remembered it, I arrived alone 5 hours leaving the trolley in the living room when my mother kicked me out of the kitchen to cook in peace, that's why I was on the beach before ... and I didn't stop at all on the aspect of this large and bright house. I love it!
I decide to go upstairs to my room and check that nobody is looking at me, I can give myself an escape for five minutes. Going up the stairs I notice that hanging on the wall, on that beige and brown striped wallpaper, there are several photos that portray me, my parents and my sister Susy in the most beautiful and fun moments of our childhood, the trip to Disney land Paris, the boat trip, Susy's birthday ... what good memories.

   I hear a noise coming from my sister's room, I go to the door and I see that she is kissing with her new boyfriend, oh my God what an embarrassment, I pretend nothing and go straight to my room.
As I lower the handle I think about what my mother has transformed this now uninhabited room, and instead no, everything is in its place, every poster, every stuffed animal and every pillow.  It seems to have gone back in time, especially when I look at the posters of Leonardo di Caprio and Brad Pitt posted on the walls.  I open a green velvet box that is on the bedside table next to the bed and inside I find a gold and pink bracelet that I remember having received as a gift from a friend of mine then, Serena.  It makes me smile and I think of the beautiful lightheartedness of those times.  I decide to put it on and go back down to the veranda before anyone notices my absence.