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☾ 𝑆𝐸𝑉𝐸𝑁
Two months ago, Anna would have easily believed that she had died and gone to heaven, had she seen the sights of Australia then. But as she strolled, her mind free, for a single moment, of any worry that she could possibly have, she knew this was real. It wasn't a mind trick, a figment of her imagination made to block out the realities, nor was it a dream in a long slumber.
The coastal city that they docked in was beautiful. Everything was golden: the sun, the people, the streets that were gleaming of trailed in yellow sands. Even as they walked for twenty minutes into the heart of the town, they could still hear the rustling of the waves against the shore of a beach they hadn't yet seen. She could get used to the sound, Anna thought, but she knew she couldn't allow herself the chance.
The streets were busy, lines with multicoloured canopies of a jagged market, filled with brightly coloured spices and freshly gutted fish. Tall boards lines the sides of them, pastel in colour and smooth in its shape. For surfing, they said, a new sport from another far off land that she couldn't remember the name of.
"Wait here a minute."
Robert stopped in front as Anna shuffled to a nearby stall. It was small, covered from the high sun by a single striped sheet that draped across two metal poles. An old man stood behind the bench, his face kind and withered by the many years he had seen, laughter lines shaping his face into one great smile.
She picked up one of the objects that had caught her eye along the stall, after he silently urged her to look. The ornament felt cool in her hands, the delicate material connected but barely tall enough to reach past her middle finger. Given the material and usual use of an ornament such as that, it should have been a nimble ballet dancer or an old Victorian lady depicted as a tiny statue. But the small keepsake showed two ordinary people- though probably much happier than the norm. A woman and her daughter, standing on golden stand that slipped into bold red letters. Australia.
"How much for the ornament?" She asked and the shopkeeper names his price.
Anna shuffled around for the minimal coins that were somewhere on her person. There weren't enough of them to hold a significant amount of weight and so she checked many pockets, until she found a small handful in the side pocket of her suitcase. If she bought the ornament, she would have nothing left, but she had made it this far without the need for money, she could surely make it the rest.
She thought about her mother too. How good it would be to have something to give her! A show of how much she had overcome just to find her family, because she would find them, and she would tell them of all of her adventures and of the harsh conditions she had endured. She would tell them how much she missed them and how much she had always loved them. Whoever they all may be.
