Across the Globe [COMPLETE]

Time To Plan An Adventure

7 DAYS LATER

Samantha

The doorbell rings and I know it’s Emma at the door. As I open the door, and see that she's wearing a flowy dress with little yellow daisies that I know for a fact is one of her own creations. Doesn’t matter that it’s the start of May, and it’s starting to get chilly, even in the middle of winter... Em will always be wearing her beloved dresses and skirts. In the whole 10 years we’ve known each other, I think I can count with my fingers the amount of times I’ve seen her wear a pair of pants.

“Hey, bitch! How’s it going?” She says with a grin.

“Yeah, not bad, pretty excited actually!”

Emma has been talking about the trip non stop during the last couple of days, and even though I’m really excited too, I’ve also been having plenty of second thoughts. This is so much further out of my comfort zone than I’ve ever been… than I ever thought I would be.

If I’m honest with myself, the whole thing is actually terrifying.

Em walks in confidently, like she’s stepping into her own house and we sit in the dining room, where we set both of our computers on the table and get settled.

“So, where do we start?” Em asks after everything is in place.

“I was hoping you’ll ask that!” I say a little bit excitedly as I pull out a notebook and open it into a page that’s got an extensive checklist on it. Em is instantly laughing.

“Why am I not surprised that you made a list? You’re so OCD, sometimes you even make me think I’m normal!”

I ignore her comment, it’s almost 11am and we’re behind schedule because Em was obviously late. So I explain the plan: “Okay, the first item on the list is researching the activities and places we want to go to so we can start organising an itinerary. Rotorua is one of the obvious stops as mum said that’s the town where my father was born. Christchurch is the other one, as I want to see the city where they met. I’ll ask mum for places we can’t miss there. I have a list of other places we should research, and after all that is sorted… Well, then it’s the whole booking accommodation and activities process... but there’s a long road ahead until we get there.”

“Can I give you the good news now?” Em asks, and there’s a cheeky glow in her eyes that makes me wonder what she got up to.

“Oh my, what have you done?” I ask cautiously.

“I bought the tickets!” she says in a squeal, and then she covers her mouth with both hands, hiding a huge smile.

“Emma Alexandra Moon!!” I try so hard to look annoyed and sound angry, but I can’t help but laugh at Em’s expression, she just looks so thrilled. “Why am I not surprised?” I add, folding my arms over my chest and keeping my expression neutral.

I have to admit, a part of me thought about the possibility of her doing something like this without my knowledge. Emma has always been impulsive and sometimes even reckless. But still, I can feel my heart pounding on my chest like crazy. This is real, way too real now. We’re going, actually going, as in, we have plane tickets to go all the way across the globe! For a second, I think I might faint.

I’ve been thinking about it all week, but I still can’t believe I finally know who my father is. So many years of being in the dark, I feel like all this light is blinding me. I talked about him with mum a couple of times during the week, but I can tell it’s still hard for her to do it, so I don’t want to push. I’m hoping she’ll open up with time, and maybe once all this information stops driving me crazy, I can ask some questions.