Miracles

Chapter 43

~Avisha's View~

"I'll be back soon, okay? Don't get into trouble. You can always tell Joe to stop if you don't feel like shaving your hair." Luis says. I roll my eyes at him. "Okay, daddy."
His eyes widen. "Don't call me that."
"Whatever, just go. I'm not a baby. I can take care of myself."
"Okay, see you in a bit." He waves and hurriedly leaves me in the barbershop which is directly opposite a tattoo shop. I can't help but noticed a man staring at me from the tattoo shop with an alarmed face.
He quickly averts his gaze when he sees me staring back.

The barber, Joe, draws my attention. I take a seat in front of the mirror and he gets to work immediately.
We reached New York about an hour ago and I must say, this place is very busy. There are people and vehicles everywhere. I've never seen this many people before. It's amazing.
In about forty-five minutes, Joe finishes shaving my hair leaving me bare. You can now see all the features of my face. I look good.
"Do you like it?" Joe asks. "Yes, I love it. I've never felt this free." I smile. "Thank you."
"It was a pleasure working with you." He nods. "Your friend already paid so you have nothing to worry about."
"Oh okay. Then I suppose I should get going. Thanks again." I give him a short wave as I leave the shop. "Come back soon." He says after me.

I steal a glance at the tattoo shop, fast enough to catch the man from earlier staring at me again. I take long strides to the shop and enter making the bells rings announcing my arrival.
With a well-mastered poker face, I sit down and pick up a magazine, and start flipping through.
A smallish lady stands before me. "Hi, what can I do for you, Miss?" She asks.
"I want to imprint some words onto my skin and I was hoping he could do it for me," I say pointing at the man who was staring at me.
The lady clears her throat, "I'm sorry but he's on his break right now. I could do it for you."
"Thanks but no. I really want my tattoos done by him. I don't mind waiting." I say in the most serious tone ever.
"Alright. Can I see some ID?" She demands.
I hand her my passport. She stares at it for a long time before looking back at me. I cock a brow at her. "Is there a problem?" I ask.
"No, there's no problem." She shakes her head and hands me back my passport.

The lady leaves and I'm soon joined with the man himself.
"Why are you here?" The man asks. "Excuse me? Is this how you talk to all your customers? That's very bad." I frown at him.
"Just leave. I don't want to get into trouble." He says nonchalantly.
"Nuh-uh! Not until you tell me why you were staring at me, why you look like you've seen a ghost, and why I should leave. How are you going to get into trouble with me being here?"
"Trust me, you don't wanna know." He backs away. I'm quick enough to grab his arm. He flinches as if my touch burnt him. He looks angry now but I still stand my ground.
Looking him dead in the eyes, I say, "Listen to me carefully, I know there's a reason why you were staring at me. You just don't wanna tell me. I'm not stupid okay? We have matching tattoos of the letter 'A' on our necks. Now I demand that you give me an explanation."
"You became just like your mom." He smirks. "Right this way."

"You know me, don't you?" I ask Mike, the tattoo artist. He shrugs, "Something like that. I took care of you and I um- drew that on your neck." He mumbles.
"What does it mean?" I ask further. Once again, he shrugs, "Nothing."
"Nothing? What do you mean by nothing? Everyone gets a tattoo for a reason, right?" I question him.
"Nope, not everyone. I was young when I drew it. I had no actual reason for doing so. All I know is it's the first letter of your name." He explains.
"My name begins with an 'S'; Sia. My name is Sia." I tell him.
"This is why I told you to leave. You won't believe me when I tell you. You'll probably hate me for the rest of your life. I don't want that because I see you as my little sister." He says, rubbing his face.
"Mike, I won't hate you, I promise," I say, smiling at him. "You can tell me later, right now I'd like my big brother to design something for me."
"You still wanna get a tattoo?" He asks and I nod, "Yes."
"What design do you wanna get?" He asks, picking up a sketchbook and a pencil.

I smile, thinking about my life and everything that has happened within the past few days.
"What?" Mike chuckles. "Why are you smiling?"
"I want you to write 'free' on the right side of my left little finger," I announce.
"Alright, that's cool. Just know it's gonna hurt a bit." He warns me as he slips on his gloves. "I can put up with a little pain," I say as he cleans my hands. He smirks. "You don't wanna know how much you cried when you got your first."

"Are you ready?" Mike asks. I nod, shutting my eyes tightly as if that's going to reduce the awaited pain. I bite my bottom lip painfully as the pen makes contact with my skin or should I say, bone since the word is being inscribed on my bony little finger.
"It hurts so bad." I breathe out as a tear slips down my cheek.
"Hold on, I'm almost done." He smiles assuringly at me. I force a smile onto my face as I wipe the tear that slipped.
"Done," Mike announces. I breathe a sigh of relief.
"Thanks, how much do I owe you for this beautiful artwork?" I ask admiring the word on my finger which is now reddish due to the pain.
"No, don't worry about it. You owe me nothing." He brushes it off. "Just make sure you keep it neat."
"Okay, thank you," I say pulling him into a hug. He stiffens. "I'm not leaving till you hug back."
He chuckles and wraps his arms around my waist, hugging me.
"There," I pull back. "This is my number. I'll be here whenever you're ready to talk." I say, scribbling the number on a piece of paper and handing it to him.
"Right. Talk to you soon." Mike says walking me out the door. "See you and thanks again." I wave at him. He waves back just as Luis' car pulls up.

"Woah! Look at you." Luis looks at me from my head to my toes. "How do I look with short hair?" I ask as I get into the front seat.
"You rock the look." He flashes me his charming smile.
"Thanks for paying." I smile in appreciation. "No need to thank me." He shrugs it off. "What are friends for?"
"I'm your friend and I haven't done half of the things you've done for me so thanks for everything, Luis." I smile, giving him a bear hug.
"Having you as a friend is enough, Sia. Now, are you ready to meet my family and celebrate Christmas with your best friend in the whole wide world?" He shouts.
"I'm so ready!" I hoot.