Wandering Roads

Chapter 2

The next morning, I woke up around eight in the morning. I got up and walked into the kitchen. Most of the time, Quinton slept in until ten in the morning. So I made myself a bowl of cereal and sat down. I don't have an idea about what I was going to do today, so I thought I might just stay home and work on my assignments from school. Recently I made it into the University of Virginia. I'm getting my undergraduate degree majoring in Nursing. My dream job is to become a nurse, but I'm still working on school and life right now. After I cleaned up my breakfast, I got cleaned up and ready for the day. Maybe I'll go and get some hot chocolate for myself and coffee for Quinton since he has a late shift at work today. Quinton works at a group home as a counselor to help pay for the apartment bills, which I pay for everything else, like phone bills.

If I get the coffee and hot chocolate before he leaves, he could last all day knowing how long his energy lasts. I got into a light pink dress with a white collar and a white sweater. I put on some white flats as well to match the outfit. I braided my delicate bright red hair into two braids. I put a small light pink ribbon on each end of each braid. I grabbed my bag and wrote a quick note for Quinton in case he wondered where I went. I hopped into my car and drove to Buckstars, the coffee shop downtown. Even though I live in an apartment, we don't live in a huge city. It's small but not too small. We live in Lynchburg, Virginia. It's a nice town and I know some of the neighbors.

"Hello, Ivani!" said the barista. "Hi Selena," I exclaimed.

Selena was in high school with me, we were never really friends, just acquaintances.

"What can I get you?" She asked with a grin.

"Oh, I'll just get a hot chocolate and a coffee please," I said, pulling my wallet out of my bag.

She nodded and got to work. I pulled out my phone and checked if Quinton had texted me. Nothing.

"Here you go, have a good day Ivani!" Selena exclaimed, setting my drinks down.

"Thanks, you too," I said, taking my drinks. I walked back to my car and set them down.

I drove back to the apartment, luckily I have no classes today so today was a free day.

"Hey, you're back," Quinton said.

"I got you some coffee so you last all day at work today." I said, handing the coffee to him.

He laughed, taking a sip of the dark roast coffee I had got him, that was his favorite type of coffee.

"I have to go, but I'll be back around seven tonight." He said, taking another sip. "Thanks for the coffee!" He said as he headed to his car.

I sat down in the kitchen thinking about what I'd do today, maybe go for a bike ride? I could go downtown and shop perhaps. I guess I'll go on a walk, then come have lunch. I quickly switched my shoes from flats to sneakers. I grabbed headphones and plugged them into my phone. I looked down at the map for a minute. I still didn't understand what was with the map. There wasn't much I could do. I walked out and walked around the town and the park. There were children, dogs, and adults everywhere. Everything was so loud and cheery. The wind blew as it finally was Fall. I looked around at all those children with their parents at the park, I kept walking and slowly started going home. I arrived at the apartment and looked around to see what I could eat. I could either have ramen, spaghetti, or some leftover pork chops. I took the pork chops and put them in the microwave. I sat down and ate at the counter. It was 2 pm now, what else was there to do? I sat down on the couch and picked up my book, which was on the coffee table. I was almost halfway through the book. I read about 45 pages in 2 hours before I got bored. The pages were thin and frail, it was an old book my mother had given me. I decided to take a short nap since the walk had made me very tired.

Quinton came home at 7 pm, I woke up a little after that.

"Oh, you're up, I see you were tired." He said after I walked into the kitchen again.

"Yeah, I took a walk and I got tired, so I took a nap." I replied. "What do you want to eat for dinner?" He asked, pulling out a pan.

"Let's just have something small, like some ramen." I said.

He nodded joyfully, I knew that's what he wanted to eat because he was really excited. I went to my room and grabbed the map.

"Quinton, can we go to these places?" I asked him quietly as he set down my bowl.

"Let me look at the map." He announced.

I passed the map over to him, so he could see it.

"Woah, these are lovely places, do you know why they put this in the box?" He exclaimed.

"No, but I think we've been to them before." I said.

I started to eat my chicken ramen.

"Look, we can go, but I need more vacation time, and the fall break is around the corner. If I work extra hours, I could get my vacation time, and we'll be out of school for the summer soon." he said, pushing the map back to me and finishing his ramen noodles. "Really? Maybe we should plan a little more, I mean, do we have enough money to do this? It's going to be a lot." I explained. He nodded. "We are going to do this, consider it a vacation." I picked my bowl up and cleaned our bowls.

I took the map back to my room and opened my laptop. I googled the first place: Rome, Italy. It is a beautiful city and the history is very interesting. Second place: London, England. I've always wanted to go there. It seems so interesting since there are so many places to be at once! And finally: Seoul, South Korea. I've never remembered that we went there, but it's possible since my parents loved to travel around the world. I pulled out the box from under my bed. I looked through it again to see a letter stuck to the bottom saying:

"Dearest Ivani, I know if you are reading this, that we have either died or gotten too old for travel. If you haven't noticed, we've left you many things of your childhood. I would love for you to look at the map, it shows some places we went when you were very young. Somewhere in here is a key, take it to the bank. In there, we left you enough money to last a year, along with our traveling funds. We want you to enjoy yourself and not be sad or upset about anything, so consider it a birthday gift. I hope you have fun with everything. Love, Mom and Dad."

That was the end. I searched around in the box to find another small piece of paper, wrinkled up like someone crushed it.

It said, "Take the key and quickly get the money, before my sister tries and looks for the key. She can't have this, it's for your use only. From, Mom."

So my aunt was after the key? She must know it exists, so I'll just have to not give the key to her. I put both the notes back into the box and hid it under my bed again. I now have the funds for the trip, so I'll be able to go soon. It will be exciting, everything is a new experience.

My freshman year of college was almost over, so we'd be out for the summer by the next week. I got up and changed into my pajamas, which is a light green nightgown. I quickly ran to Quinton's room, where he was on a call with his boss. I signaled for him to listen, but I had to wait. Once he was done with his call, I ran up to him.

"My parents have secret traveling funds for me." I exclaimed.

"Woah, that's great to hear, so what's up?" He said, sitting down on his bed.

"You don't have to work extra hours anymore, there's enough for us to travel now!" I said, excitedly.

He looked surprised and said, "oh wow, I just got off the phone with my boss, but I'll call him back, are you sure?" I nodded very quickly.

I walked back to my room and turned off my lights. Tomorrow, I have four classes to go to, so that will be interesting, my last week of school, exams. I forgot about exams! The most important thing of all of college, I had forgotten. I got up and pulled up my old homework and sat at my desk studying. I was up until I had finished everything I needed to know about my four classes tomorrow. I ended up falling asleep in my textbook for geometry at one in the morning.