Hawa Jaz, ik ghar (trans: A Airplane and a house)

Sorry its so late, everyone. But I didn't get a chance to finish it until just now. 

~Rory

Eight days later when it was finally time to leave for Seattle, my parents and I were still barely talking. Jack had talked to them and they had compromised and bought me plane tickets so I could fly instead of driving alone, something that terrified them. Since Jack had to work, my parents were taking me to the airport and on the drive there, we finally made our peace. My parents are very likeable and loveable people most of the time. They just happen to feel that just because I am their daughter I have to share the same views all the time.

After checking in and getting my boarding pass, I hugged my parent’s goodbye and headed to security. Over the years of flying, my whole family has learned to expect to be pulled aside for “random” searches because it happens almost all the time. Not surprisingly as I was going to security I got pulled aside and had to go with the nice (not) lady and get patted down. Even though it makes me angry that I get pulled aside just because of the color of my skin, it doesn’t bother me as much anymore. I’ve learned, I guess you could say, to keep my mouth shut and just get it over with and get on the plane.

The 4 hour plane ride went by fast because I was sitting next to a 60-ish man who was really happy and exited to go see his first grandchild, a girl that was born 2 days ago. After talking to him for a few minutes, I discovered that he was an attorney in LA and had gone to law school at Stanford, the same place where I wanted to go to. We spent much of the ride talking about law school and law and what things I should expect. During the landing, the man, Ryan Jones, gave me his business card and told me too look him up in LA if I was ever interested in doing an internship.

As I was coming down the escalators, I saw Alex waiting for me and started laughing. He was holding a bouquet of flowers and a sign that said “My best friend. I don’t remember what she looks like anymore”. The next thing I knew I was running across the space left between us and jumping him. He laughed as he staggered but managed to catch himself and me before both of fell onto the busy airport floor.

Alex gave me the flowers and said “I thought you might find that funny but I haven’t seen you in so long that I really was starting to forget what you looked like”

I laughed and gave him another hug before he grabbed my carry on from me and asked “did you check any baggage?”

“No” I said “I’m only here for 4 days and my carry on is big enough to pack everything. Plus it’s always a pain to wait at the baggage claim”

We headed outside to Alex’s car and headed back to his apartment. On the way, Alex and I caught up on what’s been going on each other’s lives since it had been forever since we’d actually seen each other. I found out that he had broken up with Carry his girlfriend of almost a year and I told him all about Aryan and Kevin and what I had decided to do.

Afterwards we lapsed into silence but it was comfortable silence only broken when one of thought of something else to say. When we got into downtown Seattle, I was surprised to see that Alex turned in a different direction then where he was apartment was. “Where are we going?” I asked

“Home” Alex said, surprised “where else”

“I thought your apartment was in East Seattle and we are going west” I said

Alex laughed and said “Oh yea. I forgot you haven’t been to my place in a couple years. I moved about 8 months ago to a new place that’s closer to my job”

“Ok” I said and a few minutes later we pulled into an underground parking lot and got out. Alex grabbed my bag and grabbing my purse, I followed him into the elevator and grinned at him when he pressed the button for the 31^st floor.

“Wow. You are high up” I said

He laughed again and said “that’s not a bad thing. I have a killer view of the sound”

A minute later we stepped out onto his floor and walked down the hall to the last door on the right hand side. He unlocked it and I followed him inside. The first thing I saw was an amazing view of the Puget Sound out of the giant windows that took up a whole wall of his apartment.

“Wow. That’s incredible” I said. “Much better than your old apartment where the only view you had was of the old lady next door”

Alex laughed and came up behind me and wrapped his arms around me for a hug. I smiled and put my hands on his, which were around my waist, and we stood there for a few minutes just looking at the view.

The moment was shattered by my phone ringing and I stepped out of his arms to look for in my purse and found it just before the person hung up.

“Hello?” I said

“Hey. You made it” I heard Jack say. I dropped down onto the couch and talked to Jack for a minute before giving the phone to Alex.

When Alex hung up, he came and sat down next to me. While Alex was on the phone, I had kicked off my shoes and now I pulled up my legs and put them on his lap, laughing when he mock glared at me and then groaning when he started massaging my foot. We sat there like that for a while talking and Alex massaging my feet…