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Summer of Return
I
Twenty years have passed since the last time I had been in my hometown, a coastal town. My grandma´s cobblestone house was intact: The old furniture remained untouched, the sparky, bright flowers still gave colour to the garden, and the wooden letter that read “The Dream” was in the front of the house. My parents moved to the mountains when we moved to the big city to study at college. They wanted to sell my grandma’s house, even when she was alive, but I wanted to check it out a last time. Why? I didn’t know. My grandpa had died 10 years before my grandma, so she kept the house with her widow’s pension and hers, which wasn’t much. The house needed to be painted: it had a lot of water stains, and the kitchen cupboards were rusty, among other imperfections. A lot of work had to be done to the house.
I left my backpack there and went for a walk. Smelling the fresh aroma that came from the pines and feeling the sea breeze brought me back to those years when I went with my siblings to her house after school to enjoy the delicacies she cooked and played in her house garden. The house was just a few blocks from the beach and 5 blocks from the main avenue. When I reached that avenue, I stopped at the most famous bakery in town, which had the best croissants I’d ever tried. They were sweet, spongy, and were bathed in syrup. I entered the bakery to buy 3 of those croissants to eat them with a hot cup of cappuccino.
The bakery was filled with people because it was the time for tea. When I reached the cashier, they were almost out of croissants. I got lucky that exactly three were left. When I was to order them, I looked at the baker, and she sounded familiar to me, like I knew her from somewhere; but I didn’t want to bother her. So I paid, but when I was about to leave…
‘Ray! It’s that you?’ she asked me.
‘Mavis, right?’ I asked her, and she nodded.
‘You’re in town again! I thought I’d never see you again.’ She affirmed.
‘That’s what I thought too, but life always comes with surprises.’
‘Look… We’ll talk again later. Come by 20, and I’ll give you my phone number.’ She promised me. I nodded and said goodbye.
Mavis… I thought about all the moments I had lived with her at school and outside of it. She was so sweet and kind. Unsurprisingly, she ran the best bakery all over the coast. Even if she had a bad day, she would give you a comforting smile and hear all your problems. All the students loved her, and she was very popular. She was always chosen queen of the annual dance, which she hated, and all the boys were in love with her.
‘I should give her a call and have a coffee with her,’ I was thinking when I went to throw the trash. While I was looking at her contact, considering whether to send her a message or not, I felt something heavy in my head and blacked out.
II
‘What the hell?’ I said when my...
Twenty years have passed since the last time I had been in my hometown, a coastal town. My grandma´s cobblestone house was intact: The old furniture remained untouched, the sparky, bright flowers still gave colour to the garden, and the wooden letter that read “The Dream” was in the front of the house. My parents moved to the mountains when we moved to the big city to study at college. They wanted to sell my grandma’s house, even when she was alive, but I wanted to check it out a last time. Why? I didn’t know. My grandpa had died 10 years before my grandma, so she kept the house with her widow’s pension and hers, which wasn’t much. The house needed to be painted: it had a lot of water stains, and the kitchen cupboards were rusty, among other imperfections. A lot of work had to be done to the house.
I left my backpack there and went for a walk. Smelling the fresh aroma that came from the pines and feeling the sea breeze brought me back to those years when I went with my siblings to her house after school to enjoy the delicacies she cooked and played in her house garden. The house was just a few blocks from the beach and 5 blocks from the main avenue. When I reached that avenue, I stopped at the most famous bakery in town, which had the best croissants I’d ever tried. They were sweet, spongy, and were bathed in syrup. I entered the bakery to buy 3 of those croissants to eat them with a hot cup of cappuccino.
The bakery was filled with people because it was the time for tea. When I reached the cashier, they were almost out of croissants. I got lucky that exactly three were left. When I was to order them, I looked at the baker, and she sounded familiar to me, like I knew her from somewhere; but I didn’t want to bother her. So I paid, but when I was about to leave…
‘Ray! It’s that you?’ she asked me.
‘Mavis, right?’ I asked her, and she nodded.
‘You’re in town again! I thought I’d never see you again.’ She affirmed.
‘That’s what I thought too, but life always comes with surprises.’
‘Look… We’ll talk again later. Come by 20, and I’ll give you my phone number.’ She promised me. I nodded and said goodbye.
Mavis… I thought about all the moments I had lived with her at school and outside of it. She was so sweet and kind. Unsurprisingly, she ran the best bakery all over the coast. Even if she had a bad day, she would give you a comforting smile and hear all your problems. All the students loved her, and she was very popular. She was always chosen queen of the annual dance, which she hated, and all the boys were in love with her.
‘I should give her a call and have a coffee with her,’ I was thinking when I went to throw the trash. While I was looking at her contact, considering whether to send her a message or not, I felt something heavy in my head and blacked out.
II
‘What the hell?’ I said when my...
