LS - Chapter 2: My friend, the Stranger

Second chapter where I believe my vocabulary shows a bit of improvement compared to the previous chapter. Please feel free to critique.

"I'll be leaving now, Ann" I said stepping over the threshold.

"Wait! I'll call Mark to go with you."

"No, no, please don't! I'll be fine. There's no point in calling him back from work just for this."

"Oh, Amaya, are you sure about this?", she searched into my eyes with inquiry slightly leaning against the door. "What if you get lost? Or what if you can't find the tutor?"

"I'm definite about it!" I replied looking at the little children coming closer and clinging to their mother's apron."Don't worry; it's not casual that I'm leaving almost two hours before I'm supposed to meet him." I smiled, winking at her confidently. "Besides, with the children being sick again, I feel it's enough to have let myself be convinced by you to pay for my coaching." I looked down in abash.

"I wouldn't have had it any other way..." she shook her head slightly smirking back playfully.

"Thank you for the kindness, but I will surely pay everything back someday and..."

"Shhhhh..." she interrupted me, holding her palm up like a defense shield.

I smiled again and nodded as I met her suggestive look, understanding her unspoken message.

"I should go now. See you later!"

"Alright. Please, be careful, Ama, dear!"

I nodded once more to reassure her and waved at the little ones that watched confused how I got smaller and smaller into the distance.

It was a warm summer morning at the beginning of July. A day of the most challenging I'd had until then. A day just as awkward as all the other ones that preceded it since we've moved in Japan. But, if the awkwardness served as reason for my excitement and uneasiness at the beginning, it was now a sign of day to day normality.

Even so, the still unexplored new world that I had dropped in left me curious and paradoxically more and more scared of it each time I tried to understand it better. I just didn't have the right capabilities to pervade in it's essence, and to be honest, I also lacked the required motivation to do so. I was reluctant, for reasons that I did not know. The experience was so thrilling and overwhelming for me, that I didn't know where to begin to explore or what to adapt to first. I felt like a fish out of water because I couldn't find my place anywhere else but at home and since I was far too unprepared to step out in the world by myself, the best thing I could do was to sit behind the windows and observe.

Even at late nights, I would often stay awake and gaze at the dark ceiling or outside the window that viewed over the city's night lights and think about things that had already happened or things that hadn't even taken place yet. It was in a night like that that the thought crossed my mind: I needed to continue my studies, I needed to start high school, thus, I at least had to learn the language.

I was already set on paying for the coaching myself, however, upon finishing my discussion with Mrs and Mr. Davies, the verdict was another. They pursued me into letting them pay, and although they knew I didn't like them to take so much charge because of me, they insisted and finally, succeeded. I still don't know if by accepting I showed any kind of selfishness; but they gave me so many arguments on how convenient it was to let them pay, that the temptation, let's say, was irresistible.

They were so kind. However, their kindness could sometimes make me feel deprived of my own independence. The way they always tried to do everything for me, so that I never had to lift a finger, was quite contrary to what I was thought before, though very thoughtful of them, nonetheless. That's why I talked my way out of the situation when Ann was on the point of phoning her husband. I wanted to do something on my own this time and I knew that, in any case, even Mark himself wouldn't have been any better orientated than me in this foreign city.

Determined and packed up with a lot of confidence, I strolled further and deeper into the jungle of buildings that arose before me. I felt my heart pounding in excitement and anticipation as I left the security and familiarity of the outskirts and slowly approached the core of the settlement. I had not prepared any money to pay for any means of transport and, though I later regretted my lack of wisdom, I found myself in the situation of having to cover the whole distance by foot, with only an illegible map as my sole guide.

Bit by bit I ventured further in the more and more agitated maze of blocks and concrete buildings, following as best as I could the directions that seemed almost intentionally encrypted in the difficult map; but I didn't care much about where I was at that moment. I must have walked a lot, and my legs must have hurt from the effort, but I failed to notice it much. I was simply too captivated by the uniqueness of everything around me and that of every sight that I laid my eyes upon. Tall constructions that rose high up over the entire city, others shining into the hot sun with their mosaic of walls of glass, funny banners and giant billboards filled with hieroglyphic writings and propagandist smiles or cars and crowds of people shuffling before my eyes were things one could never find in my little hometown; things so fascinating that made me feel small and insignificant when put next to them.

I had been gazing and dreamily wondering around for minutes when the sight of a small group of younger children dressed in uniforms reminded me of what I was really there for. As though awakened from a deep hypnosis, I slowed down my pace and finally stopped at the corner of the road almost barely realizing the trouble I had just got myself into.

"Twelve thirty..." I whispered to myself as I checked my wrist watch anxiously.

I had only one half an hour left until I was suppose to meet with my tutor and I knew that making a person wait at a first meeting wasn't going to make a very good first impression on them, yet I didn't even have a clear idea about where I was.

"Great job! This is what you get for daydreaming, Amaya!", I scolded myself in my thoughts. "When are you ever going to learn a lesson!"

I was mad at myself to have lost so much time on wandering aimlessly instead of following my main purpose, but it was too late to try and fix anything now. Slightly panicking, I took off my little backpack and started nervously groping to find the map inside.

Along with an increasing flow of adrenaline, I felt an intense heat wave rising from my abdomen all the way up though my stomach, chest and neck veins to my temples, seeping out through my pores in little droplets. The morning's tender warmness had transformed into scorching heat which along with the humidity left behind by June's rainfalls made the air stuffy and the sunshine fiery. But I quickly cleared my thoughts of all weather issues and put all my focus on arriving at my destination.

I no longer had time for plays and, holding on tight to that vital piece of paper, I turned around and began my search. Technically speaking, I was still going adrift, but at least this time I was aware of each step I made and payed close attention to everything around me, setting landmarks so as to avoid circling the same area.

I ran up and down, I went and came, restlessly slaloming through the annoyingly calm by-passers, until I finally seemed to have found the street that I had looked for so much. I felt a drop of sweat trickling down my jawline as I stopped to scrutinize the surroundings. I swiftly wiped it off with a tissue and checked my watch once more.

"Ten more minutes...", I spoke to myself puffing.

Alarmed by the growing uncertainty of arriving on time, I quickly made my way through the animated crowd shifting my sight from building to building trying to fit each one in the description I had been given.

"Blue and white building...Blue... and white... Where is it?", I impatiently twisted on the spot.

I continued walking forward thoroughly scanning near and afar but to no result. Wherever I went it seemed that everything looked the same. I hadn't given up yet, but the more I looked around the more confused I became and the more I stared at the funny signs and hieroglyphs the giddier it made me feel.

It seemed as though bad luck had been glued to me that whole day, but I had only then started feeling true frustration. Or was it really like that? "Shame on you! Blaming misfortune for your own mistakes! You should know better than to complain," I reproached myself. "You should just calm down. Simply organize your actions and do something to get yourself out of this problem."

I was always grateful when my rational spirit woke up. It helped me to get out of many issues before; it was like a reinvigorating breath of fresh air for my mind. And it once more proved itself.

I unskillfully slipped out of the crowd and anchored myself to a side pole as some sort of means of preventing myself from being swept away with the mob. I tiptoed, and, using my other hand as protection from the powerful sun razes, I again scanned the area; but my sight was blurred and my eyes felt sore from the slight dizziness that began feeling more and more intense. My entire body was torpid and my throat felt dry, but I didn't give it much thought. I gulped and because of the irking thought of time passing by me with its well known swiftness, I decided to move on.

I let go of the pole and once again mixed in with the shuttling inexpressive figures, trying to shake off the awkward sensations through mere ignorance. I wanted to move faster, but my body felt like it wasn't mine anymore. I began seeing tiny spots of light  at the corner of my eye as the air became stuffy and difficult to breathe. I still stubbornly wobbled forwards in effort, breathless after each movement. I did not sweat anymore; I saw the little light spots expanding into a dazzle and I felt a strong cold chill like a current going down my spine.

I felt cold. Cold, in the melting heat of a noon in July. Cold and so detached from the people, from the noises, and just as well, probably even from time itself.

"Yeah... You could use a break..." a vague thought echoed as I smiled inside.

I then felt a strong hit, as though I had bumped into something, or someone. A hint of hard and warm asphalt and a pair of hands holding me and gently beating my cheeks was what then followed.

I tried to open my eyes, even the slightest bit, but all I could see was a diffuse and dark figure eclipsing the sun. I could only distinguish a voice. It was muffled, but beautiful, and it rang in a soothing tone that seemed to belong to a boy. He was talking to me in words I couldn't understand, trying at his best to keep me awake. His perseverance touched me and at that moment I thought about him as of my dearest friend.

But I was slowly drifting away and the noises faded bit by bit until there were no more. Only his melodious voice kept echoing silently in my mind over and over again.