Two Shapes, One Body-preface

It had been an incredibly long day for me. First, it took four hours to drive to the airport from my house. It was a three-hour flight from North Carolina to Houston. There was an hour of a lay-over at the Houston airport before I could fly to Seattle. It took another four hours to get to Seattle. I didn’t sleep through any of this and given that there was a time difference it was technically a 27-hour day. I sighed with relief when the plane landed in Seattle.

I was last to get off the plane being an unaccompanied minor and all. I was still only fifteen. My two carry-on items were in my hand: my green bag and my teddy bear, Rupert. A familiar old lady was sitting in one of the chairs, waiting and occupying herself by reading a book.

“Grandma?” I murmured.

The lady looked up from her book, grinned, and set it down. She got up and hugged me tight. Her jewelry poked against my skin. She took two steps back and examined me. Her eyes widened, “Murphy, I could hardly recognize you. You look a lot different! You got glasses. Wow.”

I grinned, “I’m a lot taller than you now, huh?” She just nodded.

It seemed to amaze her that I had changed so much. She told me I looked a lot like her when she was younger. We both had the same long, blonde hair, glasses, and blue eyes. Apparently, I was a completely different person even though it was only a year since my last visit.

Grandma kept on smiling even after I stopped. She always smiled. It sometimes worried me when she stopped.

“I’m kinda hungry,” I told her, “I didn’t eat breakfast.”

“After we get your luggage, we’ll go somewhere to eat.”

It wasn’t long ‘til we found my green suitcase. It seemed to be one of the first ones to come out. I put it in the trunk of her gold Cadillac and hopped into the passenger seat. We soon were on the highway.

After a long silence, I said, “This isn’t same car as last time, is it? Wasn’t the other car purple?”

She only glanced at me for a second and raised her eye brow and looked back on the road, “Was it? Huh...” it didn’t take long for the subject to be changed, “Where do you want to eat?”

It took me a moment to think, “I think I want Mexican.”

She nodded, “Me too.”

The restaurant was right in between the mall and the work-out place Grandma went every Tuesday and Thursday. She sometimes would drag me to come with her, but I never wanted to. I didn’t like the classes she took.

I put my green bag over my shoulder and walked inside the restaurant.

“Two?” a waitress asked as she was about to pick up menus.

“Yes,” Grandma responded.

She picked up two menus, “Follow me,” she led us to a booth and set down the menus, “A waitress will be with you shortly,” she walked away.

I opened up my menu and scanned through it, “I want a macho burrito,” I said to my grandma as I closed it.

She was looking intently at the menu mumbling to her self.

A waitress came over to our table and set down chips and salsa, “What would you like to drink?” she asked in a strong accent.

“Water,” my grandma said.

“Um, Diet Coke,” I smiled.

Grandma closed the menu and looked up, “We’re ready to order. I’m getting a chicken fajita and she’s getting—“

“A chicken burrito,” I interrupted. I knew she was going to order something I didn’t want.

She wrote it down on her note pad, “I’ll be right back with your food,” she snatched the menus and quickly paced away.

Grandma munched on the chips taking nearly every single one. I looked around the room. Murals were painted on some of the walls. There was a large one of a Mexican woman carrying a basket and people in sombreros dancing. I noticed the color scheme seemed to be gold, red, and green. The restaurant was filled besides two booths in the corner. A young, dark-haired, Latina boy was wiping those tables. He looked over to reveal a nearly-perfect face. He turned a little bit more and smiled beautifully. I realized he was staring straight back at me an blushed. I looked back to my Grandma who was still munching on chips. I glanced over at where the boy was, but he was gone. Our waitress was walking towards us with the food.

“Hot plate,” she warned as she set the food in front of us.

Grandma started eating immediately, but I was thinking about the guy. I slowly ate and took the left-overs home. When I was leaving the restaurant, I looked around to see if I could maybe see him, but I didn’t. I was left with an eerie feeling, but I shrugged it off.