Why I Follow Directions

Gold Stream

            “What! That can’t be! When did he die? What, why didn’t you call me? This is ridiculous, I’m coming home.” My mom slammed the phone onto the beige receiver. Salty wet tears began to fall down her cheeks. My six-year-old mind automatically went into worried mode. She began to slide down the white kitchen wall and onto the brown patterned floor. She began to stare at the ground; I walked over to her and stared into her eyes. They seem to be lifeless; her hazel green eyes that were once full of life and joy were empty. I was frightened and began to step backwards, very slowly and quietly. Than with what seemed liked all her strength she gently rose her head. “Jhonas, your grandfather passed away last night.” I didn’t know how to react I was close to him. But I hadn’t seen him in about a year and a half and he lived hundreds of miles away so I couldn’t seem him very often. But the thought of losing a family member made my eyes watery. My mom stood up off the kitchen floor and walked towards the living room. But every step she took she brought her sorrow with her. She slowly walked up the steps, two feet at a time. I could hear her from the kitchen; she walked towards her room at the far end of the house. She opened the closet door and took out some brief cases. I walked to the living room and I could feel all the negative energy my mom had spread through out the house. I jumped onto our Persian style couch and I could here the phone dialing upstairs. The beeping of the numbers mad me curious whom my mom was calling. Tip toed to the living room phone, which was only a few steps away. I grabbed it and pushed that treacherous on button. “My dad just died last night and I’m on the first flight out of here. I’m taking Jhonas but you can stay here with Hanna” “Seems fine to me, I’m sorry” It seemed boring so I hung up. I heard my mom slowly walking upstairs like a zombie. Back and forth between her room and mine. Than I heard the zipper close the bag and it sent a chill down my spine. I heard it hit the ground and the rolling of the wheels against the hard wood floors. I saw her and than I heard the “thump, thump, thump” of the briefcase down the steps. She looked down at me “We’re going to Ecuador to say our last good byes to grandpa before we’re never able to see him again. Now go and put on your shoes.” I did as I was told and put on my Buzz Light year light up shoes as my mom was putting on her shoes. I walked out followed by my mom and the brief case. My mom slammed the door as hard as she could. She put the key in to the lock and I heard the click and we walked off into the distance towards the train station.

            After three long blocks of what seemed liked three miles because my mom walking so fast my little legs could barley keep up. We only waited a couple minutes for the SEPTA train to come to take us to thirtieth street station. We climbed the train while my mom was hauling the luggage. We picked some seats and sat in them. The conductor cam by and my mom whipped out a 10 and said “30^th please.” The conductor took out his ticket pad like it was a gentle flower. He whole punched the ticket and handed it to my mom. He got off the train at the old thirtieth street station. We took the escalator down to go to a different station to catch the airport line over to Philadelphia Airport. We went back up a different escalator and waited for the dreadful train to come. The train finally came we packed in it like cattle being transported to a slaughterhouse. We arrived at the airport and got off the crowded train car. We went across the street to the continental airlines desk. There surprisingly was no line at all. We did the loop around the line guards have and we went straight up to a representative. “Hello welcome to continental, how may I help you?” “We need one adult and one child to Quito Ecuador.” “Okay, that shouldn’t be a problem. We have two for the next flight.” “We’ll take it.” My mom pulled out her gold sears credit card. She slid it into the credit card slot and the representative gave her to tickets. We went through the long line a security, which seemed like the last level of snake. We put our suitcases and shoes in the bins and walked through the metal detectors. We were cleared and put on our shoes and towards the boarding pad. My mom told me she had to go to the bathroom and I told her I wanted to go see what was in the store across the hall. I than proceeded to walk across the hall and towards the toy store, she told me to stay in there and not move, I agreed. As soon as I got in I was disappointed, it didn’t have legos. I went to every store in that hall and couldn’t find any. So I went back to the bathrooms to find my mom except, she wasn’t there. I lost her. I was so scared. I began to cry and a nice security guard walked up to me asked me were my mom was. I said I didn’t know so we went to some room with a bunch of cubicles. He told me to wait there and a few minutes latter my mom walked out of an office and I hugged her like I would never see her again. We left the office and towards were we would catch our plain, we got there and we sat in the chairs and waited, and waited, and waited, than finally “flight to Quito is now boarding.” We handed the nice sturdiest our tickets and moved in the hall to the plane. We went to the back and put our suitcases on top of our seats. We sat down and as soon as the last person sat down and had there seat belt on the video came up on safety. I didn’t pay attention to the video so I have no idea how it went. We went backwards, than forwards, than stopped for what seemed like hours than took off. It started off slow, than faster, than faster, than faster and before I knew it we were up in the air. I was so bored I slept through out the whole flight. My mom woke up to the sound of seat belts being unbuckled and sturdiest welcoming us to Quito Ecuador. We left the plane and into the airport building. The building was warm and welcoming. There were lots of toy stores, which I liked a lot. We latter went through a conveyer belt and in to the exit. Family usually greeted us but I latter discovered they were all in my mom’s hometown of Santa Isabel. We left the building which seemed liked the a last taste of America and I leapt into the dark night of Ecuador.

            My mom waved for a taxi and it stopped. My mom said, “bus station” and the taxi man sped off like we were being chased by the police. We arrived at the filthy bus station. It was filled with back packers and native people trying to get by. My mom walked to a booth for a ticket to Santa Isabel. She paid in cold hard green cash and we went to our bus. It was blue and had Azuay written on it in big letters. We lazily walked to our bus and sat in our seats and I immediately fell asleep. I woke up, I looked out the window and the town was empty. We got of the bus and walked across the street. We were greeted by one of my aunts that showed us to a room were we could get changed. I changed into my little dress pants and button down shirt. My mom wet my hair and combed it back. She than lead me across the house outside and down the stairs were there were a large amount of people. She told me to wait there, she left me alone, she had told me not to go anywhere because it would be dangerous or scary. I saw a line accumulate around a strange box and I wanted to see what was in that box. So I decided without a second thought to stand in the line. It didn’t take long before I was next. People went and saw what was in the box and left crying their eyes out. I went and stood on a wood box and saw a pale face of what was my grandfather. He was a wearing a jet-black suit with a silk whit shirt and silk red tie. In his left hand he was wearing his wedding ring and both hands were across his stomach. It wasn’t even a second until I slowly got off the box and waked to the door as if I had seen a ghost. My mom cam back and said “Oh my god, Jhonas, what happened” I didn’t respond.

            I learned a very valuable lesson in that span of 3 days, follow directions. Even though that was a long story all the events lead up to seeing my grandpa, dead. To this day I still have nightmares of it, I think I’ve been scared for life. There is also the part at the airport when I lost my mom because I decided to wander off and not follow directions and look where it got me. A life of mental scaring, pain, and fright.