Page 6 of Every Broken Promise
Once I was changed, I grabbed my purse and headed toward Elm Street. It was about a fifteen-minute walk, but one must endure anything for a good snacky snack.
A smile spread across my face as I stepped into Elm Street, which wasn’t technically a street, at least not for the last ten years since they renovated the area, hoping to attract more tourism.
What used to be our main street was more of a big cul-de-sac. A fountain with trees and benches was located right in the middle. Around it, you had some mom-and-pop shops,Delicia’sbakery, which I couldn’t wait for, city hall, two restaurants, and the practice for the local doctor. Everything was conveniently located, and it was the spot to be after school. The huge willow tree provided shade in the summer, and anything you might want for a snack or a bite to eat was right within reach. The locals referred to this as town square.
It wasn’t much, but this was home.
As I made my way towardDelicia’s, I looked around the shops and noticed that most were the same, but there were a few that I didn’t recognize.
A smile spread across my face as I walked through the door of the bakery. Fuck, the smell was heavenly. It looked the same yet different at the same time. The bread was still on glass shelves, but I could tell they added a new counter, and I gasped when I saw what was being offered on the menu.
The excitement over pastries and drinks was enough to distract me from the fact that I would be heading to Kanes’ Auto.
As I was browsing the bread shelves, a pretty older lady came out of the back.
“Good morning,” she greeted me, and I instantly smiled.
I had always loved her heavy accent. Grabbing a tray, I grabbed a pinkconchaand headed toward the counter. The sweet bread’s name came from its crust looking like a shell.Lupe, the owner, had three different flavors. The yellow crust was just plain vanilla, the brown was chocolate, and the pink one sometimes tasted like strawberry, depending on if Lupe was up to doing the extra work—sometimes, she just dyed the flour.
“Hey, Lupe, long time no see.” I beamed at her, and the instant her eyes locked on mine, she did the same.
“Astrid,” she said my name, and I loved the way she rolled the R when she said it. “You’re finally back!”
I tried not to grimace at that statement.
The wordsfinallyandbacktogether were not sitting all that well with me. It made me feel like a failure even though I accomplished what I set out to do. Regardless of the fact that journalism was a dying career, but we weren’t getting into that.
“I see you now have boba. How cool is that?”
I pointed to the picture, trying to change the subject.
That’s the thing I loved about my time away, no matter how it ended, because I got to go out and experience a bit of the outside world. Being exposed to so many cultures was amazing. It was cool to see all of them through social media and the internet, but to live them—it was something else.
“Luna came back from school obsessed,” she stated. “Then she proceeded to complain that not much had changed in the six years she had been gone. I told her to show me a recipe and I could make it for her.”
They offered three flavors. Brown sugar, strawberry, and horchata.
I loved horchata and I loved boba, so why the hell not try them together? “I’ll take a horchata milk tea.”
Nothing in this store had ever steered me wrong.
Lupe was a great baker, and her shop did amazing in this town because everything was one hundred percent authentic to her culture. On the weekends, she sold warm quesadillas madefrom homemade tortillas. To this day, it was the best quesadillas I had ever tasted.
“Thanks, Lupe,” I told her as I grabbed my order.
“Come back soon,mija!” she yelled as I walked out.
Ignoring the fact that I currently held more sugar than I needed in a week in my hands, I made my way to the Kanes’ auto shop. Anger burned sugar, right? It sounded about right in my head, so I carried on eating and drinking in the hope that all that sweetness would mellow me out.
Next to the bakery, there was this quaint little shop that had not been there before. From what I remembered, the space was small. When I was little, there used to be a little movie rental store. They had a good selection of DVDs. Then the digital era came, and it closed shop. Through the years, it just sat there as a storage facility for the city to store its equipment for holiday events.
Now, it had a little narrow window that displayed crystals and herbs. I peered up at the building, and it looked like some kind of tarot store. Pretty plants hung from the ceiling, and the vines came down to the floor, making the peek you got inside seem magical.
The lighting inside was darker, so I couldn’t see much from the well-placed counters by the window. On the ledge, there was a coffin felt letter board. A pretty black-and-gold foiled tarot card with stars and swords was taped at the top. They had put the card upside down. It read:Five of Swords.
Underneath the card, there was a message.It’s time to let the past resentment go and start making amends.
What the fuck.
