Page 9 of Sombra
“Lap-top?”
“Check. In my backpack.” I eyeball Mom and Dad. “I’ve set you all up on Skype, too.”
My mom straightens the pillow next to her on the couch. “I hope I’ll be able to work it. New apps make me nervous. I never know if I’m getting a virus.”
“It’s easy, Mom. Honestly, you’ll get it. You run a company.”
She sniffs and runs her hand through her stick-straight light brown bob. “I have staff.”
Randy continues, “Electronicdoo-hickey to make your gadgets not fry in Europe?”
I bust up laughing. His stupid mock accent broke on that one. “Seriously, Randy?Doohickey? Isn’t it against bro code to not know the name?”
He steps back, offended. “Well, do youhaveit?”
“In the backpack.”
“Then,hasta la vista, baby.”
Everyone groans. “Oh my God, that’s the worst joke ever,” I say and then crack up uncontrollably.
He claps his hands twice likechop-chop. “You’ll be back.”
As I picture my upcoming semester in my mind, a flutter wings its way up my torso and out my fingertips.I’ve been walking on clouds ever since I found out I could study Spanish-English translation at the University of Granada. Finding myself giddy for no apparent reason. Smiling just because. Fantasizing about what I’d see, all the culture I’d soak up. I’ll go there for a semester, then return and finish up school in June.
But for now, something calls me to Spain. It sounds so passionate,with traditions and a bit of danger. I want to try squid for the first time. Inky, messy, squid. I’ll be off running with the bulls in Pamplona—and hopefully not getting gored in the process.
Unlike here. Iowa’s humdrum. Every city center features the same chain restaurants. Nothing’s too weird.
Honestly, the only damper on my upbeat mood is how Shane’s taking this. In contrast tomy explosion of rainbows, ever since Shane found out I was going, a shadow of gloom hovers over his head like a cartoon cloud. He’s been a total Eeyore. I hope it’s only temporary, because his glum attitude makes me feel guilty for wanting to go, for wanting to make my own decisions. I don’t want to make him feel bad.
I just want to do something for myself for once.
I know everythinghe does and why he does it, yet he still doesn’t seem to understand me. He certainly doesn’t get why I’m going to Spain when I could just coast through my senior year. I was the child prodigy who started college at seventeen, and I’ll finish this year with the ever-so-practical business degree suggested by,of course, my parents. They figured my interest in Spanish was good for job applications.
But I just like the language.
Shane’s twenty-one like Randy, and I’m twenty, and we’ve all hung out for almost a decade and a half. That’s a lot of years of playing Mario Kart together. I always have a class with Shane. In fact, the one year I didn’t—junior year of high school—he asked me out. While Randy’s the third wheel of our friendship, I can’t imagine Shane without him, andwe’ve been an inseparable triumvirate our entire lives. I’m breaking up the band by going.
But I’ll never know what’s out there if I don’t leave.
“You sure you don’t need any more socks?” asks my mother, arranging herself closer to Dad on the couch.
“Yes, I’m sure. And there’s a bus that goes into town or I can catch a ride with someone if I need something.” I sit by her.“I’ll figure it all out.”
Mom gazes at me with her green eyes probing. “I suppose it’s time we finally let you loose.”
“I’m twenty, Mom! It’s about time.”
My dad puts his arm around her waist. “You’re right, pumpkin. I think you’ll figure it all out.” While my mom is the hard-charging CEO pushing me to do better, he’s the one behind her, supporting me. I’ve never wanted tolet either of them down.
Any of them.
Shane shifts in his seat across from us, stands, and clears his throat. “I have something to say before you go, Kim.” His chestnut eyes lock on mine.
I raise my eyebrows, fold my hands together, and perch at the edge of the couch cushion. “Okay.”
“I know you’re going to Spain to, like, find yourself or whatever, but you need toknow how much you mean to me. When I was growing up, I played with you on the river bank by the park, and then we’d come back home and you’d beat me in Tomb Raider. You’d get better grades than I did, but you’d help me with my homework. You were homecoming queen to my king—”
