Chapter 7
Forget Me Not
The family was all set to leave.
Though it was heartbreaking, Grandma Lucy tried to appear lively before them. Deep inside, she knew it might take years for them to visit Forest Green again.
“I’ll be missing you all.” Grandma Lucy released her sentiments.
“Don’t worry, Gran. We will visit you more often from now on.” Alex attempted to relieve his grandma’s melancholy.
“Yes, Grandma. Alex is right and we will miss you too,” Nadine supplemented as she fetched up her goodbyes.
Sophia, quiet and tearful at the front porch, neared Grandma Lucy and Bea. She bequeathed them her hugs and kisses and joined her family in the car. Yet, crucial discernments and silent cautionings were delivered to Bea through Sophia’s heartfelt stare.
“Okay, before we embark, is there something we forgot?” Philippe asked everyone while starting the engine.
“Nothing, Dad,” Alex and Nadine responded, but for Sophia, she was evidently out of herself. The car moved, and Sophia rolled the window down, wishing to be flown away with the fresh air. She wished for Forest Green memories to be wiped out, once and for all, but the green mountains they passed by reminded her so much of those gigantic white wings.
“Honey, I think we should drop by your daughter’s old school. I wanna see it,” Elizabeth told Philippe.
“Yes, hon! That’s actually a good idea.”
Sophia strongly vetoed it to herself. It would just remind her of the other things she already buried in the past.
“Honey, would you mind instructing me about the way?” Philippe looked at Sophia through the rearview mirror. “You know, the streets are no longer the same, even their names.”
“Um, take a right turn when we get at the crossing and another right turn later, Dad.”
“Okay!” Philippe continued driving, following his daughter’s instructions.
As they passed by certain business establishments and aged houses, familiar faces stirred Sophia’s blood. Two-faced, pointy little headed, and bare-faced people were all recognized by her; the people who once made her feel secluded. No matter how long ago it all was, she could not let loose to wash them away.
But there were still those mysteries why the townspeople always treated Sophia differently, as if she was something close to trouble. Even Jericho couldn’t explain it to Sophia, before. But one thing he told her once was... she was a product of a crime, which became the talk of the town for quite some time, and caused the Vabueretti Plantation to close down and make some people lose their jobs. However, Jericho and Sophia never knew what that felony was. Everybody seemed to be tight-lipped about it.
Soon, they were already approaching Forest Green School. It was empty because it was the town’s Foundation Day, another holiday.
Sophia was surprised to see many changes at her old school. The mahogany trees that crowded the school grounds were already cut off and a wide parking area took over. There used to be only one building but now, there were three. At the other side of the school, many commercial buildings were now erected but before, it was just a vast grassy meadow.
“I can’t believe it changed a lot,” Sophia uttered, unaware that she voiced it a bit loud.
“Really?” her family asked.
“Honey, you had a good school,” Elizabeth hailed.
Sophia slipped out of the car. The flag pole that took her back to the days of her grade school was the only thing that hadn’t changed. Gazing through their nation’s pure white rectangular flag with a bright yellow sun at the center, Sophia had enough of memories.
Her family got their feet out of the car too and eyed Sophia’s old school.
“Honey, we’re not going to stay long here. It will delay us from getting home,” Elizabeth then said, tapping her fingers on the car roof.
Sophia nodded, promising, herself, to look at the surroundings another time, and went back to the car.
The rest followed, and Philippe brought the car back to life.
They passed by a Roman Catholic church, and Sophia saw Michael, one of her concerned classmates before, gathering the dried leaves at the church’s front yard. Then, more reminiscences rushed in like flooding water. She remembered, Michael and Jericho once rescued her from drowning in the lake, during one summer camp. Tightening her grip, she risked a gaze at the other side and blocked all additional memories, before the torrential rain would pour from her eyes. Then, she observed her father, wondering if he had a good childhood, unlike her.
The family already exited Forest Green, and Sophia progressively fell into silence.
Elizabeth reminded Philippe to stop over at a minimart to buy something for their lengthy trip.
In a little while, Nadine began to sing. It was a type of country song that further aggravated Sophia’s sentiments.
Alex joined in and their voices were all over the car, making Sophia, at some point, irritated. Sophia didn’t want, of course, to kill the joy weaving through everyone’s mouths, but she just didn’t find it bearable. Owing to it, she focused her eyes on the pasture land they passed by and sighed it all away.
On their one-hour drive, Philippe, at last, found a grocery store and pulled over.
For Elizabeth, she simply noticed how Sophia remained motionless. Because of it, she asked Sophia what she wanted to buy.
With a very unenergetic voice, Sophia returned a response, “I’m not hungry, Mom.” And though seeing Alex and Nadine readily escape the car, Sophia still didn’t change her mind. “You go ahead and I’ll just... stay here, Mom.”
Elizabeth crumpled her forehead. “Hmm…” She disregarded Sophia’s reason right away. “You didn’t have your dinner last night and breakfast this morning, and do you think I would believe you?”
“Mom, I’m not really hungry.”
“Are you sure?”
“Two hundred percent sure, Mom!” Sophia then exaggerated, to finally end her mom’s grilling.
“I’ll just buy for you, then. I don’t want you to get an ulcer,” Elizabeth said in a smooth voice and got out of the car, too.
On a whim, Sophia put on her earphones and eased herself, through pop music.
After almost half an hour, her family went back to her. She could see how Nadine loaded herself with junk food as if she could munch them, all throughout their entire way home.
Now, they were on the go again. Sophia stuck at being serene until they finally reached Orlando, at past eight in the evening. They were all tired, and none of them had eaten dinner. Instead, they went straight to their bedrooms and slept their tiredness away.
