The airport buzzed with voices in a language James could only half follow. Worde rose and fell around him ,some familiar and others slipping past before he could catch their meaning. He adjusted his clear framed glasses...the one his mother always teased him about .``they make you look softer James,like the world won't guess how much you have carried".
Her voice echoed in his memory and his hand tightened on the straps of his backpack .
Dragging his suitcase that he has put all his belongings in hoping for a fresh start behind him,he moved past the polished floors and gleaming story fronts. Glass walls caught the reflection of light throwing his reflection bach at him. For a moment, he caught his own face -dark eyes shadowed by hours of travel,hair falling carelessness over his forehead,soft jawlines sharper now from the weight of grief.
A pair of girls waiting by th arrivals gate glanced in his direction, whispering and giggling amongst themselves and quickly looking away before he notices.
But James saw that and looked down, adjusting the straps of his backpack as though ignoring their eyes will make him invisible to them. He'd inherited the kind of features that people notice once and remember easily. And yet, to him ,it's only another reason for him to keep his head lowered.
Announcement rang out overhead in crisp tone. Around him.. families embraced , business men hurried by, flight attendants rolled their suitcases neatly along the well polished and prestin tiles.
And there he was , standing in the middle of it all, feeling like a misplaced piece ..as though the city had no idea his world had gone quiet weeks ago.
He fumbled through his backpack, checking ry address scribbled on a folded piece of paper. His mother's handwriting was neat and deliberate. The same hand that had kept a sealed envelope in his belongings...a letter he had not dared to open,meant for a man James could barely remember.
With a deep breath,he hailed a taxi and got in `` where would you like me to take you to" politely asked by the middle aged taxi driver while looking over his shoulders towards the yound man that clearly looks like it's his first time here . James took a deep breath and brought out the handwritten address his mother had given him to the driver `` this address please sir''. James said in a thick accent.
The taxi driver nodded his head and drove off.
Through the window, the night city unfolded ....wide avanues ,glass towers , unfamiliar billboards. James reflection hovered faintly on the glass beside the blur of motion,his clear framed glasses glinting in the light.
Somewhere ahead was the house tied to his mother's past, to the family she'd never spoken of until the very end
He wasn't sure if he was heading towards belonging or rejection.