What the book will be like…
Sunny days had a way of making the dirt on project buildings glisten. Rumbling trains interrupted the screaming matches of hungry children sped along to places I couldn't even imagine. I often wondered what brought my mother here, to this exact spot with this laundromat with dirty windows nestled into our four story building. The air was thick here, nothing like home and our clothes never seemed as clean rotating in those big, dark cylinders as opposed to hanging on the line in the sun's backyard. Buses swam through the city streets like sharks and watching them was enough to make me feel like I was drowning.
Mommy was fearless though or at least she seemed that way. She pulled me through massive crowds to go shopping and then crept back into our one bedroom apartment that was like our secret hideaway. Our tiny space always smelled like St. Thomas. Fresh fruits lined our small windowsill and keeping the oven door open made the cold space warm as if we were sitting on the equator again. I was trying to believe that this was a better life for us although I had no idea that the life we were living before wasn't the best. Though my countryside bones grew tired of city life, I clutched onto my picture of Junie and I, while I laid on my side of the bed along the cool wall. He was my best friend and no matter where in the world I had landed, as long as I wrapped my fingers tightly around the fading polaroid, I would be home. I would squeeze my eyes tight enough until the darkness was so blinding that I thought it was my island's sun familiar enough to fall asleep soundly under.
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