Sweet smiles

[Allison]

I woke up with my Mother shaking my entire body gently in my room.

"Alli, wake up" she sweetly smiled as she noticed that my eyes were slowly opening up to get hit by the sunlight that passed through my window. "We're gonna be late, we need to get to Grandma's this afternoon," she hastily walked out of my room.

My eyes felt the scratching of my fingers as I yawned and mustered my strength to lift my body, sitting down in my bed as I felt my heavy bed hair going crazy.

I didn't quite recall what had happened, but I already found myself sleeping beside my Mom who was so focused on the road, driving. Yawning once again I glanced at the window beside me. There were endless sights of the sea, making me pull the car window down to feel the sea breeze hit my face.

"Brings back memories, right Ali?" my Mom spoke without looking in my direction.

"Yeah, I missed the sea," without knowing, a small smile curled. I reached my hand for the built-in CD player in my Mom's old car. "How come you still haven't thrown these old CDs away," even though I complained, I set it up for a few tunes and music to be played to jam with while we headed to Grandma's.

"Those CDs are like an heirloom you know," she giggles while singing along with the songs. I only hum as I've already memorized the rhythms, just not the lyrics.

After about half an hour, we're nearing the village, and this time, it wasn't surrounded by any bodies of water, but a field of crops where people work hard to take care of everything as it's probably their only source of income. The fresh countryside air sits right with my nose.

"Oh! Is that little Sussan I see?" some farmers shout as they wave to my Mom who was driving nice and slow.

"Good day!" one by one, some residents were exchanging greetings with her until we arrived at a rundown look-a-like house after a few more minutes of bumpy roads.

~~

"Ma, we're home," we already entered the house and removed our shoes at the entrance when my Grandma came slowly to greet us.

"Oh dear, how have you both grown so big in just a couple of months," she acted so surprised we couldn't even identify if her reaction was real or sarcastic. "Come, come. I've already cooked lunch," she even tried to take and lift one of our bags.

"Thank you, Gran," I say, taking the bag from her when she lifts it and moving it a few inches from where it was originally. "You guys can catch up first, I'll go put these away," there were only around two bags full of our change of clothes, and a plastic bag where we put our souvenirs from the city.

I carried one bag in my back, another in the front, and the plastic in my hands while I slowly but steadily took steps on the ladders that led upstairs where me and Mom are going to stay. And after I put everything down on the ground.

The smell of an old and uncleaned room full of dust got stuck in my nostrils and I coughed uncontrollably. When I heard the worried asking my Grandma whose steps were echoing in my ear, I instantly tried to keep in some of my coughs as I answered, "Don't worry, I'm alright"

Then after a few minutes of looking at the room that was supposedly my Mom's when she was around my age, I finally finished looking around to see what I'd use for cleaning it. I went down to see them both having a good time reminiscing their past and catching up in a few teacups of tea while I was hoarding the cabinet down the sink to rummage some tools for cleaning; some soap, buckets for water, and a few unused cloth for wiping.

I returned to the room fully geared, I started by vacuuming every inch of the room while I moved the pieces of furniture on my own to get the dust hiding in the corners, and then I went to wiping the floor with wet and soaped unused cloth. Then finally returned the furniture to its original place and just wiped dust over the cabinets, TV, lanterns, and the other decorations.

As I was wiping, I saw quite a big box that was hidden between and covered by clothes in the closet. I looked around first before deciding to open it up. There, I found three whole picture albums with some opened letters and a few torn pages from some notebooks. I was about to pick the most eye-catching album when I suddenly heard the lamp from the table fall.

"What?" I silently asked 'my friend' why he'd do that without even looking. But when did turn to look, it was a 'friend' who've I met somewhere before but couldn't point my finger where. "Hi there," he just gave me a sweet smile but those blank and tired eyes couldn't escape my gaze. He didn't seem like he was surprised that I could see things like him, but he was rather relieved as he waved his hand awkwardly and then pointed to the window on my left.

I quickly took a glimpse of the said window and when I looked back, he was gone. I found myself slowly getting up from where I sat and to the window that I slowly opened as the freshness of the air struck my hair.

"Ali, come down here. Your Grandma wants to speak to you" My mom pulled me back to the present and I quickly replied that I would be there shortly. But the nostalgic singing whistles that the winds brought made me stop for a moment and look back for a quick glimpse where I saw the man, leaning on the window frame, eyes closed, arms crossed, and facing towards me as he vibes with the mysterious song as a little smile crept in his lips.

"Ali?" they called

"Coming!" I answered, my cheeks feeling a little warm as I quickly ran down the flight of stairs.