“Exactly. And I’m not gonna sit around and freeze to death until Christmas Eve.”
A very worried Prenisha leaned forward until her face was covering most of the screen. “What are you planning on doing?”
“I’m going to Atlanta.”
There was a roar of protests from all three of them. She was expecting that. She hadn’t done one thing on her own in her entire life and now she was planning on going across a country she didn’t know to meet a woman she’d never met. Her mother.
It was a complicated story. Her father had lived in America for years. He’d made a success of himself by starting a business called South Star. The company owned multiple hotels and resorts across the States, one of which she was staying at right now. Though, because of the location, this one could be described as a glorified guesthouse. He’d started from nothing and slowly built himself up, but she sort of messed up all his plans. She was only four-years old when he packed up all their belongings and moved to Johannesburg. His business still demanded his attention, so there were weeks, even months, when he’d been away from home, leaving her to be raised by a string of nannies. It wasn’t too bad when she was a little girl, but as she grew so did the distance between them.
It was a lonely childhood. He’d kept her safely tucked away from the world. She’d been home-schooled. She never had any friends. It was only after months of begging that she’d convinced him to send her to anormalschool and even then, he’d insisted she attend the same school as her cousins so they could keep aneye on her. It lasted two years, grade nine and ten, and then he pulled her out again.
At least in that time she’d made a lot of friends…
A few friends…
Just Rachel.
But now it was time for her to break free, spread her wings, discover the world. She would be starting her new job in January next year and there was plenty of time to reinvent herself before then. Her father hadn’t been keen on her accepting this job. It required her to move to the States, the very place he’d been trying to keep her away from, but it was an offer that could not be refused.
So now she was here with nothing but a few thousand miles between her and the woman she’d been dying to meet her whole life. She wanted to know if they looked the same, if they liked the same things. Did she hum while she cooked? What were her hobbies? Now was the time to find out.
“Cuz, if your dad finds about this, he’ll kill you,” Pratiksha said.
“How’s he gonna know?” Jasmintha fired back. “He’sneveraround. I was with him in Chicago for months and I barely saw him. Then he sends me here and tells me he’s gonna fly over in two weeks. He said we were gonna tour the town and roast marshmallows by the fire…and now he’s not coming.” She felt her throat clog up, but that was merely because some pointless emotion was causing a chemical reaction in her brain. It was quickly rectified. She knew how to deal with unwanted emotions. “I’ve been waiting for him for two weeks…six months…three years. It depends when you start counting.”
Prenisha stepped in and attempted to sway her with logic. “There’s a reason why your father doesn’t want you to meet her. She could be a drug-addict, or some kind of criminal, or a—”
“I don’t care. She’s my mother, Nish.”
“You don’t even know if she still lives in Atlanta. You’re basing this on an inactive Facebook account which hasn’t been updated in over a year. You’re just going to hop on a plane and hope for the best? It’s crazy! What if you get there and she’s moved? What if you get there and she’s on vacation somewhere?”
That was definitely a risk. Hell, there was a risk that she may have tracked down the wrong woman. Her search was based on the only information she knew of her mother—a name and date of birth. Statistically, the odds of two people having the same name and date of birth were low, so it was a risk she was willing to take. The limited details on her Facebook account were all Jasmintha had. There were no pictures, no status updates, nothing. It only had a name, birthday, hometown, and company of employment. That wasn’t a lot of information, but it was enough to pique her curiosity. It could end up being a wild goose chase, but she had to know. If there was a chance, any chance at all, of meeting her biological mother, she had to take it. Besides, she had nothing better to do until Christmas Eve.
Feeling a little edgy, Jasmintha stood up again and shrugged her shoulders. “I’ll take my chances. And I’ve decided to fly back, but…I’m gonna drive there. I already rented a car and plotted out the entire trip and everything.”
This time the protests were so loud, she had to cover her ears to drown out the sound.
“What if you get a flat tire? Do you even know how to change a flat tire?”
“What if you get hijacked, or kidnapped by some lunatic?”
“What if you get lost? No one will know where to find you.”
They were all throwing these what-ifs at her at the same time. It was impossible to determine who said what. She could understand their concern. She’d never left the house without an escort before, had not done one thing by herself. That needed tochange. She could easily book a flight to Georgia, but there were many purposes for the road trip.
Firstly, she had planned it to take roughly three to four weeks. That way she could buy some time and psych herself up before she actually met her mother. She also wanted to learn everything she could about this place, a country she would at some point have to considerhome. And finally, she just wanted to…live, live her own life without anyone dictating where to go or what to eat or where to stay. No nannies. No escorts.
She wanted to see the world and make new friends. She was on a roll. She already had six friends on Facebook. Six! It didn’t matter that three of them were the three ladies on the screen in front of her and that one woman had only sent her a friend request because she was trying to sell her skin products, the other two were totally legit. And she was just going to keep adding to it. With every mile, with every state, she was going to meet new people and learn new things and she was going to have fun doing it.
“What if you get caught in a blizzard?” Rachel asked worriedly. “Isn’t it winter there?”
“I think it’s autumn…or fall, whatever they call it, but itfeelslike winter. So I’ve done some research and they said that most of the states I’m driving through don’t get snow every winter.”
Pratiskha’s eyebrows furrowed together. “Who’s they?”
“Um…Google and…Yahoo Answers.”
“Oh, my Gawd!” She rubbed both her temples as if the response had caused an instant headache. “You’re going to be driving thousands of kilometers based on advice you received from Yahoo Answers?!”
