Finding Anna by Katie Cross

Author:Katie Cross [Cross, Katie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: KC Writing

10

The glow of the laptop illuminates my face.

My earlier conversation with Pop buzzes in the back of my mind. Ma is settled in her room now, asleep. After getting her comfortable, organizing her medications, setting out a schedule, and putting her sewing within reach, I’d returned to my old room to spend the night. Pop would drop me off at GoTeachGo on his way to work. With my last final on the horizon in the afternoon, I can catch back up at the internship.

I hope.

My body is tired, but my mind hums with excitement. Next to my bed, where I lay tucked in the covers, glows the bright red numbers of my alarm clock. 11:52. On the screen is a spreadsheet, populating with numbers and rows of words. Places. Prices. Plane ticket costs. Hostel addresses.

I shake my head, tsking under my breath.

“Prices are up,” I murmur.

Once a month, I study airplane tickets to five different destinations across the globe: Hawai’i, London, Sydney, Paris, and Belize. On the spreadsheet, the prices are clearly tracked for June 1st through the 8th. Seven days of travel, hostels, foods, attractions, planes, and more.

Next to that spreadsheet is another tab: budget. This one I update daily. Today, I run through the columns, adding up what I’ve saved. I toggle to my bank account, verify deposits, two savings accounts, checking account. Setting all of this up had taken months. I made it my goal before I graduated high school, right after Ma gave me a sewing machine as a graduation present. Now, my system purred like a kitty, taking me ever closer to overseas.

Thanks to Melanie’s $1,000, my goal of $2,500 was piling up sooner than I’d dreamed.

“Extra shift,” I murmur, then type into my calculator, spit out a new number, and type it into my savings account column.

$1,514.26.

I whistle. “So close.”

The third tab on my spreadsheet is the most exciting. I click on it, pulling up a screen filled with the schedule. My eyes drop to the top box.

December 20th: Decide where I’m going to go.

January 15th: Apply for a passport.

February 14th: Buy the plane ticket.

The alarm clock still glows bright next to me. 11:58. Two minutes and December twentieth will arrive. The day I finally decide where I’m going.

Ten different tabs line the browser, all open to a different incredible sight. Buckingham Palace. The North Shore. Eiffel Tower. The Great Blue Hole. Narrowing them down feels impossible based on merit alone. I want to see all of them.

Besides, I’m only going for a week. A quick seven days abroad will keep expenses manageable.

My teeth worry my bottom lip as I look over the options. One minute to go. I’ll need to narrow my choices. Paris is mostly French-speaking, so I close that browser. For my first trip abroad, I’ll stick with English speaking. Belize is out for now. I close three browsers—but drool over the beaches for a moment. Over the next thirty seconds, I whittle the options down to London and Hawai’i.

The clock slips to midnight.

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