by Rana Demiriz
I heard Rio’s voice behind me. “Come on, Mia! We’re going to be late.”
I locked the big wooden door. I turned and started to walk. Rio was holding the door of a silver Ford, waiting for me. I raised my brows. “No more cabs?”
“I finally asked them to send me a car.”
Apparently, now we had an inside joke about cabs. That must have bothered me because I frowned. I turned and looked at the house I grew up in for the last time, without knowing when or if I would ever come back.
I got in the car. I ignored his victorious smile and looked out of the window behind the driver’s seat. While we were driving to the airport, I watched the streets I grew up in. When we arrived at the airport, it was midnight. It was too bright for a night. The airport was standing out in all its glory. I was here to send off my sisters earlier today, and now I was here for myself, but there was one big difference: I had nobody to say goodbye to me. I had to leave on my own. Without anyone to cry after me, I was going to cry for myself. I was crying because I was afraid, afraid of the responsibility that I had on my shoulders, and afraid for the lives that depended on me.
We pulled up two chairs with Rio. He brought me a cup of coffee. While we were sipping our delicious smelling coffees, he took out our passports, plane tickets, and some papers from his pocket.
“Hey! Where did you find my passport?” I asked suspiciously.
“I was wondering when you'd come back to life. I was about to start worrying. Lasting this long without making a sarcastic comment must be a new record for you.” he said.
If he were not grinning, I would’ve given him a sharp reply right away, but his smile softened me. “Thanks for your understanding,” I said.
His grin got wider when he sensed the sarcasm in my tone. He looked at my passport. “It was in your drawer,” he said.
“I guess we’re traveling abroad then?”
His lips became a thin line. “Well, technically, I’m kidnapping you.”
I unintentionally pulled my chair a few inches back.“What do you mean?”
I pretended like he didn’t notice that I flinched.
“Well, Julia gave us only a week, if you remember, but we’re going to stay longer where we go, which means we broke the rules. I kidnapped you.”
And then I realized that it hadn’t even occurred to me to ask where we were going. My mind was so busy, and I was so worried that I could've been dragged to the end of the world before I even noticed. “Where are we going?” I asked.
“I was wondering when you were going to ask that,” he said, smiling.
To save the situation and not to embarrass myself, I made up something. “I was waiting for you to say it.”
“Guess where we’re going,” he said. I held my breath. “To Madrid…” he finished his sentence.
“What? Are you serious? Are we going to Spain? For real?”
The people around us stared at my reaction. Rio looked them back at first, and then he answered my questions in quietly. “Yes, but don’t forget, we’re not going there for traveling purposes.”
I paused. “Okay,” I said.
No matter how much I wanted to fight against it, I was still excited. The last time I went to Europe, I was with my family; in fact, I was too little even to remember where we traveled.
When our flight was announced, I bounced off of my seat. I was so excited that I could even clap. Rio was carrying my luggage with one hand and trying to cover his laughing with the other. I gave him an annoyed look, but I was too tired to get angry with him. We took swift steps to the passport desk. The woman behind the table looked at our passports first. She wrote something and smiled at Rio as she gave back the passports to him.
“Have a nice trip, Mr. Luz,”
She was ignoring me as if Rio was standing there by himself. I felt like I needed to remind her that I was there too. I knew it was stupid, but I couldn’t help myself. “Thank you,” I said.
She finally looked at me and smiled. I purposedly took Rio’s arm and smiled back at her. What was I doing? The lack of sleep must have gotten into my head. As we left the desk, I was still on Rio’s arm. I didn’t let go till we reached our plane. Rio leaned his lips down my ear. “Not that I’m complaining or anything, but can I ask why did you do that?”
“I wish I knew,” I mumbled to myself. “Forget it, let’s go,” I said and let go of his arm. He made a sullen face. I ignored him, and we sat where the stewardess showed us. Rio politely offered me the window seat. I sat without saying a word. Like the woman behind the desk, the stewardess smiled a little bit too wide at Rio. I felt invisible. Why was everyone ignoring me?
“She is pretty,” I said after the stewardess left.
“Sorry?”
“The stewardess, I said. She is pretty,”
“I didn’t notice.”
“Whoa!”
“Mia, how can I look at someone else when I’m with you?”
“Rio, don’t forget that we’re not actually lovers. We’re just pretending. You can do whatever you like. Don’t forget that.”
“Still, I don’t want to do anything to compromise our little deal. To cheat on you, even if it’s just a lie, is just so… dishonest.”
I laughed. “Whatever you want.”
After our plane took off, about 2.30 pm, the stewardess’ voice startled me when I was just about to fell asleep. “Would you like anything, Mr. Luz?” The stewardess was annoyingly smiling at him again. First, Rio checked my face. He must have seen something in my expression because he smiled and held my hand.
“What are you doing?” I whispered.
“Just pretending…” he said.
He got even closer to my ear and dropped a kiss on my cheek. My heart skipped a beat. This was the closest moment we ever got and even though he was just pretending, it made me flustered. I had to pull myself together.
Rio turned to the stewardess. “No, we don’t need anything, thanks.” I looked at the stewardess. Her smile was wiped away from her face. Rio giggled.
“I think you disappointed her a little bit,” I said.
“Possibly,” he said.
This was the last part of the conversation I remembered because I couldn’t fight the exhaustion anymore and fell asleep. It was an uninterrupted and dreamless sleep. When I opened my eyes, we were still on the plane. It was a little brighter inside, so I guess it was around 7 pm. That meant that we'd arrive in Madrid soon.
I felt a weight above my head, an arm wrapped around my back, and a few curly hair locks tickling my cheek. Oh my god! My head was on Rio’s shoulders. I must have slept like that the entire night. Was he cuddling me? Yes, he was! He woke up when I suddenly lifted my head. For a moment, we gazed at each other confusedly, and then he pulled his hands back.
“I’m so sorry, Mia. I didn’t mean to-”
“It’s okay. I’m sorry too.” I said, embarrassed.
Right then, another stewardess brought us breakfast. Even though I slept on a plane seat, I felt refreshed. How interesting. I hope it didn’t have anything to do with Rio’s comfortable arms.
I had breakfast and heard the stewardess’ announcement as I sipped the last bit of my coffee. The plane was about to land. I pushed my nose up against the window right away. Madrid was lying under my feet with all its beauty. But the momentary view of Madrid left its place to the airport in no time.
In about half an hour, we got in a car which was sent for us. Rio said something Spanish to our driver. He nodded and got back to driving. “Wow! I didn’t know you speak Spanish.”
“I grew up in Rio, did you forget?”
Instead of answering him, I watched Madrid through the car window. I was trying to keep in mind every street, every shop, and every person’s face we passed by, but it was hard. It was an enchanting city. I wanted to remember every little detail about Madrid. Rio was aware of my excitement, so he didn’t keep me busy and let me explore.
It didn’t take me long to realize that we ha
d stopped. Rio said something to our driver and took out my luggage from the trunk. On the other hand, I was staring at the hotel's magnificence when the bellboy took my bags from me. As we headed towards the reception, I was still gaping. The receptionist turned to us with a polite smile.
“Buenos días, Señor. Welcome to our hotel…” he said with a thick Spanish accent.
“I called yesterday and booked two rooms under the name of Rio Luz.”
He booked two rooms. How thoughtful. I thought he'd just book us a single room. Of course, it was way better this way, but for some reason, I wouldn’t have guessed that Rio would be so considerate.
“Mr. Luz, I’m so sorry. We don’t have two separate rooms. We don’t even have a regular room. There'd been a mistake about the reservations. Two other customers have already checked in instead of you...”
“Is that so? And you have no intention to make things right, I suppose…”
“But Mr. Luz---”
“Please call me your manager…”
“Look, Señor---”
“We can solve this,”
“Then solve it! Whose mistake is this?” Rio was furious. He slammed his fist on the luxurious marble of the reception desk as he was speaking.
“Mr. Luz, we have only one room left, and it's the honeymoon suite,” she said after checking her computer. Rio seemed to be doubtful for a moment, so I took the opportunity to talk.
“Rio, it’s all right. We can go to a smaller hotel and book two separate rooms.”
“Mia, you don’t understand. It has to be this hotel.”
“Why?” I asked.
“I gathered some information. We need to solve the mystery in this hotel. They know we’re here.” He whispered.
I didn’t ask any more questions and just sighed. “Okey then. All right,”
Rio smiled at me and turned to the receptionist. “We’re going to take it.”
“Sir, we apologize again for the inconvenience.”
After Rio signed some papers, we went up to our room with the bellboy or, more precisely, our suite. The honeymoon suite… How funny, wasn't it?
After the bellboy showed us our room and took Rio’s generous tip, he left. Our room was facing the street. Rio left my luggage on one of the seats. We sat on the velvet chairs by the window and watched the street for a while.
I was tired and had back pain. “I better take a shower,” I said.
He nodded and took out his phone. I didn’t wait to see who he was calling. I took my clean clothes with me and opened the bathroom door sleepily. The moment I stepped into the bathroom, I gasped with amazement: A massive marble bathtub. There was a silver tray filled with the hotel toiletries next to it. Still, if Rio didn’t insist on staying here, I would rather happily stay at a hostel.
I guessed I didn’t have enough time to fill up the bathtub and make the best of it by letting my tiredness leak away from every one of my cells. So I just took a quick shower. I was feeling both better and sleepier. I dried my hair and put on some clean clothes. I was ready for bed.
The moment I opened the door, I came face to face with Rio. I let out a little shriek. Rio lifted his head and looked at me. “Did I scare you?”
“No, you just… took me by surprise.” He didn’t answer back; he just looked at the white envelope in his hands. “What’s that?” I asked.
“A letter. The bellboy brought it,” I returned to the velvet chairs on which I was sitting a little while ago. I was tense. I buried myself in the chair like I wanted to hide.
“What does it say?”
Rio came and sat right in front of me. “I didn’t read it. It’s for you, so I decided not to open it.”
I suddenly had an urge to pat his curly hair and say ‘good boy,’ but it was not a good time for jokes. I reached and took the envelope and examined it. It was a plain, white envelope. Only ‘Mia Riley’ was written on its back. I opened the envelope, and there was a short note written with very slick handwriting:
If we shadows have offended,
Think, but this, and all is mended—
That you have but slumbered here
While these visions did appear.
CHAPTER 13
I turned the envelope over and over in my hands. I read it out loud two times, but I forgot how many times I read it to myself. I was focused on the note; I didn’t get anything, though. I started over and reread it. I knew I had seen it somewhere else before, but where? I’ve reread it, again and again…
I suddenly jumped to my feet. I was mad. The words I read were dancing before my eyes even long after I took my eyes off the letter. They were shifting around in my head, making it harder for me to understand. I turned my eyes to Rio and realized I even forgot that he was sitting there. He was also alarmed by my sudden reaction, and he got up on his feet instantly. His thoughtfulness had changed into focus in less than no time.
“What happened? Did you feel something?” he asked. He checked to see if my eyes changed color. I couldn’t answer him. I was too busy trying to put the pieces together. I kept on reading the note over and over again in silence.
“Mia, I’m losing my mind here! What’s happening?” My silence worried him more than the note. I opened my mouth and finally found the strength to speak.
“This, this note… I guess it’s from… Somewhere… But where? Where?”
I was walking back and forth in the room. Rio sat on the chair again. He put his hand on his chin and started to look out of the window, but I knew his attention was elsewhere. Just like me, he was also trying to understand what the riddle meant. Maybe he was also more troubled with not being in control of our own lives. Maybe he also felt like a pawn. I got distracted by these thoughts for a while, and I looked out of the window just like he did. Our windows were generous about the view. It was a perfect summer day outside. It was almost 3 pm, and it was scorching hot. A typical, perfect summer day. Wait a second… A summer day?
I screamed with the victory. Rio jumped to his feet once again. “For God’s sake, Mia! What’s happening?”
I hit my head with the back of my hand. “I remembered! Of course, why didn’t I think of that before?” I said.
I read the note out loud once again. After I finished, I turned my head up to him. His face was blank. He still couldn’t make sense of anything.
“I still don’t get it,” he said, expressing his confusion. I would normally make a smart remark about it, but I let it go and told him what I discovered instead.
“This is a quote from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
How could I not see that earlier? I studied art history. I was familiar with this stuff. Who could have known that better than me? I should’ve been ashamed. But I didn’t have time for that. I was busy with more important things like saving the word or finding out my purpose in this scheme.
Rio’s face started to light up. I guess things were starting to make sense now. He took the note from my hand, examined it carefully, and lifted his head to look at me. “Yeah, I remember. Of course! How could I forget? I saw nearly all of Shakespeare’s plays on stage, and I almost know them by heart,” he blushed a little bit. “At least I thought I did,” he added.
“So did I,” I said. And then there was a silence. Our happiness lasted for a little while. What were we going to do with that information? Where would it lead us? What was it going to change? We were back where we started.
We got back to our seats as nothing happened. We looked out of the window in disappointment. I could watch outside the whole day and still not be bored; it was so beautiful out there. Life was flowing wherever I look, and I could see all sorts of people from up here. A brunette woman passing by caught my eye. She was walking down the street without a care in the world! She got in a cab with some bags in her hands. Another girl who was passing by the corner caught my attention. She was probably around my age. She looked very happy talking to her phone.
Was I also happy? Yes. Even though I had to
leave my sisters and we were far away from each other, I was still happy for them. Meanwhile, I was in Madrid, sitting in the honeymoon suite across from a handsome man who claimed to be the Master of Light even though I thought I was going to spend all summer at home, being a hero and dealing with the Azurite stuff. Was I happy no matter what? I guess so.
I turned my gaze from the street to Rio. He probably felt that I was looking at him because he lifted his head to meet my gaze. He was trying to understand what I was thinking.
“What does it all mean?” I asked.
“I’m thinking.” Well, that was something I couldn’t do right now. “I think they used visions metaphorically. But I didn’t get what they mean by slumbering,” he continued.
I thought aloud. “I think they mean something more like a nap rather than a full night’s sleep.”
He nodded. “But when do people slumber?”
“My dad liked snoozing around four o’clock. He would lie down to his couch and say that he was going to take a nap.” His memory made me smile as I finished my sentence. “Actually, most of my relatives like taking a nap around four o’clock.” It was a very common habit in our family.
“Shadows,” he said to himself. I guess he was also examining the words in his mind one by one, just like I did.
“Ugh! What does it mean?” I said and buried myself deeper into my seat and held my head between my hands.
“What do they mean by shadows?” he asked without expecting an answer. I answered his question with another question.
“What do shadows symbolize?” I asked. He didn’t answer. He seemed lost in his own thoughts. I watched him while he was looking out the window. I watched his thinking face, how he raised one eyebrow when he thinks of something new, or how he forgets to blink when he focuses too much.
Suddenly, he turned his head to me. I lowered my eyes with the embarrassment of being caught. The blood was rushing to my cheeks, and I had nothing I could do to stop it. Luckily his mind was quite busy.
“What if shadows don’t symbolize anything? What if they literally just mean shadows?”