The Entire Ocean in a Drop

Chapter 1

I can still remember the day we were finally moving out, the sky as blue as the sea with the sun radiating on to us, indicating that summer had officially began. I had anticipated this day ever since the news of my dad's new job in Paris, I counted down the days on my calendar and when that day finally arrived I wasn't ready.

"Mom, I can't find my purple dress!" I called out from the top of the stairs, holding on to my towel.

"Mom, the plane leaves in 2 hours!" my brother, Onyx interrupted from the living room as he wheeled around in a hurry.

"Moooom, I swear Emerald took my earrings with the golden hearts!" another voice yelled out from across the room.

"You're the one taking my clothes!" I argued as I saw my sister, Ruby, enter wearing MY purple dress.

After some yelling and hair-pulling and some filthy words, my mother entered the room, shocked at what she saw before her. Clothes upon clothes dumped on the floor, amidst mismatched socks and unworn shoes, my sister and me tugging at each other's clothes. This wasn't the greatest memory but it was the first time I had heard my mother scream at us. Maybe that was why we hurried out the door, with our bags and suitcases in a great acrimony to get to the airport or maybe it was just to prevail over the lousy start of the day.

The waiting at the airport was even more aggravating than at home. The cold hard chairs did nothing for my aching back as I tried to read about the hotel we were staying in, theHôtel Madeleine Plaza in Paris. It was especially hard to do this when Ruby won't stop talking to her friends on her phone, the way she was crying and the multiple times she had said "I'll miss you" or "I promise to email you everyday", I would have thought we were leaving forever and not just 2 weeks.

By the time the flight attendant had called us to board the plane, I had already learned the map of the hotel and a few French words from my French-English dictionary. We were the first ones to be called, as the flight attendant said passengers with disabilities and medical conditions. My mother wheeled Onyx in his wheelchair and Ruby and I followed close behind as our father led the way, I couldn't help but watch as people's faces turned towards us. A young girl also stood up pursed by an older man, who must have been her father. The girl had tubes coming out her nose connected to a small machine carried by her father. I, then realized what I was doing and quickly looked away at the flight attendant, a short, slender woman with frizzy orange hair, and handed her my ticket and passport. Thinking about the girl one last time, I ran to catch up to my mother.