Amira

Chapter 1

Hi guys! This is my first story so..we will see what happens!!! Hope you like and feel free to comment! I don't know how frequent I will be able to update but if I get a big following I'm sure I'll feel obligated to update regularly lol. 

Amira lugged her suitcase through the front doors of the airport. 

Could you even call this an airport? she wondered to herself.  

The building was smaller than the airports that Amira was used to back home. In fact, it wasn't much bigger that grocery stores near her house. There were maybe only around 50 people milling around in the airport, including the workers. Amira knew that it would take time to get used to this new, small town way of living. She  had spent the past year in an urban, big-city university that was drastically different from the small town she was approaching. Although Amira loved the fast pace and buzz of the city, she knew she would appreciate the break that this this quiet and calm town would provide. 

Amira took a breath in. The air was cool and crisp. There was the slight salty scent of the ocean that she knew was near, but all Amira could see from the outside of the airport were trees. Lots and lots of trees, not a skyscraper in sight.  I could get used to this.  

"Amiraaaaaa!" Aunt Sheila's piercing voice cut through Amira's thoughts. 

She turned to see her aunt running towards her, her large grey afro bobbing and her arms stretched wide. Amira smiled. 

Aunt Sheila was hard to miss. She had the kind of presence that demanded attention, with her dark and smooth skin, catlike eyes, and her mane of curly hair. Her afro had greyed since the last time that Amira saw her Aunt, but it only added to her beauty. Amira always thought that if modern day witches were real, they would look and dress exactly like her aunt.  

Dropping her suitcase, Amira ran towards her aunt and met her half way in a tackling hug.  

"Hi Auntie," Amira said through the hug. Her aunt squeezed her harder in response. Releasing her, she held Amira at arms length an examined her with smiling eyes. 

"It's been too long. You've gotten so big!" Her aunt said, tucking a loose curl behind Amira's ear. 

"I know," Amira agreed. 

It had been four years since Amira saw her aunt. Aunt Sheila and her mom never got along, not since Amira could remember. Despite that fact, Aunt Sheila remained a huge part of her life when she was younger. She visited for every holiday and family gathering, and the summers were often spent taking small beach trips with just Amira, Aunt Sheila, and her mom. However, after the summer before high school, Amira never saw her aunt again. She stopped coming for the holidays, stopped calling, and stopped communicating further than the occasional postcard. Amira asked her mom about it, but she always just shrugged it off or responded with a tight lipped "She's busy." 

Amira's mother a school teacher, and the exact opposite of Aunt Sheila. Aunt Sheila was whimsical and cheerful while her mother was practical and pessimistic. Aunt Sheila was the type of to take each day as it comes. Her mother was the type of person to make lists and schedules to be followed each day word for word. Amira knew that their differences much be the source of their inability to see eye-to-eye, but they had always put their differences aside for the sake of Amira. She always wondered what made that change. 

In the four years of her aunt's absence, Amira cherished her aunt's postcards. It reminded her of the summers spent together, and the postcards always showed the beautiful landscape of the town in which her aunt lived. From the turquoise waters of the ocean to the evergreen covered mountainside,the place looked like a dream. Ever since she was a child Amira had always begged Aunt Sheila to take her to visit the town. Her aunt only smiled and insisted she would when she was older. It's part of what influenced Amira's decision to come here, to see the beautiful scenery and catch up with her aunt. Well, that and the job offer.