Across the Globe [COMPLETE]

This Should Be Interesting

I type a quick text and ask her how she’s getting along with the rental. She’s meant to pick me up as soon as she has it so we can go out for some lunch, and then we’ll enjoy the day driving around the city and going up Mount Eden. Early in the morning tomorrow, we will drive over to the Coromandel peninsula, where we will stay for 2 nights at a cute beach house before starting the road trip due South. 

My phone vibrates, and I check the message.

Em: Hey girl, it’s all sorted, but you should come over, I’m just down at the café in the corner of Queens and Victoria Street. 

Well, that’s odd, I wonder why she’s not picking me up. 

Sam: All good? Why the change? Don’t you worry me!

Em: Just come over, everything is good. A little change of plans won’t kill anybody. xoxo

I open up the map on my phone, and see that the cafe is literally a block away. So weird, why wouldn’t she just come up and get me? I put my computer away, grab a jacket, put on a woolen scarf and head downstairs. 

I get to the street and see that the city is busy with people rushing one way and the other, big crowds of teenegers and young adults loudly talking and laughing. 

There’s such a variety of cultures merging around the place. I spot a group of Indian gentlemen walking past with suits on, some white blonde kids running around their parents legs and wearing shorts despite the cold, and a multitude of asian teenegers that walk past me holding notebooks in their hands, probably heading to uni if I’d have to guess. I realize it has a nice feeling to it. 

I walk out and spot another crowd that tugs at something inside me as my attention focuses on them. It’s a group of teens standing a few meters away, leaning over their bikes and chatting loudly. They are all wearing hoodies, hats and loose sneakers, and as their conversation drifts over to me I notice I can only understand half of what they’re saying through their thick accents. I’m pretty sure one every other word is slang, because I really have no idea what they are talking about. But that’s not why I’m staring at them as I walk past... It’s the familiarity of their features, and how much they look like… Well, me. Or maybe I look like them. They’re only a few years younger than me, and I can’t help but think if that’s how my life would have looked like if I grew up here.

They all have beautifully tanned skin in various shades, from light caramel and olive hues all the way to a dark rich brown. They all have wide and flattened noses and dark hair. I’m so used to always being the odd one, the one that doesn’t fit in, the one that looks different... But here and now, I realise I feel almost invisible instead of feeling like all eyes are on me. It’s a weird feeling, and it makes me wish I grew up in a country with a richer cultural mix, one with more tolerance. One where kids were taught from a young age that being different is not a bad thing, one where diversity was encouraged rather than frowned upon.

I finally reach the corner and walk into the café. I loosen the scarf as the heating hits me right on the face and warms me up instantly. I look around the crowded room, looking for Em’s blond curls. 

I have to double take when I see her. What? Em is sitting at a table by the opposite wall, laughing as she talks with a tall Maori guy, who’s sitting with her. My feet feel cemented to the floor for a moment. I don’t know what to think of this or what to do, but then Em is looking at me, waving her arms in the air excitedly.

“Sammy! Come over!” She says happily and loudly as she stands up.

I walk slowly towards them, confusion still clouding my thoughts. The guy almost looks a bit uncomfortable when he looks at me, his eyebrows slightly tucked together. But he softens his features when he realises I’m looking back at him.