Ria, are you ok?

Ria, ar

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kest corners of long, forgotten caves, others remain dormant in the bottom of the oce

ay their part to make sure they remain hidden. But the day will come whe

every day, the ocean, the sky, the stars, the universe. Things that envelop you in their immensity and take your breath aw

. I would ask my mother to hide something for me to find again. She

er rustle my mom made inside the room while she was finding a place to hide the object from me. (It just happened to be t

d open the do

are you

nod ex

if you find it in under two min

and I would go crazy t

ide the door patiently as I had done countless times before, only this time I couldn'

ow, I am aware that a small paper could be easily slipped in or rolled into anythi

o find something before. I knew this room like the back of my hand, p

" I asked her as she

he set the timer and said, "Go

avier and heavier, weighing my whole body down, as

, unfolding all the clothes, shaking out the pages of every book and inspecting ever

kets in the walls. I unscrewed the electrical plugs in case it was stuck onto the back of it, and took apart all

ess. There was all this tension in the air. Something was definitely wrong, and I could feel it burn from the inside. She hadn't made a sound w

d passed, Mom came into the

id. I huffed and plopp

so concentrate and think outside the box. You can do it, Ria, " She smiled and left

ve me so much pressure on my birthday? Why couldn't I hear anything when she was

and I have a gift? Was it some sort of clue? Concentrat

. Outside the b

bo

ift

y-fiv

ds were c

Christmas. A gift on Christmas, that was the clue. I had received a gift from her last Christmas, it was a pair of running shoes, the same ones I am wearing now, yes! Shoes! It had to be hidden insid

ook me into her arms and proudly c

of pattern recognition and problem-solving. A gift I didn't even know I had, up until this very moment of my

Pe

ime at. Having experiences, unique experiences, lik

what I wanted. That's why I loved the Karma Café. There were no menus, but instead, they served you whatever they wanted you

ite T-shirts. There was nothing to entertain or distract the customers with. No signs, no wifi, no music, no posters. Just tab

there and have someone else decide what I was going to I eat that day. The waitresses were cute as wel

his, if a party of four walked in, I would cook ravioli for one person, masala dosa for the next, with the third getting fried crickets with honey and sesame oil, and the last w

owledge that they weren't of my responsibility. They might as well start a fight or break a vase and I wouldn't be the one cleaning up after

t the entrance and went my way. Not that I had somewhere special t

ut in a store window. I looked the same as I did at the age of f

of keys in them. They were my keys, the ones I needed to u

ing a girl or preparing for a breakdance battle. Most of this particular day's duties were checked off before lunch, and now the list was reduced to just two items. One of them was writing a short review of my washing machine for an old friend who wanted me to. Not that

kee. Even though I moved away from home a few years ago, there was still plenty of things left th

probably started ticking things off my bucket list a little earlier, but twenty-five wasn't such a terrible age. Let's say I got to live until I was seventy-five

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bout a year but chose not to tell me so that our last months together would be as cheerful as possible. T

It was just what I had always wanted but every time I asked for it, Mom objected, saying I wa