Chapter 07

Gael

I see that Rayka is already at the end of the eating area, and as she is walking slowly, I run to catch up with her.

“Rayka, wait.” I call out as soon as I'm close, so she can hear me.

She stops and turns to me; from her expression I imagine she is surprised that I have come after her.

“Gael, what do you want?” She looks suspicious.

“Accompanying her, in Scouts, we are taught that we should always stand next to our partner in a system of partnerships.”

“I thought my partner would be Liz.”

Only then I realize that I decided to be her partner, thinking it would be the best, but I didn't think about what she wants, it may be that she prefers to be with her friend and not with me.

“I asked to be your partner, but if you don't want my company, it's okay.” I say leaving the final decision to her.

“It's not that, I was just surprised, and I don't mind us being a couple.”

“Good, so where are we going?”

“Here at the stadium, there is a Cowboys store, I need to buy some accessories before we go to the park.” She says walking back.

“Buy a ball or a cowboy hat?” I ask jokingly.

“Very funny you, huh, because, you should know that I already have the complete Cowboys uniform at home, including a hat.”

It's not surprising that she cheers for them, not even that she owns a team hat, after all we are in Texas, here children are born with a hat on their heads.

“Now you know what team I root for, but what about you?”

“The Falcons, although since moving to Miami I've started rooting for the Dolphins too.”

“Rooting for the home team, fair enough. I've never been able to be like that, even though I lived in Boston for years, I couldn't root for the Patriots.”

“That's not a problem.”

Remembering what happened, and I know she deserves an apology.

“And speaking of a problem, I want to apologize to her for what happened.”

She stops walking and turns to me, I hope I didn't do something wrong by bringing this subject up.

“Gael, I appreciate your gesture, but there's no reason to apologize to me, it wasn't you who caused any of that, I listened well when Bryan mentioned the names of only Allan and Charles.”

I didn't realize he mentioned names, and I'm glad she noticed and didn't think anything wrong of me.

“No hard feelings then?” I ask to make sure.

“From you, yes.” He says walking back. “Now with Bryan it will be a different story.”

She has a smile on her face, which I know well, of who will do something. And I will love to see what she will do with him, not only see, but also help.

“If you want an accomplice, you can count on me.” I give her a wink.

“It sounds like we're committing a crime, but I like it and I accept the offer.” His smile gets even bigger.

We walked a few more steps in silence, until she spoke.

“Now changing the subject, earlier you mentioned scouting, were you part of the movement?”

Apparently, she pays attention to every word she hears, is it something natural to her or that she learned at university so she could become a good lawyer.

“Yes, I did, Be Prepared.” I say the Scout salute.

“Be Prepared.” She returns the gesture. “What do you miss most about your time?”

My time as a scout, it seems like it was another life, I would sometimes wait all week for meetings, so I could forget a little pressure to get into Stanford or Harvard. I remember how David and I would constantly make plans to go camping, just to get away from the pressure.

“I miss camping, putting a backpack on my back and getting away from the world for a few days. What do you miss?”

“The campfire meetings, every month my troop had one. But I also miss the cantonments, my dad gave the troop a bus so the senior troop would go to our farm in Sunray, go hiking or swimming in the pool.”

I remember only doing cantonment while I was a Scout, as it was easier for the leaders to look after all the children in a lodge than in tents in the middle of nowhere, but the seniors in my troop didn't care for this extra comfort.

“I remember how people always joked that I was a descendant of Baden-Powell because I have the surname Powell, which is just a coincidence as I have no connection with the English.”

In fact, it is quite a coincidence that she has the same surname as the founder of the Scout movement, Robert Baden-Powell was a great leader and soldier, who achieved the honor of attaining the title of English lord. I imagine that must have earned her a lot of jokes, but she doesn't seem to get annoyed by that kind of joke, but rather makes fun of it.

You said you liked camping, but I imagine at your age you didn't take part in the Centenary Jamboree, am I right?”

I remember the Centennial Jamboree well, which was held in 2007 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the founding of Scouting, even though I was no longer in a group I made a point of going to this very important event, and for that I signed up for the international service team. I look at her and see that she is smiling, the brunette is teasing me by implying that I am old.

“Who do you take me for young?” I ask, making her laugh harder. “Know that I'm not that old.”

“But you're not so young as to have participated in the Jamboree.”

“That depends on your point of view, if you mean going as a senior, I was indeed over age, but I was there as part of the service team.”

“That's cool, but I imagine you didn't stay with the American contingent, I think I would remember seeing you there.”

I don't know if she would recognize me after almost 10 years, and even if we did see each other on that occasion, I didn't stare at any of the girls, I didn't want an international accusation of underage harassment on my life.

“I stayed assisting the medical team.”

“Explained then, I went nowhere near the medical area.” Either she is very careful or else she runs away from doctors. “We arrived.” She speaks taking me by surprise.

We enter the store and Rayka goes straight to a counter where there are several types of hair accessories, I don't understand why she came here to buy this. Maybe she just invented to come to the store to get away from the table a bit after what happened. I see her picking up some elastic bands to hold her hair, as well as some clips and finally some sticks with stars hanging from one end.

“This one is for you.” She offers me a black elastic with stars. “You will need it.”

My hair isn't very long, it's a bit past my chin, but I still don't understand why she's giving me this elastic.

“Thank you.” I say as I take it. “But why do you think I will need it?”

“Have you ever been to Six Flags Park?”

Okay, now I'm even more confused.

“Yes, whenever I'm in Atlanta I like to go with my sisters.”

If there's one program, we've always done together it's going to the park, I remember how mad Gladys was when she was smaller and couldn't go with me, Gwen, and Gayla, I will never forget her joy the first time she went.

“We happen to be in Texas and not Georgia, Six Flags there does not have the Titan, and believe me when I tell you that you will not like riding that roller coaster with your hair down.”

I have heard many stories about this roller coaster, which is considered the biggest in all of Texas, but it never crossed my mind that I would need to tie my hair up for it. I look at her hair and try to imagine her having trouble taking care of it, but I fail miserably.

“What are you looking at?” Rayka asks and only then do I realize I've spent too much time watching her hair.

“I'm just trying to figure out how you know about this subject.”

“My high school class wanted to come here for the day, some girls had their hair down and when we got back to the hotel, they started asking for help because they couldn't untangle their hair. But then again, only a crazy person would ride a toy that goes over eighty miles per hour and think that it won't tangle their hair.”

It's clear from the way she spoke that she must have laughed a lot at her colleagues.

“And you were certainly smarter than them.”

“Of course, I was, I laughed a lot that day at their drama that they were going to go bald at graduation.” She laughs and I join her.

It is so easy to interact with Rayka, I am enjoying her company.