You Have Arrived At Your Destination

• Andy Le, Grade 10
• Short Story
• 2018

Her gaze lept from car to car as the train zoomed passed them. She feels her cheeks tighten as she smiled to herself. After all, it was a special day.
Nancy felt an odd tingling in her thigh. She stared down at the source, her eyes furrowed before diving into her pockets to answer her phone.
“Hello?”
“You finally answered. Where are we meeting, Nance?”,
“The garden that we saw in the photos before, in an hour.”
Nancy wipes her hands on her pants and tucked her stray hairs behind her ears.
“Can’t wait, see you then. And you’re sure you’re fine”, the phone responded.
It had been the hundredth time she’d been asked that. Nancy responds with a quick yes before shoving back into the recesses of her pocket.

The glistening azure harbour soon bursts into view. The water shimmers underneath the dominating bridge. The pearly white sails stand aside the bridge in all majesty and magnificence.
Soon, Nancy finds herself trudging through the bustling streets. Her phone is stuck in a constant state of route recalculation. She cranes her neck up, searching for the top of the towering buildings, despite being branded, they were all unknown.
“What am I doing here?”, she thinks to herself.
Nancy looks back down to her phone. ETA 10 MINS TO DESTINATION.
Her eyes widen and her smile returns as she joins the flow of the crowd.
She couldn’t help but stare through the wide store windows- people laughing, giggling.
She glances down at her phone. ETA 20 MINS TO DESTINATION. She freezes as a chill runs through her; she grips her phone. Yet the crowd still moves around her.
She had been so excited for this special day; she could not mess it up. She takes a deep breath. She studies the map once more, before setting off into the flow of the crowd. She stares ahead at the sea of bobbing heads. The stores wouldn’t distract her.
ETA 5 MINS DESTINATION. As Nancy strides through the crowds, she notices a smell. Warm, sweet smell of pastry wafts into the street. The crumbly pastries seem heavenly through the glass.
“I need to bring some with me to the park.”
She drifts into the store, soon bursting out with a bag on each arm, a croissant hanging from her mouth. She reaches in her pocket for her phone, pressing the on button, eager to continue her journey but the screen stays black. She presses it repeatedly, a bar with a sliver of red appears; it’s out of batteries.
Nancy collapses onto the cool bricks. She shivers as a stray cloud covers the sun. She stares at the ground as tears brim her eyes.
‘Hey Nance, what are you doing on the floor?’
Nancy looks up and sees Sammy running towards her. Not far behind Sammy, the luscious green of the garden taunts Nancy.
“You have arrived at your destination!”, Sammy exclaims.