The following morning the doorbell rang; Mrs. Clinton and her son Tom were standing outside Samantha’s home. Mrs. Clinton was the wife of an important senator of Texas, and as well as Mrs. Perry, Samantha’s mother, they had never worked. Everyday, they met at Susan’s home to take the red Porsche Boxster S and go to the country club. (In the Club) There were a number of small exclusive shops in the Village shopping centre where every now and then they could go shopping. Furthermore, there was a Tennis Club, a Golf Club and a gym. On Mondays they had yoga class session with a group of other ten Lady Gaga’s women. Their air-conditioned lifestyle was never interrupted. There was no fear for parents to leave their children going alone to school neither to any part of the neighbourhood, only neighbours were admitted to step in this zone. It was an island of wealth immune from the crime and social ills that were to be found on the city. So they left Mrs. Perry’s home saying to their child: “Take care and see you at 5 o’clock next to the Café”.
“Okay mum”- said Tom.
“Wait!”- replied Samantha. “I’ve left my book in the kitchen”.
“Oh gosh dear you should stop depending on this book!”
Samantha was quick and in two minutes she was walking to school with Tom and her brother. Tom was a very nice boy and Samantha really liked him. They both had their respective friends but played together many times. Because of this, people in the class made fun of them. However, both Tom and Samantha did not care about that silliness. They got quite fond of each other.
It was five to five and Samantha was taking her things and putting them into the bag, “hurry up!” shouted Tom above the noise of Mr. Kennedy’s helicopter. Samantha took the bag speedily, crossed the school’s main door, said goodbye to the school policeman, Mr. Joseph, and there was Tom, waiting for her with Mike next to him. Tom took her by the hand, Samantha was taken aback by this but they all three hurriedly started to run to the Café. They arrived there breathless when in the distance they could make out the red car.
Back home Samantha and Mike had a snack. Later on, Samantha went to her room to unpack her bag. Today, before reading her book, she had to do math’s homework; however, she wanted to have her book on the table. She started to look for it but it was not there. She looked again everywhere, each pocket, each corner and each drawer. She went down the stairs and back to the kitchen. She was horrified, she had lost her book! She went back to her bedroom, then to Mike’s and started shouting at him:
“It’s you! Come on give me my book, I know you’ve taken grandfather’s book!
It’s not funny!”.
“Shut out spoilt girl, you’re crazy!”
“Mum! Mike has hidden grandfather’s book!”
Mrs. Perry was having a Jacuzzi and asked them to go there and both explain what happened. Samantha did so and Mrs. Perry asked Mike for an explanation.
“Mum I promise, this time I have neither hidden nor stolen Samantha’s book”.
“Ok then, Samantha take your jacket, we are going back to school”.
Samantha was surprised to see her mother doing something for her. She could not believe that she was being nice. Since Samantha’s father decision of going to war made her mum to close herself to a Barbie lifestyle. In addition, she did not pay much attention to Samantha’s pain while suffering from, first, her father and later his grandfather’s absence. The former gave her moments of great charm but the latter had been the person who had substituted her father when he decided to go to war. He was really a nice man to her and always took care of the little Samantha. They both went everywhere together and he was a good company for her.
Mrs. Perry took the keys of the car and drove back to school, no signal of the book. They asked Joseph, who was always the last person the leave from school, but he had not seen anything. Samantha paused to wipe the tears away that were beginning to fall down her cheeks.
"Are you okay?" Mike asked looking up at her and seeing the sadness in his eyes.
"It’s OK ” she answered.
Mrs. Perry, noticing how red and swollen her pale blue eyes were, gave her a paper handkerchief.
“Thanks mum” whispered Samantha.
Next morning Mrs. Perry took her children to school. Once there Tom approached her with preoccupation. Samantha told him in tears what had happened the previous evening.
"You just gonna sit here and wallow in self-pity?"
“I keep blaming myself”, said Samantha through her tears.
“Listen, we will look for it until we find it, ok? I won’t stop until you get your book. I promise”.
"Thanks, Tom. I owe you one."
"Don't worry, you'll have to pay up one day," he joked smiling at her.
In that precise moment a new voice startled her.
“Hey Samantha, do you remember me? I’m your grandfather’s best friend”.
“Yes, well, I remember you from that day you were taking your dog for a walk and you looked up...
“That’s right, I heard that you lost your grandfather’s book”
Samantha nodded.
“Don’t worry if you fight for what you want, there’s always a reward”.
And the man left waking calmly along the path.
Now, twenty years later, Samantha was living in her 6,500-square-foot, five bedroom, five-bath, $3.4 million family residence. Her mother had run away with her lover leaving Samantha to fend for herself at the age of 18. Moreover, his father had died unexpectedly in a terrorist attack in Afghanistan. However, she had studied law as his father did and she was having a good lifestyle. Her father had left both her daughter and son a large inheritance. As for Mike, he was now finishing a degree in economics and surprisingly he had changed his personality. He was now a friendly, educated and gentle guy who cared for his last relative, Samantha. By the way, Tom had left the neighbourhood when they finished school and moved with her family to England. They had been looking for the book through several libraries in Dallas. First, they went to the two most known, “Dallas Public Library” and “Farmers Branch library”. They also tried in University libraries such as “University park public library” and finally “Dallas west library”. Samantha went there first with Tom and later on, she tried it by her own means. Most of the times, she did not tell either Tom or her family that she had been several times there. Once there, she asked all the librarians about the book. She described it and gave them a note with a phone number and a little description. She then searched in the catalogue and went again to look for it at the children’s section. At the age of 18 she had been at a turning point of her life because of the fact that, in three years, her mother, her father, and her brother had disappeared. Overall, she was happy because of her brother, she knew that he was there and he played a great role at times when Samantha felt lonely. They both helped each other.
The book search kept going on one year after the other. During her holidays Samantha did not travel much, and if she did so, she always tried to look for the book. She even tried in libraries around the state of Texas but no sign at all. After doing this for a hundred times for 20 years, she took a decision: she would abandon the search for a while.
It was a bright and alluring morning, Samantha entered her bedroom to get dressed after her shower; her favourite Prada red dress lay across her bed. A breeze fluttered through the window as she put on her clothes. She closed the window and saw the gardener taking off the leaves that were floating on the swimming pool. She then closed the curtains and could hear the telephone ringing. She let the tower fall on the floor and ran swiftly to reach the telephone.
“Hay?” she said out of breath.
“Samantha?”
“Yeah” Who’s there?”
“Hmm…it’s Tom”
“Oh my God! Tom, how’re you? I can’t believe it! I lost your phone and I didn’t get any sign of you at all when you moved to England.
“I know, I know, I’ve been too busy trying to set up my own business.
“Really? That sounds great! And what about you? Are you married?
“No, no I’m not. No time for these kinds of things”. I see you’re still at home. I’m phoning you because I would like to meet up with you, what do you think?
“What do I think? Of course!
“I can come tomorrow to Dallas”.
“Tomorrow? Wait, I can come, I’m on holidays. I would like to see where you live and all.
“Great!” Hey, one last thing. What about the book?
“It’s lost Tom, I’ve been searching everywhere.”
Samantha could not believe that she was speaking with her infancy’s best friend. Twenty years had passed; she would not recognise him at all! She was now a beautiful woman, tall and slim with blond long hair and her blue eyes were astonishing. But, what about Tom? She should take a flight next morning to Bournemouth, a small town situated in South England.
It was 6.43; the sun was coming up over the horizon. Samantha took the keys of her white A5 and got into it. Three hours later she was getting in the plane, the air hostesses were all greeting the passengers. Samantha had booked a one-way ticked in first class, she had no idea how many days she would spend in Bournemouth. Moreover, she wanted to seize the opportunity to go and look for the book around England’s most important libraries. She was seated at a corner, next to her there was an old woman and she could also see couple sitting just in front of her. The woman was explaining the troubles she had in order to find, first the terminal, and then the gate to a flight attendant. Samantha was having fun listening to her. In addition, she seemed such a nice friendly old woman. Samantha moved the seat back and closed her eyes. She did not like the takeoffs so she always tried to make people around her believe that he was sleeping in order to avoid people asking her things. However, this time she fell asleep, she opened first one eye and saw that old woman reading a pale green coloured book. She moved the seat forward and touched her face with her hands, she felt tired. A young girl approached “Good morning Madam, in few minutes we will serve you the breakfast”. Samantha answered with a smile. She again turned her head to look attentively at the book that the woman was reading. She wanted to hide her curiosity but the idea that the book could be hers was getting stronger. At that precise moment the woman turned her head to Samantha:
“Honey, are you ok?”
“Oops, sorry Madam”.
The woman closed the book and Samantha could devise the picture of that girl picnicking. Her heart was beating strongly. Her hands were shaking and no words could come out her mouth.
“I, I, sorry, can I have a look at your book?”
“Of course, it’s fantastic, my sister gave it to me when she died, and she told me that she bought it in Canada”. There’s a very nice dedication to a girl called Samantha. Samantha blinked twice.
“I’m Samantha”.
The two women spent part of the travel talking about the book and exchanging opinions. Samantha explained the story from the beginning until the end and finally the old woman gave the book to) her. She could not believe that she had found the book, the search had finished and her treasured book was back to her. The 10 hours travel had vanished and it was time to meet Tom. She was waiting for her luggage at the conveyor belt. She could not believe it, her bag was always the last one to come out. She felt nervous and strange at the same time. This travel had brought her an unexpected surprise and now she would see Tom, that young boy she was most fond of. The front door opened and Samantha went trough it, she did not know where to look so she waited for him next to a corner out of the crowd. After 15 minutes she took the mobile to phone Tom, he should be there but they could not see each other. Someone touched her back, she turned her head and there was Tom. They both hugged:
“I found it Tom, I found it!”
“What?”
“My grandfather’s book, a woman on the plane was reading it, I told her the story and she gave it to me.”
Tom looked her in the eyes and kissed her. Samantha’s tears were falling down her cheeks.
Theme: If you move heaven and earth to obtain what you most desire you will finally achieve it.
