Arianna Hidalgo, Exchange Student, Summer 1974
"Ari, what is it?" Deep in deductive thought, I can still hear him across the growing mental distance.
"I don't know yet!", I reply quickly.
Chad looks down at me half smiling, as the ashy black rocks he stands on show off their tide lines to the shore below. He's tall --- even taller than usual --- and his lean body blocks the sun like a small "l" against a capitol "O". Dios, el es guapo. His golden blond hair ruffles my attention, but a movement I can feel smoothes it back to reality --- there's a creature in my hand.
"Looks like some sort of crustacean. I think it's in the hermit crab family." My ruling is final, and Chad's mood too relaxed to appeal.
My first guess was more than an educated one. It was instinctual. Mamá gave birth to me on an anchored yacht --- or so the story goes --- on some foreign longitude no one can quite remember. My first breaths were of salt air, imprinting the sea skin deep into my very being.
Chad is still staring --- not so secretly for once --- at me from his rocky podium, and I wish just for a moment, we could switch places. I long to be able to see what he sees, in me. But from the look in his eyes, I can tell it's something splendid.
In Arianna's Closet...
In Arianna's Closet by thequeenknowsbest featuring embellished sandals
*The quote above is a fictionalized account inspired by the people and fashion of a photograph found here.*
