Chapter 54

Carlos stayed in silence on the whole way home, listening to Samanta. He knew how badly she needed to vent, the past two weeks had been complete madness. A little bit of everything happened. Starting with the fact that she met one of the most admirable footballers of all time, and not only that, she had a sentimental relationship with him. On top of that, her ex-boyfriend, the man who marked her life, returned. She wondered if Teresa knew about that. If she wasn't, he wouldn't be the one to tell her. That would be another problem to add to the pile. To top it all off, those damn scavengers dug in her trash, bringing back out all that crap Samanta thought was long forgotten.

Thinking of all of this made him feel guilty he confessed. Unwillingly, he had become one of the reasons Samanta was now crying.

«Poor thing. It's been too much for her», he thought.

The taxi stopped in front of Samanta's house, wasting no time, they got off the car.

When they came into the house, Teresa welcomed them, she had a sick leave from a cold. Samanta was surprised to see her and she had to keep her suffering to herself to keep her sister from interrogating them.

“What are you two doing here?” Asked Teresa seeing them from the kitchen door. She was about to have lunch.

“Gordon gave us the day off” lied Carlos.

Teresa frowned.

“Weird! He usually lets you know one day ahead…”

“I'm hungry” said Samanta, interrupting her.

“What are you wearing?” the eldest looked at Samanta from head to toe.

Sam forgot she was still wearing the blue dress Alan gave her. Teresa did not see her leave the night before, she had been out for drinks with her friends. When she came home, she found Samanta sleeping. Or so she thought, seeing a couple pillows covered in blankets on her sister's bed. Samanta did not set all that up to make Teresa think she was sleeping so she could hang out with Alan, but because she wanted to avoid getting tedious texts from her all night asking why she was not home before ten, past her curfew.

“Hmm… smells delicious” commented Carlos, catching Teresa's attention.

“Bacon. You want some?”

Carlos nodded and looked at Sam from the corner of his eye, who was mouthing the words “thank you,” in utter silence.

“By the way” Teresa suddenly faced her sister. “An envelope came in the mail for you. It's on the table.”

“An envelope?” Sam frowned and headed for the living room, trying to figure out what this was about. Carlos followed her.

She took the paper rectangle and proceeded to open it.

“Oh my god!” she muttered.

“What?” Her friend peeked over her shoulder.

“I'm in” Sam's voice became a screech.

“Which one?” he asked.

“See for yourself” she handed over the letter.

*****

STUDENT ADMISSION LETTER

El Cairo, June 18, 2014.

AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF EL CAIRO

Parcel 8, 74 S

El-Teseen st., NEW CAIRO, Cairo

Government of El Cairo 11835, Egypt

Dear Mrs. Samanta Victoria Andrade Núñez:

We hereby inform you that you that you have been accepted for the International Scholarship Programme for the course of Archaeology in our distinguished Institution, after submitting your application on the past month of April.

In order to claim your spot, you must present yourself in our School Rectory within the next 15 days from the emission of this letter along with the following requirements…

*****

Carlos read the letter and felt very happy for his friend, although a little sad from the fact that she'd be so far away. But, what the hell? Samanta would be making her biggest dream come true. She had been dreaming about this since she was 13, after she watched the movie “The Mummy”. She longed with all her might she were Evelyn Carnahan and meeting her own Rick O’Connell as they venture into the depths of some mysterious pyramid. She met an O’Conell, alright, only he was not what he had pictured.

He turned to face her and held her close.

“Sam! This is amazing. CONGRATULATIONS!” He shouted.

“What's going on? What's with all the screaming?” Teresa looked through the window between the kitchen and the living.

“Sam was admitted to El Cairo” celebrated Carlos.

Teresa let out a scream of joy and left what she was doing to give her little sister a hug.

“Oh! Baby girl! Congratulations!” A few tears rolled down the proud big sister's eyes.

Sam stuck to smiling. Speechless.

She was supposed to be jumping up and down in excitement, celebrating the achievement of something she had fought for so many years. She looked up everything she needed to know to study abroad, fulfilled every requirement, stood in endless lines in order to get the credits and send her application, as an American citizen, she would have a bigger shot at making it into the scholarship programme. She was supposed to be celebrating the fact that all her effort were finally coming to fruition.

However, instead of joy, There was an enormous confusion.

Dominik refused to leave her thoughts.

“Be happy, girl! You've been dreaming about this for most of your life” said Teresa when she noticed Sam acting so dull.

“We need to celebrate this” said Carlos lifting the letter in the air, waving it as though it were a flag.

It was hard for her to think straight, after all the nasty things that had been going on in her life. Of course she should be happy! Finally good news came to her life! But it was hard to ignore the pain of the sadness she was feeling …

«If this is a test, boy, is it tough».

She had heard many times that when people are about to touch the heavens, the devil put the greatest obstacles in their way to make them fall, seduce them and drag them down to hell. Alright, it was just something her father used to say, but he was right.

What if Dominik was a test, an obstacle in her path?

“Excuse me” she said. “I need to be alone.”

And she headed for her bedroom.

She had to think.